Helping You Avoid Life's Financial Mistakes

Are You Stuck On Your Panic Button?

With a shaky economy and the market jumping up and down like a couple of Mexican jumping beans the time has never been better to start learning more about personal finance. 

Here is a great place to start…

The carnival of personal finance released there latest edition earlier this week on Master Your Card, the website that tells all about your credit cards and more release there financial armageddon edition.

Here are a few of my favorites from there.

  • Squawkfox on what were the 3 worst financial decisions.
  • Budgets are Sexy on saving 10% of your money is like paying an extra bill.
  • Destroy Debt on the difference between Chapter 7 and Chapter 11.

Check out this weeks Carnival at Master Your Card and let me know what your favorite where.

Why You Need To Stumble To Move Forward

Have you ever made mistake?

I’m sure we all know of few times when we realized that we screwed up.  I can think of a few times inparticular.

In this post my outcome here is to show you that making mistakes are OK as long as you learn from them and keep moving forward toward your goals.

Don’t let mistakes run your life.

Before entering a career in financial services I had just gotten married and had already been making financial mistakes from day one.  I was buying things at random not even considering my cash flow or what I had.  Within a few years I had a timeshare, a couple of snowmobiles, and a mortgage.

Remember at this time I didn’t have a clue about money.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks.  I woke up one day and realized that I had to deal with the mistakes that I had made and at first they were hard to admit but I finally had faced my fears.  A friend of mine who got me started in financial services helped me out putting me on the right track.

Today I have to admit that I am not where I want to be but I’m getting closer everyday.  This inspired me to  get started in financial services.  I figured if it didn’t work out I would at least get an education in how money works, something I didn’t have.

Your mistakes

After that point I realized a few things:

  1. Mistakes are a part of life.
  2. Don’t be afraid to make them.

It was at that point that I realized that mistakes are a natural part of life and how we learn things.  Imagine, if I didn’t make those mistake I wouldn’t have been inspired to get into financial services, to learn more about how money works, how to run a business, or even to start this blog.

It’s odd how life sends you down some interesting roads.

Mistakes are what makes us better.

Even though we may have made mistakes with are money and in are personal lives that doesn’t mean that we are failures.  With every mistake that we make is one more chance that we have to learn from it and get better.

On the other end of the stick though don’t try to be a perfectionist.  I notice this out of a lot of people especially business owners.  They try everything not make a mistake and when they do they put themselves down by criticizing there mistakes.  Eventually to the point were they believe they can do no right.

Call to action.

Now it’s your turn to act.  Here are a few ways you can make less mistakes.

  • Educate yourself on what you are trying to achieve and you will be likely to make less mistakes.  If you would like to make less mistakes with your finances sign up for my RSS and also check the blogs on my blogrollto grow your knowledge.
  • Start a To Do List.  I like to call this my actions list.  I use this a lot of times to get my mind off the mistakes I make and keep me focused on moving forward.

Last, what financial mistakes have you made?  If you would like to share them leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

 

 

5 More Tips To Help You Stay Locked In Your Debt Plan

Staying focus isn’t easy

In the last post I gave 5 reasons on helping you stay focused on your debt plan.  In this post I hope to advance on this subject a bit and give a few more reason to help you along the way.

Also if you know of a few more ways to keep focused that I haven’t thought of you can leave a comment at the bottom of this post and let me know about it.

