11 Ways for Saving Money

11 Ways for Saving Money

Are you new at budgeting your finances? Do you really need to start saving up for a new vehicle, plan a vacation, save for retirement, pay on some medical bills? Here are some thoughts of how you can say for these items.

1. Make a total of all your monthly bills. Monthly bills are ones that occur every month, usually on the same day. Insurances, house payments, cell phone bills, and car/school loans are all considered routine monthly expenses. Don't include things like grocery shopping, clothing, or eating out, these are flexible and can change from month to month.

2. Make a list of net income after taxes you receive each month. This would also include rental income, child support, interest you receive from investment, and etc.

3. Subtract your monthly bills from your income and what is left over is your true free income.

4. Take a look at your credit cards. Put your highest interest cards at the top of the list to pay off first. We need to get rid of these first and only keep the one with the lowest interest rate in your wallet. The ones in your wallet should only be used for emergencies only, like car repairs, medical emergencies, and home repairs that are a must!

5. Think about all the money you need to spend to SURVIVE. Not on dinners out, new toys, or clothing. Things you need to keep your family fed and healthy. Subtract this money from your free income, it should only be half or less of your free income money.

6. Use the rest of your free income to start paying down your credit cards. If you just pay the minimum each month you will not see your credit card debt drop. You must make a diligent effort to pay more than the minimum.

7. Repeat these steps until your credit card debt is under control. This doesn't mean having absolutely no debt, but I would recommend an amount you can pay off in 3 months or less.

8. Congratulations on making it to step eight and getting your debt somewhat under control! Now let's start saving. If you like to see what you need to save to retire, here is a free retirement calculator for helping figure our what you may need. Retirement Calculator

9. If your company has a 401k and they offer any sort of match (any percentage), start the 401k. This is free money that your company is giving you, if you do not take advantage of this you are losing out.

10. With you car loans, mortgage companies, and credit cards you may want to try and connect with the lenders and ask if they would consider lowering your interest rates. Even if you only get one yes, it is better than not asking at all and continue to pay high interest rates.

11. If your employer directly deposits money into your bank account, set up an extra account to add money into. Since you don't ever see it, you won't think about it. If you deposit your checks yourself, take advantage of a savings account or do what I did and set up an account at another bank and then on my bill pay each month I automatically transfer funds from my working account to my other bank account, what do they say, out of sight out of mind.

As hard as it sounds, try not to indulge. Cut back your cable package, go out to eat once a month, and instead of seeing movies on the big screen with your entire family, wait until you can rent the movie. Chances are you can rent movies through red box for less than $2.00! You can save a lot of money if you just put some effort into it. Our family had to make adjustments, but now we can sleep at night and don't have get scared if the phone rings thinking what collection agency is after me now.

10 Ways to Get Out of Debt Without Ruining Your Future Credit

10 Ways to Get Out of Debt Without Ruining Your Future Credit
By Steve M Williams

Are you sick of spending large portions of your monthly income on repaying loans, credit cards and hire purchases?  Do you wish you had made better financial choices when you were younger?  Or are you still feeling the financial pinch following a personal crisis?

Whatever it is that got you into debt, you're not alone.  Literally millions of people are repaying money they wish they had never spent, or being penalized month after month for a time when they were forced to rely on credit.

There is hope.  You can get out of debt and take control of your financial future.

These ten simple steps show how you can get started:


Work out where you are financially - it sounds obvious, but so many people begin to bury their heads in the sand when finances are hard.  Be brave and confront your debt.  Make a record of exactly how much you owe, to whom.  Include the repayment period, the monthly installments, and the interest rates for each, as well as the dates each of these payments are required each month.

Budget yourself - now you know exactly where you are in terms of debt, you need to consider this in terms of your total income and other outgoings.  Make a record of all sources of income you receive as a family, together with all outgoings.  Are there some luxuries you can temporarily sacrifice to overpay your loans and get out of debt faster?  By having one take-away less each month, how much can you overpay your mortgage or credit cards by?  Be careful to examine your direct debits - these are often forgotten about instead of canceled.  Do you need and make use of all of the services and products you are charged for?  If you have a newspaper or magazine subscription, consider reading this free online instead - it's surprising how much daily newspapers especially add up to each month.

Using this information, create a sensible plan to overpay the debts with the highest interest rates. Include the whole family in this process so they understand why they are sacrificing the takeaway or newspaper - this is a great financial education for children and something the school won't teach them, so don't feel bad for involving them.

