Archive for December, 2011

What’s Cool Around The Web?

By: MD | Date posted: December 09, 2011 (6:00 am)

You want to catch up on the best pieces on the net? You’re in the right place…

1. Tips For Young Financial Advisors @ TFB.

2. Even Warren Buffett Has Terrible Ideas @ IS.

3. Side Hustle Series: I’m a Sample Passer-Outer @ Budgets Are Sexy.

4. Canadian Dividend Stocks.

5. How Do You Become a Landlord? @ PIN.

6. Credit Card Minimum Payments will Maximize Your Financial Pain @ Dough Roller.

7. Should You Work For A Small Business Or Large Corporation? @ Canadian Finance Blog.

8. When Do You Ask For Help With Finances? @ Dollar Versity.

9. Why Should You Give a Damn About Your Credit Score? @ Studenomics.

10. 14 Investments Yielding More Than 10% @ Financial Uproar.

11. Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Dividend Investor? @ TDGB.

12. 3 Portfolio Income Enhancers You Don’t Know About @ Wealth Pilgrim.

13. A Fruitful Search for a Frugal Computer @ Frugal Dad.

14. The Problem with Being Fabulously Wealthy @ PT Money.

15. The Best Small Business Credit Cards @ Free From Broke.

The Extreme Method For Killing Debt After College

By: MD | Date posted: December 08, 2011 (4:39 am)

The Extreme Method For Killing Debt After College

What are the best options for life after college? What can you do to ensure that your time after school isn’t wasted?

Now that we’re done with the Travel Like a Rockstar series, it’s time to think about life after college. With the fall term coming to an end there are going to be many of you reading this that are finishing up with college. Now that you’re near the end of your college run, you might want to start planning ahead so that you don’t find yourself watching Lost online all day.

I wrote about what to do after college and 7 alternatives to grad school. What were the 7 best options for life after college from my research?

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

Those are 7 amazing options to consider when you’re done with your studies. We’re going to randomly dissect each idea per post. Today we’re going to get into paying off debt after college.

How can your crush debt after college?

The process is really simple. Work like a mad man, eliminate your expenses, and put all of your money towards debt. There’s nothing else to it. I find that on other personal finance blogs and in real life we get all caught up in the minutia. There’s no need to waste your time on the minor details. You need to stop searching for quick solutions because you know damn right that there isn’t one that exists out there.

If you want to crush your debt after college you need to put all of your extra money towards your debt instead of sitting around and complaining about the economy.

What’s the best way to increase income?

There’s no secrets here guys. You need to get off your butt and work. Find a job. Find two jobs. If your full-time gig isn’t paying the bills, then you need to find a weekend/evening job to make more money. You need to do anything that’s humanly possible to earn more money. Find a job that’s beneath you. Find a job in sales. Serve drinks. Do everything possible to increase your income. Once you’re making more money you can then use this extra cash towards your debt payments.

How can you kill expenses?

Once again, you need to make some serious sacrifices. This isn’t going to be easy. You know where you need to cut back. You just don’t want to admit it. When in full out extreme kill debt mode, you need to cut out all of the BS from your schedule. The good news is that you won’t even notice because you’re going to be so busy with working all of the time. The bad news is that you’re going to be working all of the time for a certain amount of time.

Is this extreme method worth it?

It really depends on your outlook on life and how you feel about debt. Some of us don’t really care about debt and don’t mind the idea of owing money. Then there are those like myself. I personally hate debt and don’t want to be in debt. I do my best to ensure that I never get into any kind of debt.

Once you kill your debt you can start to consider the other options that are outlined in this series.

That’s all that I have to say about killing debt after college. We’re going to get into the other ideas shortly. For now I just wanted to ask you guys a question:

Have you made major dents on your debt lately?

(photo credit: norsez)

Getting Your Finances Ready for a New Job

By: Green Panda | Date posted: December 07, 2011 (5:00 am)

Make It a Habit of Saving Money

You’ve been working at your current company for a few years now and haven’t really been advancing. You are thinking of moving to another company for a new job since it offers more opportunity for promotions. Perhaps you’re thinking of moving into a sales position where you work on commission. You’re confident that if you make the switch in a few months you’ll be making more than your current salary. Maybe you just decided that being an employee isn’t for you. You want to go ahead and turn your side income stream into your main income stream.savings for job fund

What do you do?

You have to decide for yourself what’s best. I do know, however, that have a cash reserve can be empowering and help you make the transition. There are times when the best long term decision requires a bit of pain in the short term. For example, Some sales jobs pay by commission so you may have a little bit of negative cash flow until you get your footing.

Money Management Skills You Need Before Making the Switch

Before you make the switch, there are a few financial priorities that you need to take care of until your finances have stabilized. You should have a cash reserve ready to help out if the pay is a bit irregular or lower than your current income for the time being.

