Manage spend, debt and increase your savings

You’ve organized the contents of that bulging shoebox and tracked down the stray receipts lurking in jacket pockets. Now you’re ready to point and click your way to what you hope will be a generous tax refund.

But while your records are still organized and your computer’s still on, why not look beyond that refund to your financial future?

Using do-it-yourself online financial tools, planning ahead is easier and more convenient than you may think.

"The purpose of creating a financial plan is to define what you hope to achieve in terms of financial success," says Peter J. Rossi, director of financial planning for NetBank. "If you take the time to write down what you want to achieve, you’re much more likely to achieve it."

For NetBank customers, it’s as easy as clicking on your mouse.

The bank’s online interactive planning tools include an Express Planner that provides an overview of the customer’s current finances; plans for specific goals, like retirement, education and insurance; and a Comprehensive Planner that integrates all the others for setting multiple goals.

In addition, the bank offers access to brokerage services and other investment and insurance products.

Dedicated financial advisers are available to help analyze the plan, answer any questions and help put the plan into action.

Financial planning isn’t just for people with excess wealth. Financial planners recommend that everyone have a plan in place for their financial future.

The experts at NetBank recommend taking control of spending by tracking expenses over two to three months. After you get a clear idea of your expenses, develop a plan to spend less and save more.

For instance, you could consolidate your high-interest debt by refinancing your home or getting a home equity credit line.

They also suggest reviewing the asset allocation in your investment portfolio to confirm that it’s in alignment with your goals. And make sure your insurance coverage is enough for your financial position.

With an online plan, you can complete it on your own time and update it as often as you like.

Recently I almost lose my job. It is cause by some misunderstanding. Luckily the misunderstanding got resolved and I manage to retain my job now. I am not here to talk about what is causing that misunderstanding. But I wanted to talk about what is my backup plan if I were to really lose my job.

When I got the news that I will lose my job, the first thing that I can think of is, how am I going to pay my bills, daily expenses, house loan, insurans etc. Luckily from time to time, I had save some money for emergency purpose. I calculated that I can live without a job for at least 6 months. That made me feel relief a bit. Other than some money in my saving account, I have some money in the stock market and unit trust.

I also have some money in my house loan account. For you information my house loan account is the kind of flexible loan payment account. Whenever I pay more, the extra money will be used to reduce my loan principal outstanding. This will reduce the loan interest. But I can still withdraw that extra money out anytime if I need it. I thought this is a very good feature. Every months I will pay extra money to the loan account. I aim to settle the house in less than 5 years. So up to now, I have some decent amount of money in the account. It can be used as my backup emergency funds. At the same time it helps to reduce the interest on my housing loan.

Back to the main topic, I seriously think that we should have some backup funds for emergency purpose. Nowadays Most of people’s financial situation doesn’t even allow them to live for 1 single month if they lose their job. You may think this is not necessary, but wait till you get hit. Then you will know how tough it is. I would say we should have some emergency fund that allow us to live for at least 6 months if we lose our main income.

Shopping with online coupons can help you save money on things you use every day. Online coupons sites offers hundreds of coupons that can help you save on items such as vitamins, auto parts and children’s clothing. Best of all, there’s no sales tax. You can often find free shipping and you will save yourself a lot of hassle between high gas prices and long lines at the checkout counter.

Savings for health-related products discounted with coupons at simplybestcoupons.com range from “buy-one-get-one-free” offers to steep price cuts – as high as eighty percent. Retailers in the health and beauty section include Drugstore.com, The Vitamin Shoppe and the House Of Nutrition. Remember to bookmark the health and beauty section of your online coupons rather than bookmarking the individual company’s page – your discounts come thanks to the affiliate linking system set up by agreement between the two websites. Don’t get cheated out of your discount! Once you’re used to using online coupons, this will be a breeze.

Your “daily use” product purchases with online coupons may change weekly depending on the specials being offered at that particular time. Some online coupons never expire, and you can keep using your coupon until the retailer decides to change offers, or the rules stipulate a limit on the number of purchases.

