All Articles Tagged "budgeting"
Tips To Get Your Finances Back On Track
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It’s always a good time to take a look at ways to keep your finances on track. With that in mind, Black Enterprise has some suggestions — five to be exact — that will help keep you on the positive financial path for the rest of the year. Suggestion number one: create a budget.
“Use previous receipts to create a budget that reflects your actual spending over the last several months,” the article says. “Using this approach will factor in unexpected expenses such as home repairs, health expenses and car repairs as well as the normal, predictable expenses such as utilities and groceries.”
For more tips, click through to BlackEnterprise.com.
Saving For That Big Trip Abroad
Photo: Valueline
Michelle Thornhill’s first trip abroad — in fact, her first time on an airplane — was for a visit to Finland when she was 17 years old. It was not only a voyage beyond her familiar surroundings, it was an eye-opening experience that Thornhill, now the senior VP of Diverse Segments for Wells Fargo, describes as “transformative.”
In a special guest column, Thornhill offers advice for making the international excursion of your dreams a reality. From the start, you have to be prepared for one thing above all else: “tradeoffs.”
Click through to the next page to read on.
Five Things You Should Stop Buying…Like Now
This upcoming year is all about saving and getting ahead, with an occasional splurge every now and then; but if you’re looking for ways to save so that you can afford to have an occasional ‘treat yourself day’ then there are some things that you have to do without. These small things quickly add up and put dents in your bank account without you even realizing it until later. While most of them have become part of our daily routines, they’re financially unhealthy and far from necessary. So if you’re serious about saving in 2012 without making any drastic changes (Don’t worry, no one is asking you to skip your hair appointments.), then stop buying these five items…like now!
Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck: Finally A Budgeting Tip That Works
You clip coupons, you don’t splurge and you cook rather than go out to eat. You’re the budget queen, one of the best to ever do it. But if you admit it, sometimes you fall short. You underestimate your bills or other miscellaneous expenses. It’s ok boo. Don’t beat yourself up about it. It happens to the best of us.
But it doesn’t have to happen anymore. Black Enterprise’s Money Coach suggests that once you figure out your monthly expenses, you should add twenty percent to that.
Get the details on this strategy at BlackEnterprise.com and stop living from paycheck to paycheck.
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3 Money Saving Strategies to Try Today
(MONEY Magazine) — With the weak economy, stagnant wages and rising expenses, belt tightening is the new norm. Here are some tips on how you could lower your everyday bills. 1. Lower your mortgage rate: The cost: On average, about a quarter of what homeowners ages 35 to 55 spend each year goes toward their mortgage, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Saving Doesn't Have to Be Austere, Just Mindful
(Entrepreneur) – ”Experts make people feel guilty about wanting to spend money on lattes, but guilt isn’t a productive emotion when it comes to money,” says Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You to Be Rich. “Being a conscious spender is about making your money match up with your values guilt-free. It’s about spending extravagantly on the things you love while cutting costs mercilessly on the things you don’t.” Conscious spending means actively choosing to spend on some things and not on others.
Moms’ Tips for Back to School Savings
(Daily Finance) — A few other tips from moms:
- Buy uniform basics for less at Target (TGT) and Old Navy. If your school requires special emblems, see if you can order those items from Lands’ End, where patient parents can save during the 30% sales offered a few times a year.
- It’s still warm through mid-September around most of the country, so hold off on fall clothing buys until then to get the best discounts.
- Organize a kids’ clothing swap at your church, office, or around the neighborhood. Participants simply bring outgrown clothing and take items they need. Anything left over gets donated to charity.
Assess Your Spending and Save
(TheLoop21) — Are you a big spender on a small budget? While it is true that you have to spend money to make money, you have to be careful not to take this statement too far. Personally speaking, after checking my own expenses and observing the spending habits of others, I discovered 5 simple ways to spend less and keep more of the money you make.
1: CANCEL UNUSED SERVICES: Go through your list of expenses. Can you find a few services you are paying for and never use? At one point I discovered I was paying $99 per month for a web service I was no longer using, so I promptly cancelled. If I neglected to cancel that service, I could have potentially spent $1200 for the year on something I did not need.
Save $68 Instantly With These Apps
(Daily Finance) — You paid a lot for your iPhone, so why not use it to earn back some of that dough? Here are seven apps — all free — that can save you hundreds of dollars a year. We took them for a test drive and slashed our shopping tab by nearly $70. Price Check: Ever wonder if you’re getting the best deal? There are quite a few apps that promise to scan barcodes and compare prices, but this one is by far the easiest I’ve used. You can scan a barcode, take a photo, or even just say a product’s name, and Price Check will find matches at Amazon.com and any of its hundreds of partners. If the app turns up a better price, just click to buy and save.
Your Budget Might Need Professional Help
(The Loop) — For Sakina Spruell Cole, the decision to get serious came when her son turned 3 and she and her husband planned a birthday party. The budget: $1,000. At the time, their son “didn’t even have a college fund,” Cole said. With that realization, the family sought help from a financial adviser. Although most people want to improve their financial goals, many don’t understand the basics of budgeting, investing and saving for retirement, etc. Enter financial planners. Not to be confused with accountants, financial advisers create a customized blueprint for your personal financial growth, which extends well past balancing a checkbook.
