Budgeting

Lower Your Standard Of Living and LIVE

by Guest on December 19, 2009

Are you one of those people who have been suckered into the concept of endless consuming? It can happen without your even realizing it. Ads hit you from every direction telling what you need to buy to be good-looking and successful. The “right” list usually includes the right car, the right neighborhood, the right clothes, even the right schools for your kids. Have you ever noticed that the list is endless? And there’s those “easy” payments, so why not?

In our society consumerism has almost become a religion with heaven being that blessed day when we can relax because we have it all and are, therefore, OK. I suggest that you think again and on your own this time.

Those who have maxed out credit cards only to obtain new ones know that something is missing in the plan to “have it all”. Peace, freedom, even individuality are often sacrificed to the need to keep up and hopefully surpass the norm. Working longer hours, getting more competitive jobs, pushing and stretching are ways to try to win the battle. But then there’s that bigger house and hotter car, offering a rush, momentarily.

There is a way out but it involves reassessing priorities. It’s usually a long, slow process to over-extend to the point of disaster. Likewise, there’s a way out that can slowly take you in the opposite direction. It’s called…less. Believe it or not, most of us can live quite comfortably in a smaller home and used, paid for, cars can get us where we want to go. Plain foods don’t cost what prepared foods do, and a smaller, simpler wardrobe can still be attractive.

My kid’s father was a carpenter. That meant lots of work in the late spring, summer and early fall. The other six months were pretty “iffy”. Bad weather often prevailed, housing starts and sales slowed down and our income either stopped or was drastically reduced. The answer to this was to set up a standard of living that used half of the good-weather income and left the other half for the lean months. We did that and sailed blissfully through the tough times.

The same thing can be done when retiring. Moving into a park model trailer in a camping club might sound like a sacrifice. However, once you have looked inside a new unit and toured a well-appointed park, you may change your mind. Hot tubs, indoor swimming pools, senior centers are all part of the camping club I belong to.

Why not rethink how your life is playing out and factor in some peace and satisfaction? Why not lower your standard of living and LIVE! Why not indeed?

About the Author

Luise Volta’s life has included careers in nursing, teaching pre-school, interior design, Real Estate sales, insurance adjusting, and dairy herd testing. Visit http://www.MomResponds.com/category/personal-advice/free-financial-information/

Prioritizing Your Bills

by Guest on November 21, 2009

Many times when we experience a drop in income, it is difficult to know what bills to pay first. You must know which bills are essential to your survival and which are not. There are basically three categories of bills: essential, nonessential and borderline. The biggest mistake you can make when going through financial difficulties is to pay the creditor who is yelling the loudest first. It is important to prioritize your bills when allocating how much money you have to work with. Whether you are having problems paying your bills or not this will help you take control.

The first step in prioritizing your bills is to know exactly how much income you have and how much you are spending per month. Keep a journal of all your expenditures. This includes the trip to the ATM machines, your gourmet coffee drinks, and the trips to the fast food restaurant. Write down every penny you spend for thirty days. You will be surprised at how much you can cut back and apply to your debt. Once you see where your excess spending is going, begin adding the extra money to your bills.

Essential bills are defined as survival and should be paid first. Mortgage or rent payments, utility bills, and food are included in the essential category. The next would be mandatory insurance such as car insurance. Medical needs could also be put into this category. Child support and any loans such as automobiles, furniture, and so forth that are secured or used as collateral to obtain the loans should be included with the essential bills.

Nonessential bills are debts in which no immediate consequences could occur if paid late. They are unsecured and include credit and charge cards, attorney, medical and accounting bills, and newspaper and magazine subscriptions. These should be paid after all the essential bills are paid.

Borderline bills can fall into either essential or nonessential categories. You are the only one who can determine which one. Borderline bills may include such things as life insurance, private schools, child daycare, health clubs, gyms, country clubs, clothing or court judgments. When reviewing your borderline bills you must move them over to either the essential or nonessential category.

By prioritizing your bills in the order of what should be paid first, you will begin to get in the habit of making sure your essentials are always paid first before running into a money shortage.

