PublishMyself.net » Frugal Living

Personal Financial Checklist

readabook — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 03:32:51 +0000

A financial wellness kit is a list of questions that a financial planner would ask you if you were just starting a relationship.

Financial planning is not just for people with money. People who are in difficult financial situations can benefit from getting answers to these questions. A financial wellness kit gives you simple tools to figure out where you stand money wise.

Here are some of the questions included in the kit:

1. Is your net worth growing?

2. How are your ratios?

3. Are you spending more than you earn?

4. What has changed in your life in the last year?

Other questions help you think about what you are spending on and how it relates to what you really want out of life. Most people don’t think about their spending. They spend on reflex. Or they spend to subconsciously keep up with their family, their friends, and their neighbors. They spend to make themselves feel better. They spend to show off. They spend on things they want instead of the things they need.

Answering the questions helps you identify and focus on our goals.
Your goal may be to retire early or your goal may be to get out of debt so you can sleep at night.

Even just reading through the questions can give you a new perspective on how you think about money.

See our post atWomanwork.net Financial Wellness Kit

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Identify Your Financial Health Issues

readabook — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 02:23:04 +0000

Suze Orman often writes about how people are willing to talk about just about anything except their money problems. About 40% of Americans on average are currently worrying about money.

More Americans are worried about not having enough money for retirement (66%) than are worried about seven other financial matters Gallup asked about. Majorities of Americans, however, are also very or moderately worried about not being able to pay medical costs for a serious illness or accident and about not being able to maintain their standard of living.

Out of the roughly 220 million Americans that have credit files maintained by the “Big Three” credit bureaus, about 1 out of 5 individuals have very poor credit, or “deep subprime scores,” according to Experian. Research from the credit bureau found that between the third quarter of 2006 and the second quarter of 2009, the number of people with really low credit scores rose more than 16% to 40 million.

We are not alone in our problems with money. The issue of keeping your finances under control is so important that many companies have begun financial wellness programs for their employees.

A financial wellness check up could help you get a better grip on your finances and give you some ideas on how to improve your situation. See our post on What is a Financial Wellness Kit at Womanwork.net

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Credit Union Free Checking

readabook — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:46:14 +0000

Banks have been consistently hitting consumers’ with more and more fees. Free checking is disappearing and fees for banking services and penalties for bounced checks are going up.

According to Bankrate’s survey, this year, only 45% of non-interest checking accounts offered were free, down substantially from the 65% offered last year and 76% two years ago.

For non-interest accounts, the average monthly fee jumped a staggering 75.5% this year to $4.37 over last year.

On accounts that pay interest, the average monthly fee rose 8.5% to $14.15. The requirement to avoid paying such fees is to hold a substantially higher balance of $5,587, up 44% from the previous year.

ATM fees will also eat away at your checking account balance. If you use an ATM machine that is out of your bank network, you can be charged as much as $4.00. ATM fees have been increasing for the last seven years.

In total you can run up as much as $50 a month if you do not maintain minimum balances or meet other requirements for certain high-end checking and savings accounts.

Cheapskate bloggers having been talking up credit unions. It seems they are not the only ones. Credit unions added more than 1 million new customers last year.

The National Credit Union Administration said the nonprofit financial institutions registered 1.3 million new consumers in 2011, more than double the previous year’s growth.

Cheapskate bloggers are all recommending one particular credit union located in Texas. Anyone can join regardless of where they live or work. Find out the name of this credit union that has free checking and pays bonus money for using your debit card, paying bills online and banking online. See our post at rCheapskateliving.org called Cheapskate Bank

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Frugal Simple Living – Beginners Guide

readabook — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 03:03:06 +0000

When you talk about frugal living many people think that means giving up all the things you enjoy. This is a misconception about frugal living. Frugality is more about making wise choices which make your life richer. So here are ways to begin walking the frugal path without taking all the joy out of your existence:

Start slowly - Don’t suddenly decide to give up all the things that bring you pleasure and only allow yourself the basic necessities. Begin simply looking at what you are spending and think about what are wants and what are actual needs. What really brings you happiness and what are doing just because you have always done it or it is “status thing.” Then you can begin to decide what is worth spending money on and what you can do without.

