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 →]
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’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!
Our current social environment has conditioned us to believe that credit cards are necessary, that we have to have them in order to live our every day lives. We are a nation that thinks that living beyond our means is normal and that savings accounts are old fashioned. Credit cards are commonplace, but what we know about the business of consumer credit is woefully little. [Read more →]
Which is the better deal: one item for $2.50, two for $5, or four for $10? Truth is, they are all the same price. Unfortunately, most people assume that the multiple item pricing equals savings. This is a trick that stores use to convince you to buy more, and if you’re watching your pennies, this is one trick you need to know how to avoid. [Read more →]
You’ve heard all about the ever-important credit score, right? You’ve got to have a good one if you’re looking to buy a house or get a car loan with a reasonable interest rate—or even get approved for the loan in the first place. A recent development is that a bad credit score can even keep you from getting good insurance rates or some jobs. But what, really, is your credit score? How do they come up with that number and what’s actually a “good” number to have? [Read more →]
The current economy has created new questions for those who have traditionally purchased gift cards as part of their holiday gifts. In past years, I’ve given gift cards to my teenage niece so she can enjoy shopping for herself at her favorite store, not to mention the many cards I’ve received over the years for my favorite bookstore. Those little bits of plastic are nearly as much of a time-honored holiday tradition as cookies for Santa in many a family.
But with the number of stores that have declared bankruptcy in recent weeks, buying store-branded gift cards may have new risks. [Read more →]
How do you teach your children about money? It’s an especially tough question when what you learned as a child left you totally unprepared for life in the adult world. And it leads to many more questions… At what point do you tackle which questions? What bad habits do you have from your own childhood that you want to make sure they don’t learn? What’s the right way to go about this? [Read more →]
When I first started trying to figure out how to create a budget, I was lost. I didn’t know how much I spent each month on pretty much anything, nor did I have any idea how much I shouldspend. The whole idea of trying to figure that out intimidated me to the extreme. As a matter of fact, I had several false starts with my budget. I’d put one together at the beginning of the month, figure out that I wasn’t meeting it at the end of the month, and decide it was hopeless and convince myself that I really didn’t need a budget anyway. I think I did this several times over the course of a couple of years. At that time, money wasn’t tight and I could afford to be reckless. Or so I thought.
Had I taken the time to learn—really learn—how to effectively budget in those days, I might not have ended up more than $30,000 in debt when my first husband and I split up. [Read more →]
Many people have never taken the time to calculate their net worth. For some, it is because they believe only the rich do that sort of thing. For others, they think that their net worth says something about their personal value as individuals in the world, that it’s some sort of judgment about whether or not they are worthwhile people. Neither of these beliefs is true.
Your net worth is [Read more →]