About the Author

Deborah McNaughton is an author and credit expert. She is founder of Financial Victory Institute, which specializes in financial education. Deborah has programs to train individuals to become credit consultants and teach financial seminars. Visit http://www.financialvictory.com or call 714-993-1171.

How To Save Money This Christmas

by Guest on October 26, 2009

Christmas can be a particularly expensive time for all of us. The cost of presents, food and booze all add up – and before you know it, your wallet/purse is empty.

So how could you save money this Christmas? Here are just a few of the simple (yet effective) ideas you could put in place to save yourself money over the festive period this year.

1. Make your own gifts and decorations

You can, if you feel handy, make your own gifts and decorations. When I say make your own gifts, I don’t mean stick a few pieces of paper together to make a nice poster, I mean make your own jam, for example.

There are so many recipes available for you to try out online. Why not try to make your own Christmas pudding? Or what about your own wine? These will make great gifts for people who are looking to save money too – you never know, you may inspire them to make their own!

As for your own decorations – this is where you can get the paper out! Get creative and take yourself back to your school days. Make a big paper chain and stick it on the wall (or from one corner of the room to the other). Why not make your own tree decorations? You could get your kids to help you – they could make their own decorations and place them round the house.

2. Make your own Christmas cards

This is a thoughtful idea that many people will appreciate more than you think. If you just went out and bought 50 Christmas cards, filled them out and posted them, then that’s nice – but you didn’t really put much thought into it, did you?

However, if you were to take the time to make your own cards (either by hand or on the computer), then people will appreciate it and you will save yourself money!

3. Set yourself a budget

If you really want to save money this Christmas, then set yourself a budget. For example, you could set yourself a budget of £100 to buy everyone’s presents. This may sound impossible but it really isn’t.

There are all sorts of sales on at this time of year – you just need to sit down and search online. Failing that, trawl the high street stores for cheap items.

I found various cheap toys online, and I’m sure you can too. Try sites like eBay and Amazon, they are packed with cheap deals.

For more information, check out the blog over at Debt Advisers Direct

Take the Anxiety Out of Domestic Finances with Microsoft Excel

by Guest on October 14, 2009

Looking after domestic finances can cause much anxiety. Often you are anxious because you find it difficult to keep track of your finances and so do not feel you are in control. Using Microsoft Excel to record, monitor and control your domestic finances can go a long way to removing this anxiety. Some effort is required at the beginning to set up the systems but this is soon rewarded by providing you with a great time and labour saving device, which can also help you save money and stay in control of your finances.

Home Maintenance

It can be very difficult to keep track of the maintenance requirements in the home, who can remember exactly when the boiler was last serviced for example. Microsoft Excel has the facilities to allow you to produce a home maintenance schedule to make keeping track of maintenance issues much easier. Each item that requires inspection can be listed, together with a schedule of how often they require checking. Simple functions are available in Excel to allow items that are overdue to be flagged for attention, for example by changing the colour to red if the inspection date has been missed. It is also very simple to add notes recording what the issues where the last time the item was inspected. The cost of any work done can also be recorded, which will help to highlight when it would be more economic to replace items rather than continue to repair them.

Household Budget

Keeping track of the household finances can be a daunting task. As well as the basic calculation functions, Microsoft Excel contains simple formulas, which will automatically update the results of your calculations when values change. Revising a value once the total has been calculated is simple, just make the change and Excel updates the total for you. There are also simple functions to allow you to add values, calculate averages and find the smallest or largest values in a range of values. You can use these functions to develop spreadsheets to keep track of all your incoming and outgoing payments, putting in predicted values of bills for budgeting purposes that can then be easily updated when the actual bill arrives. This allows you to keep track of your balance and helps you identify when there is likely to be a shortfall, giving you time to put measures in place to prevent charges being incurred.

Tax Returns

Filling in your tax return can be a long and drawn out business. Even if you send your return off to be completed by someone else you can make things significantly easier by keeping track of expenses during the year. Having a household budget spreadsheet at your fingertips makes it much simpler to record expenses and document the corresponding receipts, which you need to have to hand at tax return time.

