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Money Saving Blogs, Forums, Resources and Ideas

Jake Green — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 19:45:49 +0000

Money Saving Blogs, Forums, Resources and Ideas

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10 Eccellent Money Saving Tips

Jake Green — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:36:50 +0000

Create A Reserve Cash Fund – The first thing you need to do is to set aside a few thousand dollars for emergencies. One of the most common reasons people go into debt is that something unforeseen happens. You could lose your job, your car could break down, or you might have to pay medical bills related to an illness or accident. With a good reserve of cash you will be force to put these expenses on a credit card. With fees and interest you could spend 30% or even more for these items. It is not difficult to build this fund. Try using a company bonus, a stimulus check from the government or set aside a little each month and in no time at all you will have several thousand saved and peace of mind.
Disciplined Spending by Avoid Impulse Buying – Never buy large ticket items until you have had at least 24 hours to think about it and talk about it with your spouse or a trusted friend or family member. Let the person you talk to know that you are trying to improve your financial situation. This will help you take the emotion out of the purchase. When grocery shopping, always use a list and get in and get out. Be a “hunter” not a “gatherer”. Don’t buy things that are on sale just because they are cheap. You don’t save anything on an item you don’t need. If its was half off of $100, you didn’t “save $50″, your spent $50!
Better Your Credit Score - When you have a higher credit scores you can lower interest rates on mortgages which can save you tens of thousands of dollars over the life of a loan. Always pay regularly and on time, get your debt under 30% of your available credit line, avoid closing older, more established accounts and have about four or five sources of credit that you pay on a regular basis. To get a ball park figure on your credit score try this calculator. Credit Score Estimator
Change Your Paycheck Tax Withholdings – You can increase your withholding allowances with your employer if you are getting a tax refund each year. Rather than give that money to the government interest-free for a year, you can receive that money now with each paycheck. Use the money to pay down high interest debt. Here is a calculator you can use to see if you should adjust your withholdings. Should I Adjust My Payroll Withholdings?
Sell Things That You Don’t Use – Get some extra cash by listing items that you haven’t used for over a year for sale on EBay or CraigsList. Then apply the proceeds from the sale towards your debt elimination plan. Garage sales can also help. You can also exchange items with friends and family for something that you would have spend money on. This will also free up some cash for an extra payment on a debt.
Find Your “Latte Factor” – David Bach, author of the Automatic millionaire call the idea of eliminating the small purchased that we make every can add up to big savings. If you kick a $5 a day gourmet coffee habit you can save $1,825 per year. That is an extra house payment. Maybe your Latte factor is smoking, soda, or going out to eat frequently. If you take the time to examine your spending habits you can find any extra $5 dollars a day. You might even see some health benefits. This extra money can used to help implement a biweekly payment schedule instead of monthly on your mortgage. Should I Convert to a Bi-Weekly Payment Schedule?
Find More Ways to Save – There are lots areas in your life you can find saving. You take a your own bag lunch to work, skip the morning Starbucks and brew your own, cancel a few magazine subscriptions, go longer between haircuts, give up the gym membership for free jogs in the park, shop less frequently or be more prudent where you shop, avoid vending machines and door-to-door solicitors, make birthday/christmas gifts rather than buy them, you get the idea. What Is The Value Of Reducing, Postponing or Foregoing Expenses?
Use Public Transportation – save hundreds of dollars a year by using public transportation rather than spending it on costly fuel and auto maintenance.
Save On Utilities – Try lowering your thermostat a little in the winter and raise it a few degrees in the summer. Take advantage of credits offered by local utility companies for increasing your insulation. When buying appliances buy more energy efficent appliances. Turn down the water heater. Turn off lights when not being used. Unplug appliances when not in use. Return the extra garbage can to the city if you are not filling it up each week.
Bundle Services and Shop around for Insurance – You will find that many companies allow you to bundle telephone, internet and TV services and realize significant savings. Or you could consider dropping the services that you do not really need. Insurance rates vary greatly from provider to provider. You should shop around for the best auto, home, and life insurance rates.

Automate Your SavingsB

Jake Green — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:10:36 +0000

Let’s be honest with ourselves. How many times have we said that we are going to eat healthier and it didn’t last? I personally will start out with good intentions until a holiday or a birth day party with comes up. The resolve then goes out the window along with my diet. It takes a lot a discipline to maintain a healthy live style and a healthy balance sheet. Sometimes it is best to make the decision to automate your financial health and then you don’t even have to think about it. Now if we could only automate our diet….

One of the ways that I have found to do save automatically is through an online bank account — ingdiret.com. It is not the only solution to automatically putting a predetermined amount into savings. You might be able to set something up with your bank or credit union where a predetermined amount goes from one account to a separate one for savings. I like to keep my savings account separate from the account that I use for my regular expenses. That way the temptation and ease of spending savings is greatly reduced. But really it doesn’t matter how you automate, just don’t pay for the service. There are plenty of free solutions out there. You just need to find a way to “pay yourself first”.

Even if you have acquired a large amount of debt you need to get in the habit of saving. If you only pay off your debt but never build up a buffer, the next time you have an emergency you will have to go right back into debt. The cycle will start again and you really haven’t fix you debt problem, you just slapped a band-aid on it.

There is a great book that I would recommend on saving automatically. If you read this you will see how powerful an automated savings setup can be.

Here is the link for ING:

ING Direct Online Banking

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10 Eccellent Money Saving Tips

Automate Your SavingsB