Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Personal Budgeting Program

Do you have financial problems? Then a budget is the answer if you are tired of wondering where your income went. A budget is the answer, if you don’t have savings. A budget is also the only solution to getting out of credit card debt.

You can purchase a 6-column ledger or use an electronic ledger in recording your expenses and income. Or purchase budget software. While an electronic ledger (like Excel) functions by keeping your financial records and doing your computations, budget software programs will do much more.

Here are several features your budget software should have, to effectively help you keep track of expenditures and record your savings.
  1. The budget software should with a worksheet, show you where your funds go, and provide you with the exact amount of your current financial situation.
  2. The budget software should have in addition to the more common ledger title columns, make available the option for you to create your own personalized account titles. This makes it more accurate, and enables you to keep track of daily expenses, of your saving accounts, payments for insurance, auto, utilities payments and even entertainment expenses.
  3. The budget software should allow you to compare the financial differences between the budget you set against actual expenditures. It would be great if this feature were accompanied by a reminder feature that tells you, you’re overspending.
  4. The budget software should provide you the option of creating and tracking individual accounts, should you wish to set one for you and your spouse, or your children. You can use this to monitor each child’s expenses.
  5. The worksheet visuals of the budget software should be easy to understand.
  6. Usage of the budget software must be user friendly and have help menus that are built in the program.

After you’ve read the company brochures, and spoken to the sales staff, request for a demonstration. Personally test the budget software, to make certain you have ease of use. Ask the company they provide product updates at discounted prices.

Make sure that the budget software vendor have an efficient customer support and after sales services. Request for list of their clients and talk with these people. Ask to be sure that you can reach them on the net, by phone and email. List their physical address, should you need to drive by their shop.

You need to be honest, committed and disciplined in making and keeping a budget. If you do, you’ll be able to get the most out of your income in spending along with saving wisely.


Timothy Gorman is a successful Webmaster and publisher of Debt-Relief-Solutions.com. He provides more debt relief, consolidation and free financial planning information that you can research in your pajamas on his website. You can also get mortgage advice online.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Slowing Spending

Slowing Spending. The Key To Your Debt Plan Success

Anyone who embarks on a debt reduction program should know the rules for success. There are two. You need to stop adding to your debt. You need to find extra money to pay it off quickly.

You also need to know the deck is stacked against you. The sellers of goods and services have gobs of information at their fingertips. They know where you live. They have a close approximation of your income. They are aware of your interests. They also know your buying habits.

The information to which they have access is endless. They know the age of your car through its registration. The appliances you have because of the warranty cards returned. Where you shop because of the credit and store cards you have used. How old your mortgage is and what you owe from public recording of the deeds.

Because they have this information, you end up on a number of lists. The sorting and use of these lists are an art and science. It is the source of the mail you receive, the offers you are made, and the advertising to which you are exposed.

This makes for very effective advertising. They can target your “known” wants and desires. Huge amounts of money are spent to convince you to buy this or that product. You have heard how expensive Super Bowl ads are each year. They pay this type of money because it works.

Then to top it all off they make it so easy to buy. If you don’t have the cash, they provide you with credit, easy-pay plans, personal loans; anything to make the purchase possible. Many companies make as much from their financing divisions as they do from selling you their products. So what do you do? How do you fight this financial onslaught and win? It requires effort and advance planning. You need to wring all the value you can from your money. Become adept at making each dollar do the work of two.

You need to budget for purchases. Even if that means that you think about it for just a few minutes before you plunk down your hard earn money. Justify your purchases; do you need it, does it make sense, can you do without? These are questions you need to ask yourself. They may fly in the face of the materialism which surrounds us all, but they need to be answered nonetheless.

You may find using a purchase-checklist helpful. Anytime a purchase exceeds what you have in your pocket tick down this list and see if it really makes sense to buy it.

  • How much is it?
  • Is this a sale price?
  • If so what am I saving over regular price?
  • What will happen if I don’t buy it now?
  • Can I pay cash?
  • Where will the money come from?
  • If not cash, what will be the credit cost?
  • Is it worth it at the price with the credit cost added in?
  • Does the purchase fill a need or a want? (think hard)
  • Why do I need this item?
  • Why do I want this item?
  • Can I justify this purchase to another person?
  • What would I say?
  • Would I accept these reasons from someone else?

This should help in slowing you down. Couple this with not taking your credit cards with you when you shop. It does take work, but a little extra work is better than being a slave to your debt.

