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How to Save Money - Even on a Tight Budget

Posted by Unknown Sunday, August 5, 2012 0 comments

The expense of higher education seems dear when you’re looking at tuition and student-loan interest rates, but when you start factoring in the cost of living, the numbers begin to seem staggering. If you’re pinching pennies in college or grad school, you’d better be prepared to tap all your creative faculties. Living frugally isn’t impossible, but it is at times an art form that requires experience and energy to master. From buying generic brand goods to riding a bike, these five tips to save money will help you meet your budgetary goals:

1. Buy Generic Brands

From breakfast cereal to prescription drugs, you can save money on many products simply by giving up the brand name. Generic brands are often able to produce identical products at lower prices simply by cutting down on marketing and advertising costs. You will be amazed at the difference: Generic cereals are often half the cost of the original, and prescription drugs can be hundreds of dollars cheaper.

2. Use the Library

One of our nation’s most under-appreciated and valuable public institutions is the public library, and students also have access to well-stocked private institutional libraries as well. Avoid purchasing textbooks and research materials unless absolutely necessary, but make sure to check out the books you need early (i.e before your classmates do!).

3. Find Online Discounts

Coupon-clipping has fallen out of fashion, but there are zillions of apps that will help you save money in ingenious ways. Savored allows you to book last minute reservations for fine dining at deep discounts, which is an unbelievable combination, and Foursquare will tell you where your friends are shopping and eating, while also alerting you to sweet deals at the same locations.

4. Ride a Bike

Biking will save you the expense of gas or a monthly subway pass. Plus, in some large cities, a bike will get you where you’re going faster than a car or public transportation! It’s the right thing to do for the environment and an excellent form of exercise. If you’re not convinced yet, you’re probably just being stubborn. Loosen up -- by taking a ride!

5. Buy a Printer

Printing on campus or at a copyshop costs a fortune, while older-model printers can be bought dirt cheap. This will also save you the trouble of waiting in line to print, and dealing with the paper jams in the arcane industrial-sized machines on campus.

While these five tips to save money will help you shrink your spending, they aren’t the only ways to reduce costs. The trick to living frugally is making conscious decisions about how you spend your money and bringing those decisions into line with your real priorities. Marketing and advertising are designed to provoke impulse spending on items we don’t really value, and this is one major area where Americans lose control of their budgets. If you think about why you want something, how badly you want it and what else you could spend the money on each time you take out your wallet, you’ll be surprised how many purchases you can do without.

About the author :

Melissa Woodson is the community manager for @WashULaw, one of the premier LLM programs offered through Washington University in St. Louis that allows foreign attorneys to earn their llm degree online. In her spare time, she enjoys running, cooking, and making half-baked attempts at training her dog.

5 Tricks to Avoid Overspending at Christmas

Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 15, 2011 0 comments

Christmas is a time when overspending can get the better of even the most frugal budgeter, which is why you need to use these tricks to keep your finances on track. Christmas is all about being swept up by the spirit of the love, community, family and giving of the season, so it is no surprise that many of us get swept up to such an extent that we forget about our finances.

Instead, make sure you take the time while you’re waiting in the inevitable Christmas time lines at the cash register, to really think about the purchase you’re about to make. If you’re not sure about a purchase , you don’t know if you really need it or you think you might be trying to convince yourself you do need it, then get out of the line and take a walk to make sure you’re making a conscious purchasing decision, for something that is clearly on your list.

Other ways you can avoid overspending at Christmas time are :

1 – Spend 1.5% of your household income

Just because Christmas only comes around once a year it doesn’t mean you have to blow all of your spare cash on the celebrations. Instead, set your spending based on what you can afford, by allocating 1.5% of your household income to go towards your Christmas shopping. Allocating a percentage of your income to your Christmas spending allows you to be realistic about what you can afford, rather than pulling a random number out of the air, or not pulling out a number at all.

2 – Keep budgeting

Now you have your overall spending budget, allocate a budget for each person you are buying for this Christmas. This stops you from spending all of your budget on the first few people at the top of your list, and then feeling guilty about the people on the bottom of the list and continuing to spend. It also means you’ll be able to fairly even in your spending for each person.