Be disciplined in your spending - when you feel the financial pinch, it's tempting to resort to getting further in debt.  Previously, this has been an option for almost everyone, but as the economic climate changes, more and more people will be refused further debts.  Get out of the habit of relying on additional credit right away.  If you need additional money, firstly question whether you do really need it, and then brainstorm ways of raising that amount without going further into debt.  Websites like eBay and CraigsList make it easy to sell anything you no longer use, and a pre-Christmas clear out can usually raise a surprising amount of money for Christmas gifts.  (I mention Christmas as it is the most popular time for new applications for loans and credit cards - don't do it.  Plan ahead.)

Track daily spending habits - often, when completing step two (budgeting), people will not understand how they spend all of their income.  In other words, the numbers don't add up.  To obtain a clear view of your finances, it's essential to track daily spending.  Each family member should do this, and honesty is key.  If you are spending £5 on lunch each day and your spouse is having a Starbucks coffee each day, you are spending a sizable chunk of money every single month on things that are not necessary.  Using these examples, you're spending around £158 each month!  What a difference that could make if it was used to overpay your highest-interest debts.  To lower this spending, only take your debit and credit cards out when necessary (often we fool ourselves that we need them 'in case of an emergency') and take just as much cash as you will definitely need for vital outgoings like bus fairs, parking expenses, etc.

 Bond with your bills - most service providers will offer you a discount for paying by direct debit.  Give them a call today and arrange this, taking note of the amount saved each month.  Use this extra cash to overpay your highest-interest debt.

Shop around - it's very likely that you are not being charged the lowest price possible for your utilities.  Using a quick Google search you can find impartial comparison sites for everything from telephone to electricity and internet providers.  Find one of these sites for your country and switch to a cheaper provider.  You guessed it; use the amount you save by doing this to over-pay your highest-interest debt.

Transfer debt - repeat step 6 but in terms of your credit cards and loans.  Shop around for ones that charge lower interest rates than your current ones, but don't get fooled into topping up loans or taking on extra sums and extending the period of the loan.

No more store credit cards - these usually charge by far the highest interest rates and see you paying well over the odds for the original items bought.  Cut up any existing store cards and don't be tempted into getting new ones.  Despite the great initial discounts they may offer, the danger of getting into more high-interest debt is too great.  Get used to paying for things with cash, which forces you to recognize the amount you are spending and often makes you realize you don't want the item in question that badly!

Bye bye bank - repeat step 6 but this time, for your bank account.  Look at online banks particularly, as these are often much more favorable than the larger high-street banks.

Review your mortgage - for most people, the mortgage is the biggest expense each month.  Spend some time ensuring you are getting the best deal.  Speak to an independent financial advisor to see whether you can save money by changing, but remember to take into account any transfer fees and other penalties.

Using just these ten steps you can monitor your outgoings, allowing you to overpay your debts.  This will get you free from debt quicker and will also give you a sense of achievement from saving money, instead of the happiness many people get from spending it.  As your highest-interest debt is repaid in full, you can then apply that complete sum to the next-highest, and so on.

With discipline, you can set your family free from financial debt.

Steve Williams is a renowned Wealth Coach, helping people around the world get out of debt and create wealth. He is currently offering a FREE special report entitled '15 Secrets of Wealth That Will Transform Your Finances & Lifestyle'

Debt settlement is sometimes the only way to turn.

This article is from personal experience of hitting a financial wall and coming to a sudden stop. I was 40 years old and my whole life stopped. I was financially devastated and did not know where to turn. I had been making a good income and my wife at the time was working full time and making very good money. But then I walked into work one day and my job had come to an end. I had no clue that this was going to happen. We had been living high on the hog and had not been putting away any funds for times like this, we had no nest egg or financial cushion to fall back onto. I was devastated, I felt like my world was crashing in around me and I had no clue of where to turn or what to do. 

My credit cards were close to being maxed out and I had other bills that were closing in on me. I had reached out to credit counseling agencies to try and help me get my bills in order. They worked except they took every red cent I had and put it all towards my debt, which is fine but it leaves you with nothing which hurts when you have unexpected car repairs or home repairs or a medical emergency. You cannot just pick up the phone and call your credit counselor  and say I am skipping this months payment to fix my car, the credit counseling agents do not want to hear this from you and they will not help when you have these situation's. So unfortunately I had to take out other credit cards to help when these issues came about.

I had also looked into a consolidation loans to wrap all my debt into one account and one payment with a much lower interest rate and a payment that I could afford. This would have been great but with no job and only my wife's income I could not qualify for loan, I was what is called “upside down”, my debt to income ratio was backwards or upside down, I owed more monthly than what I had coming in as income. A consolidation loan was out of the question, it would have been great but there was no bank or loan company out there that would give me the time of day.

