Helping You Avoid Life's Financial Mistakes

Has Society Lowered Their Financial Standards

January 5, 2009 By 3 Comments

Lately the thought of how people use their money has been bothering me.  I’ve been taking time to just watch the people around me and how they use their money.  Listening to people at work, friends, family, and just about anybody that I’m around.

From this little experiment I learned a lot about people and their money.  In this post I am going to pose the question, is the way people handle their money and personal finances gotten out of control or do you believe things a pretty much unchanged?

Have The Standards Changed

With all the news on the current recession to the Wall Street scandals, to the government bailouts have the standards changed? 

So I did a little digging and found some current facts to start with. First, foreclosures are up over 55% in the last year effecting Michigan and Ohio the most.   I recently heard on my local news that there is a foreclosure every 30 seconds in the United States. 

Bankruptcy is up nearly four times higher than 2005.  There are over 2,000 bankruptcy filings per day again with Ohio and Indiana leading the pack. 

Unemployment reaching near 10% in some state such as Michigan, Rhode Island, and California.  Though it’s about to get worse with GM just recently shutting down it plant in Dayton, OH.

When you add all of that onto the massive amounts of credit card debts people have built up is it no wonder we are in this situation.  But Bankruptcy, foreclosure, and unemployment are not the only things to blame for us being in this situation. 

When you really look at the big picture and what I have learned form my little experiment is that people are buying more and saving less.  That’s right saving less.  In 1980′s the average American saved 10% of their income.  In the 1990′s it dropped to 5%  and now in the late 2000′s it’s actually gone negative.  Meaning most people are not saving anything.

To say the least we have become a see and buy economy.  Seeing what we like and buying without worrying about the consequences.  This type of lifestyle is what has lead us to are current recession with the mortgage disasters.

The normal standards that the lenders have been enforcing for so many years have gotten sloppy by giving out things such as option arm loans and even handing out loans with 125% financing. 

You heard me.  125%

Not to mention everyone in on the scandal such as the appraisers and title companies.  In fact a few month ago several appraisers in and around my area were arrested for putting out false appraisals and actually stating that properties were actually worth more than there were.

Who Is Teaching Us About Are Money?

In the end we have to look ourselves in the mirror and confront are mistakes because we are to blame for the financial challenges that we face.  Not the government, not are employers, not the lenders or the banks. 

The real question is where do we get are education about money from, school, family, friends, coworkers?  While I’m guessing it’s probably all of the above the truth is the average American does not have much of a financial education. 

To relate from my own experiences from being in financial services only 20% of the families I helped knew a lot about how money works.  Some knew a little while others knew nothing at all.  In fact I’ve been recently been running a pole on the front page of my blog to see how many people actually have a financial planner and as of this post is about 50%. 

How To Change The Situation?

While I can’t speak for every family out there I can speak for my own.  If your want to reverse the outcome that economy has given us start with yours first.  Get your families finances in order first.  Then spread the news by helping others.  Think if you could help one other family with their finances just as you have with yours.  The effects would be staggering.

This is the very essence of Stumble Forward.  To help those get on the right track by helping families make better financial decisions.  If that sounds like you subscribe to my RSS and get your family on the right track.

This post was recently featured in the carnival of money hack #47 hosted by Money Beagle.

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10 Tips To Writing Financial Goals That You Will Stick To

January 2, 2009 By 3 Comments


It’s that time of year again were we are setting goals in hopes of a better year than last.  However many goals we tend to set seem to never get accomplished.

Though their may be a lot of reasons why this happens. This post is about giving you some guidelines to follow when setting those goals especially your financial goals.

Before we dive in their is one resource that is nice to use when setting your goals, a great website called 43 Things. This site is all about setting goals and cheering people on.  I’ve also found this a great place to relate with others on similar goals and see how they are going about accomplishing them.

