Archive for July, 2011

How Daily Savings Add up to Thousands of Bucks

By: MD | Date posted: July 07, 2011 (6:00 am)

Tips on Day to Day SavingsAre you saving money on a daily basis? We know that we can save hundreds of dollars on mega purchases just by doing some basic research. What about on daily basis? How can we save a few bucks here and there? How can daily savings lead to thousands of dollars in saved cash?

Many of us are on a tight time management plan and we want to save money without spending too much time reading personal finance books or meeting with an advisor. This is why I wanted to share some tips on daily savings today and how you can save thousands slowly over time:

Keep a change jar.

A change jar is a great way to store your loose change. I used to find myself always spending my spare change. Whenever I had a few bucks extra in my pocket I would foolishly spend it at the convenience store. Then I finally started to use my childhood piggy bank to store my extra money. I noticed that I would have an extra hundred bucks or so every few months. This means that my pocket change would leave to big savings after some time. This is some nice extra money to have on the side.

Track your spending for a few days.

Once you master saving your spare change, you can dig a little deeper. There has to be a reason why you have so much extra change in your pocket. Chances are that you have a few holes in your budget. I know that tracking your spending is just as fun as counting calories. This is why I only suggest tracking your spending for a few days. With an iPhone app or any typing software on your smart phone, you can easily track where you spend your money. After a few days you’ll be able to figure out where you’re spending too much on a daily basis. Once you cure this problem, you can enjoy saving thousands of dollars in the long run by saving a few bucks a day.

Automate your savings from your paycheck.

A few years back I decided that I would take off $50 every paycheck and put it towards Canadian Savings Bonds (very low interest btw). The amazing part here is that $50 every two weeks results in a good chunk of change every year. This account now has over $4,000 in it just from saving $25 a week. It’s amazing to see how much money you can save by putting aside a little bit of money on a weekly basis.

Build a strong daily routine.

There are many daily habits to save you money. I find that a strong daily routine can help you save money and improve your health over time. If you have a poor daily habit where you spend money or affect your health in a negative manner you need to switch things up to build a positive daily routine. A strong daily routine usually involves eating a big breakfast and preparing your own meals. Not only will you save money but your gut will thank you for it.

Plan for your major expenses.

We all feel so unique. Our minds and bodies are unique. Our actions are actually very similar. When you actually think about it, we all have the same major expenses in life (car, wedding, home). The trick is to be realistic and plan for these major expenses that are bound to happen. The sooner you start planning for your home (or any other major expense) purchase, the sooner that you’ll have enough money saved up.

After reading this post you should be able to master your daily savings. Once you start saving a few bucks on a daily basis, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how much money you can save in the long run. Good luck!

Check out the rest from the series:

How to Save Money on Your Grocery Bill & Lose That Belly.
Fill Up Your Pad With Cheap Furniture.
Communicate With The World Without Going Poor.
Getting a College Degree Without Massive Debt.

(photo credit: niseag03)

»crosslinked«

Get the Best Deal with Your Car Insurance

By: Green Panda | Date posted: July 06, 2011 (5:00 am)

Owning car is more than just car payments, repairs, and gas. For many people having car insurance can be a financial burden if they have the wrong policy. It doesn’t have to be that way though. If you’re willing to hustle, you can save quite a bit of money with your car insurance. I’ll show you how.

porche car insurance

Review Your Car Insurance Policy

First thing is first, before you consider getting a new insurance policy, you need to look at you old policy. Be familiar with the kind of coverage you have now and how much you’re paying for it.

The next step is seeing if you can get a better offer from your current company. Make your insurance agent work for you, talk to them about deals you can get. Ask about:

  • Student discounts: Some companies will cut the rate of you have a certain GPA.
  • Professional/Membership discount: Are you a member of AAA or Costco? You may qualify for lower premiums.
  • Employer discounts: Check with your Human Resources contact person to see if your job has a deal with a specific company to get you lower premiums.

By being familiar with your current coverage and costs, you can make an apples to apples comparison.

Be a Better Driver and Reap the Benefits

Don’t just rely on others to get you a better deal.  Did you know one of the best way to cut down on your car insurance premiums is by becoming a model driver?

