Archive for December, 2011

Yakezie Challenge Time

By: MD | Date posted: December 30, 2011 (6:00 am)

Just yesterday we had an article go up for how you can start a business after college. Anyone that’s finishing up college needs to understand the benefits of starting a business and how it can be done. If you don’t want to find a traditional job, you can look into how you can monetize your own projects.

Let’s check out the top links from the Yakezie:

1. Making $30,000 from Blogging in 2012: Joining the $30k Challenge @ Invest it Wisely.

2. Hidden Cost of Owning a Car @ Life and My Finances.

3. Did 2011 Suck? Let’s Kill it in 2012 @ TFB.

4. 5 Tips to Help You Grow Your Business @ Sustainable PF.

5. Start Saving During College or Else @ BITFS.

6. Unexpected Financial Blessings…What’s Your Story? @ KNS Financial.

7. Week 6 Weigh In – I Hope My Christmas Meal Doesn’t Come Back To Haunt Me @ FGSW.

8. Home Ownership Isn’t a Money Losing Proposition @ Bucksome Boomer.

9. What’s Your Motivation? @ Retire by 40.

10. After Christmas 2011 Thank You Roundup @ Buck Inspire.

11. Are You Making These Mistakes With Your Side Business? @ Free From Broke,

12. Budgets vs. Spending Plans @ So Over Debt.

13. Is Canadian Housing In A Bubble? @ Canadian Finance Blog.

14. 10 Stocks For 2012 (& Beyond) @ Money Cone.

15. Financial Samurai 2011 Predictions Review @ Financial Samurai.

»crosslinked«

The Best Way to Start Your Own Business After College

By: MD | Date posted: December 29, 2011 (6:00 am)

When it comes to what to do after college, there are many options to consider. In this specific series, we’re covering 7 alternatives to graduate school. Now we’ve gotten to the point where we’re going to look into the idea of starting a business after college. If you want your newly found free time to generate your own money and get your own idea off the ground, you need to think about starting a business that’s all yours.

The following are my best steps for starting a business after college:

Think of what you’re good at.

What are you good at? What do you think about all of the time? You’re best bet for starting any business is to do something that you actually love to do and want to do all of the time. If you’re simply going after the dollars, then you won’t last long. Passion rarely fades. If you think of all of the things that you’re good at, you’re going to find something worth turning into a business venture.

Find a profitable hobby.

Now that you know what you’re good at, it’s time to see how you can monetize your hobby. The beauty is that you can monetize most hobbies these days. The chances are that if you care about something, there are likely going to be many others that care about this topic. The other good news is that, the advertising dollars go where the eye balls go.

Figure out how you’re going to fund your business.

How much money do you need for your new business? How are you going to get this money? You need to have a plan for how you’re going to generate your initial capital for your business. The amazing news is that you don’t need a lot of money to get a decent small business started these days.

A few options for getting funding for your business include:

  • Bank loan.
  • Family or friends.
  • Your savings.
  • Credit card.
  • Venture capital.

Before you borrow any money, you must be pretty positive that you’re going to be able to pay this money back.

Find an accountability partner.

Who’s going to hold you accountable to hit your targets? I believe in finding some sort of a partner to push you. This doesn’t have to be a business partner because that won’t always work. This should be a friend in a similar situation (or a mentor) that you keep in constant touch with. You guys need to push each other and hit higher levels together.

Work your tail off.

You can’t be afraid of work. If you want steady hours and to pass the buck then you should stick to a traditional 9-5 gig. If you want to be responsible and be in control of your situation, the entrepreneurship is the route for you. You’re going to work you butt off now. The good news is that you’re working for yourself and on something that you care about.

Get experience under you belt.

If you’re having trouble on your own, you can find experience by working for someone else in the field. If you don’t want to work for someone else then you can get more education. Either way, you need to get more experience under your belt so that you can be the best at what you do.

Hold a part-time job.

A part-time gig can give you that extra bit of security financially. There are going to be some lean times. I recommend that all new entrepreneurs hold down some sort of a part-time gig so that they have income coming in while they work on their own projects.

Keep on going.

At the end of the day you just have to keep on going if you have tangible proof that you’re onto something. There are no shortcuts or secret solutions. You got to keep on pushing it.

Are you ready to start your own business?

A recap of the best options for life after collge:

  1. Kill your debt.
  2. Master a skill.
  3. Do nothing.
  4. Learn a new language.
  5. Create something.
  6. Start your own business.
  7. Work abroad.

Why You Should Consider Work in IT

By: MD | Date posted: December 29, 2011 (12:27 am)

Have you thought about working in IT? Information Techonology is a rapidly growing field that’s only going to be expanding in the future. The thing with jobs in IT is that they are pretty stable. Who doesn’t want steady work in this economy? These days everyone reading this wants a source of income that they can rely on. We all have bills to pay and mouths to feed. There are also many other reasons why you should consider working in IT.