Also make sure you keep your Christmas shopping list with you at all times so that you will always know where you are with your budget. This allows you to make a quick purchase when you see something on special which you can check off of your list, and you can also make sure you don’t double up on gifts for the same person, because you’ll know who you’ve already bought for and how much you’ve spent on them – and more importantly how much you have left to spend on them.

3 – Spend your own money

Running out of money is a powerful motivator to avoid spending more than you can afford. Therefore, use a debit card which draws from your own savings account, or a prepaid Visa card which you can load up with your own money before you go shopping. In this way you know there is no more money to spend once your Christmas budget is gone.

4 – Shop early

When you are rushing around the store at the last minute looking to check gifts off of your list for everyone, then you’re more likely to buy things just because they are there, not because they are on your list or would really suit the person you are buying for. You’re also more likely to overspend because you don’t take the time to shop around, instead buying the first item you see just so you can escape the mad rush of people. Giving yourself plenty of time to organise your Christmas gifts also means you have the time to think of more meaningful gifts, and the time to make gifts if you choose.

5 – Give unique gifts

A gift you make can often cost much less that one you buy, and mean so much more. You could bake gift baskets for your friends and family or make up a box or basket of the person’s favourite things such as their favourite foods, drinks, cosmetics and stationery. You can also play to your strengths, so if baking isn’t one of your strong points you could write a song or a poem, create a piece of artwork, take a series of photographs of the family or the person’s favourite place and frame them.

You could even forgo traditional gifts all together and make a donation to charity in each person’s name. Many charities will even send you out cards with a picture of the chicken, goat or well your donation helped buy. When you take the time to really think about Christmas and your gift giving you will find there are a myriad of ways you can save money and curb your spending without missing out on any of the fun and excitement of the holiday.

Trading Tips You Should Know

Posted by Unknown Thursday, December 8, 2011 2 comments

First of all let me say this right from the start so you can decide whether to continue reading this post or leave so you won't waste your time. Trading and understanding the world of stocks and Forex takes time and you will not get rich over night with a few good trades unless you're trading with a huge amount of money, but we're not here for the luck, we're here to make money. If you want to work with hunches and gut feelings search for the nearest casino because trading is one of the hardest professions today but also the most rewarding one.

Just like any new subject or business you should learn it first and with time, trial and error and experience you'll master it and will able to make money, but instead of mastering a regular job or occupying an office for 9 hours each and every day, wouldn't you prefer mastering the world of trading stocks and Forex and make a good living no matter where you are trading from your computer?

This will take time like I said but if you're dedicated, have self-discipline and works according to known and proven stocks and Forex trading strategies and tips, in time you'll become a pro yourself and the money will flow. Yes, you'll have bad days and days when your trades will not go well but in time you'll profit more than you lose and that's where we're aiming. So, here are a few tips I can give you fast just to get you started:

Study the market

Don't jump into trading immediately because you'll lose money. First, try to understand how the market works, what are the forces that drive it up or down, try to predict without trading first if today will be a good and green day or a red day with lows, always study and learn to master.

Trade with a fair amount of money

Here's what I mean by this – never ever trade with all your money. Making money from trading will not be your primary income at first so you should trade with an amount of money you can tolerate to lose if you're wrong with your trades. Think of it as spare money for starters and only when you're more secured and master the market you can trade with a larger amount but never risk it all since trading takes time.

Work with your mind not with your gut

Trading is not gambling and people from all over the world make a living from trading smart and so, if you want to trade right do your homework prior to trading day, know what stocks or currencies you want to buy, know the entering and exit points at all times and work with your mind and never with your gut feelings, this is not a roulette and only if you are prepared and everything is written down ahead of the trading day you will earn more and limit your loses if you were wrong.

These are just a few basic but very important tips I've just shared with you. Remember that every professional trader was a beginner at first but to this day he follows these rules and tips and more to stay ahead in this world and profit from anywhere in the world, anytime. Now it's up to you to decide whether you're entering this world as well to make money or stay outside just because you're afraid. Not matter your decision, I just want to wish you all the best!

Should I Still Invest In My 401K

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, September 14, 2011 1 comment

401K plans are employer based retirement savings plan that you can contribute to while you are employed. The contributions that you make are often times matched by your employer and then that money is invested in the stock market.

