Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Business 3D

Monday, March 22, 2010

Savings

You can save money in many different ways. For example, using coupons at a grocery store or buying things on sale that you’d buy regardless of whether or not it was on sale save you money. You can also save money by foregoing spending until a future date or by foregoing spending on non-essential items. For some people, self-control is a real issue and if the money isn’t “accounted for” immediately, they tend to spend it on impulse and luxury items that are non-essential. If you find yourself in this category, or have trouble saving, you should create an investment account that is automatically funded each month. To do this, you may need to create a monthly budget to determine a monthly savings goal. If you do create a budget, make sure that it is realistic, matches your lifestyle and that it leaves plenty of room for miscellaneous expenses that seem to pop up regularly. If you create an unrealistic budget you’ll likely save less than what your budget calls for, become frustrated and resort to your old ways.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Step 11
Pay yourself first. Savings should be your priority, so don’t just say that you’ll save whatever is left over at the end of the month. Deposit savings into an account (or your piggy-bank) as soon as you get paid. An easy, effective way to start saving is to simply deposit 10% of every check in a savings account. If you get a check or sum of cash, say 710.68, move the decimal point one place to the left and deposit that amount: 71.07. This works well and requires little thought; over several years, you've a tidy sum in savings. Over decades, you'll be a millionaire.
Step 10
Know where your money is. And how much of it, too. If you accidentally overdraw your bank account, you will incur hefty bank fees; worse yet, the place you paid with that check may slap a bounced check fee on top of that, and send the check in again, resulting in a second overdraft fee from the bank! So just a few cents missing to cover that check could result in over $100 in fees. To avoid that, you should always know how much money you've got in your account(s), so you never cut a check for more than what you have.
Step 9

Open an interest-bearing savings account. It’s a lot easier to keep track of your savings if you have them separate from your spending money. You can also usually get better interest on savings accounts than on checking accounts (if you get interest on your checking account at all). Consider higher-interest options such as CDs or money-market accounts for longer savings goals.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Step 8
Stop using credit cards. Pay for everything with cash or money orders. Don't even use checks. It's easier to overspend when you're pulling from a bank or credit account because you don't know exactly how much is in there. If you have cash, you can see your supply running low. You can even bundle up the predetermined amount of cash allocated for each expense with a label or keep separate jars for each expense (e.g. a bundle/jar for coffee, another for gas, another for miscellaneous). As you pull money from a jar for that particular expense, you'll see how much remains and you'll also be reminded of your limit.