That means you may have to make the following changes to your finances:

  • Essential Bills: Pay your rent/mortgage and all the essential bills as normal.
  • Debt Payments: If you can pay off some or all of your debt, then go for it. You don’t want to be behind on your credit card payments while starting off on a new job; it’s just too stressful.
  • Investing: I would put enough into get your match and save the rest. You can always pick up your contributions after you’ve made the jump.
  • Extras: Cut back or eliminate  on the extra expenses you have until you reach your cash reserve goal.

How do you calculate your cash reserve goal? I would research how long it typically takes to reach your income goal and then add on 25-300% to that in case you hit a bump in the road. If estimate that you’d need 3 months to build your contacts and contracts for your new sales job, then save enough to pay for gap for 4 months of expenses.

If you pick up on the job sooner than expected then you can use that money to pay down more debt, transfer it to an emergency fund, or contribute it into your IRA.

Psychology of Money

Having freedom fund can be the best thing for you as it gives you a bit of a safety net while you build your career.

Are you thinking about making the jump? Curious to see what affects your money making (or losing) decisions? Check other posts in the Money & Psychology series:

How are you working through this economic mess? What tips can you share?

Photo Credit: alancleaver_2000

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Don’t Be Tempted to Swipe Your Credit Card!

By: Kristina | Date posted: December 06, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Everyone.  Today we are following up on yesterday’s post about How Students Can Live on a Budget during the Holidays.  We should try to stay on a budget while shopping during the holidays; and to avoid overspending we should try to pay with cash instead of our credit cards.  Today we are helping everyone try to avoid the temptation of using their credit cards while shopping during the holiday season and all year round.

I know that we may want to buy nice gifts for our family, and we may also be tempted to buy gifts that we can’t afford.  But at the end of the day there is no use in paying for our purchases with our credit card if we can’t afford to pay off the balance at the end of next month.

Here are 5 Tips on How to Avoid Temptation When Using our Credit Cards:

1. Cash is Easy to Budget. If we only have $40 in our wallet then we can only spend $40.  There is no chance of us overspending if we always live on a cash budget.  We can keep money in our bank accounts and earn interest on our money, instead of paying interest on our credit card balance.

2. Think About Saving Money.  It is no secret that not using our credit card can save us money.  We may be tempted to spend money just because we have an available credit card limit. When we spend money on our credit cards we have to repay the money that we spent and we will also be charge interest on our credit card balance.

3. Cash Advances Can Be a Killer. Interest is charged on our cash advances from the moment we withdraw the money, there is no interest free grace period on cash advances.  When we make payments to our credit card the money is used to pay off the oldest transactions first, in the meantime we are still being charged interest on our recent cash advances.

4. Carrying a Balance Can Hurt Our Credit Score.  We should use our credit card to help us establish a good credit score.  When we use our credit card and pay off the balance each month we establish a good credit score.  However, if we continue to carry a balance on our credit card each month we can actually be hurting our credit score.  When we apply for a car loan or a mortgage the bank is going to look at our credit payment history, our credit score, as well as our current credit card balances.  If we owe too much money on our credit cards then our mortgage application may not be approved.

5. Cash is Hassle Free.  If we pay for everything with cash there is no need to worry about identity theft or about fraudulent charges. When we pay with cash there is no chance of being charged extra, overspending, or worrying about keeping track of our budget.  If we withdraw the maximum amount of cash that we want to spend from the ATM before we go shopping then we can never overspend.  Having unlimited access to money via our credit card causes the temptation to spend, but we are trying to avoid it.

Photo by Bulinna

The Holidays Can Be Costly…But Don’t Let Them Be!

By: Kristina | Date posted: December 05, 2011 (7:30 am)

Good Morning Green Panda Readers.  It’s Monday December 5th and that means there are only 20 days left to shop until Christmas. The holidays can be an expensive time of the year for anyone, but if you are living on a student budget the holidays can be a financial nightmare.  Green Panda is here to give students some financial hope and provide some tips on how students save money during the holidays.

Stay on a Budget During the Holidays

I know that it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the holiday season.  I also know from my own personal experience that getting in the gift giving spirit can be uplifting; it is very easy to get carried away while shopping during the holiday season.  Every single year I always make a Christmas List along with a shopping budget.  When I go into a store I always tell myself that I have to stick to my budget, but then while I am shopping I just get carried away in the spirit of giving during the holidays.

I never stick to my budget during the holidays and I always regret it later.  I always tell myself that it’s only an extra $20 or $50 so that is no big deal, after all I am giving gifts to my family and friends.  However, $50 x 10 gifts can quickly add up to hundreds of dollars in overspending.

Buying Gifts on a Budget During the Holidays

When shopping for the holidays we should always try to stay within our budget.  As a student people are not expecting us to give several expensive gifts. They know that we live on a (very little) fixed income and they will appreciate any gifts that we give.

Some great gift ideas under $25 are a 4×6 or 5×7 photo of you and your family in a nice photo frame.  Gift baskets are a great idea, we can purchase pre wrapped gifts to save time; but it is definitely a lot cheaper to buy the items individually and wrap them ourselves.  Assembling a scrap book of our family and friends over the past year or a recent family vacation is another great gift idea that we can assemble on a budget of under $25.