  • Keep your driving record clean. Keep your foot of the acceleration pedal and avoid blemishing your driving record with tickets.
  • Take notes during driving class. Defensive driving can decrease your chances of getting into an accident, which in turn means your car insurance company can save a bit themselves. Sign up for class and get another discount.
  • Drive less. If you can carpool or use public transportation even a little bit more, you can save some cash. When my commute changed and decreased, my insurance company lowered the premiums by a bit.
  • Safe cars can save you big time. What kind of car you drive does matter to your car insurance company. Check with your agent and make sure that they know all the safety features it has. You can shave off some of your costs.

An added benefit to being a conscious and better driver is saving money at the gas pump.That’ll help keep money in your wallet so you can reach other financial goals.

Making Sure You Have the Right Insurance

Getting the right insurance may be a bit time consuming upfront (especially when you to compare auto insurance rates!), but it’s well worth the effort down the road. If you’re getting your insurance needs squared away, here are some posts on GPT to help you out:

Photo Credit:  UggBoy♥UggGirl

 

3 Reasons Why You Should Take a Personal Interest in Personal Finance

By: Kristina | Date posted: July 05, 2011 (7:00 am)

As young Twenty Somethings we may have other personal priorities that we don’t feel involve our Personal Finances.  We may prioritize graduating from school, finding a job, moving out of our parents house or starting a family over building our credit score, saving money, or planning for our retirement. However, the fact of the matter is that everything, and I mean every aspect of our life, involves personal finance. No matter how long we close our eyes we can’t help but face the fact that personal finance is always right in front of us.

Credit Matters

I suggest that we get a credit card with a low limit such as $500 as soon as we are eligible. Many financial institutions offer credit cards to students as young as 18 years old.  Having a credit card with a low limit allows us to get used to the idea of revolving credit.  In case we do make the mistake of spending more on our credit card than we can afford, at least the low limit of $500 will allow us to make the minimum monthly payment.  Every month that we use our credit card and make at least the minimum monthly payment helps us build a good credit score.

A good credit score is important because it will determine our entire financial future.  Almost everyone checks our credit score from our potential landlord to our potential employer.  If your short term goal is to find a job or move out of your parent’s house then having a good credit score could mean the difference between being accepted or being declined.

I also suggest that parents give their teenagers an additional credit card on their account to teach young people the value of money along with financial responsibility.  An additional credit card user has access to the credit card without the responsibility for the debt.  Although an additional credit card will not help build a good credit score for the authorized user, it will create good spending habits.

Money Matters

Graduating from school is definitely a milestone in our life but what comes after that is the difficult task. When we graduate from college we grow up from adolescent students into young adults and hopefully professionals.  Receiving our first pay check can be very exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  If we don’t learn how to manage our money properly at a young age it could be hard to break bad financial habits when we are older.

I wish that my parents would have sat me down to talk about money management when I was 18 or 19 years old.  Let me tell you if I managed to save my money instead of spending it and accumulating debt in my 20’s I would have a lot more money now in my 30’s.  I don’t regret my financial irresponsibility because I definitely learned from my mistakes; I just wish that I didn’t have to learn the hard way.

Retirement Matters

I personally do not want to work forever; my planned retirement age is 60.  I may retire early but I don’t think so, I’m not planning for it anyways.  I have a lot of financial goals before retirement and this is why I don’t invest all of my savings into my retirement savings plan .  Of the 20% that I save per pay check 5% is allocated to cash in case of a short term emergency, 10% is invested for various medium term goals such as buying a house and taking a bi annual trip to Europe, and another 5% is invested into my retirement savings account.  I have a longer investment period for my retirement; therefore I can afford to invest a little bit less since I will be investing constantly over the next 30 years.

 

Helpful Financial Resources…And I Don’t Mean Oil.

By: Kristina | Date posted: July 04, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Everyone and Happy July 4th! I hope you had a great long weekend; some of you may still be enjoying your long weekend.  Today is the last post in our Fun Financial Tools for Twenty-Somethings Series.  In case you missed any of our previous posts in this series you can find all of the links listed below.