Now with the money you save go to work on your debt reduction plans. Work that side of the equation as hard as you do the spending side. Place as much as you can on your bills. Reduce and eliminate them.

by David Wilding. David Wilding has, for the past ten years, been helping people rid their lives of debt. Through changing their attitudes toward, and their acceptance of, debt in their lives, he has helped many to reach the goal : living debt free. Visit his website http://www.debtattack.com for more ideas, tools, and strategies. David Wilding may be contacted at http://www.debtattack.com or contact@debtattack.com

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

10 Steps To Improve Your Financial Situation

Here are ten tips you can use to help improve your financial personal financial situation and inevitably save more money:

1. Pay Yourself Weekly
This may seem a bit odd, but this is an excellent way to start building a substantial savings. On a weekly basis, pay yourself $25-$50 and immediately put it in a safe place. You can even open a special savings account where this weekly "payday" can by placed to help minimize or eliminate impulsive spending. Think about it this way, if you paid yourself $25 a week, in two years you'll have accumulated $2600 (not including interest)!!! That's almost $3000 from just putting $25 aside every week! Take advantage of this money-saving opportunity. Simple, yet very effective.

2. Don't Shop
For those of you that love to shop, you may find that this is one tip that could save you hundreds, maybe even thousands every year. Start using the "Need or Want" strategy. Before you spend a single dollar on anything, ask yourself, "Do I really NEED this item, or do I just WANT it??" You may find that many of the items we purchase, we do so just because it "caught our eye" or it was "an impulse buy" or "my friend bought the same thing". All these excuses just add up to wasteful spending. You can probably get by without another sweater, or a new pair of jeans, so just buy what you absolutely need, and pass on those items that aren't necessities.

3. Use Your Bank's Own ATMs
Some banks will charge you money for using other ATM machines. Even though you will be able to withdraw money using your ATM/debit card from literally any machine, banks will charge you $2 (generally) for using a machine other than theirs, in addition to a standard $1.50 charge the machine charges for its use. In other words, if you use the ATM at your local 7-11 to take out $20, you'll most likely end up paying $3.50 in additional charges! If you do that 5 times a month, you'll lose $17.50 for that month, or $210 per year! What a waste! Try and stick with your own bank's ATMs whenever possible.

4. Track Your Spending
Take the time to track your spending habits for one week. Take note of every single dollar you spend, even those sodas and candy bars purchased here and there. This will give you a "birds-eye" view of exactly where your money is being spent, thus allowing you to refine your spending habits to essentially save more money.

5. Lower Credit Card Balances
Another very important tip that many often overlook. Pay off those pesky credit cards as soon as possible because you are losing up to 19% of the total. What a waste of your hard earned money! Keep chopping away at the balances until you get to an amount that is reasonable $100-$500 dollars.

6. Use Your Debit Card Instead of Credit Cards
Get in the habit of using your debit card instead of your credit cards. For the most part, debit cards are accepted anywhere a credit card is accepted, however as you know, with a debit card the amount is taken directly from your checking account whereas credit card usage is billed at a later date (along with a hefty interest rate).

7. Changing Jobs? Roll-Over that 401(k)
When people change jobs/careers they will be faced with a decision to either "rollover" their 401k (retirement plan) or to withdraw it. It will be ever so tempting to withdraw the money since it will be a substantial amount, but don't! You will be charged fines and penalties for an early withdrawal that will cut YOUR total by 40%-60%! That's like giving half of your earned retirement savings away to a stranger. Why would you do that? Even though you may want the money now, resist the temptation and roll it over. It will be well worth it in the long run.

8. Avoid Getting Too Many Credit Cards
Why have eight credit cards? That's just going to provide you with more opportunities to go further into debt. It's fine to keep 1-3 cards to build credit, establish yourself, and for emergencies, but credit cards are double-edged swords. They can help or hurt you depending on your self-control.

9. Check Your Credit Score/Report
It's important to know where you currently stand as a consumer and since your credit report is the most important historical list of your financial past and present, it's a very good idea to check it from time to time. There are a number of places where you can get your credit report, however the most detailed compares information from the top three national credit bureaus: Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Once you get your report, look through it carefully to see if all the information is accurate. If there are any discrepancies, get those solved as quickly as possible to improve your credit rating - a score of up to 800. Often times, consumers are unaware of unsettled accounts, or accounts that are still open/active when they should be closed. Pay close attention to this when inspecting your report.

10. Finally: Review - Revise - Retry
Once you start implementing these tips and become more familiar with the money saving opportunities you have, take the time to REVIEW your progress. Check and see where it may be possible to REVISE some of your techniques or where you can implement new ones. Once you have revised your plan, RETRY to see if your results improve. The more frequent you review, revise, and retry your saving ideas, the more "in tune" you'll be with your finances and spending habits, and learn what works and what doesn't for you.



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