Why should you consider working a job in IT?

The field holds many transferrable skills.

You can learn a lot working in the field. Most of these skills can be transferrable to other jobs or to eventually start our own business. There are many freelance consultants in IT out there that started off by working in the field. They slowly ventured off on their own and built their own business from the skills that they learned on the job.

It’s challenging work.

The work itself is fairly challenging and rewarding. There are always new systems and improvements being implemented. This provides a challenge for those of you that want to be constantly evolving in a field. If you’re afraid of challenging work, then this isn’t the field for you. If you love to push yourself, then consider IT.

You get to help people.

You get to work with people and help them out. This is a job that allows you to help others solve their technological issues. Do you love to help people?

High demand.

The demand isn’t the highest right now, but the demand is always fairly high. While many fields are laying off employees, you can always find some sort of work in IT. The reason that the demand is fairly high is because the industry is always changing. Things are always on the go. Innovative individuals are always in demand in this field.

You can be location independent.

Have you want to travel the world while making money? Many jobs in IT allow you to be location independent and work on your own. This is because most of the work is can be done from a laptop in a remote location. You don’t have to be in the same stationery office every single day. You can move around and be on the go while you continue to earn an income.

Those are the many reasons that you should think about working in IT. What do you think about this field?

Paying Off Debt Faster

By: Green Panda | Date posted: December 28, 2011 (5:00 am)

Many people are now thinking about the new year and are creating some goals.Too many people however quit before they reach their goal. Last week I showed how you can accomplish your goals with an example for savings. This week I want to help you tackle one of the most popular goals people make – paying down or off debt.

What if you’re just able to make your minimum payments each month? What if you’re overwhelmed by having debt in the five figures (or more)? Is there a way you can set up a system for you to pay off your debt faster without resorting to rice and beans for the next decade or so?

How Debt Snowballs Work

Watch your credit cards, you may be losing money.

You may have heard of debt snowballs, but never understoof how they can work for you. Let’s say you have 4 debts right now that are weighing you down:

  • Visa: $500 – Minimum Payment is $20/month
  • Mastercard: $1,200 - Minimum Payment is $50/month
  • Car Loan: $250/ month  ($10,000 balance)
  • Student Loan:  $150/month ($20,000 balance)

That’s a total of $470/month you need to have to just pay the bills. You looked at your budget and you managed to cut eating out a bit and save enough for $550/month. Using the debt snowball method you’d pay everything as you normally would except for the Visa. The Visa payments would go from $20/month to $100/month (your regular $20 plus the $80 you dug up by trimming your budget).

Once that Visa bill is paid off in about 5 months, you now take that $100/month and add it to your regular Mastercard payments to bring up to $150/month. After you knocked out, you take that $150/month you used to spend for your credit card bills and you contribute that towards your car loan. Now your $250/month car loan is being whittled down significantly since you’re now paying $400. You keep going until you pay off all your debts.

The great thing you notice is that you don’t have to greatly increase your debt reduction payments, you start with where you’re at and build from there. As you progress in your career, no doubt you’ll see small increases to your take home pay. You can use a portion of this extra money to speed up your debt elimination plan even further.

If you have a hard time building up your debt snow ball, settle for using snowflakes. Snowflakes are smaller sums of money that you throw at the debt as they come in. Think of the extra tip you got from your barista duties or maybe you got a bigger tax refund. As soon as that money is in your account, transfer a chunk of that out for paying down your debts. Don’t let it linger or you’ll lose that opportunity as it is easy to spend those little windfalls.

Making the Debt Snowball Easier – Automate It

Do you want to make the system even easier for yourself? Go ahead schedule your bill payments to handle your debt snowball plan. Once it’s in place, just check on your account monthly to make sure the payments went through and your balances are decreasing. It should take about 20-30 minutes of your time each month. It’s less stress and you’re setting yourself for success because you’re removing barriers that keep many people from paying off their debts.

 Staying Motivated While Paying Off Debt

After you knocked out the smaller debts that you have, it’s time to tackle the bigger ones. Even though you have a system in place that has been proven to work, you now have a new challenge - staying motivated and on course with your debt elimination plan.

It begins with breaking down your balance into smaller goals. Let’s take an example of a $40,000 student loan. How can you stay on track until you’ve paid it off? Here are a few suggestions:

  • Keep a chart. Many of us tend to be visual people, so having a visible chart in our place can be empowering. Every time you make a payment go ahead and update your chart.
  • Set up small rewards. When you get the debt down to certain levels, like $30,000, $15,000, then $10,000, and so forth you should celebrate.  Throw a party; take a long weekend, do something that you enjoy (that’s frugal) – you deserve it.
  • Bump up your budget. It may seem counter-intuitive, but as you decrease your debt, you should adjust your budget to include more wiggle room to fun. For some people having

With time, you can get out of debt without stressing out or becoming overwhelmed.