10 Tips To Writing Great Financial Goals

  • Write Your Goals Down. This is really the first step on goal planning.  Writing your goals down is like making a commitment to do it.  Not writing goals down is just a wish not a goal so find a pad of paper and start jotting down some ideas.
  • Have Long And Short Term Goals. Of the goals you have some may be longer term other may be easier to achieve.  The point here is not to have just long term goals or just a few short term goals you can achieve in the next year.  Start out by writing out some 20 year goals, then some 10 year goals, then some 5 year goals, then some two and a half year goals then some one year goals, then break it down to monthly goals, then your weekly goals, and finally your daily goals.
  • Link Emotion To Your Goals. When it comes to writing goals the more emotion you can add to it the more realistic it will feel.  For example, let say one of your goals is to save $10,000 into an emergency fund.  Well saving $10,000 is really a means to an end not an end.  The emergency fund is really a security blanket so you don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck like you have been.  The deeper you can relate emotions to your goals the better the chance you have of completing them.
  • Keep Your Goals In Familiar Places. Once you have your goals in place you also need to keep them in mind as well.  If you just write them and set them aside everything you have done will be for nothing.  For me I like to keep them on my night stand at night before I go to bed.
  • Review Your Goals Twice A Day. Keeping your goals in one place is a good start now you have to review them two times every day.  Reviewing your goals is half the battle.  I once new a guy who reviewed his goals some many times a day because he wanted to make $100,000 in a year with his business.  As a result of reviewing his goals some much his belief became so strong he ended up achieving his goal.
  • Build Belief Into Your Goals. When your initially writing goals down have fun and jot as many as you can think of but after sifting through them you will want to pick the goals the you have the most belief in accomplishing.  For example if you want to build a $500,000 house but you have absolutely no money saved up and no thought you think you could do it, it may be a wishy washy goal and something you don’t believe you can accomplish anyways.
  • Make Your Goals More Than About Money Or Physical Objects. Money is really a means to an end.  It’s what you want with that money not the money itself.  Also it’s not just about having physical assets like a house, or a car, it can be much more than that.  For example a few of my goals are to able to have my time to spend with my family, and also more free time for myself.  Don’t get me wrong I would like a new Mercedes S65 but it just don’t rank as high as the other two goals.
  • Make Your Goals As Detailed As Possible. Keeping your goals detailed allows you to know exactly what you want but also explaining how you will go about achieving that goal.  For example don’t just say you want a car describe the exact make model and design.  Then detail how you are going to achieve that goal.  Another example a friend of mine wanted to build a new office for his business.  He had an entire floor plan drawn up to exactly what he wanted.  He even knew right down to the detail what color he wanted the carpet to be.  The more detailed you can be about your goal the more realistic is will seem.
  • Make A Goal Book. A goal book is not just a peace of paper telling your goals but a place to get you emotionally involved with your goals.  In my goal book I do everything from describing what I want to how I will achieve it.  I also dedicate one page per goal to putting pictures of what I want to achieve.  For example if I want to spend more time with my family I will post some great photos of my family there to remind myself of all the wonderful times we have together and also remind me of all the great times we will have together.  Or if I wanted that Mercedes S65 I would find pictures of that car showing all of the different aspects of the car.
  • Know That Your Goals Will Change. From time to time things change and we lose interest in are goals.  For one reason or another we don’t want to achieve that goal anymore.  At that point it’s easy to get discouraged and stop setting goals.  Instead just know that this is the natural evolution of the goal process.  What you liked 5 years ago you may not like today.  So know that goals will come and go as thing progress.

What Goals Have You Set For The Coming Year?

The goals you set will shape your life and your destiny.  If you don’t set any goal at all it would be like trying to drive from New York to a specific point California without a map.  Without a map who knows where you will end up at.

Having goals will make it much easier for you to achieve the end result and also make a lot less mistakes on the way.  Take time now and share a few of your goals in the comments.

This was recently in The Carnival Of Personal Finance hosted by Clever Dude.

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Financial Money Traps: Why Timeshares Are A Trap And How To Get Out Of Them

December 15, 2008 By 23 Comments


Are you trying to sell your timeshare?  If you have fallen into this money trap you will want to read this post.  If you are interested in buying a timeshare and want to know all the pitfalls and money traps you will want to read this post as well.

Today’s post is all about financial money traps and in particular my personal biggest money trap that I’ve recently been through, timeshares and how to get out of them.  Then in the next post I’m going to talk about some of the smaller money traps I’ve faced and how to avoid them.

I was going to do just one article on all the money traps I’ve fallen into but felt this particular subject on timeshare needed it’s own space.

Why Are Timeshares Are A Bad Buy

With all the money I’ve invested into my timeshare and the little return I got back from it this has been my biggest stumbling block ever.  Personally though I am the only one to blame for the situation I am in.  I made the decision to buy it and as a result of poor education on the subject I paid the price, almost $7000.

