360⁰ Wealth

Friday, July 31, 2009

Personal Finance in One Page – Part 3

Live Frugal

1. Maximize Every Dollar

Every time you spend money, you make a decision. Only you can decide what a dollar is worth and therefore make a value trade. The real key in maximizing your dollar is to raise your definition of what a dollar is worth.

Here is a list of a few tactics for reducing your spending and saving more money. See e-book for full list of 100. These are some of the main ones that stood out when I read through them. Great points to consider here.

i. Switch your bank accounts to a bank that respects you.

ii. Turn off the television.

iii. Master the thirty day rule. When you’re considering making an unnecessary purchase, wait thirty days and then ask yourself if you still want that item.

iv. Write a list before you go shopping and stick to it.

v. Invite friends over instead of going out.

vi. Give up expensive habits, like cigarettes, alcohol and drugs.

vii. Turn off lights before you leave.

viii. Install CFL or LED bulbs wherever it makes sense.

ix. Hide your credit cards.

x. Do a price comparison – and find a cheaper grocery store.

xi. Don’t spend money just to de-stress.

xii. Cancel unused club memberships.

xiii. Do holiday shopping right after the holidays.

xiv. Try generic brands of items you buy regularly.

xv. Prepare some meals at home.

xvi. Go for reliability and fuel efficiency when buying a car.

xvii. Learn how to dress minimally.

xviii. Look for a cheaper place to live.

xix. Hit the library, hard.

xx. Find out about all the benefits of your job.

xxi. Read more.

xxii. Set up automatic debt repayment on your student loans.

xxiii. Exercise more.

xxiv. Always keep looking ahead.

xxv. Never give up.

2. Break Your Bad Habits

Spend some time looking at where you spend a lot of money and cut these routines out. Do you really need to buy a $5.00 cup of coffee every morning of the workweek. That adds up. Look at the things you do every day that requires you to spend a lot of money and make a decision whether or not they are necessary or could be replaced.

3. Master the 10 Second Rule

Whenever you pick up an item to add it to your cart, stop for 10 seconds and ask yourself why you are buying it and whether you actually need it or not. If you can’t find a good answer, put the item back. This helps with impulse buying.

4. Don’t Make Yourself Miserable

Don’t cut down on spending to the expense of the present. If you feel something is worthwhile, then do it. The main objective is to cut down on the unnecessary, not drive yourself crazy saving.

5. Don’t Forget the Big Picture

Because you have money, that does not mean that you should purchase an item. Consider your ultimate financial goal and determine what is a need to what is a fleeting desire.

Thank you for Trent of the Simple Dollar for allowing the free distribution of this e-book. For the entire e-book, click on link below.

Everything you ever really needed to know about personal finance in one page, by Trent Hamm.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Personal Finance in One Page – Part 2

Earn More

1. Get Educated – Learn new things, read a book, take evening classes to get certified in a certain area, get a masters’ degree. Warren Buffett said the best investment one can make is in oneself; the return on this investment is usually ten-fold. Spend time on your personal and professional development.

2. Develop More Income Streams – Look for ways to make more money. Maybe you can use a hobby or skill that you have to make some extra cash; photography, writing, tutoring, designing etc. Maybe you have some extra cash that you can invest.

3. Start a Side Business – If you have some extra time after work, why not start a business? Write a blog with some ads, or design web pages, write programs or fix computers if you are good at it. There are a lot of opportunities right now and the startup costs have been drastically reduced because of the Internet. If you want to start a business for cheap, now is the time.

4. Move towards your Passions – Whenever opportunities present themselves, gravitate towards things that excite you. How do you know if you are passionate about something? How do you feel about it? No one can tell you this, only you would know. Think about what you are passionate about, writing code, leading others, drawing, photography, anything and just DO IT.

5. Don’t Burn Bridges – You never know when a relationship in your past might come in handy later on, even the ones you don’t expect. Never spread a negative word about anyone, it never helps. Avoid gossip, resist it. One thing I have learned is that your connection to others is what helps you get to where you want to go.

6. Keep in Touch - When you build a bridge with someone, don’t let it get old and worn out. Spend the time to keep in touch with that person. Email or call them every once in a while to see what they are up to. When it is clear that they need help and you can easily provide it, always provide it.

Thank you for Trent of the Simple Dollar for allowing the free distribution of this e-book. For the entire e-book, click on link below.

Everything you ever really needed to know about personal finance in one page, by Trent Hamm.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Personal Finance in One Page – Part 1

Spend Less Than You Earn
This is a fundamental rule in personal finance. Any personal finance book that you read will indicate this. It is the only way to generate savings, as this is the definition of savings; your income must be greater than your expenditure. The ‘gap’ as the image above indicates, is your savings and the goal is to make this gap as big as possible. It is this ‘gap’ that you will eventually put to use, in retirement accounts, 529 plans, investment accounts, real estate, savings accounts and so forth, that will eventually work for you. This ‘gap’ plus the power of compounding will allow you to achieve financial security, by your own definition.

What are we to do now?
The first step to take is to start tracking our expenses. How else would we know what how much our income and expenditures are? Therefore, to increase the ‘gap’ or savings, we would either have to increase our income, or reduce our spending. Tracking both helps us to know what falls in both those categories.

I recommend Mint.com or Quicken Online, now that Microsoft Money is no longer being supported by Microsoft. I have tried both applications and they are both great. There are others as well, so use one that you are comfortable with. I prefer Mint.com.

Thank you for Trent of the Simple Dollar for allowing the free distribution of this e-book. For the entire e-book, click on link below.

Everything you ever really needed to know about personal finance in one page, by Trent Hamm.