Economical Election

You say you know where your money goes and you don’t need it all written down to keep up with it? I issue you this challenge. Keep track of every penny you spend for one month… and I do mean every penny. You will be shocked at what the itty-bitty expenses add up to. Take the total you spent on just one unnecessary item for the month, multiply it by 12 for months in a year and multiply the result by 5 to represent 5 years.

That is how much you could have saved AND drawn interest on in just five years. That, my friend, is the very reason all of us need a budget. If we can get control of the small expenses that really don’t matter to the overall scheme of our lives, we can enjoy financial success.

The little things really do count. Cutting what you spend on lunch from five dollars a day to three dollars a day on every work day in a five day work week saves $10.00 a week… $40.00 a month… $480.00 a year… $2400.00 in five years… plus interest.
See what I mean?

It really IS the little things and you still eat lunch everyday AND that was only one place to save money in your daily living without doing without one thing you really need. There are a lot of places to cut expenses if you look for them.

Tip: Set some specific long term and short term goals. There are no wrong answers here. If it’s important to you, then it’s important period. If you want to be able to make a down payment on a house, start a college fund for your kids, buy a sports car, take a vacation to Aruba… anything… then that is your goal and your reason to get a handle on your financial situation now!

Taken From : Solving the Money Puzzle, Personal Finance Made Simple

Answer these questions truthfully:
 Does your spouse or partner complain that you spend too much money?
 Are you surprised each month when your credit card bill arrives at how much more you charged than you thought you had?
 Do you have more shoes and clothes in your closet than you could ever possibly wear?
 Do you own every new gadget before it has time to collect dust on a retailer’s shelf?
 Do you buy things you didn’t know you wanted until you saw them on display in a store?

If you answered YES to any two of the above questions, you are an impulse spender and indulge yourself in retail therapy.

This is not a good thing. It will prevent you from saving for the important things like a house, a new car, a vacation or retirement. You must set some financial goals and resist spending money on items that really don’t matter in the long run.

Impulse spending will not only put a strain on your finances but your relationships, as well. To overcome the problem, the first thing to do is learn to separate your needs from your wants. Advertisers blitz us hawking their products at us 24/7. The trick is to give yourself a cooling-off period before you buy anything that you have not planned for.

When you go shopping, make a list and take only enough cash to pay for what you have planned to buy. Leave your credit cards at home. If you see something you think you really need, give yourself two weeks to decide if it is really something you need or something you can easily do without.

By following this simple solution, you will mend your financial fences… and your relationships!

Taken From : Solving the Money Puzzle, Personal Finance Made Simple

Rebates have become increasingly popular in the last few years on a lot of items and certainly on electronic items and computers. Rebates of $20.00, $50.00 or $100.00 are not at all uncommon.

I’ve even seen items advertised as “free after rebate”. Do these rebates come under the heading of “too good to be true”? Some of them do and there are “catches” to watch out for but if you are careful, rebates can help you get some really good deals.

The way a rebate works is that you pay the listed price for an item then mail in a form and the bar code to the manufacturer and they send you a refund thus reducing the price of what you paid for the item except with a time delay of several weeks.

Rule #1: Rebates from reputable companies are usually just fine.

You can be pretty sure you will get the promised rebate from Best Buy, Amazon or Dell but you should probably not count on getting one from a company you’ve never heard of.

If you really want the product and are OK with paying the price listed then buy it but don’t count on actually getting the refund.

Rule R ule #2: Check rebate expiration dates .

Many times products will stay on the shelf of a retailer after the date for sending in the rebate offer has expired so check that date carefully.

Rule #3: Be sure you have all the forms required to file for the rebate

before you leave the store. Rebates will almost always require a form to be filled out, a receipt for the
purchase and a bar code.

Rule #4: Back up your rebate claim.

Make copies of everything you send in to get your rebate including the bar code. Stuff gets lost in the mail all the time and if the rebate is for $50.00 it’s worth the trouble to back up your claim.

Taken From : Solving the Money Puzzle, Personal Finance Made Simple

Budgeting is also known as “the art of spending wisely”.

Have you ever noticed that the things you buy every week at the grocery and hardware stores go up a few cents between shopping trips? Not by much, just by a little each week but they continue to creep up and up. All it takes for the price to jump up by a lot is a little hiccup in the world wide market.

