Part 1 of this Budgeting Basics series was about your income, part 2 your expenses, and part 3 your savings. Now it’s time to look at what you’re giving.
You’re probably familiar with the saying, “You get what you give.” I prefer what Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich
In Part 1, you added up your income. Part 2 had you tally up your expenses. Now, before we look at the difference between those numbers, let’s talk about your savings.
Here in the United States, the amount of money Joe Citizen saves is non-existent. In recent years, the statistics have shown the nation’s savings rate at 2% on the high end and a negative 2% on the low end. In other words, our citizenry saves, on average, nothing. Are you an average Joe? [Read more →]
Now that you’ve tallied what you’ve got coming in, it’s time to look at what’s going out, but first, I want you to take out an index card or sticky note or just a small piece of paper. On it, I want you to write the total amount for what you think you spend each month. Set it aside for later. [Read more →]
I saw Suze on the Today show and she was talking about how she felt that everyone needed the help that her latest book offers, and so she’s giving it away. Go to http://www.oprah.com/download and get your free PDF download of Suze Orman’s 2009 Action Plan before the offer expires at 11:59pm CST on Thursday, January 15, 2009. Please note: This book is copyrighted. You may view and download the file, but you may not copy the file or share or forward it to any other person.
This isn’t some 50-page ebook, this is all 227 pages of a real paperback book that’s available in stores now
You must commit to actually taking action. This is not a book to be read and pondered…If you care about financial security for yourself and your family…you will not get there with wishful thinking and procrastination…the new reality requires new strategies…tactical actions to make sure you do not let the credit crisis knock you off course.
You should also take a look at Suze’s 5-Step Financial Action Plan. It’s short, sweet and straight to the point.
Welcome to the first of a series of entries on budgeting. This series will look at the components of a budget in order to help you keep that resolution you made about actually budgeting your money this year.
When most folks first decide that they need to budget, it’s usually because they’re living beyond their means or have not been saving anything for their future. They’re normally at some sort of crisis point, if not financially, then certainly emotionally. They have had all kinds of self-defeating negative talk running around in their heads for days or weeks or even months. They beat themselves up for frittering away their money as they look down the barrel of a milestone in their lives: decade birthday (30, 40, 50), new baby on the way, child entering high school, job change, etc. There’s no money (or at least not enough) for college, for retirement, or even for a long-overdue vacation. “How,” they ask, “did this happen?!” [Read more →]
I work for a company that owns malls throughout the United States. It’s kind of ironic because I, personally, hate shopping. But I’m in the marketing department and I get a daily dose of why the company needs people to go shopping. And, as someone who’s trying to fathom the current state of our national economy, I’m starting to have a much better understanding of why the country needs us all to shop as well. [Read more →]
I’m always looking for ways to learn more about money, as I’m sure you are. In looking at the free podcasts available through iTunes, I found NPR’s Planet Money. They do a daily podcast that’s about 20 minutes long. Recently, they’ve interviewed some economists regarding several of the current hot topics for the economy: the unemployment rate, the bailouts, the global effects of our decisions not to buy and the proposed stimulus package. I highly recommend this podcast as a way to get a daily dose of financial smarts!