Money Management
Why You Should Discuss Finances Before Saying I Do
Getting married is a time of joy for any couple. The thought of living the rest of your life with your best friend is normally consuming during the wedding planning time, and any other additional thoughts are placed on the wedding planning itself. There are reservations to be booked, dresses to be bought, and table settings to be picked. However, during this planning time, very few couples take the time to discuss the future of their finances.
In this day and age it is likely the couple has made joint purchases and financial investments prior to marriage. Even before marriage, the couple should have a firm financial plan in place so that the metaphorical flight does not crash before it even takes off.
To take that point further, even these types of combined finances need to be discussed further when actually taking marriage into consideration. Whether you have already arranged for your living quarters, shared certain finances or not; post marriage financial adjustments are different and can place strain on a relationship if not planned for and discussed. In order to promote the healthiest relationship possible, remember that a firm financial plan can prevent a diversion from what should be the happiest time in the young couples’ life.
Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce, and a majority of couples that go through a divorce blame finances as a predominate reason for any irreconcilable differences they may have had. If you want your marriage and your bank statements to be healthy, discuss your finances prior to the wedding day. Read the rest of this entry »
The Frugal Guide to Building Wealth
So you want to build up some savings and family wealth? There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s only the love of money that’s the root of all evil. The often misquoted verse is located in 1 Timothy 6:10.
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1 Tim 6:10
The Contemporary English Version puts it this way:
The love of money causes all kinds of trouble. Some people want money so much that they have given up their faith and caused themselves a lot of pain.
This is actually the theme of many modern movies. As the star chases wealth it results in his own destruction.
But the Bible also admonishes us to provide for our own families and take care of them and God blesses those who use their money wisely.
In this short guide you will get tips for gradually increasing your wealth while living up to your convictions. This is not a get-rich-quick guide, but a method of using wisdom and dedication to create the savings you need to provide for your family.
What’s Your Goal?
First of all, you need a plan for what you will do with the money. Perhaps you are saving to get your first home. Some people save for weddings, college funds for the kids, a retirement account or even a long-postponed family trip. It doesn’t really matter why you want to save, but it’s helpful to have goals in mind as you follow these steps. Read the rest of this entry »
How To Develop Winning Money Management Skills
by Benard Solomon
Is it true that once you have a certain level of money your future income is guaranteed? Unfortunately, it is not certain. The life stories and habits of the wealthy doesn’t support the popular belief that the more you earn, the rosier your life will become. If a certain level of money were to create life fortunes, lottery winners would remain rich years after hitting the big bucks.
What about great boxers whose fortunes has suddenly nose-dived? Some Hollywood celebrities of yesteryear are currently living in abject penury as a result of lack of money management skills.
You surely don’t wish to remain in the rat race all your life. Robert G. Allen in his book Multiple Streams of Income emphasizes the need to acquire good money management skills as the wealthy people do, so that you can become wealthy and financially free.
Your money habits will determine your financial future. Your money habit is the key factor to your character money- wise and your financial destiny. You will continue to experience long term lack and financial short comings as long as you remain unlearned in the skills of profitable money management.
According to Robert Allen… Read the rest of this entry »
Bad Financial Advice Abounds
By Tim McMahon, editor
I just recently received a email that made me mad. I get extremely upset when I see bad financial advice being palmed off on an unsuspecting public.
What made me so mad?
It was an email with the subject line: “The answer to getting caught up financially is here.”
Sounds interesting right? Who doesn’t want to get “caught up financially”.
Teaching Your Kids about Money
By Maria Ranier
Money management is an important life-long skill to learn. As parents, it’s your job to teach them the skills that will benefit them as they become adults and learn to manage their own households. Although it may seem like a complicated task – I still have trouble understanding concepts like dividends, compound interest, and capital gains – there are basic skills that you can teach that will lay the foundation for all future financial decisions.
Start Early
The best thing you can do is to start teaching your children early. As soon as they are able to understand the concept of money – as young as toddlerhood – they are able to start learning basic concepts. Of course, lessons should be age appropriate. Simple role-playing games like shopping in a grocery store can be useful enough for very young children. As they grow older, Read the rest of this entry »
Managing Debt for a Better Tomorrow
By Tim McMahon, editor
If you are one of the millions in debt, then you are no stranger to the harassing calls from creditors at all hours and the burdens related to being in debt. Some may say good credit doesn’t matter… but sooner or later a time will come when you will hit a brick wall due to your poor credit. It may be when seeking a new home, car, or even a student loan.
