The first step to financial independence and security is to save money. While it may seem too simple to say, in order to save money you need to spend less than you earn. This is called "living below your means." You would be amazed to know how many people do not follow this very basic rule and accumulate massive debt through the use of easily available credit cards. They use their credit cards basically as another source of income. Not good.
Unless you are living below the federal poverty guideline, which for 2017 has been defined as income of $12,060 per year for a single person or $24,600 for a family of four, I am of the opinion that you can save money. Heck probably even at that level, since you might be eligible for a whole host of federal subsidies, you can probably save money. Why? Because saving money is in its most general terms a mindset and a distinction between needs and wants. Needs include things required for living - housing, clothes and food - and wants are everything else. Society influences us into believing that many things we want are things we need (thank you media and marketing gurus, you are doing your jobs very well). That is simply not true!
If you ask people to make a list of all their daily living expenses, a whole host of things on their lists will be things that didn't even exist back in my youth. Things that people today think they can't or shouldn't live without. Some examples of these things are -
- Cable TV
- Internet
- Cell phone (talk, text, data)
- Movie and TV streaming services
- Book subscriptions for reading devices
- Gym memberships
- Satellite radio for your car
Are those things nice to have? Yes, I think we would all agree that they are very very nice! But they are not things that we need to live. And even if we do "need" some of these things, we generally overpay for them. Our service providers charge us an arm and a leg for things that we could shop around for and get for a much lower price. Lets look at some examples.
Cable TV - Years ago, no one had cable tv but used aerial tv antennas instead. Did you know that you can still use an antenna for tv reception? In fact, you can get HD reception by installing an HD antenna! How do I know that? Because my husband has installed one at our house. Seems that the cable companies take the tv satellite signals, encode (or compress) them, then sell you a box to undo what they just did. If that isn't selling you nothing for something, I don't know what is! It is very easy to access all of your local tv stations using over the air antennas. So if you generally watch only local channels, reducing your cable tv service to "basic cable" or getting rid of it completely is a real money saver!
Internet - Having internet is all about convenience. There are plenty of places you can go to access wi-fi for free including many restaurants and your local library. In fact, plenty of cities are now establishing free "wi-fi" zones for their residents. Check out the website www.wififreespot.com
Do your homework and save some money!
Cell phone service - Contracts and charges for talk, text and data are exorbitant. If you don't mind shopping around and buying your phone outright, there are plenty of dependable low-cost, no contract phone plans available. I know because I have had one for years. These plans use the infrastructure from the big guys so it is basically the same as the service for which you are paying a bunch of money. There is a limit on the amount of high speed data I can use per month, after which it goes to 2G, but frankly I have never hit the cap. And I use my data plan a lot! I just don't do much streaming on my phone. Streaming can eat up data fast!
Streaming movie services and book services - check out your local library. Chances are that your library allows you to borrow books and download them for a set period of time to your reading device. Also, they have lots of Blu-ray discs, dvd's and old fashioned hard copies of books to lend out. There are so many services that your local library provides that are underused by residents. Libraries are one of the most amazing programs available to us in the US. Check them out!
Gym memberships - Start walking, get a bike, use a jump rope, check out swim night and family programs at your local schools, save a bunch of money!
Satellite radio - If you really need to have this service, never ever just agree to a renewal with these folks. Call them up, and theaten to cancel, they will always give you a better deal. Or follow through and just cancel!
In the end, everything is always a trade off between what you think you need and how much you want to spend. The above ideas are just food for thought. What things can you think of that people spend way too much money for? How do you trim costs for these expenses for your own household?
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Sunday, January 29, 2017
Handling Your Paycheck (or Not)
Some say money is the root of all evil. Certainly health and happiness lead to a more satisfying life. But without money you will never live a financially independent life. And you will never have money unless you focus some of your attention on it. So evil aside...here we go!
Unless you stand to inherit enough greenbacks to live a financially independent life, you probably will need to work for a living and save. As in money... That means getting a job. Getting a job means that you will be earning a paycheck. Yeah for paychecks! And you will get some kind of "receipt" for your earnings. We used to refer to that as a pay stub...not sure what they call them these days!
Your paycheck can come in the form of a physical check that you can see, smell and touch. You then need to take this check and deposit it into your checking or savings account. What, you don't have a checking or saving account? Ooops, I see a future topic on the horizon...
The other alternative to getting a physical check is to have your pay deposited directly into your bank account. So you never ever get to see, smell or touch a check but you do get to fondle a pay stub. I remember years ago that some worker bees couldn't quite handle this concept. Today because the younger generation is used to doing everything electronically, this shouldn't worry them too much. Easy come, easy go...right?
The advantages to having your pay directly deposited into your bank are many. This process is usually just called "direct deposit" and here are just a few reasons why it is a good thing to do.
1) Your pay shows up in your bank account almost like magic. No having to take it to the bank or mobile depositing it. Wait, you've never used mobile depositing of checks? Now THAT is a good use of technology! Topic for another blog post...
2) You don't have to be at work to get paid. If you happen to be on vacation, or out of the office for anything like a sick day, your money still shows up. And after all, who doesn't deserve a little rest and relaxation after two weeks of work because...this working stuff is hard! Don't worry you only have another fifty years or so to go. Or in other terms, 600 months, 18,000 days, 144,000 hours or 8,640,000 minutes until retirement! Proof that you better like what you do or it is going to be a loooooong time until retirement... And if you start saving now, you can most likely shorten those times!
3) You don't handle a paper check, so there is no way for you to lose it. Or have your parents throw it out when you leave it on the counter in the kitchen for two weeks. Right, son?