Unfortunately a lot of these types of programs do not work for people and they did not work for me either. One thing that I did do that worked for me was to go and find a professional debt settlement representative that could talk to the collection agencies, credit card companies, and other people I was in debt to and come up with a debt settlement that we all agreed too. A lot of people frown on debt settlement because it does hurt your credit report and credit score, but when you are in a position like I was my credit score sucked anyways. I opted to take a hit on my credit and pay off my debt at an agreed upon settlement instead of filing bankruptcy. The process can take two to three years of work but I was able to get my bills paid off and in the process I had found a new job and I took that income and applied it to my overall debt.

The whole situation was a wake up call for me. I knew from this that I needed to start storing away some funds on a weekly basis to cover me for three to six months just in case one of us loses our job again or we get sick and cannot go to work and we have to live on one income again. Everybody needs to make sure that they have at least six months of income stored away in case of emergencies.

How do you feel about debt?

How do you feel about debt?

All of us have heard many times over and over again, debt is bad! Even the bible talks about debt, “Proverbs 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is a servant to the lender.” The one misconception that many Christians talk about is, going into debt is a sin. Nowhere in the bible does it say that debt is a sin or that you have broken one of God's commandments if you find yourself in debt. The bible does talk about being in debt is dangerous and the bible also talks about not repaying your debt “Psalm 37:21 The wicked borrow and do not repay”.

One of the issues we see today that our own leaders in government is borrowing money like mad and going deeper and deeper into debt, which is teaching us to do the same. Our own government is setting a bad example for us to follow. Back in 2008 the government was saying that the people of the nation are not

borrowing enough money to purchase items and the Federal Reserve had to step in to help bail out companies that were hurting because we were not buying things to help companies pay their debt. The government has been in debt since the last great depression, but over the past several years the debt that the government owes has skyrocketed out of the roof. Most of the country’s debt is either mortgage debt or student loan debt. We have seen both of these categories explode over the years. Back just a few years ago when the housing market balloon busted we saw many homeowners leave their homes and dumped this debt back onto the government through bankruptcies. The government was handing out money to homeowners like handing out candy to children. I was working at the time doing loan closings for individuals and people were taking out two and three loans against their home equity just to purchase toys and etc. I knew something bad was going to happen, there was just too much money being handed out all around the country and I was correct. Banks and financial institutions began to fold and the market value on homeowners homes began to drop like a rock. Soon homes that had two and three mortgages on them were upside down, that is when you owe more on the home than what it is worth. When people realized this they just packed up their personal belongings and left their home and gave it back to the lenders (the government in most cases).

Let’s look at some reasons people go into debt or have to go into debt.

Income has been cut. For many, their income has taken a hit or they had to change jobs and their monthly income is less now. Many people fall into this category and they have not tried to cut their expenses. They want to continue to live like they were before their income was cut so they take out loans or charge credit cards to fill in the gap between their income and their expenses.

No savings. It is too easy to spend money that you have left over at the end of the week or month. A person or family should take any left over money and stick it away for a rainy day. Many families have no money or savings set aside for unexpected bills or job layoff or illness. A family should try and set aside three to six months of salary just for times like this, if they don’t they have to use credit cards and other types of loans to make ends meet.

Spending money before you get it. You are banking on a big bonus, or inheritance and it does not come in, but you have already spent this money and now you cannot payoff that credit card bill. I have learnt this one the hard way myself. I was informed of a big bonus and went out and bought some new fishing gear and then the company told me that they made a mistake in calculating my bonus and it was more than half less than it was supposed to be. The moral to this example is, never spend the money until the check clears the bank.

Lack of communication in the family. I find that a lot of family’s have terrible communication skills when it comes to talking about finances. When it comes to money people are afraid to talk to their significant other about buying habits, or the bank statement, or savings and etc. I know families where the husband runs the finances and the wife has no clue what is in the bank and she is afraid to ask anything to her husband about the bank account. I know other families where each spouse has their own bank accounts and they have no clue what the other does with his or her money. Each person has his and hers charge cards and there is no communication between the two of how far in debt they are. This is a terrible way to live as a union. This tells me that there is no trust in the household.