Psychology of Money

What debts do you currently have? How much debt have you’ve paid off? How do you plan on getting out of it? Curious to see what affects your money making (or losing) decisions? Check other posts in the Money & Psychology series:

Photo Credit: quaziefoto

 

Recovering from Christmas & Getting Ready for New Years

By: Kristina | Date posted: December 27, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Green Panda Friends.  Today is December 27th and it is the last post in our “Home for the Holidays” series.  I hope that you have all enjoyed this series; we will be starting a new series in the New Year.  Speaking of New Years, this week is that dreaded time of the year when we are recovering from our Christmas Food Comas and getting ready to make our New Year’s resolutions.  For many of us our New Year’s Resolutions will revolve around our health and/or our money.  I have made two personal New Year’s resolutions and they both revolve around my health and my money.

My New Year’s Resolution to Lose Weight

A couple of weeks ago I made a Twitter promise with some other Personal Finance Bloggers to get fit and get healthy.  In an effort to motivate each other lose weight and achieve our personal health goals in 2012 we created the #TwitterWorkoutPromise.  The great thing about our Twitter Promise is that we each have our own personal weight loss goals and our own personal reasons for wanting to get healthy.  We can workout at our own pace and we have the support of our Twitter Friends to make sure that we get off our butts and get fit in 2012.  The other great thing about the #TwitterWorkoutPromise is that it doesn’t cost anything.

The #TwitterWorkoutPromise is designed as an online support group to make sure that we all stick to our weight loss plan with the help, support, and motivation of our Twitter Friends.  Everyone is welcome to join the #TwitterWorkoutPromise to help achieve your own goals.  My personal goal is to lose 20 pounds between January 1 and July 1 without paying for a gym membership.  I would like to work out every other day by swimming (my building has a pool), dancing with my Wii Just Dance 3, and burning calories with my new Wii Zumba 2 (that my boyfriend gave to me as a Christmas gift).  None of these workout activities cost anything and therefore I am going to lose weight while having fun and saving money.

My New Year’s Resolution to Save Money

My second New Year’s Resolution is to save money.  This was also one of my New Year’s Resolutions last year and I am proud to say that I have learned to want less and to live on less.  This year I would love to try 6 months of no personal spending.  This resolution will coincide with my #TwitterWorkoutPromise of counting calories and working out every other day over the next 6 months.

New Year’s Resolutions are about setting realistic goals for something that we want to improve in our lives. Honestly I am not sure if I cannot spend any money on personal items for the next 6 months, but I am going to try.  Over the next 6 months I am only going to spend money on food, household items, and personal hygiene necessities.  I will not spend any money on clothes or other unnecessary personal items including beauty products, perfume, books, movies, DVDs, Wii Games, bath products, or jewellery.

What are your New Year’s Resolutions?

Be sure to check out all of the posts in our “Home for the Holidays” series:

Don’t Let the Holidays be Costly

Don’t Be Tempted to Swipe Your Card

Travelling Home For The Holidays

Holiday Dinners on a Budget

Starting New Holiday Traditions

Last Minute Shoppers

Boxing Day Shopping

Photo by Alan Cleaver

Is Shopping on Boxing Day Really Worth It?

By: Kristina | Date posted: December 26, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Everyone.  I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Very Happy Holiday Season. Today is the next post in our “Home for the Holidays” series. It’s Monday December 26th and that means that today is Boxing Day. It’s time for everyone to visit their favourite stores in hopes of finding the best deals and discounts on their favourite items.  I am not a huge fan of Boxing Day shopping because I don’t like waiting in line and I definitely don’t like to be pushed around in big crowds.  However, I do still visit my favourite stores during Boxing Day week because the deals and discounts are too great to miss.

The Cons of Shopping on Boxing Day

My Father always says that we should never shop on Boxing Day because the holidays are about spending time with family not about shopping. My Father always tells us that if no one shopped on Boxing Day then stores wouldn’t be open and the Sales Associates could spend another day with their families, after all isn’t that what the holidays are really all about?

If you work in an office then you probably have the luxury of having an extra day off during the holidays on Boxing Day.  Shouldn’t the Sales Associates in retail stores be afforded the same luxury?  I know that getting good discounts on our favourite items at our favourite stores is tempting but I am sure that we can all wait one more day.

The Pros of Shopping on Boxing Day

I am a sucker for a good deal as long as I need the item.  Spending money carelessly on items that I want but do not need was the old me.  After changing my money mentality to become a saver and not a spender the new me always thinks twice before I spend any money, even if the item is on sale.

I love the excitement and the idea of shopping on Boxing Day.  It is very fulfilling to know that I am receiving a discount of up to 70% off of my favourite items.  However even spending 30% of the cost on an item is still wasted money if we don’t need the item.