You may gravitate towards certain kind of products that you buy with online coupons, but be sure to check out the other offers. The Children’s section, for example, has great money-savers on products from the Crayola Store, Jostens class ring service and many others. You may not need these products right away, but sooner or later the time may come and you’ll be glad you bookmarked those pages too.

There are plenty of great coupons available for things you least expect. Ever thought you’d save money on replacement checks with an internet coupon? It’s true – a company called Checks Unlimited offers a deal for a low price (per box) and your fourth box of checks comes free – just for clicking the proper link. Another great find is the Franklin Covey store. Now you can get discounted office supplies for the home office, school or your 9-5 workplace.

Online coupons are a great innovation; your savings can start immediately, you save gas and get all your purchases delivered right to your door or PO box. Don’t pay full price ever again!

Suppose there are no options left from where you can borrow cash in instant in the urgent financial crisis. And without the least delay or probability the same day, you have to execute the sudden befallen end on you. At this stressful time, you can easily supervise and disperse the end. This is viable only if you take the Same Day Cash Loans into consideration. As cash is required within the same day so it has brush aside from many conventional practices. The foremost feature is it is an unsecured form of loan. Applicants can easily grasp the small cash benediction just by meeting some principles of eligibility. The criteria of eligibility are as follows: applicants should be a salaried individual of a firm or organisation; applicants should be holding an active bank account. This ready cash scheme enables the borrowers to borrow cash within the range of

I was young and wanted some way to make extra money – something other than another fast food job. A friend of the family owned a small insurance agency. The owner decided to get into the business of process serving, and I applied for the job. Tracking people down and handing them their court subpoenas sounded like fun.

It was more interesting than most of the jobs I have had. I had to find two defendants in a lawsuit stemming from a school football injury (they worked for the school). Both had moved to the area, leaving no forwarding address. After using my best phone pretexts to get information from the family, and doing a little investigating locally, I found them both working in the same place.

I walked up to each, asked their name and handed them the papers. They were served. The problem was that the company was billing by the hour, and I had found these two quickly, meaning little profit. They dropped the idea for the new service, and dropped my job along with it. So much for getting ahead by doing a good job.

I had a wide variety of unusual jobs and other ways to make extra money when I was younger. Sitting here reminiscing at the keyboard might be considered an unusual way to make money too, but hey, it works. Here are some of the other ways.

Make Extra Money By…

Stealing cars: At twenty-one I was willing to try almost anything to make extra money. My brother’s towing business got a contract to repossess cars, and I became a "repo man." Prowling the night with my brother, looking for and legally "stealing" cars – this was fun. Don’t expect to make too much money doing this though, unless you live in the right area. Oh, and it did involve getting chased, having a gun pulled on us, and other little adventures.

Making walking sticks: I sold hundreds of my own handmade walking stick alongside our other items at flea markets. I added handgrips made from recycled leather jackets, so they cost about 50 cents to make. I sold them for anywhere between $6 to $26. You may also want to make a hobby into a way to make money, but there isn’t too much money involved most of the time.

Financing other peoples plans. I put up the cash to buy cars for a couple friends. They knew cars, I had cash. A friend needed $3200 to buy and fix a corvette, for example, and two weeks later sold it for $4200, netting us $500 profit each. Letting your money do the work to make extra money – this is one of the best ways.

Rent rooms. At one point I had almost $10,000 per year coming in from renting the rooms in my home. I owed nothing on the home at this point, so this was a nice income. I had decent renters, and I had built a efficiency apartment on the back of the place for privacy for my wife and I. Easy ways like this are my favorite ways to make extra money.

In today’s world, shopping in "brick and mortar" stores seems so backward, dated, and boring. Millions of people each year sit in their jammies while drinking wine and shop for clothes, household goods, gifts, and just about anything else you can imagine.

