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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Written by Gary Foreman

The Dollar Stretcher Blog

I have a 5 year old that is a very picky eater. Will not eat veggies, except green beens or corn. Meat only hamburger or ham. Can you give me some suggestions as to what dishes I can make? My husband and I are tired of eating the same meals. Thank you.

Sonny

Sonny asks a good question, although at first I wondered if it weren’t better suited for a parenting column. But given more thought, it occurs that it really helps illustrate a point about raising financially responsible children. How so? Let’s take a look.

We’ll begin by considering what Junior is saying when he refuses to eat anything but hamburger or ham. Part of it is good. He’s exploring how much control he has over his world. And, although I’m not a child psychologist, that strikes me as healthy. It’s all part of the growth process.

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Greetings everyone!
Millions of people around the world are settling into their comfy couches to watch their favourite athletes compete on the world stage. If you are like me you can’t wait to watch the gold medal hockey match or the men’s and women’s Super G events. It’s fun to witness history in the making and see these brave, young men and women compete with the whole world watching.

To coincide with the Vancouver Olympics we are starting a new and exciting theme here at howtomanagemoneytips.com. A weekly contest! It’s exciting, easy to enter and you just might be the winner! The best part is – you don’t have to be an athlete to win the valuable prize!

The prize could be an E-Book, a helpful Video Tutorial or some incredible Reports on ways to help manage finances.

How to Enter in 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 will 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!

It’s that easy and you didn’t even have to train for four years to win! Good luck to everyone that enters!

It’s no secret that having children can be one of the most exciting, daring, enjoyable and frustrating things any adult will ever do. It’s also a pretty well known fact that kids are very, very expensive. With the cost of diapers summer camp, football, dance class, clothes food and college (just to name a few), your standard of living will change. Below are a few tips to help you learn about your kids and how to manage money.

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Have you ever spent way more money than anticipated on a date trying to make a positive first impression or re-kindle an old flame? Here’s three ideas I use when I try to be responsible and manage my money while planning romantic outings without appearing cheap.

Hiking and a Picnic – When we were dating, I thought my wife would be impressed with an expensive meal and a show. Then, along the way I learned to manage my money and tried a cheap dating idea. I Read the rest of this entry

In the previous post, I wrote about the importance of having an emergency fund. Today, we’ll go over a few of the quick tips I give my consulting clients when I teach them personal finance basics regarding starting their emergency fund.

I’ll discuss budgeting, goal setting, and automating your emergency fund.

Budgeting – The first step in starting your emergency fund is to have a well planned out budget that not only gives you an idea of where you are financially, but lets you know how much money you’ll be allocating towards your budget. Budgeting is one of the first lessons in personal finance basics, and when you do a good one, you’ll find areas you can cut back so that you can put it towards your emergency fund or other financial goals. You can search google for budget tools, or look at the resource link to our budget spreadsheet.

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The single greatest way to reduce transportation costs.

We all need to drive. Well, most of us do. I know that in order to get to work I need a vehicle. This does not mean I need a luxury sports car or a big SUV. My ego doesn’t need to be enlarged nor does my bank account need to be reduced. There is a difference between buying a car for travel and buying a car for status. Your finances can be impacted a great deal depending on why you bought your vehicle.

I will save you the time of reading the entire article to find out the single greatest way to reduce your transportation costs, so here it is: Downsize. I know you may be a little disappointed to hear that this is the big tip but I like simple, and simple usually saves you money. Consider the following example:

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