Using Your Credit Card During the Holidays

I try not to use my credit card during the holidays for several reasons such as potential fraud and unauthorized charges.  However, the main reason that I try not to use my credit card during the holidays is so that I can control my spending. I try to always remember that my credit limit is available to spend, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire amount has to be spent.

If we use our credit card during the hectic holiday shopping season we may be charged the wrong amounts by stores.  I am not sure if you have ever tried to dispute a charge on your credit card, but it is a very long process to try and get your money back.  The more we swipe our credit cards the more of a chance we have that our credit card information could fall into the wrong hands and we could become a victim of credit card fraud.

It is definitely safer for our budget if we use cash or our debit cards instead of our credit cards while shopping during the holiday season.

Photo by HikingArtist

Yakezie Challenge Time

By: MD | Date posted: December 02, 2011 (6:00 am)

This week we we went over Dealing With The Stress of Financial Issues. How do you deal with financial issues? The biggest problem is that pride often gets in the way of how we deal with financial problems. We start to feel ashamed of our money problems and we try to hide them. It’s important to learn how to deal with these issues.

It’s time for the Yakezie roundup from the past week:

1. Should Homeownership Still Be The American Dream? @ Financial Samurai.

2. Holiday Workouts & A Tiring Birthday @ FGSW.

3. Family Finances @ Sustainable PF.

4. How I Made $150, Lost $200, and Re-learned a Valuable Lesson @ Invest it Wisely.

5. Money saving tips for the holidays @ Bucksome Boomer.

6. New To Investing? @ The College Investor.

7. Helpful Tips To Stretch Your Moving Budget @ Not Made of Money.

8. Are Hybrid Cell Phones The Future? @ Money Reasons.

9. Record-Setting Cyber Monday @ Consumerism Commentary.

10. Four Ways to Deal with a Home That Won’t Sell @ Canadian Finance Blog.

11. Can You Combine Your Business With Your Day Job? @ TFB.

12. Are You Ready to Be a Landlord? @ KrantCents.

13. What Can We Learn from Farmers about Financial Success and Discipline @ Extra Money Blog.

14. Take Advantage of Tax Credits and Deductions @ Couple Money.

15. How Much of an Incentive Do You Need to Take Action? @ Sweating The Big Stuff.

Finally Coming Home From a Trip

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

“One of the most difficult things I experienced in my travels was trying to relate what I’d experienced to old friends and acquaintances who”d been at home the whole time I was gone.” — Jason Gaspero.

I’ve had a blast writing about travelling with you. I love to travel and plan on covering this topic in greater detail moving forward. For now we’re going to be closing the chapter on Traveling Like a Rockstar here on GPT.

There’s eventually going to be an end to your insanely fun times and complete freedom. There’s going to be that point where you need to go home. This might be by choice or you might have to go home because you ran out of money. Either way, you’re going to have to go home sooner or later. You need to figure out how to deal with this dilemma.

How to deal with finally coming home from an extended trip or how to not lose your mind when you have to leave a wild trip to go back to reality:

You might feel like a stranger.

The first feeling you’ll feel will be a bit confusing. You won’t know how to react. Should you be happy to be home or sad that your travels are over? When I first got back from my extended trip I was happy to be home. Then as soon as I settled in I missed my freedom and being completely spontaneous every single night. You’re going to feel like a stranger. Don’t fight this feeling. Just live with it. Conquer it. Don’t fear it.

Tell short stories.

Everyone is going to want to hear about your trip and all of that crazy stuff that you did. It’s cool to share stories. Just try not to get into too many details because your friends might not get them. There’s also nothing wrong with keeping the juicy details to yourself. Tell short stories so that you don’t miss your trip too much and so that your friends don’t get too jealous. You have plenty more left to experience.

Don’t let fear and selfishness back into your life.

You conquered your fears of being alone, leaving home, trusting others, and letting loose. Don’t let fear come back into your life. You have nothing to be afraid of. You just managed to travel by yourself. You learned to conquer your fears. It will be totally counter-productive if you let fear back in. Screw that.

Keep on learning.

Just because you’re at home now it doesn’t mean that you’re done learning. Apply what you learned on the road to your life at home. Start off by touring towns in your region. Check out new sights. Approach strangers on the street. Keep on learning. Never stop growing.

Plan another trip.

Now that you’ve had a taste of the world, what are you going to do about it? I start to plan another trip the minute that I get home. This forces me to work hard, save my money, and do what I can to earn my freedom. You should have the idea of earning your freedom on your mind all of the time. Where are you going to go next?

How did you deal with coming home from an extended trip?

If you want to learn ANYTHING else about traveling you need to check out the previous pieces on the topic.

Check out the other articles from the Travel Like a Rockstar Series:

Can I Travel When I’m Not Rich?

4 Little Known Ways of Saving Money While Traveling.

3 Things You Must Know About Traveling.

Is It Worth Staying in Hostels When You Travel?

How to Find Work Abroad.

The Best Excuses to Start Traveling Now

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