One of the great benefits to shopping online is the various coupon, rebate and dollar-back programs available. If you click through a link, or use a coupon code, your savings can be substantial. In addition, you get all the myriad benefits of shopping online – no children to drag through stores, no gas costs to get there and back, and no hassle of dealing with crowds.

So, once you’re convinced to shop online, where can you find the savings? There are several ways to save money online. Let’s start with coupons.

Coupons

This is a fairly standard. Go to one of the coupon sites (many will be provided below) and look for the store you want to shop with, or search by category, depending on your needs. Be sure to click "apply" when you enter the coupon during checkout.

Although in the early days of online shopping, coupon codes were plentiful and generous (frequently you could find $10 off a $10 purchase with free shipping), good coupons these days are hard to find. Some stores (like Lands’ End) rarely offer coupons while others (L.L. Bean) often offer free shipping on any size order. When you order, or even if you don’t order, be sure to sign up with the website either by registering or signing up for coupons. These direct-email coupons are often some of the best you’ll ever find.

Here are some excellent coupon sites to get you started:

MyBargainBuddy.com — Here, a mom compiles good deals and coupon codes for you. Some of the best deals need no coupon at all, but if there’s a good deal and a coupon to go with it, all the better.

FatWallet.com — Lots of codes here along with active message boards where other deals can be found.

MyCoupons.com — The most beneficial part of this site are the message boards, which are alive with the sound of people saving money. Check out the posts that have stickies on them at the start of each forum – there are often some good links to printable coupons here for favorites like Toys R Us and Chuck e Cheese.

One note: If you are looking for a code for a certain store, don’t assume that if it’s not available at one website, it doesn’t exist. There are different codes at different sites. Visit several coupon sites before giving up hope that a code does in fact exist for that store.

Rebates

Here’s how the big daddy of online rebate programs works. Go to Ebates.com and sign up for an account. There’s a sign up bonus of $5, so you already have a free $5 coming to you. Then, when you go shopping, check Ebates before heading directly to an online store. Even if you have a coupon from another site, click through the store link on the Ebates page for more savings.

Let’s say you choose a new jacket from Kohls and you have a $10 off a $75 purchase. Great. Keeping the coupon code in hand, you head to Ebates and find Kohls among the list of stores. This store offers 2% back, so you click through the Kohls link on the Ebates page, and make your purchase. Not only do you benefit from the coupon code you applied, but also got an extra 2% back on your purchase. Not a bad deal. Ebates will send money to your Paypal account or send you a check.

Points

Not everyone knows about the various point programs available, but since you can earn points without doing any shopping, the points programs are worth knowing.

Visit MyPoints.com
and sign up for an account. My Points will send emails (sometimes daily, sometimes several in one day). You click a link in the mail and automatically get 5 points. Sign up for an offer or make a purchase through that link and earn even more points, from hundreds to thousands of points per offer.

My Points is most useful, however, when you’re shopping online. It’s like Ebates in that you click through a link on the My Points site, and you get points for your purchase. Most stores offer a certain number of points (2 to 4 on average) per dollar spent. Once you have at least 1,000 points, you can redeem the points for gift certificates for restaurants, gas, travel and clothing.

You can’t use Ebates and My Points in the same purchase, so if a store is linked through both Ebates and My Points, you have to decide which is the better deal for you. Whenever possible, try to combine a coupon code with the My Points or Ebates deal.

Losing weight. Finding a new job. Spending more time with the family. A new year means setting new goals. Why not make saving money one of them?

If you’re a homeowner, there are many ways you can cut costs and still live comfortably. The following tips will help lead you to financial success.

* First, set a budget. Figure out exactly how much you spend on the upkeep of your home. Compare each month’s expenses with the previous month’s to get a better idea of how much to budget for each necessity. Then, see what costs you can cut. Once you set a budget, stick to it.

* Save energy. You might be losing a substantial amount of energy dollars during the winter and summer because of air leaks. By caulking, sealing and weather-stripping all cracks and openings, you can save 10 percent or more on your energy bill.