Believe me though when I tell you sales reps for timeshares will literally tell you anything to get you to buy a timeshare.  In fact when I bought mine they took me out to lunch for a free meal and even gave a free trip to the virgin islands just for taking a look.  This may be the only good thing about the whole process.  However they’re a few things that you need to realize.

  • Timeshares aren’t an investment. When I bought my timeshare are sales rep informed us that it will grow in value as time goes on and you can sell it for more.  This is totally false.  Timeshares do not grow in value.  They are no more than just a time slot which you own at a resort not the actual real estate itself.
  • Timeshares are very hard to sell. If you wanted to sell your house you could put a for sale sign in the front yard but with a timeshare in say ARUBA, how would you sell it?
  • Timeshare loans have high interest rates. If you aren’t buying your timeshare straight up then you will have to take a loan on it.  My timeshare had a 16% interest rate on it.  You can bet I paid it off quickly.
  • Timeshare exchanges are expensive. To exchange your timeshare to another resort destination say Hawaii you will have to pay what is known as an exchange fee for around $100 to go to a different resort.
  • You have to pay for the maintenance at your timeshare. This can be costly when owning a timeshare.  Even when you have the timeshare paid completely off you still have to deal with maintenance fees.  Mine was over $600 every two years and that’s not all.  They usually increase it by 10% a year.
  • You have to pay for timeshare membership fees. Finally, once you do have a timeshare you have to pay membership fees to a timeshare network in order to use your timeshare or exchange it to go some place else.  These fees can usually range for about a few hundred dollars just to be a member.

As you can see even if you do buy a timeshare and own it free and clear it will still cost you.  Now am I saying all timeshares are bad.  No, I’m saying that timeshares have a lot of pitfalls that someone with no education on the subject can fall into a bad money trap like I did.  So how do you go about getting out of this money trap?

4 Ways To Sell Your Timeshare

When you are going about trying to sell your timeshare there are good ways to do it and some terrible and expensive pitfalls to watch out for.  Below are 4 ways to sell a timeshare, and only 3 of the 4 are recommended ways to do so.

  1. Listing Services. I don’t recommend this option.  A timeshare listing service is usually an online service where you pay them an up front fee of usually around $600 to list your timeshare with them.  Trust me when I tell you these services don’t work.  I have spent nearly $1200 with these services thinking they would send me some prospective buyers and I got zero offers form both companies I listed with.  Though if you or someone you know has had luck with these services let me know and leave a comment below.
  2. Timeshare broker. I’m not sure if this is a viable option but this would be like hiring a real estate agent to sell your property for you.  The reason why this would be better than going through a listing service is because the broker only gets paid unless they sell the property but do know that the broker will get paid a portion of the money you make when you sell the timeshare.  If you have more information about this option leave a comment below and let us know.
  3. Sell it yourself. With websites like eBay out there selling your timeshare, this may be a great option if you would like to do it yourself.  Though you should know you may or may not get the price you want out of it and if you do sell it yourself your timeshare could force you to pay a title transfer fee around $150 or more and the next years maintenance fees.
  4. The Buyback option. If you can’t find a buyer and just want to cut your ties with the timeshare call your timeshare and see if they have a buy back option.  Though you should know that you will only get about 10 cents on the dollar back out of it but at least it will be out of your hands.  The timeshare may also make you pay the next years maintenance fees as well.

Did the above information help?  I hope it did.  I know how much pain this has caused me and hope I can inform others so they don’t fall into this terrible trap.

Do you have a timeshare?  Are you considering buying one?  If you are leave a comment tell me about your situation.  Is it a money trap or do you like it?

Freatured in The Carnival Of Personal Finance #184: From The Land Down Under

If you like this post also read this post on Timeshare Resale Scams.

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10 Essential Money Habits You Should Live By

December 11, 2008 By 1 Comment

On Monday I talked about 10 bad money habits you should ditch immediately.  Today I’m going to do the opposite.  I’m going to give the 10 money tips you should live by.  Though you should know that some of these things you may already be doing this post is mostly meant to be a list to get you motivated toward building better money habits.