5 more tips to help you stay locked in your debt plan

  • Have Goals. Having goals will help you stay focused by giving you something to focus on.  In most cases though most people will just say that getting debt free is my goal.  Don’t do this.  Instead have a goal for every time you pay off a debt like taking the family out someplace nice to eat.  Then once you have all of your debt paid off do something a little bigger like going on a vacation.  Getting debt free doesn’t have to be boring.  Make it fun and add goals.
  • Budget your money. Knowing how much money you have coming and going will let you know if you are spending more than you make and letting you know how much money you have left to put toward your debt plan.  Here is a great article on fixing leaks in your budget. Put a budget together and you will never have to worry about having enough money.
  • Build an emergency fund. An emergency fund will take the stress off your back especially if times are tough.  But when times do get tough you may decide not follow your plan for just one month thinking I’ll catch up next month.  Then one month becomes two and two becomes four and so on…  You get the picture.  Without an emergency fund it will be real easy to quit your plan.  Start a plan to save money back for emergencies even if it’s just a few buck a week.
  • Educate yourself. Educate yourself on ways to cut cost on your bills, budgeting better, and saving more.  There is constantly new information coming out on how to do your personal finances better.  Stumble Forward is a great place to start.  Sign up to are RSS to get more info on how to do these types of things.  Being educated on your finances will also help you from falling into traps with you money and making things worse.  Stay educated and you may come up with ways to improve your plan and apply more money to it to get debt free faster.
  • Revise your plan. Revising your plan will allow you to update it in case you have any changes that may happen and they will.  I’ve personally never had my original plan run the way it was suppose to.  There always seems to be something getting in the way.  This is a good time to rerun your plan and update it.   Also once you pay off a debt it’s good time to redo your plan again as well.

Would you add anything else?  If you have an idea that you would like to share please feel free to explain below in the comments.  If I get a few more great ideas on how to stay locked in a debt plan I may add them into a future article.

5 Tips To Help You Stay Locked In Your Debt Plan

The biggest problem with your debt plan

Are you trying to get debt free?  For a lot of people this is true.  I’ve talked a lot about setting up a debt plan how to use it but this never seems to be the biggest problem with most people.  For most it’s following through with your plan that can be the tough part.

I’m sure a lot you would agree with me.

First, if you haven’t set up your own debt plan yet you can do so here and if you want to learn more about how it works you can check this post out as well.

In this post my goal is to give you a few tips that will keep you focused on your debt plan and stumbling forward to success.  I will also be posting 5 more tips later on this week so I can keep the post shorter.

5 tips that will keep you locked in YOUR debt plan

  • Have a debt plan. This may sound like common sense but you would be surprised how many people don’t have a plan to get out of debt.   If you don’t you may want to check this out.  Simply put a plan will keep things together for you when may get off track and lose your place.
  • Have you plan written down. Having your plan written down will help you remember the plan easier.  This is not a time to be lazy and make excuses.  Writing  your plan down shows you are serious about getting debt free.
  • Communicate with your spouse and family. Talking to your spouse and family about this plan ensures that it will stay strong.  If you don’t do this your spouse or family may neglect you and not take the plan seriously.  If your spouse isn’t in on the deal they may still be spending money and putting more leaks into your debt plan.  Start right by getting everyone on the same page.
  • Review your plan twice a day. Reviewing your plan regularly will help you keep the plan fresh in your mind.  This is a big one because once we forget about it we won’t do it anymore.  Doing this daily will build strong habits over time keeping you committed.
  • Keep your plan visible. Keeping your plan in a familiar place will help with forgetting about the plan all together.  A few places I like to keep my plan are on my refrigerator, on the bathroom mirror so when I get up in the morning it’s the first thing I see, and on my dresser.  I like this spot because it’s usually the last thing I will read at night.  Also it’s been proven that reviewing things before you got bed at night will allow your mind to work on these problems you are having as you sleep.  I’ve done this several times and had great results with it.

Do you have any tips that I should include into these post?  Leave me a comment about it and I may include it into future post.  Also don’t forget to check out the second post in this series later this week.

3 Part Time Businesses You Can Start Today

Do You Want Financial Independence?

If you would ask this question to almost anyone they would give you an empathic “YES!”  I can relate.  Achieving financial independence has been in my blood since I started my first business. 

Just to recap quick last week I posted an article Why you should start a part time business about what I learned about my first part time business opportunity and what you can learn from starting your own part time business.  This article is a good place to start.

In this weeks article my outcome is to show you a few business opportunities that are low barrier and low cost to start.  There may be more business opportunities out there like the one Isaac told me about running a vending machine business from home.  

What will these opportunities give you?

  • A new way to fund your get out of debt program.  Starting a part time business will allow you to fund your debt plan and if you already have one you can apply the extra money you earn to get you out of debt quicker.
  • A new way to build financial security.  You can also use this money to fund your emergency fund, buy extra insurance you may need, or put money back for your retirement.
  • Finally it can also be a great way to achieve financial independence.  If your looking to build a business that will give you recurring income this is also a great place to start.