Also, look into replacing older appliances with newer, more energy-efficient alternatives. Your light bulbs can make a difference, too. Fluorescent bulbs are four times more energy efficient than incandescent bulbs.

* Refinance. Shop around to see if you can replace your existing home loan with one that has a lower interest rate. You can easily save hundreds of dollars each month by refinancing your home.

* Purchase a home warranty. Most homeowners don’t account for possible repairs in their annual budget. There is a 68 percent likelihood of a home system or appliance failure in a given year. The average replacement cost of one of these systems or appliances is $1,085. A home warranty is your best defense against unexpected and costly repairs to your home’s appliances and mechanical systems.

The American Home Shield Home Warranty, for example, ensures you get the best possible service through the company’s network of pre-screened technicians. The minute something breaks down, you can contact American Home Shield and a local service technician will schedule an appointment that fits your schedule. The warranty covers a multitude of household systems and appliances, regardless of age.

The American Home Shield Home Warranty is a one-year contract that requires no home inspection to enroll. Several affordable plans are available to fit every budget.

Everyone has fixed expenses which are the basic of needs for our daily living. There is no way to eliminate the fixed expenses but with some innovative budgeting, you could save some good money from this practice. If you have debt problem, a good practice in expense control and budgeting can help you to free up enough money to pay down your debt and may prevent you from bankruptcy. Of course, to accomplish your goal, you might have to live a very austere existence and scarification.

This article will list down some ideas on how to lower your expenses. While reading this article, you can make a list of you own ideas to cutting down your expenses.

Ways To Save Money

1. Reduce the Number Of Credit Cards

For many people, owning a credit card is the style of life and there are people holding 5 to 10 credit cards. It's so convenient to make payment with credit cards and you many overlook your budget. Although to terminate all credit cards are not possible for many people, you could reduce the number of credit cards in hand.

2. Ask for a Lower Credit Card Interest Rate

A major consumer group conducted a study to find out how easy it is to get a lower credit card interest rate. Fifty-seven percent (57%) of those who simply telephoned their credit card company and asked for a lower interest rate got one instantly.Getting your credit card interest rate lowered depends on various factors. Normally the bank will approve your request if you meet the following conditions:

• You have a good credit rating — meaning no late pay notations on your credit report and a good credit score;
• You do not have a high debt-to-income ratio and you do not carry a big balance on your credit card;
• You do not send in just the minimum payment required each month;
• You have an excellent payment record with that particular creditor;
• The credit card is not one that is categorized as "sub-prime", meaning it is not a secured credit card or one marketed exclusively to those with bad credit.

When you call and ask for a lower interest rate, your reasoning should be based on the argument that you deserve it because you're an excellent customer or you're getting better offers from other credit card banks.

3. Always Buy Classic Style on Clothing

Clothing fads come and go so quickly and it will become out of fashion after a season.Instead, buy only good quality classic clothing that you can wear five years from now if you haven't worn it out by then. This will help you to reduce the frequency of buy new cloths.

4. Know Your Budget on Food

According to some survey, people who do not know how much they spend on groceries each month are twenty times more likely to be over their heads in debt than those who know exactly how much they spend on food each month. A lot of money can be saved by with below practices:

• Stop eating outside – Dinners you prepare at home is significantly less expensive than meals you pay someone else to prepare.
• Don't buy what you don't really need – Good examples are soft drinks, sugary snacks and other sweets. Giving them up will improve your health, reduce your medical and dental-related expenses and fatten your wallet.
• Get the best price by comparing supermarkets — Don't shop at the closest supermarket just because it's more
  convenient. Driving a mile or two down the road can save you as much as $50 per week on groceries.

5. Car pool with your neighbors

If you have neighbors who work close to your company, you can car pooling with them to save gasoline and transportation cost.