  1. Pay yourself first.  This is such a simple tip but I had to include it.  I hear a lot of people say this but are they doing it?  Setting money aside before you pay your bills is important.  What if that next big issue comes up and you need money now?  Also don’t just set some aside for an emergency fund, set some aside for retirement as well. 
  2. Know where your money is going.  Knowing where your money is lets you know where those little leaks in your budget are and makes plugging them a lot easier.  If you have more month than money this is the first place to start, and this may also make you realize how much money you are  spending on stuff I really didn’t need.
  3. Pay off your credit cards every month.  Keeping your credit cards paid off every month does two things for you.  First, it will boost your credit score by showing financial institutions that you can handle money and two, it’s a lot easier when you don’t have to make minimum payments every month.
  4. Pay off your bad debt first.  Bad debt is the debt that doesn’t benefit you in any way.  For example a bad debt would be credit cards.  They have high interest rates and no benefits to holding the debt.  A good debt would be your mortgage.  Though still being a debt it has special advantages.  They have lower interest rates and interest is usually tax deductible giving you more money back at tax time.  Though you may want to talk to your CPA for more info on this.
  5. Have money set aside for emergencies.  I covered this a little in tip 1 but I thought it should also be said that you need to have a fund for those times that you need that extra cash.  Having an emergency fund helps in many ways but most of all it will help you sleep better at night knowing that you aren’t living paycheck to paycheck.
  6. Contribute to your retirement plan at work.  If you have a full time job that has a 401k or some type of retirement plan this is one of the simplest ways to save.  Money coming from your paycheck untouched allows you contribute to your retirement before it gets to your hands.  With an out of site out of mine philosophy you will be surprised how the money can add up in a few short years.
  7. Constantly looking for ways to cut cost.  I like to do this a lot.  Many times I will look at things I can cut cost on such as Internet, cable TV, telephone and many other things.  I’ve found ways to save money on all of these and more and you can too.  I will also requote my car insurance and property insurance, and look into refinance options to see if I can save money on my mortgage.
  8. Understanding your needs and wants.  There is always a fine line between what you want and need.  Though this really comes down to your habits.  If it’s hard for you to go to Walmart and walk out of there without picking up something you didn’t intend to buy there you bought based on wants.  If this is tough for you look for support such as your spouse when going to these places and stick to the budget.
  9. Start saving for retirement early.  This tip won’t apply to everyone but if you are a bit younger or know people who are younger this tip applies to you.  Saving for retirement early has two advantages.  First, it’s much cheaper to fund retirement because you have more time to do it.  Second, you also get the compound effect out of you money by doing this.  Read this post to learn more about that.
  10. Review your credit card statements.  Reviewing your credit card statements can save you big bucks.  I recently was skimming though one of my recent statement and seen I was making a $30 payment to a payment protector program I didn’t even agree to sign up for.  Canceling that one program saved me $360 a year.  It’s also a good habit to check over other statements you get like your phone bill, insurance bills, cable bills, and whatever else you might have.

Are there any other good money habits you live by?  These are a few that I live by, yours might be different but leave comment below and share your stories.

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Does Your Financial Education Got You Stripped Bare?

December 4, 2008 By 3 Comments

Does your financial education giving you an abundance of wealth or has it left you without a shirt on your back?  In a time when the economy is in a real slump and your finances are at their worst you may be asking yourself what should I do now?

Two words, Educate Yourself!

If you are suffering from financial mistakes wether it be foreclosure, bankruptcy, or even missing a couple of credit card bills there is really only two reason you got into that situation. 

  1. You don’t know anything about personal finance or
  2. You are surviving on false personal finance education.

So in this post I’m going to go through where I get my personal finance education from and where I don’t.  I will point out a few of my own mistakes.  You may have some personal mistakes you’ve made over the years as well because of a poor financial education so if would like to share them please do so in the comments section.

Where Most People Get There Financial Education From?

Besides going to school or college where do you learn personal finance from?  Before I got into financial services I didn’t know anything about money.  I saved all my retirement money in a Cd at the bank,  before I bought my first house I didn’t know anything about mortgages, and I didn’t know anything about investments. 

You could say I didn’t have much of a financial education.  So where did I get my financial education from?  I got my financial education from two places like most people do.

  1. From My Peers.  I got advice from people at work, my friends, and or course my parents.  I got everything from sour tips to a forced depressionary thinking.  However we tend to take this advice seriously because it comes from people we know and trust so if must be true, right?
  2. The News.  The thing about the media is that although they do tell the truth they always seem to give you the negative side of the story.  Again we tend to take this advice seriously because of where it came from.  You can read more about it in this article.

Though for most people this is there only real form of education.  It was mine up until just over five years ago.  If this is were you get your education from and your personal financial situation is in shambles this may be why.