Medical Bills. Medical bills are just getting out of hand. Even with medical insurance you still have large deductibles, copay's, and the insurance is denying many types of surgeries that a person may need to have done. My nephew for an example has hepatitis C from a blood transfusion from when he was a child and he has to take a medication that cost a thousand dollars a day. His insurance will only pay for fifty percent of the cost, there is no generic medication and if he does not take the medication it will kill him. Unfortunately he cannot pay for the medication without going into debt. Another example is my wife, she had to have major surgery, the hospital required a twenty thousand dollar copay, and she has great medical coverage. The hospital required for her to take out a credit card with them in order for her to have the surgery. The hospital is not in the credit card business, they have a third party company that issues the credit, but the hospital has seen too many times when they have not gotten paid after the surgery, and the hospital is just trying to protect themselves from financial failure.

Divorce. Most of us have been through a divorce once or twice in your life. I can count on one hand the number of friends that have not gone through a divorce. As most of us know, a divorce is extremely expensive, even a simple divorce will cost about $3,000.00, then if you have children and assets it will drive the cost of the divorce through the roof. I have one family member that has to fly from Florida to Alaska every time his wife takes him back to court for one thing or another, can you imagine what his divorce is costing him. I know two others that have been separated for over three years and still legally married because they cannot afford to go through the divorce. Many people opt to go into deeper debt just to get the divorce over with.

These here are just a few reasons why people fall into debt. We would love to hear from you some other reasons why maybe you have gone into this dark deep hole called debt.

Can money make us happy

Can money really buy happiness?

This is a really tough question to answer because you have to look at in different ways. First the Bible says that “For the love of money is the root of all evil 1 Timothy 6:10”. But many people take this out of context. It is when we trade our Christian life to serve making money over everything and everybody else. Being greedy and covet money is the evil part of money. It is what we do with the money that either brings us happiness or evil.

In today's society the use of money to pay our bills, to help us get out of debt, take a vacation, purchase groceries, get us a vehicle so we can have dependable transportation, and of course put a roof over our heads is what we are suppose to use money for. Without these basic essentials we  would not be able to be

happy and it takes money to have these items so we can live. To say can money purchase happiness, my answer would have to be yes.

People look at happiness in all different ways. A friend of mine who is not a Christian looks at what makes him happy is buying things. He is a spontaneous buyer. He walks into a furniture store and walks out purchasing a $6000.00 bed. He had no plans of purchasing a bed when he entered the store, it was an impulse purchase. He ended up putting the expenditure on a credit card because he had no money to pay for it, but he felt the need to buy something. Now he is $6000.00 deeper in debt and is unhappy because he has this debt. So for the moment he was happy but it was short lived when he received his credit card bill and the happiness is  gone.

In today’s society we are pounded over and over again to make purchases and buy new things, even if we do not need them or can afford them. The world tells us just go ahead and charge it, we can pay for it later. In 2014 there were over 1 million dollars of personal bankruptcies mostly because people over purchased and could not dig themselves out of debt.

Relationships not things is what brings us happiness.  It has been said many times, that relationships with people, not things is what brings a person happiness. In a report in the Huffington Post that shared many studies of this same exact thing. Even the bible talks about this in Matthew 6:19-20 says “Do not store up for yourselves treasures (material items) here on earth, where moths and rust will destroy and where thieves will break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth or rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

Now let’s look at some steps of how money can buy us happiness the correct way.

Step 1; Get out of debt.  

Debt is the number one killer of a happy home. Debt brings on misery, unhappiness, physical damage to your health by being stressed over debt, and if you get yourself so deep in debt you have to file bankruptcy you will have many years of hard work bringing your credit back up to a good standard. This is why I listed getting out of debt as being step one.

Step 2; Give to others.

Luke 6:38 Give and it shall be given unto you. Proverbs 19:17 One who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, and HE will repay him for his good deed. Proverbs 28:27 He who gives to the poor will never want, but he who shuts his eyes will have many curses. It has been proven over and over again from bible scholars to psychologist that giving and making others happy in turn makes us feel better and makes us happy.

Step 3; Look at what brings happiness.

For me it is spending time with my family and also helping others that are in despair. I would love to be able to be financially free from the bonds of work in order to do this but at this present time I am not. I am working on taking the money I make from my present job and from working on this blog to be able to make myself financially free in order to help others as much as I can. To me a job is an anchor around my neck that is holding me back from giving aid to others that are much less fortunate.

But each of us has to look at ourselves to see what brings us happiness. Hopefully it is not material things, but if it is them that is something that you have to work with and for. Whatever it is it takes money to get us the happiness that we are striving for.

Money can bring us happiness if we use it correctly to help us get out of debt, pay your bills, help others, and share it with those who do not have it. But if we covet money and be greedy with it money can be the root to unhappiness.