Today we are discussing Online Resources for Financial Beginners. There are several different Free Online Resources that are available to help us take an active interest in our personal finances such as Personal Finance Blogs and E-Books, as well as Free Online Calculators.

 

How To Find a Good Personal Finance Blog

The easiest way to find a helpful and resourceful Personal Finance Blog is to use a search engine.  Many PF Blogs post content in a specific niche of Personal Finance such as Paying Down Debt, Building a Budget, Smart Investing, or Retirement Planning.  Several PF Blogs also cater to a specific type of reader such as College Students, Homeowners, Young Married Couples, Moms and Dads, or Retirees.  If you search one or two keywords based on your personal situation i.e. College Student, or a specific product that you are looking for such as Credit Cards for College Students, you are bound to stumble upon a handful of resourceful Personal Finance Blogs.

One thing that is really great about the Personal Finance Blog community is that we really network and support each other. On (almost) every single Personal Finance Blog you will find links to posts on other PF Blogs or a Blogroll that lists our Favourite PF Blogs (other than our own of course). This will also help you find resourceful information online.

 

Where To Find Helpful Finance E-Books

Amazon and Kobo Books are both great resources to find helpful and informative Finance E-Books.  Both websites have a search engine that allows visitors to search their specific financial topic of interest.

Many Personal Finance Blogs also have a Category dedicated to their favourite E-Books or a Bookshelf that is dedicated to their favourite Personal Finance E-Books.

 

Where To Find Free Online Calculators

Most Financial Institutions offer Free Online Calculators to help us achieve our personal financial goals, plan a budget, or calculate interest costs.  Very often we have to navigate onto a specific information page before finding a Financial Calculator; Free Online Calculators are not usually listed on the Home Page.  As an example, if we want to find a Free Online Calculator that will calculate our monthly Credit Card payment to have it paid off in 2 years we may first have to visit the Personal Banking, Lending, or Credit Card page to find the Free Online Calculator.  Don’t be afraid to surf around the web to find easy to use and helpful Free Online Calculators, trust me it will be well worth your time!

I really like the Free Online Calculators from Experiglot. They offer a variety of Free Online Calculators that will help us calculate our Periodic Percentage Rate and our Tax Equivalent Yield.  Experiglot also offers Free Online Calculators to change an Annual Percentage Rate into an Annual Percentage Yield as well as calculate a CAGR Calculator.

 

Here are all of the Fun Financial Tools for Twenty-Somethings Posts:

Building Your Wealth With Online Tools

Fun and Popular Financial iPhone Apps

Everything You Need to Know About Automatic Savings Plans

Learning About Lines of Credit and The Revolving Credit Door

Account Balance Are Just a Click Away with Online Banking

The Advantages and Benefits of Online Shopping

 

Photo by Images of Money

 

Yakezie Link Time

By: MD | Date posted: July 01, 2011 (6:00 am)

Just the other day we looked at how you can graduate from college debt free. Is this possible? Yes it’s highly attainable. This is the ideal post for high school students or anyone reading this that wants to help out a young person in their life.

Time for the Yakezie Links:

1. Why I Don’t Have A Budget @ Canadian Finance Blog.

2. Flat Panel Mounting Pain @ Buck Inspire.

3. Why Earning More Money Trumps Frugality @ TFB.

4. How To Protect Your Portfolio If The Economy Does Double Dip? @ Buy Like Buffet.

5. The Cost of Clutter on Your Finances and Life @ Free From Broke.

6. A $24,000 Loss – The Sequel @ BITFS.

7. The Best Career Advice From A Mentor @ Financial Samurai.

8. What Network Marketing Taught Me: Post #2 @ Life and My Finances.

9. Work Smarter Not Harder @ Bucksome Boomer.

10. Happiness takes effort and planning @ First Gen American.

11. 5 Ways to Improve Your Credit Score @ Credit Card Chaser.

12. Turn Wasted Extra Money Into a Debt Payment @ Deliver Away Debt.

13. Finding Ways of Building a Side Income @ The Amateur Financier.

14. What You Should Do To Lower Your Car Insurance Cost @ Saving Money Today.

15. Finding Wholesale Vendors And A Tour Of Worldwide Brands @ My Wife Quit Her Job.

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