How To Identify Good Sources Of Information

Just getting your financial education from the right places can make all the difference from either going deep into debt or having cash to burn.  In order to decide where the right places to learn more about personal finance you need look at the source first and ask yourself these questions.

  • Who or Where are you getting this information from? 
  • Is this person a creditable source? 
  • What does this person know about personal finance?

If the source is your Uncle Eddie who just went through foreclosure and told you that the bank was the best place to save all your money would you take him seriously? 

I hope not.

Where I Get My Financial Education From?

So if getting your financial education from Uncle Eddie isn’t a good place what is?  Well here a few of my favorite places.

  • Good Books.  Books have a wealth of information you can learn.  In fact the great thing about books are that you can learn from other peoples mistakes and avoid them all together.
  • Financial Advisor.  Your financial advisor has a ton of knowledge on the subject.  So when you have a financial question don’t hesitate to ask.  If you don’t have a financial advisor read this article.
  • Blogs And The Internet.  I’ve learned a lot of stuff from different places around the net.  From blogs to financial websites to forums.  However be careful where you are getting your information from.  Make sure you research your sources.  Here are a few blogs I recommend and don’t forget to sign up for my RSS as well for great infromation.

Where Do You Get Your Financial Education From?

If there is one thing I can pass along about gaining a better financial education  is to learn one new thing about  your personal finances everyday.  It may not sound like much but over time it can really add up. 

Finally, where do you get your financial education from?  Is it your Uncle Eddie or is it some place else?  Leave me a comment and let me know.

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Save More Money: 5 Tips To Setting Up A Stellar Emergency Fund

November 25, 2008 By 8 Comments

This weeks starts three part series on emergency funds called Save More Money.  In this series I will be talking about every thing from setting it up, where to put it, and how to fill it up fast.

In today’s post I’ll give you some cutting edge tips that will help you set up your emergency fund so it will do everything you want it to and more.  I will also be covering some of the pitfalls I’ve seen people fall into and how to stop them.

1. An Emergency Fund Will Give You Your Sanity Back

An emergency fund is your insurance policy against all those unexpected things that come up in life that were not really prepared for.  For example if your water softener would suddenly go out.

Ouch!  This is an expensive repair.  This happened to me a month before Christmas once.  A $1000 gone just like that.

If your living life paycheck to paycheck this can put you in a world of hurt fast.  It’s also not so fun to go through life like this.  So now that we know what one is, how do we use it?

Emergency funds are only used for the times we really need cash at a moments notice when we don’t have enough for an unexpected expense.  This isn’t money that is used on a regular basis.  Here a few reason I use an emergency fund.

  • An emergency fund helps you sleep better at night. Losing sleep over financial issues can cause fatigue and effect other areas of your life such as work and family life.
  • An emergency fund lets you take advantage of other opportunities. Sometimes there are things that you would like to do but you just can’t because one slip up and you’ll have nothing left.  With a funded emergency plan you don’t have to pass those opportunities up.
  • An emergency fund will pump up your net worth. Having cash to spare will go a long way in helping you get a loan.  Lenders love when you have extra cash set aside.

2.  Liquidity Is The Name Of The Game

Keeping your emergency fund liquid or in cash is very important.  To pull it out with no tax penalties is very important.  Some also believe in trying to get the highest interest rate around.  While I agree extra interest is great but having the money there when you need it is even more important.

In my personal opinion I am willing to sacrifice a little interest on my emergency fund so I can gain quick access to it.  This brings me to my next point.

3. Have Easy Access But Not To Easy.

What I mean here is don’t make your emergency fund your savings account, credit cards, or debit card.  While these are great tools to take advantage of they don’t qualify as great emergency funds.

Having your fund setup in places that are to easy to access will in most cases aid in taking advantage of it.  In these places it’s just to easy to withdrawal money from.  I will be going through my favorite places to put emergency fund cash on Wednesdays post.

4.  Other Places You Shouldn’t Setup An Emergency Fund.

Here are a few places you should never put an emergency fund.

  • Mutual Funds. Putting money in mutual funds gives you the risk of losing money from your account even if the account is set up very conservatively don’t do it.  Mutual funds don’t guarantee any interest or particular performance.
  • Annuities. Annuities are meant as retirement vehicles.  If you put it in a variable annuity you fall into the same problems as mutual funds and if you put it into a fixed annuity you may get a guaranteed interest rate but you will face another problem that annuities will cause.  Annuities are known for having surrender penalties on them.  In fact fixed annuities have longer surrender periods on them.  What this means if you set your emergency fund up in an annuity you not only have to pay taxes after taking the money out but you have to pay a surrender penalty most times around 8% of your account value to pull out the money.
  • IRAs/ Roth IRAs. Again these are meant as retirement accounts.  Whether an IRA is set up in a mutual fund or an annuity this is not a good idea.  Doing this means you will face certain tax issues such as 10% tax on withdrawals before age 59 and a half.