Should I Invest

Yes! Investing in your 401K is a great way to save for retirement and have your employer help pay the bill. Consider that the average stock market returns are going to be 10 percent a year and you will double your investment every 10 years.

What About The Risk Of Losing My Money

Yes, you might lose your money in the stock market, but that is only if you are thinking short term. Remember that the market feasts on those who invest based on emotions, so keeping your everyday reactions out of it and thinking for the future will ensure that you keep your money secure.

Another rule of thumb is to be more aggressive in your investing when you are younger and to be less risky when you are older. The reason is that you have more time to make up your losses if you are younger.

Social Security Isn't Going To Cut It

Unless you have a great level of savings, you aren't going to rely on the government to take care of you. Social Security will pay maybe a few hundred dollars a month, and that isn't going to be enough to sustain your lifestyle. This is assuming that social security may even be around when younger workers start to retire.

This means that you are going to need to invest if you want to have a comfortable retirement. It might seem scary, but you can always hire a professional for guidance as to what you do with your money.

A 401K Makes It Harder To Take Out Your Money

Your 401K account is a great retirement asset because there are so many penalties for early withdrawal. This makes your account less susceptible to you raiding it on a whim. Think about the consequences of taking money out before you are 59 1/2.

-You have to pay a 10 percent penalty on your withdrawal

-You have to pay tax on that amount as well.

This means a 10,000 dollar withdrawal from your account could cost you 2,000 dollars even if you are in the lowest tax bracket. The 401K essentially says that you put your money in there until retirement.

So should you invest into a 401K? Of course you should, there is no reason not to, and very few alternatives to doing so. Your employer will pitch in, meaning that is free money for retirement. The money will continue to grow over time in the market and it will be a great way to supplement your social security income upon retirement.

Cassie Wilson is a writer at creditcardsbankruptcy.com

10 Practical Habits To Save Money Daily

Posted by Unknown Wednesday, April 27, 2011 0 comments

Guest post by : - Ally Tobias

It's hard enough to make ends meet. Yet with the proper planning and a bit of adjustment to your lifestyle, it’s possible to set aside a small amount on a daily basis.

Living a frugal life is the key to helping you save your money. Being frugal doesn’t mean depriving yourself of the things you enjoy. Rather, you make yourself pick wiser choices, and pick alternatives that are cheaper and easily accessible. This helps you save money.

There’s no clear-cut formula to saving money. Financial experts can suggest different ways where you can cut down on your spending, but ultimately it will be up to you. Every little bit helps. Every extra penny you can set aside for your savings will contribute to a bigger amount as time goes by.

Here are ten practical habits you can start doing to help you save money.

1. Make a budget. A budget gives you a lump sum that you can work with for your daily expenses. Your budget is basically everything that you will spend, minus your savings and payment for utilities. To set a budget, take your gross earnings per month. Subtract what you spend for utilities (round it off to the nearest whole number) and your savings. Divide what’s left for various things: daily expenses, a “fun” fund (to use for outings or splurges). You can even set a daily budget, or how much can you spend in one day. Include things like food and gas.

2. At the end of the day, save your change. This may sound odd, but consider this: the loose change you have on a daily basis may total up to a couple of hundred dollars. Try this out. Set a daily budget for yourself. If, at the end of the day, you have some left over, put that in a jar or a bottle. That means you won’t be carrying over any money from the previous day to today. Do this for a month, and at the end of it, total amount you’ve saved and deposit it to your savings account. You’ll be a few hundred bucks richer, guaranteed.

3. Plan major expenses and safe up for it. Remember how when you were a kid you set aside every penny for something that you wanted? Nowadays, people have no qualms in swiping their credit cards to get the latest gadgets or pay for a trip. Along with the charges and the interest rates, this can cost you hundreds of dollars. By deciding what you want to get and saving up for it, you remove the extra expenses. Plus, you can even shop for discounts or better bargains.

4. Buy quality products. Brand names are often worth the purchase because of its guaranteed quality and durability. However, it doesn’t mean you have to always purchase brand names to get good quality products. Many great quality products cost even less than brand names. Get a product that you know you will continuously use, rather than buying an item on sale and not use it at all. Look at the craftsmanship; check the materials and ingredients used. Always pick quality and comfort over everything else and you’ll find that you’re able to stretch your buck far more than you can when buying cheap products.