Last thing before I go on.  Starting a part time business is a great way to earn extra income but I recommend that you don’t start any business expecting income immediately.  Instead keep a steady full time job while you get your business off the ground.  This way you aren’t rushed to do it and you won’t be pressured as much to show results.

Now that that’s out of the way lets move on.

Low Barrier Part Time Businesses

  • Blogging.  Out of the 3 this is the simplest to start and lowest investment of all of them.  All you have to buy is a domain name and some hosting space and your up and running.  OK, it not that simple but you get my drift.  If you would like to learn more about this opportunity here is a great free video tutorial to get you started.
  • Financial Services.  This is where I started my first part time business.  However this opportunity will require little bit more of an investment for licensing and getting you started in there company.  Though one thing I feel that this opportunity will give you is an education on how to run a business.  Usually at no cost to you.  If you have an interest in this you can contact me and I’ll give you more info on this. 
  • Affiliate Marketing.  This opportunity allows you to sell products from different companies usually on the internet.  This is similar to blogging but you aren’t constantly putting post up you are marketing products on your website.  Here is a great place to learn more about this.

Other Part Time Business Opportunities

You may be wondering what other ideas there are.  Well this is where it is up to you.  I am starting a new section on my website dedicated to helping you find a part time business opportunity. 

This is where you come in.

If you know of a business opportunity that you would like me to post on my website let me know.  You can either leave me a comment at the end of this post or you can contact me here. 

The business opportunity must be legit, the investment should be minimal, and also be able for someone to start part time.  If you would like me to add an opportunity send me some info so I can review the opportunity.

2 Ways Your Savings Could Be Affected In A Recession

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Currently many of you may be feeling the slam by the market.  You may have lost money in your 401k’s, retirement accounts, and college savings plans.  In this post my goal is not instill fear to you or give you reasons to stay out of the market.

My outcome today is to show you a few ways your savings could be effected in a turbulent market and what you can do to fix it. 

With the current amount of fear out there between banks and consumers the movement of money has come to a grinding halt.  Everyone is worried about there money and looking to ways they can keep it safe.

2 ways your savings could be effected.

  • Losing money in the market.  This is the most obvious.   In turbulent times when markets are down people will fear the market and tend lose money in the market.  If you have money in the market you know how this feels when you open up you statement from your 401k and realize you’ve lost a few hundred dollars or more.  Now one wants this to happen to them but it does.
  • Losing money do to inflation.  This is what I would call the silent killer.  Inflation is the rising cost of goods and services.  For example, the price of gas hitting $4 plus for a gallon fuel.  This creates a chain reaction which sent almost all other goods and services  skyrocketing. 

Which way will hurt you the most?

Out of both ways your savings could be effected by this, which one will do the most damage?  This is where I wish I could give you a straight answer but not everyone’s situation is the same.  Which do you believe effect you more?  Let me know in the comments.

Let me give you an example.  Lets say you were losing money in your mutual fund and decided to pull your money out and put it into a high yield saving account at say a modest 3.50%.  Not a bad savings rate.  You put all of your money in that account because you believe 2 things.

  1. Your money is safe and can’t be lost.
  2. You have a guaranteed interest rate of 3.50%

Everything sounds great now, right?

Let’s take a deeper look now.  Let’s say there is also an inflation rate of 6%. ( inflation varies but this an example)  Well if inflation, the cost of goods and services, is going up by 6% and you are saving your money a 3.50% there might be an issue.  You need to earn another 2.50% on your interest just to stay up with inflation.

Even though there is no money leaving your account physically it will eventually catch up to you when you have to fork out more money for your gas, food, and other goods and services you may buy.

That’s why I call inflation the silent killer. 

The interest you receive on your account has a lot to do with it.  Here a great article that will explain how this works.

So what do you do?

  1. Keep investing.  By continually investing money each and every month you will buy more shares at lower prices versus when markets are buying less shares at higher prices.  This is called dollar cost averaging.  Eventually the market could go back up and with more shares combined with the lower prices you bought them at could give you a higher return on your money.
  2. Don’t put all of your money in savings accounts.  If you do this you could end up in the situation I just talked about. 
  3. Keep an emergency fund.  Your emergency fund is your insurance policy against any personal financial issues you may end up in.  Keep a balance approach when it comes to your emergency fund on and what you have invested and have at least 3 to 6 months worth of cash saved up to pay bills and other emergency payments.