Note the price of gasoline as it relates to world affairs. There is a way that we can keep these price increases from impacting our personal finances so much and that is by buying in quantity and finding the best possible prices for the things we use and will continue to use everyday….things that will keep just as well on the shelves in our homes as it does on the shelves at the grocery store or hardware store.

For instance, dog food and cat food costs about 10% less when bought by the case than it does when bought at the single can price. If you wait for close out prices you save a lot more than that.

Set aside some space in your home and make a list of things that you use regularly which will not spoil. Any grain or grain products will need to be stored in airtight containers that rats can’t get into so keep that in mind.
Then set out to find the best prices you can get on quantity purchases of such things as bathroom items and dry and canned food. You will be surprised at how much you can save by buying a twenty pound bag of rice as opposed to a one pound bag.

But don’t forget that it must be kept in a rat proof container. You can buy some clothing items such as men’s socks and underwear because those styles don’t change. Avoid buying children’s and women’s clothing, too, as those styles change and sizes change too drastically. Try to acquire and keep a two year’s worth of supply of these items and you can save hundreds of dollars.

Taken From : Solving the Money Puzzle, Personal Finance Made Simple

No matter how much money you have, or how much money you don’t have, you must have a budget. If you find that you don’t have much money, a budget can actually help you save more money. A budget will also help you become more aware of how much money you are unnecessarily spending each month. Did you know that most people actually spend 10% more than they make? And most of them don’t know it.
They just wonder why they seem to keep getting further behind. Your budget can be very simple, or very detailed. People with a larger income tend to have more detailed budgets, but people with modest incomes will usually do well with a simplified budget.

Your budget can be typed in a document on your computer, written out on paper, or set up in a money management program on your computer, or run on your computer using an online service. Whatever works best for you and your situation should be used. Don’t make it harder than it has to be. I recommend one online budgeting service without reservation: Mvelopes. They can help you be in the minority of people who spend 10% less than they make.

Starter tips: Start by making a list of your income. Include all income that you know will be coming in, including income tax refunds and cash gifts that you know you will receive from Grandma at Christmas.

Some income will have to be estimated, and this is fine. After you know what is coming in, make a list of what is going out. Start with the basics.

Of course you know that you will pay utility bills, insurance premiums, a mortgage or rent. If you have credit cards, you know that you will have payments to make on those.

Outstanding loans must also be paid. List all of your monthly bills, but don’t forget about those other expenses as well, such as groceries, gasoline, household items, and entertainment. Save these expenses for last, so that you can see how much you have to allocate to each expense – and then live
within those allocated amounts.

At the top of your list, you should have one very important bill to pay… yourself. Pay yourself first!

Determine how much you can afford to save each week, and then take that money out first and put it in an interest bearing savings account. Do this before you pay any other bill on your list!

Taken From : Solving the Money Puzzle, Personal Finance Made Simple

For all romantic people, you have to visit Paris. You can go there for your vacation. You will enjoy greatest time in this romantic city. You will not resist all romantic things in this city.

If you really want to visit Paris, it is better for you to visit Bedandbreakfastparis.biz before you go. There are many useful advantages for you about Paris and Hotel Paris in here. You can also get the tips to feel how to be a Parisian such as go to the Thalasso Bretagne. You can also book for your accommodation while visiting Paris.

For another romantic play, there is Rome, Venice, or Florence. Now, it is easier for you to book Hotel Rome or other hotels only from the internet. Visit this website to get further information and enjoy your romantic vacation.

Buying a home in right time is a good thing. It is better for you to inspect the home that you want to buy before you make a deal with the seller. You don’t have to do it by your self. You can ask professional service to inspect the home that you want to buy. So, you will get prospective new home.

There is Dallas Home Inspection that will help you in this case. They can’t guarantee that everything is in perfect condition with the house but they can pinpoint problems and potential problems that you need to be made aware of before making your final decision. They will help you to watch what you may not be able to see like plumbing and wiring system, built kitchen appliances, roof, and more. If problem are identified, you will be able to negotiate with the owner or seller about the price. They need three hours to inspect a home. It starts on the exterior to the interior of the home. Once the inspector has completed his job, you will get a detailed written report. You can use the report to consider whether buying that home or not.

There is also San Antonio Home Inspection for you who want to buy a home in San Antonio. You can visit Dallas Home inspection website at Bestdallashomeinspection.com to get further information. Use their service to get the most prospective home of yours.

