Retirement Saving Tips – Personal Finance Basics

How do you envision your retirement? Would you like to spend your time relaxing on a remote beach in a tropical paradise? Perhaps traveling throughout Europe with your life partner is another goal. How about working at McDonalds? Sadly the last option is what most American’s end up doing with their golden years. There is a way to actually make your dreams a reality. In this article I will discuss a few personal finance basics and tips for your retirement savings.

START EARLY:

For the most part we all have similar dreams but each of has a unique approach to how we hope to achieve them. The best way to realize your goals is to start early. The earlier the better. It’s never too late to start planning for your retirement. Compounding interest is a very powerful aid when it comes to financial planning. For those who start saving for their retirement in the 20’s can create a large nest egg with relative ease as long as regular contributions are made.

SAVING VEHICLES:

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Get Out of Debt - Tips on Budgeting

More often than not it is the little changes over time that make the biggest difference. Think about it. If you wanted to loose weight I doesn’t just happen over night. You need to make small changes in your daily lifestyle, and then over time those changes will result in overall weight loss. How to manage money is the same. It is the small changes in money habits compounded over time that will make the biggest difference. If I said one change a month for a year could get you out of debt, would you believe me? Lets look at it closer:

Ask yourself, could you save $10 a month each month for a year? It wouldn’t be that hard. All you would need to do is take one expense each month and focus on how you could reduce it by $10. For example: if you gave your cable company a call and removed some of the channels you never use. If you are able to do this for 12 straight months here’s what the reward would be:

Lets say someone has $5, 000 in credit card debt at 18%. Here’s the breakdown: Read the rest of this entry

Family Debt - Tips on Budgeting

For most of my life when I was growing up I heard four main words repeated many times: “I have no money”. My mother was a single mom taking care of three rambunctious kids. As you can imagine money was always tight and any amount of debt wouldn’t help the situation. There were many things I wanted and wished I could have but my mothers problems with debt always made my wants an unlikely dream. Because I was just a child, I couldn’t understand why she didn’t give me the world or why our birthday presents were handmade or why we would sometimes ’skip’ lunch. Obviously today I understand what she went through. Sadly her situation is not an uncommon one.

Through the help from some very good friends and plenty of work from myself I have begun to educate myself on how to manage money. I have also done my best to teach my mother everything I know and she too is learning and her debt is slowly dissolving. I don’t look back at my childhood with regret because I know she did her best. At the same time, I don’t want my children to have to worry about getting three square meals a day.

Right now I am working four jobs and sticking to a budget. I have applied all of the principles that I have read on this blog and it has helped me a great deal. I dream of the life I’ll have after this “work-time” is over. The way I see it is if you dream of how you want to live, work at it until Read the rest of this entry

Credit Card Secrets – Personal Finance Help

In my previous post I discussed that there are many secrets that credit card companies don’t want you to know. There are plenty of options out there for you to pick from and many ways that you can avoid user fees and pay little to no interest on purchases. You as the customer have the choice to let your credit card work for you. Here are a few more exciting credit card secrets that will offer you a great deal of personal finance help.

Two-cycle Billing:

This is one other way that credit card companies will attempt to get more money from you and many people don’t even realize that two-cycle billing exists. In short, issuers will calculate an interest charge that is two months of interest if you were unable to pay off the balance in full. It seems like a nasty trick but you are borrowing their money after all. This problem only occurs if you switch from paying on time all of the time to carrying a monthly balance. The solution to rectify this problem is to switch to a new card issuer or ALWAYS pay your balance in full.

Fees Are Negotiable:

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Olympic Contest Winner - Tips on Budgeting

Well the Vancouver Olympics were a blast. The Gold Medal game for hockey will probably go down as the greatest game in history. With the closing ceremonies for Vancouver 2010 finally over we are announcing the final winner for our contest!

The winner is….

Farouk

Congratulations!  You will be sent an email shortly with your prize!

Thanks to all that entered and because of the excitement this generated we will be holding a contest in the very near future! Keep reading to find out when. If you haven’t entered yet be sure sign up the next time we have a contest!

Credit Card Secrets - Personal Finance Help

There are many secrets that credit card companies don’t want you to know. There are ways that you can avoid user fees and pay little to no interest on purchases. You are a customer and each credit card company wants your business. Make them work for you. Here are a few great credit card secrets that will offer you a great deal of personal finance help.

1. Interest Backdating

Unfortunately many credit card companies charge you interest rates as high as 18% from the moment you make a purchase. Suddenly that cheeseburger you bought on the first day of the month for $4 has suddenly cost you $4.72 or 18% more. The more purchases you make with that credit card the more everything will end up costing.

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Hello all!

Well the Vancouver Olympics are winding down. The United States looks like a lock to win the overall medal count. With that being said, we are holding our final Olympic Contest. If you hope to win a fantastic prize sign up by following the steps below or click: How To Manage Money Tips Contest. Remember if you have already entered you still have a chance to win!

How to Enter win 3 simple steps:

step  1 – Sign up clicking here: how to manage money tips contest.

step 2 – Confirm the email that will be sent to you.

step 3 – The winner to be announced later this week. Be sure to check howtomanagemoneytips.com every day to see if its you! If you are the lucky winner, an email will be sent so you can download your prize!

Good luck to everyone that enters!

As a financial consultant, I’ve coached many people on why emergency funds are important. You can get more information by searching google, or check our resource links for budget spreadsheets and other financial calculators. In the previous post you learned important personal finance basics about starting an emergency fund like budgeting, goal setting and automation. Today I’ll go over three quick tips to help you decide where to start your emergency fund.

Convenience – If you’re like most people, you want to make saving into an emergency fund as seamless and easy as possible. Coaching personal finance basics has taught me that if it’s not easy, it usually doesn’t get accomplished. You likely have a checking account. If so, you probably have a savings account attached, or could open one online or at your branch. If so, I would suggest using this venue to park your emergency funds. You may not get the best interest rates, but it’s an account you already have, or can set up in a jiffy.

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