Hope for your financial journey and beyond
Many things can impact your financial world. But mostly it’s you. Winning with your money is only about 20 percent knowledge. 80 percent of your success will come from your behavior with money.
Your financial wellbeing is directly affected by how well you are able to manage your money and plan for the future. Each activity and decision can affect your future.
With that in mind, there are several ways to make the most of the income you do have.
Did you have an appliance or other household items that need repairing? We have had several big household items hit our budget over the years. The washer-dryer combo, a new refrigerator and a new stove have all needed to be replaced over the years. And who could forget the really big one – the new heating and cooling units that brought in a new air conditioning and furnace. Wow – those were really expensive!
All in all, having lived in three homes over the course of our marriage, my wife and I have had to replace the following list of items:
3 new air conditioning units, 2 new furnaces, 2 new refrigerators, a new stove, a new dishwasher, a new microwave, a new garbage disposal, 2 new water heaters, a new dryer, 2 new washing machines (bad luck here), 5 new vacuums (we buy the cheaper ones), 4 new televisions, 2 new garage doors (main and basement), 3 new lawnmowers and countless other electronic devices (computers, iDevices, clocks, etc.)
In case you didn’t know, this is the reality of owning a home. All these items will break at some point. When that occurs, you will either have to a) do without or b) replace them. So it may be helpful before you purchase to know how long these items will last.
I’m a very linear person. My default mode is to move in a chronological order, doing things step by step according to a predetermined plan. So it’s confusing when trying to decide whether to save for retirement first or our kid’s college.
On the one hand, it’s been drilled into me that saving for retirement is important. However, I know the costs of college tuition are increasing every year with no end in sight. I’d love for my kids to graduate from college debt free and feel an obligation as a parent to help with some of my own money to make that happen.
College is a nearer-term goal than retirement. That fits with my linear life narrative. Prepare for the financial situations that are coming sooner and push off financial decisions that can be made later. For most people, college costs will come before retirement costs so shouldn’t we be focusing on that first?
It seems logical to prepare for college first but I’m going to suggest today that we should do the illogical. The exact opposite should happen. Save for retirement first and college second.
Do you hate Christmas shopping? About ten years ago, that was my wife and I. It took enormous amounts of time and energy. But more than that, it played havoc on our monthly budget. In December, we’d have to come up with money for Christmas gifts out of nowhere while still paying all our other bills. It was a real challenge that often led to frustration and even overspending on gifts. Thankfully, the frustration vanished the day we heard about a simple money management technique called a sinking fund.
Creating a sinking fund isn’t a new concept. However, it took me to my mid-30s to hear about it. In essence, a sinking fund is a savings fund you create for the express purpose of purchasing something in the future. As we discovered, it’s a really easy technique anyone can learn.
And it’s also one of the best practices to help you eliminate overspending and pay for bills, gifts or other budget items that come infrequently. Because certain items come infrequently, you need to plan in advance for them. That is why this article is so important to read now. Follow what I suggest now and you will be prepared for next Christmas.
This technique has revolutionized how my wife and I pay for things. You need to know how it works. At the end of the post, I’ll include the template we use to keep track of our savings.
Are you serious about getting out of debt and building a strong financial future? If so, then you must save money on a regular basis. The best part is you don’t have to begin with much. All you need to do for starters is to save one thousand dollars. That will give you some cushion and breathing space which you can then build on.
Speaking of building, when I worked construction I learned that every building requires a solid foundation. For your financial life, that foundation is savings. Without adequate savings you will struggle to get out of debt and will always be susceptible to emergency situations.
Now I know for most people the process of saving money isn’t a sexy financial move. We’d rather spend money on gadgets or entertainment or experiences that give us an emotional high. Saving money and leaving it in the bank is an emotional blah.
To save one thousand dollars in a month may or may not sound like a daunting task. Some of you may be struggling to pay your basic bills. To save one thousand dollars may as well be like saving one million in your eyes.
But be encouraged. You can save one thousand dollars quickly. In fact, you can do it in only one month. Here’s how.
When уоu save energy, уоu’rе nоt just saving money. At the ѕаmе tіmе, you are reducing the demand fоr petroleum-derived fuels ѕuсh аѕ gаѕ and оіl. So in the end, by burning lеѕѕ fuеl, уоu are also helping your environment.