5.  Contribute Regularly And Have The Right Amount Set Aside.

Having the right amount of money in your fund is very important.  So how much should you have?  I recommend a minimum 3 month worth of cash set aside, 6 months would be preferred though.  The reason I say this is because the time it takes for the average person to find a new job is a little over 4 months now.

Figuring out how much you need in your fund is very easy.  Ask yourself what you make right now?  Is it enough?  Do you need more?  If you are comfortable on what you make right now in a month times that by the number of months you wish to be able to live off of your emergency fund.

For example if you make $3700 a month currently and you would like to have 6 months saved in your emergency fund then you would need roughly $22,000 set aside for emergencies.

Last, you want to pay yourself first.  So contribute on a regular monthly basis to your emergency fund.  If you don’t have much money there are accounts you can start and fund with as little as $25 a month.  Doing this helps grow your fund even when you don’t have much money in it to start with.

Do You Have An Emergency Fund?

Read the next article in the series on Wednesday to see where the best place are to set up your emergency fund and also see if your current emergency fund is in the right place and if not where a better place for it might be.

This post was recently featured on The Carnival Of Personal Finance by Mighty Bargin Hunter.

Filed Under: Saving Money Tagged With: ,

5 Simple Ways To Stop Quick Buying Desicions From Destroying Your Finances?

November 10, 2008 By Leave a Comment

The Root Of All Your Financial Problems.

Recently a friend of mine came to me talking about how he could save more money on his heating bill with a new type of heater that he said would drop my heating bill by 50%.  Now at first I was a bit sceptical but then they told me about a few other people who had one of these heaters and said they had a dramatic drop in there heating bills.

At first the idea seemed great so I decide I would like to check one out.  My friend then informed me that there were only a few heaters left at the lower price and that we need to act fast.  I then asked how much these heaters were going for and he said for around $375!

I’m glad people are looking out for me but $375 is a lot to put down for something you don’t know that will absolutely work and as interested as I was I decide to hold off and see what others thought about there heaters first.

In the end I did the math on the heater and what it would cost to run it and found it would only save me around $20 a month at best.

In this situation I survived the temptation not to follow all the hype and make a careful buying decision.  I just wish I could have done this in a few other buying decisions.  So in this post I am going to give you five simple tips to show you how to steer clear of making quick financial decisions.

A Few Tips To Keep You On Track.

  • Stay away from high pressure sales situations.  I hate high pressure sale tactics but worst of all they sucker people into a buying decision without even letting you have a little time to think about it.  They usually want you to buy right now and won’t let you out of there site until they have tried everything they have.  Timeshare agents are notorious for this.
  • When people ask you to make a decision tell them you will think about.  This has been my best solution for staying out of those quick buying and hard selling situations.  Tell them you’ll think about it and walk away. 
  • Research what you want to buy.  Knowing a little bit more about the product will help you understand if your really need this product or if it something you could do without.
  • Don’t go to places that will inspire you to buy quickly.  Places like Walmart known for this.  You buy it cause its cheap and inexpensive but before you know it you have over a $100 racked up.  I’ve also seen where others believe that by buying something on sale will save them that much more money.  Simply buying something on sale still means you have to spend money to buy it and in reality doesn’t save you anything.
  • Ask others to keep you accountable.  When you are making buying decisions make sure someone comes with you to keep you accountable and help you in making those buying decision.  My wife and I do this all the time when we go grocery shopping. 

Do You Make Quick Buying Decisions?

Did you ever buy something and then after you bought it wished you would have taken more time to see if it was really in your best interest?  Take time now to share a few of your stories in the comments section below and maybe we can learn to make better buying decisions.

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How To Beat The Gas Pumps Form Stealing Your Wallet?

November 7, 2008 By 2 Comments

Are The Gas Pumps Sucking Your Wallet Dry?

Fuel,  the commodity that helps you do so many things that you may wonder what would happen if you didn’t have it anymore?  Without it everything you know would cease to function. 