Know what you want from frugal living – Why did you first think about spending less? Are you worried about your credit card debt? Are you thinking about early retirement? Do you want to buy a home? Figuring out what you want in life is a good motivator for keeping yourself on the frugal path.

Begin paying yourself first – This is a part of all frugal living philosophies. If possible have the money deducted from your check so you don’t even see it and are not tempted to spend it. Decide how much you want to save each month and live on what is left. You may need to adjust your figure but you will come to a percentage that is workable for you.

It is okay to make mistakes – Don’t get mad if you mess up and splurge or overspend. You need to splurge sometimes for psychological reasons. Overspending happens and it takes practice to get the frugal habit to be second nature. Beginning to live frugally is like beginning any other skill – it takes time to get good at it. Also, you will need trial and error to find what you can live with. You may find out you simply can’t drink cheap coffee and you still want to buy the premium brand.

Ready to learn more? See our post at Cheapskateliving.org called Ten Steps for Frugal Living

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Is Extreme Early Retirement for You?

readabook — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 23:13:53 +0000

What is an extreme retiree? They don’t really fit into an exact demographic profile but extreme retirees share some similar personal qualities. They share an excitement about their lives, a desire to spend time in pursuits that are meaningful to them, and often, an environmental conscience. Sounds pretty good, so how do you go about it?

As you might expect the first step is computing how much money are you going to need and for how long.

Retirement experts say you can plan on living until 90 and how much you need depends on your lifestyle choices. Extensive travel means you will need more than if you plan to stay local most of the time.

Retirement advisers say the key to a successful retirement is having an accurate picture of your projected living expenses. Knowing what it will cost you to live helps you know how much you need to save. There are formulas you can apply to figure out how to preserve capital when you begin drawing it down for income. See our post Extreme Early Retirement for the formula.

Also planning for financial setbacks is important so you don’t panic and compromise your assets. During an extended economic downturn you need to know what your plan of action would be to protect your assets.

Extreme retirees plan ahead but are flexible if changes need to be made. For instance, you may need to reduce your income in years where the financial markets are low or possibly consider part time work. See our post Frugal Retirement Living

If you are reading this post you have already taken the first step. You are getting information which will help you plan your early retirement. Billy and Akaisha Kaderli, the “grandparents” of the extreme early retirement movement for baby boomers, say, their advice for those seeking to follow the same path is: Work hard, spend little, save a lot and invest wisely.

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Retire Early and Frugally

readabook — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:16:10 +0000

If I say frugal living you probably think I mean cutting back and doing without. But actually you can think of frugal living in another way. One author of a frugal living blog describes frugal living as “to look at optimizing efficiency and utility – one will become frugal, rather than just do frugal things.”

This blogger who retired in his mid thirties claims he spend about 75% less than the average person, and yet gains an equivalent level of satisfaction.

How did this person do it? He advocates really scrutinizing the way you live. Then you find out what you really need and what makes you really happy.

Living in smaller home and living close to work are some of the things that will make a really big impact on reducing expenses. Houses and cars are responsible for a good percentage of our expenses because of utilities, taxes, insurance and maintenance.

Another interesting point he makes is the value of staying healthy. We always think about investing money to retire but we do not consider investing in preserving our health.

Health insurance and medical costs are the money pit of retirement. If you do whatever you can to keep your body healthy, your retirement will be more comfortable. You need to take care of your teeth also as dental procedures are costly and dental insurance is expensive when you have to pay for it yourself.

So living frugally can mean eating right, good dental hygiene and exercising regularly. Also finding ways to get rid of stress such as having a regular massage or learning to meditate.

Getting rid of clutter can also help you cut expenses and retire sooner. Extra stuff takes up space which costs money. If you can reduce your clutter you can do with less square footage and cut costs. In addition to taking up space anything that you own has to be maintained and that cost money too.

Find out more about how frugal living can help you retire on time or early see our post Frugal Retirement Living

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Does It Make Sense To Retire Early

Laila — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:11:22 +0000

Do You Dream Of Early Retirement?

