Jill Russo Foster

Tips for Successful Personal Finances

You are here: Home / Archives for Every Day Finances

Money, Life and Savings

By

A reader asked me about how to save to purchase a home, when your money doesn’t allow much for savings.

That’s a great question. But not an easy one to answer.

We all know that saving should be a priority.  But we have monthly obligations.  So here are so general steps to achieve what you want (in this case a home).

  1. Track your spending – many people overlook this step.  Trust me this is the most important step in achieving your goal.  Write down every penny that you spend for at least a month.  Track everything from the rent payment to purchase of the newspaper.
  2. Weekly (or more often) take your tracked numbers and put it in to a budget.
  3. Analyze where your money is going and make a plan to spend less.  Even saving $5 a week will add up.
  4. Automate your savings goals and pay yourself first.  You will learn to live off less if you don’t see it available in your checking account. You may want to unlink your checking and savings (or have them with separate banks).
  5. Lastly, look into home ownership programs in your community.
  6. Check out to see if you qualify for an Individual Development Account to save for a down payment.

While it’s hard to save money each and every month.  It a necessary step in life to achieving your goals.

 

Need Your Thoughts!

By

You, as loyal readers of my newsletter, I need your thoughts.

For years, i have been writing my newsletter and informing you about personal finances issues.  I wants to know what you want to hear about.  What topics are of interest to you?  What do you want to learn more about?

Here are some suggestions (but please feel free to add your thoughts)

  1. Personal Finance General
  2. Getting Out Of Debt
  3. Savings For Your Future
  4. Money and Kids
  5. Retirement
  6. Money For The Fun Things In Life
  7. Organizing Your Finances
  8. Your Choice __________________________________

Let me know by responding to this post on social media, blog post or an email to book@jillrussofoster.com.  Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond.

Money Habits To Avoid (Part 3)

By

This is part 3 of Money Habits To Avoid.  If you missed part 1 or 2, please search my blog post.

 

6. Keeping up with the Jones’ — There is always going to be someone with a nicer home, car, clothing, etc. That’s just life. Your budget cannot survive trying to keep up with others. This habit will send your budget off a cliff. You going to need to get comfortable with where you are and what you have.

 

  1. Ignoring Your Finances — I met some people who don’t open their mail, don’t answer the phone, and are totally oblivious to their finances. Ignoring your finances won’t make them go away, they will be there untilyou deal with them. In fact, you will owe more with added interest and additional charges. If this is you, take baby steps to get acquainted with your finances.

If you see yourself in any of these habits, the first step is awareness.  Once you are aware, you can make the changes necessary to break the habit.

Money Habits To Avoid (Part 2)

By

This is part 2 of Money Habits To Avoid.  If you missed part 1, please search my blog post.

3. Using Credit Cards to Get By — You know what I mean, you use your credit card because you don’t have the cash to purchase … This is a red flag if this is an every day, week, or month occurrence. Credit cards definitely havea place in your finances, but they are not the means to spending more than you can afford on a regular basis.

4. Discretionary Spending to Impress — This may have happened to you, I know it did for me when I was coming out of college. You are out with friends and you offer to pick up the tab. Maybe you want them to think you are doing better than you actually are, maybe you want to seem on par with your friends, whatever the case, no one expects you to pay more than your fair share. If you can’t afford to do something at this point, maybe you politely decline.

5. Emotional Spending — Just like emotional eating, emotional spending can be a problem. You are upset, and you go out and buy a …… Yes, you feel great in the moment, but did you need a … ….? Was it money you were planning on spending? Probably not. You know what you need to purchase, make a plan and stick to it.

Check out the next posts to find out the rest of the Money Habits To Avoid.

Money Habits To Avoid (Part 1)

By

In my opinion, there are seven money habits you want to avoid.

 

You may be currently doing these or have done them in the past (and I have been guilty of them myself), but now is the time to break the habits and get on with your finances.

  1. Lending Money — I think we all did this at some point in our lives, whether it be loaning $5 to a friend and not getting paid back, or lending more. Not only does this put a strain on your finances but it can affect your friendship. Make a resolution to give up lending. If you want to help someone out, then make it a gift with no repayment expectations.

 

  1. Spending It All — Yes, you know what I am talking about — living paycheck to paycheck. We all have choices we make with our finances — whether to spend this today or save for tomorrow. Budgeting is about choices that your make. So make the choice to not spend it all and save. Making this decision is the first step to starting to save and the next step is to actually do it (automate the savings process to make it foolproof).

Check out the next two posts to find out the rest of the Money Habits To Avoid.

Spring Cleaning Your Finances & More

By

As I sit here and write this blog post about spring, I feel that I am missing spring.  Here in the northeast we seem to be having a never ending winter.  Yes, we have had a few days of warm sunshine.  We have been subject to various temperature swings – one day 50 and then cold, snowy / rainy days.  I know it’s spring because the daffodils and crocus are blooming (and something peeking out of the snow).