With the recent higher gas prices and the drain on peoples wallets fuel has literally put a strain on peoples wallets.  Many have been wondering how they can save money on there gas.  This got me thinking about how I save gas.

In this post I won’t be giving you a bunch of tips on how to save gas but rather show you a program I use to save gas and keep more money in my wallet.

How I Save Money On Gas.

A few months ago with at that time the higher gas prices I was feeling a very big pinch from my wallet.  So instead of complaining about the situation I decide to take matters in my own hands.  I ran a series of test to see how I could save money at the pump.

On October 2nd I decide to start my little experiment again.  With my current vehicle decide to fill my tank completely full and then run it until it was empty. 

Sounds like a simple idea.

So I filled my vehicle up with a cost of around $79 which was completely empty when I started.  I then ran the vehicle until it was completely empty. 

The next time I filled up was on October the 27th.  Nearly three and a half weeks later!  Talk about saving some money.

By running this plan I only paid around $26 a week in fuel but here’s the best part before I was running this program I was paying around $65 a week for fuel driving here and there not giving any thought about saving any fuel.  That’s almost $40 in savings a week or $169 a month or $2028 a year!

That’s saving money!

Do You Have To Have A Better Vehicle.

When you read my story you might say I had a great car with great gas mileage.  Well it’s not what you might think.  I ran that test with my truck.  A Chevy 1500 V-8 half ton. 

When I ran this simple little test it made me realize I didn’t need a car that gets 30 miles a gallon.   I just needed a vehicle that was reliable and trustworthy.  Though you could only imagine what the results would be if you did have a car that got 30 miles to the gallon.  If you got a good story about this leave me a comment.

Simply put having a great vehicle is all you need to save gas.

What Will Help You Save Gas?

When I ran this test I followed a few key points that helped me out.

  • Be conservative with your gas.  You don’t have to drive everywhere.  If you decide to drive somewhere combine errands so you don’t have to make double trips.  This will help on fuel savings as well as help your vehicle last longer.
  • Don’t fill up late in the week.  Filling up late in the week especially on Friday will urge you to drive more on the weekend.  Instead fill up on Tuesday it tends to be the day when fuel prices are lower.
  • Don’t be fooled by the gas prices.  One of the biggest mistakes I see people make are filling up there cars as soon as the gas price goes up a little bit.  In fear that prices will skyrocket.  Don’t let fear control you wait until your vehicle is empty.

It’s Not Full Proof.

You might be saying ” I drive an hour to and from work.”

True this idea is not full proof and may not work for everyone. It just happen to work for me because of my unique situation.  In my test I only drove my truck to and from work and on a few errands I ran.  Other than that I didn’t drive at all.

However if you don’t drive far to work and only run a few errands here and there this may be a great option for you. 

Take “The Beat The Pump Challenge.”

Do you think this will work for you?  Take my beat the pump challenge and see what happens.  Fill your vehicle up and see how long you can last.  Follow my point about saving fuel above and see how much you save.  After the challenge leave me a comment and let me know how you did.

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2 Ways Your Savings Could Be Affected In A Recession

October 22, 2008 By 1 Comment

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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.

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August 2008: A Month In Review.

September 5, 2008 By Leave a Comment

August is over and things are just starting to heat up.  So I thought I would do a quick review of some of the more stellar articles that came up.

This month I focused more on mentality because you can have all the plans and great ideas of ways to get out of debt, saving more money, and becoming financially independent but if you don’t have the mentality to stay focused long enough to get there it don’t mean a thing.  With a strong centered mentality you can do anything.

The 2 biggest ingredients to success.  Have you ever felt success just wasn’t in the cards for you?  If yes then this article is definitely for you.  Success can happen for anyone but most simply don’t know why.

How to keep a debt free mindset.  Mentality is the name of the game.  More importantly learning to keep that mindset so you can bare through the tough times.  This is always the toughest part about getting debt free.  I also want to point out that this hold true for everyone.

Including me!

Keeping a positive and negative free mindset will test you.

3 simple tips to save money around your house.  With the current conditions of the economy I felt I would share a few ideas on how I save a few bucks.  Although these are a few things I do you may know of others.  Saving money hasn’t just become an idea any more it has become a lifestyle.  Even the higher income people are looking for a few ways to save a few bucks. 

Anyone interested in sharing a few more ideas check out this article.

These are just a few articles from last month.  If there is something that you would like to hear more about that deals with getting out of debt, building financial security, and achieving financial freedom please feel free let me know.

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