Who does not have some golden dreams of retirement days? Maybe you picture yourself sunning by a beach, rocking on your front porch, or just having time to visit your children and grand children. Maybe you dream bigger, and you figure that retirement will mark the start of a new type of life. You may want to begin a business, volunteer for a worthy cause, or travel all over the world.

Before you decide if it is time to quit your current career, you have to carefully consider each one of the true advantages and disadvantages of early retirement though. Retiring early can be great, but it is not the right solution for everybody.

Have you really figured out how leaving your current employment situation will affect your financial life? Do you have another income planned, or do you think your savings can carry you through? Remember, you could live a long time. One of the worst fears that many people have is outliving their retirement savings!

Health Concerns

If you leave your current job, will you still have health insurance? If you are already getting Medicare benefits, that may help. If you can take a retirement package from your old job with health benefits, that can help too. But if you have to take care of this on the private market, that can be a big expense.

In fact, the early retirement health insurance problem is one big thing that keeps a lot of people at their desk! Be sure and look into solutions to this problem before you make a decision.

Income Retirement

Your biggest question, before retirement, will be if you can be comfortable with your lower income. You may have some retirement income from social security, a past job, annuities, etc., but it is not likely to be as large as your income from your job. Can you take measures to be a bigger cheapskate to totally make up for that?

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Make A Plan To Become More Frugal!

Laila — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 15:10:04 +0000

Who Should Be More Frugal?

Lots of average people have realized that they need to be a lot more frugal in the future! Almost every family was hit, in one way or the other, by the recession. Most of us had no way to make a lot more money. We had to learn to manage our money much better so we could still meet our financial goals and be more secure. Frugality has become a way of life for many families.

Is It Too Hard To Be Frugal?

A lot more people are looking for some extreme frugality tips because they just do not know how to become more frugal. Some of us remember how frugal our parents were. Somehow, we got caught up in a very consumerist lifestyle though. Actually, it is not that hard to manage money better if you know how to begin.

Your first step should be to figure out what you are spending money on now. You should try to write down your expenses for the last month or so. This will be a good way to see where money is leaking out of your personal budget. A lot of times, people can spot the problems right away.

There could be too much money spent on simple things like eating out or stopping off at the convenience store several times a week. You may decide to see if you can find a cheaper utility company or better car insurance rates. All of these things that you can do to reduce your fixed expenses can help you save a lot of money by next month without a real change in lifestyle. You could just shop around for a better way to meet your needs without spending as much money.

If you need to cut your budget a lot, you may have to make some painful choices. If you have to spend hundreds of dollars, each month, just to keep debt payments current, it will be a lot harder to be financially secure. Paying off a lot of debt will probably require a plan. While you are attacking the debt, it can be painful. However, after you have cut it, you will be much better off.

Do not forget to allocate some money towards your savings. Remember the old adage that you should pay yourself first? This means that your budget should include regular contributions to short term and long term savings accounts. You should start by establishing an emergency fund so you can use it to pay for immediate needs. This will help you cut your use of credit too. Do not forget long term plans either. We all need to save money for retirement and other future needs.

When you do visit the grocery store, it will help if you carry cash. When you carry cash, and not credit cards, it is a lot easier to stick to your budget. when the cash is gone, you must stop spending!

If you have spent a lot of money for a long time, it may seem very difficult to change your ways. You should not have to live like a hermit. You just need to start keeping track of your expenses better, and then choose to make better choices!

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Spending Habits Of Rich People Can Save Us All Money!

Laila — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:30:13 +0000

How Do Rich People Spend Money?

Have you read the saying that the rich are different? It is not because the just sit around and buy gold and silver all day! Some of the differences are real though, especially when you study the way they handle money every day.

Wealthy folks might choose to purchase expensive things, but they expect value too. Learn how the rich really are quite different, and how you can benefit from some of their practices in your own life.

What is it that frugal rich people do that is different from things ordinary people do?

You may think that the reason wealthy people can control their money is because they have a lot of it. Wealthy people actually have some good habits that help them control their spending. In fact, most wealthy people probably spend a lot lower of a percentage of their income than others do.

