Why teach money management? Well, you can’t become a whiz at money management if you're not taught how.We teach money management from basics to advanced techniques. Learn the plan about smart money management techniques. Money Management can be broken down into several major areas. Without addressing each of these fundamental building blocks, your financial picture is incomplete.
Financial Planning – What's the best way to save for college? How about retirement? 401k versus IRA? Do you have a road map for your future? Do you have a will? Having a road map for your future is essential. Not having one is like trying to go on a road trip without any directions on how to get there. It's tempting to just let things 'fall into place'......but without a solid road map of where you want to go, things usually fall by the roadside and not into your bank account. Get detailed strategies for your financial road map here.
Saving & Spending – Nobody has enough money for everything. We're always making choices, whether we know it or not (shopping instead of saving is a choice). These choices include everything from your everyday shopping for necessities, to taking advantage of rewards programs to increasing your buying power, to how and when to shop online. Rule number one and most important, you must not spend more than you have coming in. Pretty basic, pretty common sense, but a very real challenge in today’s world. Learn how to prepare and stick to a budget. Let's build your personal money management plan here. The smart money move is to set deliberate priorities and to have more security in risky times.
How do you recovery from past poor debt management? Follow thesse personal debt recovery tips here.
Banking and Borrowing – Get the best credit card deals. Avoid unnecessary fees and penalties. Know when to fire your banker. How to protect yourself against identity theft. Find out all you need to know about banking and borrowing here.
Investing – Strategies for mutual fund investing. Managing your bank account and increasing your returns. What mistakes do you need to avoid when managing your nest egg online Investing is a scary term to many. We take the mystery and fear out of investing and show you how to consistently make smart money investment decisions. One company that helps you make easy consistent investment steps is Sharebuilders. This company lets you make regular buying of stocks easy. You set up an online account that will build your portfolio over time through automatic, recurring dollar-based investments. It's an affordable way to invest and emphasizes the accumulation of stock rather trading on a constant basis. When should you use a financial advisor? When you: a) have $250,000 or more to invest;, b) start investing beyond the basics of 401k, ira, money market and mutual funds; c) you feel over your head What do you ask a financial advisor to determine if he/she is correct for you? A good advisor should always be a fee based professional and should not be obtaining their fees by selling insurance, options, futures, commodities, or annuties. If they are selling any of these products...run fast, and far away from them. Advisors should be willing to provide references of personal clients. Make sure your advisor has liability insurance and is willing to provide specific financial stategies that you can implement on your own.
Taxes. Yuck. It's not a subject anyone wants to think about, but as they say "only thing certain in life is death and taxes". We show you legitimate ways to minimize your tax burden. Do your taxes easily, quickly and correctly with a computer tax software program. One that is particularly good is Turbotax. You can easily import your financial data from a financial management program such as Quicken. There is an abundance of help tools, and the process itself is accomplished by a interview consisting of series of simple layman's term questions concerning your financial situation. Great aid in taking care of a tough task. Don't have a small business? Did you know that a small business can help shelter a portion of your other income from taxes. You can legitimately take deductions for many of the things that you would just pay out of pocket for your household. Learn some ideal small businesses you can get started in. It's never too early to start getting ready for tax season. Label folders for receipts papers, check stubs, statements that you'll need for taxes. File on a regular basis throughout the year. Come January you'll all ready to go.
Insurance – Save up to thousands of dollars on auto, life and homeowners insurance. Do you need long term care or disability insurance? Insurance is for the unforeseen troubles that can happen in life. Learn how to minimize your insurance bill. What insurance is necessary and which are just a waste of money? Most people should be concerned only about health, homeowners, car, life and disability insurance. You should get other kinds of insurance such as cancer coverage or long tern care insurance only if you have trouble sleeping at night without them. You should carry life insurance if you have dependents. You should carry 5 to 10 times your annual income. Term is usually the best value for life insurance. If you're carrying term insurance and you're in good health, go shopping. Another company may be offering lower rates - saving you $100/month or more. Ask your agent for something cheaper. Check online at 2Insure4Less.com for easy comparison of many different insurance types: auto, home, life, disability. You should carry disability insurance if you are single or your family is dependent upon your income. A policy should pay out 60 percent of your annual salary. Disability income is usually not taxed. Do a checkup on your homeowners policy. Have you really protected yourself in case of fire? Walk through your home with video camera or camcorder, recording not only your furniture, jewelry and rugs, but also the contents of your drawers and closet. Mention how much special objects cost. Without these you'll have a hard time proving to your insurer what you lost. Keep your documentation in your safe deposit box. Take
a
driver's safety class to lower your auto insurance premiums. Insurance
companies will often have special classes for teens and drivers over
55. Class attendees then qualify for additional discounts on
their insurance. Raise the deductible on your auto and home insurance to lower your yearly premium amount. Drop collision insurance on older cars. Check Kelley blue book (www.kbb.com) to see how much your car is worth before you drop your coverage. Drop collision if the value of your car is less than ten times the annual premium payment.
Producing Income - There are many avenues you can use to increase your income production. Some simple and quick, some requiring major investments of time and money. Follow along as we explore some of the better potential money makers You can separate income producers into two main categories:
Supplemental Income ProducersMost supplemental income producers are sources of income, that will be in addition to your major income source(s). These can include anything from a part time job, to actively persuing ways to cut spending and saving money, to finding sources that pay you for various tasks and activities performed. Like to share your opinion? How would you like to get paid for your opinion? Online consumer option sites will pay you $1 or more for filling out questionnaires on all manner of topics. One of better online paid survey sites that we recommend is American Consumer Opinion(ACOP.com). Major Income ProducersMajor income producers include your primary job, unearned investment returns, owning your own business.
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