Finally, are you worried about your investments?  Let me know how you would handle the situation.

Carnival Of Personal Finance #175

I thought I would just drop a line quick to Budgets are Sexy who hosted this weeks Carnival of personal Finance.  As always they have a terrific blog about everything from debt, to investing, to budgeting and bring in the just the some great content.

Check out my post under the debt section.

Thanks.

A Payday Lenders Good For Consumers – Readers Comments

Novemeber 4th will be here before you know it.

We are only a few weeks away from the elections and things are really starting to heat up.  Ohio has many issues on the ballot this year but I have been talking about Issue 5 lately which is in concern to the Ohio Payday Lenders. 

I ran my first post on this in early September “Are Payday Lenders Good For Consumers?” and a month later I revisited the issue to see if any positions had changed.  I wrote “Are Payday Lenders Good For Consumers-Revisited?” 

I also have a poll going on the home page to the left if you would like to throw your vote in on what you feel you would do.

In this post I have decided to post some of the prominent comments I have received in the last post I did on this and I got some great comment on this.  If you are still deciding on which way to go with this issue then you may want to read this.  If you would like to find out how this issue ends up and what the other readers comments are you can subscribe to my RSS here.

Readers Comments

Marc was the first to respond and he had a lot to say.

The issue is that by limiting the interest rate legislators essentially banned payday lending. It’s not as if many or any lenders can stay open at a 28% APR. That would mean that they would only be able to charge $1.17 per every $100 borrowed. Given that the average payday lender only makes between a 3% and 7% profit on the “high” interest rates currently charged, it’s difficult to see how they could remain in business with the lower rate. What will happen is that people who need a payday loan will not have that option and will turn to a less desirable alternative. It’s not as if getting rid of these loans will get rid of the need for these loans.

You remark “if I were a consumer going to a payday lender to get a loan would I want to pay 300% interest or would I rather pay 28% interest.” Borrowers don’t really seem to think this way. According to surveys of borrowers, they choose payday loans mainly out of reasons of convenience. They don’t shop around on price. That’s pretty clear when you consider that before the payday lending ban anyone could have opened a store to loan money at 28% APR. Why didn’t someone do so? It seems that if a businessman could have made a profit at that rate (a dubious proposition) and if consumers were really concerned about paying “excessive” interest, then the businessman who opened that store would have cleaned up in the market. The fact that this didn’t happen should indicate that it’s just not a realistic scenario, either from the business side or the consumer side.

Then Donnie who has replied at everyone of my post on the payday lenders has stood to his decision that payday lenders should be regulated more.  I personally still agree with this decision but decide for yourself and let me know in the comments.

Donnie said:

I agree with many of your points. Most consumers, if they knew what they were being charged (no payday lending ad mentions 391% APR or the fact that they are talking about payday lending), wouldn’t “choose” 391% APR over 28% APR. The industry has mounted a major effort to deceive and confuse voters. The jobs argument is one of the biggest cons out there. Of Ohio’s 1,600 plus payday lenders, 1,130 of them have applied for licenses from the Ohio Department of Commerce to operate under the new law. So, it appears most of them are still going to offer services of some kind. The payday lenders have also put up an ad suggesting that “Big Brother” is going to be watching you because the bill passed in June requires a database that ensures payday lenders’ compliance with the new law! What they don’t mention is that they payday lenders have their own UNSECURED database that has all kinds of information about you from your landlord/tenant records to your bankruptcy case proceedings.

Don’t fall for all their misleading ads and deceptive mailers! Reign in reckless predatory payday lending by voting yes on issue 5!

Finally PT from Prime Time Money piped in and said:

It’s sad that people have to resort to this type of financial product to keep them a float. I can’t stand to see the payday loan businesses. Still, I don’t know what I think about running them out of business. I mean, they are filling a need…but so would marijuana stores if they were allowed.