Because the calendar says spring, lets talk about your finances.  Now that tax season is over, it’s a good time to take a look at your finances and tackle these ideas:

  1. When was the last time you shredded your out dated paperwork.  Typically, after seven years papers can be tossed with a few exceptions.  Check with your tax preparer for your situation.  This is a good time to do this as many communities have a free paper shredding days this weekend for you to take advantage of.
  2. Did you learn something from filing your taxes?  Maybe you need to make adjustments to your paycheck withholding or to save more to be able to pay the taxes you owe.  Take a look at your finances and make the changes now.
  3. Where do your finances stand in relationship to your beginning of the year goals?  Maybe you set a goal to save a certain amount this year.  Are you one third of the way there?  We are about four months into the year, therefore you should be at 33% of your goal.  Are you on the path to achieving this goals? Do you need to make adjustments to your finances to achieve the goal?  Now is the time to take a look and make the changes needed, so you are not disappointed at year end.

Hopefully, the weather will agree with the calendar and spring will arrive soon.

Let me know what your spring finance projects are.

Spring Cleaning Your Finances & More

By

Today, I am going to talk about actual spring cleaning and how I do this while saving money.

Personally, we try to avoid chemicals in all aspects of our lives.  A few years back I was amazed at all the products on the market and what they were made up of.  Have you hear of these words?

  • sodium lauryl / laureth sulfate (SLS)
  • fragrances and dyes
  • propylene glycol
  • parabens
  • formaldehyde

And that is to name only a few ingredients.  Can you guess what products these chemicals are in? (see the bottom).

In our household, we have eliminated much of these thanks to many other options.  We use  Young Living’s Essential Oils and make many of our own products and/or purchase them from Young Living.  Thieves is a staple in our home – here’s a link to the product information page.  We use this oil / products to clean (dish washing soap, dishwasher detergent, tooth paste, hand sanitizer, wipes and more.

We make our own cleaners – one quick and easy to do one is glass cleaner (1/4 cup white vinegar, 2 cups water with a few drops of my favorite essential oils mix together in a glass spray bottle.  This works great in mirrors, windows and glass coffee table.  There are many more items you can easily make at home without chemicals.  One of my favorite books Essential Oils Ancient Medicine by Dr. Josh Axe, Ty Bollinger and Jordan Rubin.

If you would like to try a sample of essential oils, I have a very limited supply of Young Livings Thieve’s essential oils, that I can let you try, just reply to this blog post and I will respond.  If you are interested in learning more about Young Living oils, please click this link.

Not only can you spring clean your home without chemical, you can save money too.  Home made products are easy to make and can be cost pennies (saving your wallet too).

Note, that I have an affiliate relationship with Young Living.

Toothpaste, Shampoo, Make Up, Laundry Detergent, Soaps, Deodorant and more.

Reducing The Chemicals In Our Life

By

I don’t know about you, but there seems to be more and more chemicals in my life.  They are in the food we eat, the products we buy, in our home and everywhere else.  It’s scary to me.

When I do something, I ten to jump in with both feet.

For our food, I cook most meals and purchase whole unprocessed foods for the meals I make.  I tend to stick to the outer aisles of the grocery store buying more fruits, vegetables, meat and fish (more so than the processed ready to eat food in the aisles.  We still have our garden in the warmer months for fresh just picked vegetables. I am experimenting more with new recipes / ideas to make.  Are we perfect, no!  But we are substantially better than a few years ago.

In our home, we have eliminated most toxic products in favor of healthier alternatives.  Using vinegar, baking soda, Castile soap with essential oils does the trick in our house.  Clean bathrooms, floors, counter tops and more with no more toxic fumes and they work great!

If you want to try or start, here are some great resources to learn more and to make your own products:

For more resources, please visit my resource page on my website JillRussoFoster.com

What do you do in your household?  Let me know

**If a link is an affiliate it will be clearly noted with ** so that you are aware that Jill Russo Foster may receive a percentage of the purchase price if you chose to buy the linked product. There is no difference in price to you.

Eliminating Expenses

By

As I get older, I don’t need as many things and we continue to reduce and eliminate things and save the money.

This year, I have eliminated things in my business that I don’t really need – such as my efax and 800# (most of my correspondence is by email, so why pay for these services).  As you know, I have changed the format of the newsletter and eliminated another monthly service bill.  All this adds up to a savings.

For our personal life, we would rather have experiences versus stuff. I spent a good part of 2017 going through family photos, slides and movies ( a bug project that I should have done a long time ago).  We sorted and tossed. We sorted and gave to other family members. We sorted and scanned photos.  We sorted and had the slides digitized. We sorted and had the movies turned into DVDs.  We took numerous boxes, a file cabinet and slide carousels into a few photo albums and DVD’s.  All the photo are a back up hard drive and in a cloud (the ones we saved I don’t want to lose).

What can your reduce or eliminate to save you money?