Summary

Above are just a few ideas to reduce your monthly expense, sit down and list down your own list. You will surprise that by listing down all your monthly expenses, your will realize that actually there are a lot of expenses which can be reduced or eliminated. And you can use the saved money to pay down your debts.

The thought of budgeting may seem simple to do, right? However, if we really get into it and try to balance our income and expenses, we realize that it’s not that easy to do. Still, having a budget or spending plan can help us manage our finances better.

Money issues, especially within the family, can be a source of relationship conflicts. Dealing with money problems always gives stress. Thus, it is important that we create a budget for the family. And it should not only be you who are going to do it but all of the members of the family should get involved. Each, even young children, should have a say on the family’s finances.

Step-by-Step Guide

Here’s a guide to help you start making your family’s budget.

1. Assess your current financial situation. Before starting to write down a budget plan, try to check first your spending patterns for the past year. You may want to take a look at all your utility and other bills for the past year. You would also need a copy of your salary records and income tax return for the past year. In case you do not have copies of your bills anymore, utility companies and other service companies like credit card can give you a record of your transactions or provide an estimate.

2. Design budget outline. There are sample budget outlines found in the Internet that you can download and make use of. You can also find some in magazines and books. Utilize these things to create an organized and well-written family budget.

3. Write them down. Once you have all past references to your income and wages, as well as a budget design, you can now start writing down your income – from wages, pensions to tax credits – for the current month. Then write down your expenses for the month – utility bills, credit card bills, and other purchases. Receipts and your checkbook may be good references to find the information.

4. Lifestyle check. You need to check your family’s lifestyle and spending patterns. This is where every member of the family should get involved. Think about the important things that each member spends on. Think also of the things that you can probably do without.

5. Plan for next year. Estimate the income and expenses that your family may have for the next year. Your income may remain the same or you can also adjust it if you expect it to change within the year. You also need to take into consideration special occasions where you usually spend on like Christmas, birthdays, Thanksgiving and other holidays.

6. Know your credit standing. You also need to find out your current credit standing. You may request for you Credit Report from a credit bureau near your area. You can find them listed in the yellow pages.

Writing down a family budget will definitely help you realize how wisely you and your family spend money. If you feel that you are spending too much more than what you are getting, then it’s high time to start fixing your finances and sticking with your family budget.

Saving is also one way to improve your finances. For a family, there should be a substantial amount of savings that you can use in case of emergency. As head of the family, you should impress on your spouse and children the importance of savings. If you can commit your whole family into saving, then most likely, you will not have a problem in sticking with your family budget.

Most Americans lack basic understanding when it comes to their credit score and personal finance, according to the results of a survey by consumer advocacy group Consumer Action and financial services provider Capital One.

The survey polled 1,002 American adults. It gauged respondents’ knowledge of the basics of personal finance like budgeting, saving habits and credit principles.

More than one-third reported they do not use a budget to manage their family’s expenses; over 30 percent of those surveyed either did not know or responded incorrectly when asked to define a good credit score; and nearly one-fourth have never reviewed their credit report.

"Given the growing importance and influence of credit scores on purchasing decisions, it’s startling that the majority of Americans do not understand what constitutes a good credit score," said Ken McEldowney, executive director of Consumer Action.

Various factors are used to determine a credit score, including a consumer’s payment history, the amount of debt currently owed and the length of credit history.

An amendment to the federal Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act passed in 2004 now allows consumers to receive one free credit report every year from each of the three major credit reporting agencies. Consumers can request their reports online at www.annualcreditreport.com.

As easy as it is to check your credit score and credit report, "many still neglect to take this simple step to protect their credit and their finances," said Diana Don Colby, director of financial education at Capital One.

Besides reviewing your credit report, experts agree education is the key to a healthy financial future. To help consumers understand the basics, Capital One and Consumer Action created the MoneyWi$e financial education program.

The MoneyWi$e program includes free, multilingual brochures on personal finance topics, such as improving and rebuilding credit, budgeting, saving and investing.