5. Consider D.I.Y. Need some repairs done at home? Before you call the handyman, see if it’s something you can fix yourself. There are some things that would be best left to professionals, but little things like doing a small paint job or fixing a leaky faucet are things you can do. It’s easy enough to find the solution these days with the help of the Internet. When you’re confident with your skills, tackle these repairs and save yourself off a couple of dollars.

6. Prepare your own meals. Are you one of those people who do not prepare your own meals, but instead eat out every time? You are spending extra and you're not maximizing the health benefits of the food you are eating. Sure you can go to restaurants that serve healthy meals, but to cut back on your expenses, opt to buy your own organic goods at markets and prepare simple but healthy meals. With the increasing number of organic farmers, the prices for their produce are going down so it’s easier to buy. It’s also easy to search for recipes online or experiment on your own. As a bonus, you can pack the leftovers (well, if there would be any) and bring them for your lunch to work the next day.

7. Use the library. We all love to buy the latest bestseller for a good read, or go out for a movie to relax after a hectic day. Yet with the soaring prices of books and movie tickets, it doesn’t sound practical right? No worries, you can still enjoy these by visiting the library. Books and other reading material aren’t the only things you can be check out of the library. You can borrow DVDs as well. Most library memberships are free, and the rental costs of DVDs are smaller than the ticket price. Granted they may not be the latest releases, but it’s a very viable alternative, especially for a family night get-together.

8. Don’t chuck the luxury, but look for alternatives. As mentioned, living frugally doesn’t mean you have to give up the things you enjoy. Instead, you find alternatives for these things that cost less. For example, are you always getting a designer coffee every day before heading off to work? Try to locate a small, local café where you can get your daily caffeine fix. It costs less, and you’re even contributing to the local economy. The money that you save can be set aside for your savings. Alternatively, you can use it to set up a fund for the real splurges, like maybe a trip out of the country or that gadget you always wanted to buy.

9. Take better care of your things. It’s easy enough to be careless about the things we buy because we know that it’s easy to purchase replacement items or get them repaired. Yet the costs, not to mention the amount of used items, can pile up. Taking better care of your belongings stretches its value.

10. Go green. The call to live green is getting stronger these days. People are more conscious of their choices and how it affects the environment. Manufacturers are finding ways to efficiently make their products eco-friendly by choosing resources that are easily renewable, as well as minimizing packaging. Even appliances are going green, as more and more gadgets are becoming less energy hogs. Changing your lifestyle to leave a smaller carbon footprint also helps.

Building the habit of saving money helps you in the long run. You become a better manager of your finances, and you’ll find that you are able to keep your debt down because you are spending less than what you earn. This allows you set aside enough for bigger purchases, and you become wiser with the choices that you make.

Ally is part of the team that manages Home Loan Finder, a free home equity loan and variable home loans comparison service in Australia. Before joining HLF, she was a Media Planner with McCann Worldgroup Philippines, Inc., with award-winning executions, including the Levi's 501 "Live Unbuttoned" global campaign.

"No-one believes that commercial America is keeping honest books" -- Peter Morici, University of Maryland economist, CNN

Posted by Unknown Saturday, September 4, 2010 0 comments

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Let’s Change Our Money Habits

Posted by Jim Friday, August 7, 2009 2 comments

Everyone likes to have more money but when you are living on a fixed income then to make huge money is very tough. But if you try to follow some rules then you can save some money for your future which can help you to create heap of money in future. You don’t have to cut all the expenses off and make the life a dull, but if you use the money wisely then you can enjoy the life more. If you can change the habits then you can keep tab on the wastage of money and also use the money for more important usage. If you change the money habit, then you have to worry less before spending the money as you have enough money to enjoy the life in its full. I am trying to point out some of the bad money habits that is harming us like an swine flu epidemic.

Expenditure greater than the income.
Late payment of the bills and instead of getting rebates you are paying the penalties for late payment.
Impulsive buying.
Paying the minimum credit card payment and paying high interest rates.
Using your full credit card limit.
No emergency fund for unexpected reasons.
No clear idea about where to spend or not.
Borrowing money from others to do the expenditures at the end of the month.
Giving very expensive gifts to the others.

