Monthly ArchiveSeptember 2008
Finance & budget admin on 26 Sep 2008
Personal Budgeting For You
Personal budgeting tips come from various sources. In effect, the task of finding the right tips becomes more of a hassle as you get confused with much information on hand. The following is a simple list of things you should do to make personal budgeting less of a chore.
The more simple approach you take to personal budgeting, the more likely you will be at sticking with it. At the end of the day it is about handling your personal budgeting instead of spending much time setting up of a system which may not be appropriate for your requirements.
Here are some personal budgeting tips:
Tip 1: Keep it simple
You want to break your budget down in distinct categories as this will help you get everything organized and you will be able to see at a glance what you situation looks like. Do not get into complex lists. Just go with income, expenses, extra expenses, debt and savings to start with. If investment is part of your budget, then create a category for this item.
Your ability to make your presentation simple allows you to organize your figures better. It will make it easier to see what is happening and you will avoid getting confused by an overload of information.
Tip 2: Assign estimates properly
One of the biggest personal budgeting mistakes people make is to over estimate income and under estimate expenses. You have to be honest. For any variations in your income and expenses, you have to ensure that your estimate can allow margin of errors.
Always underestimate income and over estimate expenses if in doubt.
Tip 3: Keep tabs on out-going cash
Recording every cent of your expenditures for the course of two weeks can provide you an idea of your spending pattern. It is also the best way to [/spin]spot|identify|mark[/spin] overspending or unnecessary spending.
To reiterate, make sure you make a record of every cent of expenditure in your two week list. Review later and check areas where you can cut down your expenses.
Tip 4: Choose a recording period that works for you.
Most of the time personal budgeting advice tells you to record on a monthly basis. However, your situation may be different and a weekly budget may work best. Do what works for your situation.
Consider your income and how you get paid as to how you maintain your budget.
As you can see, personal budgeting should be personal. What works for one person may not work for someone else Design your budget so it works for you and as long as it works then it is good enough.
How To Create A Household Budget and Money Saving Resources Will Help You Stop Living From Pay To Pay:
Save Up to 80% on Retail
Learn The Secrets To Everday Savings
Stop Living From Pay To Pay
Finance & Self Help and Motivational admin on 23 Sep 2008
Self-discipline And Saving Money
A great way to save money is to be aware of the fact that one has the power to define the state of his finances specifically through a conscious effort of disciplining the way one spends and controlling one’s expenditures.
Self-Discipline And Saving Money
Self-discipline will most definitely be the key to reducing one’s debts therefore increasing the possibility of growing one’s savings. And in the long run, improve one’s standard of living.
According to money management book author Robert Hastings, “Undisciplined money, usually spells undisciplined person”. Therefore, if one notices how his hard-earned money seems to slip away so darned easy, then it is about time that he rethinks his ways and try to discipline his unpleasant spending habits.
One of the essential keys to successful money management, specifically saving money is to possess proper attitude. Self-discipline is at the topmost of this proper attitudes list, of course.
Saving Money
Only with self-discipline that people recognize that they do have the freedom and power to do the right thing over doing as their impulses dictate.
Sounds complicated? Well, not really. Knowing fully the fantastic rewards of disciplined money in a disciplined person’s hands should be motivation enough for one to do all that is humanly possible to achieve that elusive financial stability everyone hopes for.
Here are some helpful money saving tips.
1. Realize that the most convenient method of building one’s wealth is through saving money. Money is the only sensible material to save.
2. Focus expenditures on the things one needs. Live day-by-day knowing that you have enough.
3. Avoid buying on impulse. Take your time when buying, especially the expensive items. If you really need it, it would most definitely not slip your mind. Otherwise, if you go along forgetting all about it, then it isn’t really worth the money you have to spend on it at all.
4. Credit card debts hold the number one slot as the cause for financial drains these days. Control your spending by using your credit cards less. Or for unavoidable circumstances when you really have to use the credit card, consider using the ones that charge less interest. Then dump the high interest ones for good.
No matter how you look at it, saving money is so easy to do. A little bit of imagination, some creativity and a lot of self-discipline will take you a long way in keeping hold of your hard-earned money. More on Saving Money Tips.
Finance admin on 23 Sep 2008
3 More Of The Recommended Blogs About Personal Finance
Where are all the money blogs? Long time passing … just joking, there are hundreds, thousands of money blogs out there. Nobody could possibly follow all of them. So, which ones are worth reading?
I like this blog, which covers financial advice, personal finances, mortgage advice, financial news, credit cards, debt consolidation, refinancing advice, investment and wealth building. There are some very thoughful posts in here, and it’s rare that you find a money blog these days that actually says something you don’t already know. Well, it’s rare for me, and I am sure it’s rare for you, my discriminating reader, as well.
Some blogs try to cover to broad an area, and you find posts about basketball and baby poop interspersed with the financial articles. This one is not like that. It’s broad in the range of financial topics it tackles, but remain focused on money, finances, and investing.
I have been reading a fairly comprehensive blog about financial advice, personal finances, mortgage advice, financial news, investment advice, financial advice, mortgage rates predictions, financial planning, debt reduction, and how to be debt free. The general level of intelligence in the posts is a notch above the average internet page. One of the problems with the internet is that any fool can write and publish any article on any topic, and Google’s quality checking alogrithm doesn’t measure the intelligence of the content, just its relevance and uniqueness.
This blog has some good thoughts, reasonably well expressed, and that sets it head and shoulders about the average Adsense-financed “wall of words’ junk content that is proliferating around the internet on a daily basis.
Worth a look is this blog about pretty much all personal finance topics – saving money, investing, reducing debt, paying off credit cards, creative refinancing ideas, interest rates predictions, debt consolidation, refinancing, investing, reducing expenses, reducing monthly payments, vehicle refinancing, and wealth creation. The occasional post might be too specific to be of interest to a broad market, but most posts will be at least mildly interesting to the average reader, and there is an occasional gem as well. Make sure you check the archives, because you can find timeless material that is quite useful hidden in the depths.
It’s particularly good on strategy, and thinking about your overall financial situation. Any individual tactic is just a piece of the puzzle, and without a co-ordinated financial plan you cannot possibly get the best benefit out of any given tactic.
I think that most consumers could benefit from reading about saving money, investing, reducing debt, paying off credit cards, and creative refinancing ideas on a regular basis. Money blogs are not the only way to gain this information, but they are convenient, provide bite-sized chunks of information, and if you choose well, provide reasonable quality information. Generally they are written in a readable style and break the information into small enough chunks that you don’t get overwhelmed.
I would recommend keeping an eye on the blog at moneytalksabout.com/blog. This blog pulls together RSS feeds from several other good quality money blogs, which saves time and effort in surfing around the internet to each blog. There are good quality original posts from time to time, as well, and Money Talks has a good reputation for no-nonsense content.
As you can imagine, this handful of recommendations is not going to cover the full gamut of money blogs. Quite apart from the existing crowd, new money blogs come into existence every day. There will be hundreds of undiscovered gems available elsewhere. Please add a comment with the URL of your favorite blogs about saving money, investing, reducing debt, paying off credit cards, and creative refinancing ideas, and tell me why you like them. I look forward to hearing your thoughts – and learning something new!