Good old "Plan B." It's nice to have something to fall back on when things don't go the way you plan. But when it comes to building a financial cushion for retirement, or saving for college or a down payment for a new house, setbacks can be costly.

Safeguarding your hard-earned money is critical. That's why New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union has federal share insurance, administered by an independent government agency, the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA).

The National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF) protects aggregate savings up to at least $250,000 in your New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union regular share savings, certificates and checking accounts.

The coverage for individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and Keoghs is also $250,000.

Funds in traditional IRAs and Roth IRAs are added together and insured in the aggregate to $250,000. A Keogh account is insured separately up to $250,000 as well.

It's important to note that share insurance doesn't cover investment products such as mutual funds and annuities.

Something else about share insurance: It separately insures individual and joint accounts. For example, say you have an individual account containing $250,000, and a joint account with your spouse containing $250,000. Each account is insured separately for a total coverage of $500,000.

So how do you know we're federally insured? All federally insured credit unions — like yours — must post the official NCUA insurance sign in their offices.

As do other NCUSIF-insured credit unions, we abide by high standards of safety and soundness. Because of that, NCUSIF is a strong, well-capitalized fund.

So bring your savings to us: You can count on New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union to take good care of it.