These habits are really tough to change but to stop these are the need of the hour. Otherwise it can be really late to recover. At first identify all the bad money habits.

Today’s tips is now over, I have to leave now and we will discuss in the next post, till then goodbye.

25 Ways to Save Your Money to Make Your Future Bright - Part 3

Posted by Jim Saturday, July 18, 2009 0 comments

We already have got to know some ways to save out money like To have check on spending and Bank Deposits

3. Look for discounts

(A) Try to find better discounts while purchasing the needs. If you find a good discount then you can be sure that you are not over-paying for your purchase and can save a lot of money at the end.

(B) Try to find freebies and renting the stuffs like movies, DVDs etc. instead of buying. Buy in bulk so that you can get more discounts. Always use recycled papers and search for used items in the internet.

(C) Coupons can save lot of money at the time of shopping. You can find lot of coupons in the local newspaper and the mail. You can collect them a lot very quickly and can save money very easily.

(D) Always make use of the package deals offered by the internet, cable, phone companies and get huge discount at your daily usage. You can also get some gifts and free usage too.

(E) During the shopping try to find different offers from the retails shops like buy 2 get one free. While buying the groceries, always buy from large wholesale shops instead of the retails shops. Shopping from retails shops always cost more than the big wholesale stores. You can also get some more offers from the wholesale shops also.

In the next post I am going to give you some more ideas on saving the money for your future.

25 Ways to Save Your Money to Make Your Future Bright - Part 2

Posted by Jim Saturday, July 4, 2009 0 comments

The first part of this series you can find in the post 25 Ways to Save Your Money to Make Your Future Bright part 1
There we have already discussed how we can save money through keeping tab on our spending. Hope after reading that you have used some of them and got some results too.

2. Bank Deposits:

(A) Go and open savings account at a bank nearby. Try to save some dollar everyday and deposit them in the account every week or month. At the end of the year you can discover a lump sum amount in your savings account which can be helpful during medical or financial emergency.

(B) You can also suggest your employer to deposit 10 or 15% of your salary to one bank that pays greater interest rate, this way you can save some money for sure.

(C) If your spouse is a one who can save money then make an account in his/her name without your access and save some money there.

(D) You can opt for a term deposit too. You can save the money there for many days by not withdrawing the money.

(E) You can use some interest paying current account too. There you can get the advantage of having ATM and checque facility. In that you have to leave a certain balance on daily basis and on which you can get some interest too.

In the next post I am going to discuss some more ideas on saving your money to have a brighter future.

$6 Million Accidental Bank Deposit, Couple Flees with Money

Posted by Jim Monday, June 22, 2009 0 comments

What happened if you find $6 Million deposit at your bank account? This is not a dream but this has happened in New Zealand, suddenly $6 million deposit was made to the account of a couple. The Westpac bank is trying to track the money back but the couple had already taken out some of the money and left the town. According to the Police the couple had left the country and the bank is now contacting the international authorities to recover the money.

25 Ways to Save Your Money to Make Your Future Bright

Posted by Jim Friday, June 12, 2009 1 comment

In this toughest time when global economy is diving on its nose and many big companies are filing for bankruptcy, every one of us should try to save ourselves from this trend by saving money as much as we can. As early we understand this, that’s better. As individual we cannot change the whole economy but at least we can save our family from this downswing trend.

I am here trying to tell you know some steps that you can take in order to save your money for yourself and also for your family. Please check the series of posts to get the complete picture.

1. Try to have check on spending:

(A) Pen down regularly, every money that you are spending everyday on you and on your family. Regularly check the spending and be sure why and how the money was spent.

(B) Sell that are extra. Search around your home and identify those objects that are not more needed, then sell them off.

(C) Refinance your existing mortgage. To decrease the mortgage payment, opt for refinance.

(D) Make entertainment expenses lower. You can cut down your entertainment expenditure by not buying the DVDs and instead rent them or lend from your friend. For music, games and other stuffs you can apply the idea.

(E) Let your children learn value of money. Give your children some lesson on saving money. Tell them the value of every penny. Teach them how to save money for their future.

Sorry to interrupt you in the middle of the article. Please check the next post on this topic to have more ideas on saving money.