During Boxing Day week I like to purchase specialty items that only come out during the holidays and then go on sale on Boxing Day because the stores need to liquidate them.  Such items include holiday scented hand soaps, body wash, room sprays, and fragrant oils.  These are items that I can use all year round so it’s great to get them on a discount. I do not shop on the day of December 26th, but I do shop during the week of Boxing Day.  I usually like to shop on December 29th or December 30th because most stores still have their annual Boxing Day sales but the crowds are a lot smaller.

Are you going out Boxing Day Shopping today?

If you like this post be sure to check out all of the previous posts in our “Home for the Holidays” series:

Don’t Let the Holidays be Costly

Don’t Be Tempted to Swipe Your Card

Travelling Home For The Holidays

Holiday Dinners on a Budget

Starting New Holiday Traditions

Last Minute Shoppers

 

Photo by Sideways Sarah

What’s Cool Around The Web

By: MD | Date posted: December 23, 2011 (6:00 am)

Merry Christmas to everyone reading this right now!

1. I’m Giving You $500! It Pays to be Bad! @ TFB.

2. Three Alternate Uses for a Roth IRA Other Than Retirement @ Roth IRA.

3. Money Saving New Year’s Resolutions @ Stupid Cents.

4. Does giving kids money really help them? @ Retire Happy Blog.

5. Free, Cheap And Affordable Ways To Backup Your Digital Data @ BMM.

6. Time to Look at Home Insurance Quotes @ Couple Money.

7. Is Your Investment Loan Tax Deductible? @ Boomer and Echo.

8. How Can You Kill That Annoying Credit Card Debt? @ Studenomics.

9. What’s The Point of a Landlord Credit Check? @ PIN.

10. Value vs. Cheap: What is True Frugality? @ Planting Money Seeds.

11. Darden Restaurants (DRI) – Should You Put Money Where Your Mouth Is? @ TDGB.

12. An Important Component Of International Dividend Investing: Withholding Taxes @ IS.

13. How I Lost A Fortune Getting Out of Debt @ Budgets Are Sexy.

14. How Getting Courage to Say “No” Saved My Financial Life @ GFC.

15. How to Find the Best Financial Planner – 10 Qualities to Look For @ FFB.

Carnival of Personal Finance #340 Diverse PF Bloggers Edition

 

How You Can Master a New Skill After College

By: MD | Date posted: December 22, 2011 (6:00 am)

When it comes to what to do after college, there are many options to consider. In this specific series, we’re covering 7 alternatives to graduate school. Today we’re going to see how we can master a new skill. Now that you’re out of school you’re going to have much more free time. Why not use this free time to finally pick up that skill that you’ve been dying to learn? I enjoyed learning more about kickboxing once I picked up more free time out of college.

What’s the best way to master a new skill after college?

Find something you’ve been dying to learn.

What skill do you want to pickup? Do you want to learn a new sport? Do you want to pickup a new talent? Perhaps you’ll finally learn who to dance? The first step here is to figure out what you want to learn. Nobody read this is without a skill in mind. We all want to learn something new. Not all of us want to admit it. All of us do have something that we want to finally learn moving forward.

What are a few tips to help you decide what skill to learn?

  • Think of what’s always on your mind.
  • Think of what you do on Saturday mornings.
  • Consider what you’re already decent at.
  • Look at what you’re jealous of your friends for doing.

Figure out how you’ll learn.

There are many ways to learn a new skill. It will usually depend on how quickly you want to learn, how much money you have, and what resources you have at your disposal. Let’s break all three down.

When you want to learn quickly. If you’re in a hurry you’re going to have to spend some cash. The good news is that you can spend money on personalized coaching, consulting, and supplements. If you’re willing to spend the money you can learn from the best.

When you have no money. You need to find free options, try to trade skills with someone else, or find a part-time job to help support your new skill.

When you have plenty of resources. The beauty about the Internet is that YouTube is the only resource that you really need. You can learn how to dance, cut hair, play a sport, or anything else that your heart desires on the net. I’m personally learning how to dance salsa with online videos. My new barber (my 15 year old brother) learned how to cut hair by watching instructional videos online. You have no excuses.

Keep on practising.

It’s all about daily practise. We often overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what can be done over a few days. You have all of this new found time at your disposal. You can do something productive with it or you can let it go to waste. You need to fill your days up with something more than just sleep or watching reruns of Saved By The Bell.

That’s how you can pick up a new skill from start to finish after school. What are you waiting for?

A recap of the best options for life after collge:

  1. Kill your debt.
  2. Create something.
  3. Start your own business.
  4. Learn a new language.
  5. Master a skill.
  6. Do nothing.
  7. Work abroad.

Those are 7 amazing options to consider when you’re done with your studies. We’re going to randomly dissect each idea per post.

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