A carpenter uses a set of house plans to build a house. If he didn’t, the bathroom might get overlooked altogether. Rocket scientists would never begin construction on a new booster rocket without a detailed set of design specifications.
Yet most of us go blindly out into the world without an inkling of an idea about finances and without any plan at all. Not very smart of us, is it?
A money plan is called a budget and it is crucial to get us to our desired financial goals. Without a plan we will drift without direction and end up marooned on a distant financial reef.

If you have a spouse or a significant other, you should make this budget together. Sit down and figure out what your joint financial goals are…long term and short term. Then plan your route to get to those goals. Every journey begins with one step and the first step to attaining your goals is to make a realistic budget that both of you can live with.

A budget should never be a financial starvation diet. That won’t work for the long haul. Make reasonable allocations for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and insurance and set aside a reasonable amount for entertainment and the occasional luxury item. Savings should always come first before any spending.

Even a small amount saved will help you reach your long term and short term financial goals. You can find many budget forms on the Internet. Just use any search engine you choose and type in “free budget forms”. You’ll get lots of hits.

Print one out and work on it with your spouse or significant other. Both of you will need to be happy with the final result and feel like it’s something you can stick to.

Taken From : Solving the Money Puzzle, Personal Finance Made Simple

Anyone would love to receive flower bouquet. It can help you to say your deepest intention when words can no longer say it. However, we often have trouble to find a nice florist that can perform the service that we want. We are often fooled by the name of the florist, but end up on getting low service. To avoid it to happen again, we need to know more information on the florist before we use its service.

In Austin, we can use Bestaustinflorist.com to locate the finest florist in this state. We can run simple online check on the florist before we make our order. This website will give complete information on the Austin florist. We only need to inform our name and phone number to get the complete list. We can find out the services that these florists give for customers. If this complete information still makes us confused on choosing our florist, we can get some useful tips from this website. It will give us some basic knowledge on choosing our florist.

You can match the flowers arrangement that you send with the occasion. This website will help you to match your flower arrangement with the special occasion. It will help you to send this nice surprise in the right time.

Imagine that you have gone to apply for a home mortgage loan, and you are told that you were denied – because your credit wasn’t good enough. Not knowing what is on your credit report ahead of time is a mistake that many first-time home buyers tend to make. It is important that you know what is on your credit report, and you should get a copy of your report at least once each year – even if you don’t intend to apply for any loans.
The first reason for needing to know what is on your report is to ensure that everything on it is right. The fact is that out of ten people, at least five will find errors on their credit report.

Those errors can keep you from getting loans or credit cards. They could even keep you from qualifying for some jobs! When there is an error on your report, you need to call the reporting agency and the creditor to clear up the problem as soon as possible.
Pulling your credit report is also a good way to know if you have been the victim of identity theft. Some errors may not be errors at all… they may be proof that someone else is using your information! Again, contact the reporting agency, the creditor, and if necessary, the police. You can subscribe to online services that monitor your report and help to protect you from identity theft. These services include LifeLock, which is backed by a million-dollar guarantee that if your identity is ever stolen while you’re their client, they will do whatever it takes to fix it. Another one I recommend is Privacy Matters, whose subscription includes unlimited copies of your credit report and your credit score (also called FICO score).
You have the right to one free copy of your credit report per year from each of the big three credit reporting agencies. They don’t have to be requested at the same time. For more information go to AnnualCreditReport.com or contact the credit bureaus directly (see list in Appendix).
If you do have negative items on your credit report that are not errors, it is in your best interest to take care of those matters as quickly as possible. In many cases, you can call the creditor and work out terms with them, or negotiate a lower cost for clearing up the debt. Most creditors will work with you is they see that you are making a genuine effort to clear up the matter.
Don’t make the mistake of not having anything at all on your credit report. You want items on there, and you want them all to be good. Many would-be lenders actually view some bad credit as being better than no credit at all! It’s difficult to get credit when you have no past credit.
This is easily rectified by applying for and getting a major credit card, and making the payments on time.
If you have the cash to buy a vehicle out right, you are actually better off – from a credit standpoint – to finance the vehicle, and then pay it off early, after about a year. This will show positive credit on your report. You can find contact information for the big three credit reporting agencies in the Appendix.

Taken From : Solving the Money Puzzle, Personal Finance Made Simple