You certainly don’t want the worry of debt always looming over your head. Managing debt should be a high priority and can be approached in several different ways, accommodating your actual debt as well as your income and daily spending. You want to get out of debt as quickly as possible, so tomorrow can be full of opportunities rather than worry and burden.
The first step to managing debt and ensuring you don’t accrue more debt is to always take a minute to stop and think before getting into any financial obligation. New debt should only be taken on when you have a written plan on how you plan to pay it off. This will ensure that you can get out of debt again quickly and easily. Debt should not be incurred for consumer items unless you can get the money interest free. I know this may sound extreme but that consumer item may be obsolete or trash a year from now so you shouldn’t still be paying for it!
Originally, the purpose of debt was to allow investors to multiply their money by investing in things that will produce more than enough to cover the interest costs. Later this rule was relaxed to allow the purchase of a house since after WWII most returning soldiers couldn’t afford to buy a house. Later it was relaxed even further by issuing credit cards… but most people paid them off every month. Credit was expanded further with car loans. All of this debt creation allowed people to get into debt way over their heads.
If you find yourself in over your head… Read the rest of this entry »
Does It Pay to Work When Paying For Child Care?
By Tim McMahon, Editor
If you have children and are deciding on work, one consideration is how much money you will actually have left after paying for childcare. Sometimes, if childcare expenses are high, you may even wonder if it is worth working at all. After all, if the additional expenses associated with working plus childcare exceed what you make from working, you will not be getting ahead but could actually be getting further behind. So let’s compare those expenses.
Calculating the Advantages of Working
First you have to calculate your “net income” or “take home pay” — this is usually easily obtained from your pay stub. It is the amount you get after taxes, FICA and retirement are withheld. You also have to subtract things you wouldn’t spend if you stayed home, like special meals, work clothes and commuting expenses. However, you get to add the value of benefits you wouldn’t have if you stayed home, like health insurance or retirement benefits. Read the rest of this entry »
The Pros and Cons of Prepaying Your Mortgage
If you have looked into wealth building strategies, you have undoubtedly stumbled upon the raging debate over prepaying one’s mortgage. Here is the objective scoop.
Prepaying Your Mortgage – The Pros and Cons
When paying a mortgage, one is in the unique and unfortunate position of having to pay a lot of interest over a long period of time. Depending on the value of your home, you can easily expect to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars over the life of a 30 year loan.
Advocates on one side of the isle suggest that paying even a few extra hundred dollars a month against your principal will save you tons of money over the life of the loan. Others feel this is lunacy as the money can be used for other purposes. As is often the case, both parties are partially right and partially wrong.
If you purchase a home with a 30 year loan Read the rest of this entry »
Five Tips to Slash Your Home Finance Costs
It’s no wonder that the majority of homeowners dream of one day being able to pay off their home loan and live a life free from the shackles of interest rates, home finance and worries about meeting the monthly mortgage payments because the largest expense the majority of us take on in a lifetime is our mortgage and each month our home finance payments take a substantial chunk out of our take home pay.
Just think what you could do with all the extra money you would have spare if you didn’t have to meet your mortgage each month! Interested? Here are five steps that you could take today to substantially slash your mortgage repayments and the overall cost of your home loan. Read the rest of this entry »
Exploring Affordable Dental Insurance Quotes
Looking for information on dental insurance? I have a friend who will say simply: ‘Google it!’ Well, it doesn’t have to be Google in particular; it could be any search engine that you have taken a fancy to. You should have countless results about dental insurance inside of one minute.
Insurance is one of the driving forces of the American economy today. It is how a lot of people can afford to pay for a lot of treatments that they don’t have the money for. Dental insurance is specifically for your teeth and mouth care (which are generally VERY undercovered on most health insurance policies). And in reality, getting affordable dental insurance quotes is often as simple as doing an internet search. Read the rest of this entry »