4) Sometimes your bank requires "direct deposit" into an account so that you don't have to pay them money, called fees, for the privledge of letting them use YOUR money. Yep, you got it, another future blog post.
5) I'm sure direct deposit saves your employer a ton of money. Well, maybe not a ton but it has to save them SOMETHING because there is less paper, less processing and less absenteeism when, after getting your hands on that beautiful pay check, you rush out the door to go deposit it. Believe me, it happens! And with all that extra dough, management just has to give you a raise, right? Because you SO deserve one after working for just two weeks. Sigh......
6) Sometimes employers allow you to split your paycheck and send it to multiple accounts. This is good because you can put some money in an account that your debit card can't access. Because isn't it AMAZING that you can use that debit card anywhere for anything in any little amount? Sigh... Diverting some of your money to another account could help you save it for a short term goal, like a vacation or a car, or a long term goal, like retirement and financial independence. In particular, I like that second one...
7) For you eco-friendly people out there, PayChex (a third party payroll company and a really good stock pick back in the day) reports that direct deposit is"environmentally friendly because it reduces a company's carbon footprint. The green impact can be further expanded by offering online pay statements that can be available 24/7". Yeah, what they said...
8) Lost or stolen paper checks are a common source of identity theft but with direct deposit, your personal information will be seen by less people. Like the ones who spend all their time figuring out how to get something for nothing. If this sounds like you, I say go get a job and start reading this blog. Wait...you are already reading this blog. So just go get a job!
If all of these reasons don't encourage you to ask your employer about direct deposit for the handling your hard earned cash, I don't know what will.
So...direct deposit...JUST DO IT!
Unless you stand to inherit enough greenbacks to live a financially independent life, you probably will need to work for a living and save. As in money... That means getting a job. Getting a job means that you will be earning a paycheck. Yeah for paychecks! And you will get some kind of "receipt" for your earnings. We used to refer to that as a pay stub...not sure what they call them these days!
Your paycheck can come in the form of a physical check that you can see, smell and touch. You then need to take this check and deposit it into your checking or savings account. What, you don't have a checking or saving account? Ooops, I see a future topic on the horizon...
The other alternative to getting a physical check is to have your pay deposited directly into your bank account. So you never ever get to see, smell or touch a check but you do get to fondle a pay stub. I remember years ago that some worker bees couldn't quite handle this concept. Today because the younger generation is used to doing everything electronically, this shouldn't worry them too much. Easy come, easy go...right?
The advantages to having your pay directly deposited into your bank are many. This process is usually just called "direct deposit" and here are just a few reasons why it is a good thing to do.
1) Your pay shows up in your bank account almost like magic. No having to take it to the bank or mobile depositing it. Wait, you've never used mobile depositing of checks? Now THAT is a good use of technology! Topic for another blog post...
2) You don't have to be at work to get paid. If you happen to be on vacation, or out of the office for anything like a sick day, your money still shows up. And after all, who doesn't deserve a little rest and relaxation after two weeks of work because...this working stuff is hard! Don't worry you only have another fifty years or so to go. Or in other terms, 600 months, 18,000 days, 144,000 hours or 8,640,000 minutes until retirement! Proof that you better like what you do or it is going to be a loooooong time until retirement... And if you start saving now, you can most likely shorten those times!
3) You don't handle a paper check, so there is no way for you to lose it. Or have your parents throw it out when you leave it on the counter in the kitchen for two weeks. Right, son?
4) Sometimes your bank requires "direct deposit" into an account so that you don't have to pay them money, called fees, for the privledge of letting them use YOUR money. Yep, you got it, another future blog post.
5) I'm sure direct deposit saves your employer a ton of money. Well, maybe not a ton but it has to save them SOMETHING because there is less paper, less processing and less absenteeism when, after getting your hands on that beautiful pay check, you rush out the door to go deposit it. Believe me, it happens! And with all that extra dough, management just has to give you a raise, right? Because you SO deserve one after working for just two weeks. Sigh......
6) Sometimes employers allow you to split your paycheck and send it to multiple accounts. This is good because you can put some money in an account that your debit card can't access. Because isn't it AMAZING that you can use that debit card anywhere for anything in any little amount? Sigh... Diverting some of your money to another account could help you save it for a short term goal, like a vacation or a car, or a long term goal, like retirement and financial independence. In particular, I like that second one...
7) For you eco-friendly people out there, PayChex (a third party payroll company and a really good stock pick back in the day) reports that direct deposit is"environmentally friendly because it reduces a company's carbon footprint. The green impact can be further expanded by offering online pay statements that can be available 24/7". Yeah, what they said...
8) Lost or stolen paper checks are a common source of identity theft but with direct deposit, your personal information will be seen by less people. Like the ones who spend all their time figuring out how to get something for nothing. If this sounds like you, I say go get a job and start reading this blog. Wait...you are already reading this blog. So just go get a job!
If all of these reasons don't encourage you to ask your employer about direct deposit for the handling your hard earned cash, I don't know what will.
So...direct deposit...JUST DO IT!
Friday, January 27, 2017
Live Your Dream
Wow! I have been compelled to start this blog for years! Today's inquiries on Facebook just confirmed what I believed to be true...people hunger for basic info about money, budgeting and working with their finances, I am not here to give you financial advice...but to educate you so that you end up with enough wealth to need a financial planner!
Let's talk about money...and paychecks! In a day or two when I get home from my Caribbean month of January. As opposed to my Florida month of January...my hub is such a temperature wuss!
See you in a few days! I think we will start out talking about paychecks!
Let's talk about money...and paychecks! In a day or two when I get home from my Caribbean month of January. As opposed to my Florida month of January...my hub is such a temperature wuss!
See you in a few days! I think we will start out talking about paychecks!
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