Some of these frugal ideas can benefit you if you are rich, poor, or middle class!

Rich people pay with cash quite often. Sure, they may have wads of hundred dollar bills to spend. But by paying cash, instead of swiping plastic, they actually have a good handle on how much they spend on things.

Wealthy people do spend money on nice things, but they are actually less likely to spend money on impulse items. A lot of middle class people tend to get in financial trouble because they do not have a good handle on their impluse buys, and not because they cannot manage fixed bills.

It may not seem like a lot to drop twenty bucks at a convenience store. However, if you do it every day, you are spending an extra five hundred and sixty dollars a month on impulse buys! Then you may wonder why you always seem short of money between paychecks. That extra money might have made the difference.

If you can control your own impulse spending, could you set aside a lot more cash? If you had planned your grocery shopping better, you may have been able to buy the same things you stopped at the store for at half the price! Would an extra two hundred two hundred and eighty dollars a month help you meet your budget goals better?

Wealthy people also tend to demand high qualify objects and great service for the money. You may feel like you got ripped off on a purchase or endured bad servce. A wealthy person would not tend to let this slide, but would take action to fix the problem. If they cannot resolve the problem, they move on so they do not have to spend money unwisely again.

Sure, some people are born so wealthy that they would have real trouble spending it all. But a lot of rich people got that way by working hard and learning to manage their money very well. Do you see the point? A few small changes could help you save a few hundred dollars each month! You could invest it to build more wealth.

Can you benefit from some of the habits of wealthy people?

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Get more frugal living tips from the Frugal Pig. We enjoy cheapskate living without pain!

Family Budget Repair

Laila — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:48:28 +0000

Simple Family Budget Repair

Almost all families have some bad times when expenses and budgets seem to go crazy! When this happens, a family is also likely to experience some credit issues. This is no time to panic, but it is a time to really investigate the situation so you can repair your budget and fix your credit!

I’ve let my budget go downhill, while my expenses when uphill, and you probably have too. I needed a way to understand where my money was going every month. I got back on track with some simple and free online tools that helped me picture the problem.

What helped me were actually some tools like the free budget calculator. I estimated my expenses, one by one with the help of this online tool. I only spent a few minutes entering estimates into the online form. Even though I just guessed at some of the numbers, it helped me because it allowed me to visualize where my money was going. Once I could see it, I could find ways to stop the problems.

If you have ever had problems managing your own family budget, you know what problems you can run into. If you have trouble sticking to a budget, you may start charging some routine things. Your credit card balances can start to rise, and then you will have to make more payments on those. You may find yourself in a really tough situation when you start charging normal things like groceries or gasoline. You know you have a problem when you have to finance your power bill or food with a credit card.

So, you have two solutions. You can either cut your expenses or make more money. It may be a lot easier to find some simple ways to cut your costs than it is to find a new job with a bigger payday.

A budget worksheet or calculator can really help because it shows you how much you spend in a variety of categories. Sometimes that is enough to get you to spot the problem so you can begin to deal with it.

It may be a simple matter of replacing meals out with dinner at home a few more times a month. If you spend $50 when you take your family out for dinner, and you do that three times a week, that adds up to $600 a month! You may be able to replace one of those nights out for dinner at home and shave a couple of hundred dollars from your monthly expenses.

You may just need to plan your shopping trips better. Convenience stores tend to charge more for that convenience. Make sure you stock up on staples like toilet paper and laundry soap at the discount store so you will not end up paying twice as month when you have to rush out for something you need. When I started working harder to plan my shopping lists better, I started saving almost $200 every month.

You may find that you are just paying too much for some of the services you need to buy. If you have a fixed monthly bill, like car insurance, take a little time to shop around for the best deals. If you pay $200 a month for your family auto policies, even a 20% savings will save you almost $500 a year!

Approach your budget shaving measures like an adventure and a game. It can be fun to see how frugal you can be without really giving up anything. Personally, a visual calculator or worksheet helps me because it allows me to see my expenses broken out by categories! Look at some of the best places to find free financial calculators online.

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