Home Improvements

You can also use Microsoft Excel to help in planning and monitoring any home improvements. The first, and ultimately most important point to consider when starting such a venture is how much it is going to cost you. An Excel spreadsheet is a great tool for tracking expenses. You can use the spreadsheet to help you plan the works, develop a preliminary budget, record your actual expenses and compare them to each other. In this way if things are starting to go over budget you should be able to spot it early and use the spreadsheet to review your options to get it back on track.

The above points illustrate just a few of the many ways in which Microsoft Excel can be used to simplify many domestic finance tasks. By applying some or all of these measures you should feel more in control of the situation. You should also be able to save both time and money in completing your household duties, leaving you more time and money for the more enjoyable things in life!

About the Author

Author is a trainer with a Microsoft Office Training company, the UK industry leader in its sector. For more information on Microsoft Office Training, please visit http://www.microsofttraining.net/excel-training.php

Set Short-Term, Medium-Term, And Long-Term Goals

by Pam on October 12, 2009

Every one should have goals. If you don’t have goals, it’s a good idea to make some because when you set goals, you have something to measure your achievements against. Although most of us do have goals, we don’t all set up goals for the short, medium, and long term. We may only set short-term goals or perhaps we might just think about our retirement.

A short-term goal might involve saving for a much-needed vacation within the next year or perhaps saving up to buy a vehicle. A medium-term goal could be to save money for a down payment on a home, and a long-term goal could be to save for retirement or for your child’s education. By setting goals for different timeframes, you are more likely to achieve your dreams by following a disciplined approach.

Short-term goals such as saving for a vacation could be as simple as putting money into a locked-in account such as a GIC or investing in something like a Money Market or T-Bill. This way your capital is secure and you can still see some growth in your investment.

A medium-term goal such as saving up to buy your first home could be achieved by setting up an RRSP and taking advantage of the Home Buyer’s Plan. You could set up preauthorized payments into the RRSP on the same day you get paid and over time your money will grow.

An example of a long-term goal would be a couple who just had their first child They decide that it is important to them to fund their child’s future post secondary education. They set up an RESP (Registered Education Savings Plan for Canadians) and begin to contribute to it monthly. By doing so, they have time on their side and their funds have the time to grow enough to adequately provide the funding for their child’s education. Had this couple not had the foresight to set up the RESP right away, they would have had to come up with a lot more cash to help out their child.

Planning ahead and disciplining yourself to put money aside each month to contribute to funding your short, medium, and long-term goals is well worth it. Although you might feel that you are on a tight budget, you can take comfort in knowing that you are paying yourself first, and that your scrimping and saving will pay off as you achieve more and more of your goals.

Personal Financial Management- Basics That Can Help You

by Guest on September 24, 2009

Today more than ever, it is important to learn the basics of personal financial management. With the costs of nearly everything rising, it is crucial to learn how to set and stick to a budget, pay off debts, and save for the future. There are many small things you can do that will contribute greatly to helping you with your own personal financial management.

The easiest way to do this is by learning how to make the most out of the money you earn. Earning more money will not help you in the end, because you will only end up spending more if you do not learn an effective way to handle your personal financial management. You must learn the difference between what you want and what you need, and how to prioritize them both. It takes self control to live within your means, and to know when you can afford something, and to walk away from it if you cannot. But that is what it takes to make the most of your income.

Your budget should include money set aside for emergencies, expected purchases, living expenses, and bills. Setting a small amount out of each paycheck aside for unexpected emergencies, such as illness or car repairs, will save you from having to possibly pay interest on a loan to take care of your problem. Taking it out of your check allows you to prepare ahead of time, and keeps you from having to come up with a lump sum of money all at once, hopefully, preventing you from incurring more debt.

If you know you need to make a large purchase in the near future, such as a new washing machine, or a new computer, plan ahead, and set aside money for that item from each check as well. Once you have saved enough money, shop around for the best deal. Try to never make a large purchase unless you can do it with cash, to avoid paying high interest and fees.
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