The free market man inside tells me to let them do what they do and that the uneducated will always make poor choices.

I guess at the end of the day, I’m just for more education. Something like the “truth in lending” act expanded for these loans would be beneficial.

In all the comments I would have to agree with PT the most.  It’s all about the education and what you don’t know can really hurt you.

I will be doing one more post on this subject on November 5th to share my thoughts on the results and to get your comments and reactions on the results.  Also don’t forget to vote on my issue 5 poll on the home page.

Why You Should Start A Part-Time Business

The Beginning of Your Financial Independence

I know I haven’t spent a lot time discussing financial independence but I hope do so as things progress.  The reason I haven’t though is because I felt I haven’t truly reach financial independence.  Though that doesn’t mean I won’t talk the things I’ve learned along the way.

In this post though my outcome is to show you that starting a part-time business is your first step to becoming financially independent.

My First Part Time Business

In 2004 I started my first part-time business in financial services.  A friend of mine who had been in the business for several years presented the opportunity to me.  At that time I didn’t know anything about financial services, insurance, or investments.

The first few years in the business I didn’t make much progress at all but I kept after it and after five years I managed to end up with a handful of clients and little bit of money.  Though after those years of being in financial services I didn’t make much money but I did learn 2 very important lessons.

  1. I learned how to run a business.  You can go to school for many years to learn how to manage and run a business by reading a few books and taking a class or two is nothing compared to getting some real world experience.  The great thing about this education is that I didn’t pay one cent for it.  That’s the great thing about starting a part time business.
  2. I learned how to manage my money.  Before I got into financial services I knew nothing about saving my money or where to save it or how to pay off my debt.  People can pay top dollar to get the education I did but it didn’t cost me a dime.

When You Need To Start A Part Time Business

You can start a part time business any time you want.  In fact it’s easier than ever.  With all the opportunities out there you won’t have much trouble.  I will share a few ideas with you at the end of this article.  However I must warn you though research the opportunity before you decide on any particular one there are some bad scams out there.

Starting a part time business allows you to have a full time job while you are running your part time business.  This way you can build up your business until you have enough cash flow to switch to a full time position. 

Another reason you should start a business is if you have debt.  You might be thinking this would be the worst time but allow me to elaborate.  When your in debt this is the best time start a part time business because you can learn what it takes without taking the big risk and also raise some money to pay off some debt, fund that emergency fund, or even save for your kids college education.  There are a lot of thing you could do with this money.

At any rate the clear idea here is to take action.  Don’t delay.  Those that want to succeed will take this step and go for it.  So why don’t you be one of them.

What Kind Of Part Time Business Opportunities Are There?

Before I get into what ideas are out there I should say that there two ways to go about this. 

  1. Start your own business.  Start a business that you would like to do.  For example I know a guy who started his own taxidermy business and he is seeing some great success from this.  However I don’t recommend this route for any new people who want to start a business because you may become frustrated easily and quit before you really see any success.
  2. Join a business.  When you join a business or what is called a business opportunity you generally pay a fee (usually a couple hundred dollars) and they will take care of everything from training to helping you grow your business.  This is my suggested route for those who have never run a business before.

Where I Would Start

These are a few of my ideas but you may know of more.

  • Start your own blogging business.  This is very easy to do and has a low barrier to entry.  Just a few bucks a month.
  • Financial Services.  This is where I got started learning how to run a business, manage money, and do sales.  I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t jumped on this opportunity.
  • Affiliate Marketing.  This is where you set up a website to sell products on the Internet.  This is again a low barrier to entry and if you work at you can make some great money too.

Are you considering starting a part time business?  What kind of business would you like to start?  Let me know what you would like to do.  I will also be doing a sequel to this article next week to go more in depth on the 3 business I have given you. 

Until then.

Free Debt Managment Tools For You


A Great Tool For Anyone Who Wants To Get Out Of Debt

I recently came across this wonderful new tool to help those that would like to put there own debt plan together.  I’ve been playing around with it and found some very useful functionality.  This tool comes thanks to Vertex42.

First off you will want to download the tool which when downloaded can easily be opened in excel.  To download the file you can click here and you can download the spread sheet.