You might think that trying to save energy might make your life more complicated. With the advances in technology, there аrе mаnу еffесtіvе alternatives available fоr аlmоѕt еvеrу type appliance. It іѕ uр tо уоu tо change your energy consumption hаbіtѕ tо balance your monthly budget. But manufacturers have made it easier to give еvеrуоnе rеаl choices. Evеrуоnе hаѕ the ability tо change their energy practices for more efficient usage.
By applying аt lеаѕt оnе оf the following energy saving methods, уоu саn mаkе уour іmрасt оn this world and your pocketbook.
As part of my return to blogging after a brief absence, I’m going to be writing a series of posts that answer some basic money questions. Even for seasoned consumers, it’s important to return to the basics from time to time, if nothing more than to solidify in our minds why we do these things. So today I’m going to be answering the question what is a savings account?
And I’ll be answering some FAQs at the end – one in particular about savings accounts for children.
Other than spend, there is no more basic activity to do with money than to save it. People save for many reasons. But the main purpose of saving is to have a store of money for needs, for wants or for emergencies.
You can save money anywhere. If you are like most people, you probably have a small amount of cash at your home. But the majority of people who want to save large amounts of cash do so by opening a savings account at local bank.
Going on vacation soon? Then you will enjoy this post today by Hank McKinsey, rental property owner and blogger at Homebyhank.com.
Taking a vacation can be a fantastic way to relax and regroup from your daily and weekly routine. While vacations are exciting to prepare for, one thing that often gets neglected is your home.
Prepping your home for your time away will ensure that it stays safe and secure, and things like pets or plants aren’t left without care. Vacations can be expensive, so it’s also important to save money during these preparations. With a few quick tips your home, pets, and garden will be happy even in your absence.
As part of your vacation planning you should make sure there is a system in place to help you keep your house safe and secure:
In about a month, our oldest child will turn 15. In our state, that means you can apply for a learner’s permit to drive. She hasn’t expressed a big desire to do this yet but I know it’s coming. So naturally I’ve started looking into car insurance for teens to see how much another driver in the household is going to cost me.
What I’ve found is there are many ways to save money on car insurance for teens. There are reasons why your car insurance rates will go up, chiefly because you have an inexperienced driver behind the wheel. Insurance companies are taking on a higher risk of having a payout. Your teens’ enthusiasm for being able to drive coupled with their lack of skill makes accidents more likely.
Short of holding onto the keys yourself, there is no way around paying more on your car insurance with a teen in the house. But you can take steps to lessen the amount of increase. The good news is most of these steps will require the help of your teen. Getting them engaged in the process will go along way in teaching them responsibility. They also might learn some cool financial lessons along the way.
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner so that means answering the question, “What to do for my significant other?” Should you bother with chocolates and candy hearts? Or should you be more sophisticated with a dinner reservation at a fancy restaurant and tickets to the ballet? Maybe you’d opt to surprise your loved one with a romantic trip or get them that expensive gift he or she has been fantasizing about.
It seems that no matter how you choose to spend Valentine’s Day you will probably be spending some money. Last year Valentine’s Day spending broke records, reaching about $19 billion in America alone. To most people in love, this figure seems to make sense. After all, if you want to show someone you care, there is no better way to do it than with material goods, right?
Actually, love doesn’t depend on exclusive restaurants and diamond jewelry. You absolutely can foster romance without depleting your emergency savings.
One question I routinely get asked by friends and readers of this site is, “Can you teach me how to save money without losing track of what it’s for? How do you account for your money when you are saving for an emergency or for a future need?”
The problem boils down to this issue: you have to keep track of what money is to be used for what purpose. When money is deposited into a savings account it gets mixed in with all the other money in the savings account. How do you keep the boys separated and make sure the money designated for the new dishwasher actually ends up going for the new dishwasher and not the car insurance or the baseball card fund?
Now in the old days you might find yourself reaching into the desk drawer, pulling out an envelope and stuffing cash in it. Then you would write on that envelope “Dishwasher Fund” and hide it away in your house somewhere. You’d do this for any and all items you’d be saving for – vacations, the health insurance bill, groceries, gas and anything else you might think of.
This describes the classic envelope system way of saving money for what’s coming down the road. Doing it this way keeps monies in the envelope they belong and makes sure they get used for their intended purpose.
The envelope system is still a valid tool for managing cash payments for items. However, we’ve moved into the digital age where all banking can be done online, transactions can be downloaded to computer programs and apps have been developed to keep track of your spending on the go. Money is more likely to be direct deposited in the bank rather than kept at home in large sums awaiting use.