The tool itself

Once inside the spreadsheet you will see a few things.  Bear with me though I am going to give you a bit a detailed version of this tool but if you have already dealt with this before you can skip this part.

  • First, you will see a balance date.  Enter in the most recent date of the balances you have.  This way they can calculate how long it will take you to get out of debt.
  • Second, enter in the creditor information, balance, interest rate, minimum payment you are making, and then you can customize it to pay it off the way you prefer.  1 being first to be paid.
  • At the bottom of that chart you will see the total balance and the total payments you art making.
  • Below that you will see the total monthly payment.  This is the payment that will have the extra payment along with the minimum payments.
  • Then there is the Initial snowball payment.  This is the amount you would like to throw towards the minimum payment.  I recommend that you do at least $50.
  • Next, choose your strategy.  There are six to choose from.


  1. Snowball ( Lowest Balance First) This is my personal preferred way to setup the plan because by paying the lowest balance first you will see the quickest results.
  2. Highest Interest Rate. Depending on if you have a lot of credit cards with high interest rates or loans with higher rates this may be a better option.
  3. No Snowball. In this option it will show you what would happen if you didn’t apply any extra payment towards your debt.  I like to use this option as way to compare myself against the actual snowball plan.  This way I can see how much sooner I will be debt free.  However I will suggest this do not use this as a way to do you debt plan.  Use this option only to review your differences between options.
  4. Order Entered In Table. This is just how you entered them into the spreadsheet.  You may have one debt you would prefer to pay off before another.
  5. Custom High and Low. This allows you to pay off the debt with either the highest balance or the lowest balance.
  • Lastly you will see a chart that will tell you what the result will be if you would pay off this debt with the strategy and methods you have chosen.  It will even show you the month and year you will have this debt paid off.



Payment Schedule

This is my favorite part.  If you click on the tab in the lower left hand corner that says “payment schedule”  you will see a list of all the creditors that you have there payment and even the total interest you will pay to them once you have paid off those debts.

You can also customize the way you would prefer to pay off your debt on this page as well.

On the bottom half of this page you will see your entire payment schedule if you would decide to pay off your debt with the strategy you prefer.

If you have used this tool let me know what think about it?  Has it helped you?  Any ways to improve it?  Leave a comment and let me know.

How Little Leaks In Your Budget Can Become A Big Problem

The Things You Don’t Notice

I was recently running through my bills and seen the usual stuff the junk mail the political stuff and my credit card statement.  I opened it up and pulled out the statement.  The first thing I looked at was the balance.  Normally I just pay it and move on but this time I decide to actually read the statement thoroughly.

Everything looked normal until I got to the bottom of the statement and seen a charge for $98!  I just realized that I was paying for something I didn’t want.

This prompted me to call that company and cancel the payment and get a refund which I was luckly able to do because I was just charged for this item a few days before.  Problem solved but even though I had stopped the payments I still had paid for the previous 5 months on something I can’t get my money back from.

So this brings me to the point of today’s article which is to help point out that just some little leaks in your budget can add up to a big problem.  This article is not about your income and expenses it’s about the money that is left over after you pay off your debt and expenses.

Setting Up A Budget To Save The Ship From Sinking

In order to have financial security you to have stable income and track what you have and building a budget is the first step to that.  Here are the things you need to track.

  • Your income. How much money does your family make in a given month.  For me, I just figured what I make in a week and times by 52 to get my net spending for a year then divide by 12 to get what I make a month.  Knowing this will be the basis of your budget because this will let you know how much you can actually spend in a given month.
  • Your debts. How much money do you spend on your mortgage, car loans, and credit cards.  What are your payments and balances on all of your debts.
  • Your living expenses. How much do you spend on your electric, gas, water, babysitter, food and don’t forget spending cash.  What are your payments?

This will give you a pretty good idea of what you are spending your money on.  Though when I did this I realized I had $1200 left in my budget at the end of the month.

Where did that money go?

Tracking that left over money you have left after paying all debts and expenses needs to be tracked as well.  In the next few weeks I will be point out my progress on this as well and also showing you how you can stop this from happening to you as well.

Do you seem to have to much month and not enough money?  Let me know how you are dealing with the situation and tracking your budget.