Opening your own IRA is a great idea, but do your research first.
Make a few appointments to interview banks and investment companies. What are their fees? What types of investments do they offer? There are many options to choose from.
Tips for Successful Personal Finances
Emergency savings are for when your car breaks down. It’s for an unexpected medical expenses. It’s for covering your bills if you’re between jobs. It’s for unexpected home repairs. An emergency is something that must be taken care of right now or you won’t be able to get to work, have a place to live, or when you might have to choose between medical bills and utilities.
What it’s not: a savings account for things you think you need. No matter how much you think need to book a cruise, a nice vacation is a want. You will survive if you vacation at home with trips to the local beach. You will also survive without a smart phone, or cable TV, or a Kindle. You get the idea.
Once you have an emergency savings equal to one year of your expenses (yes, I said one year), then you can start saving for the fun things you want in life. Today, plan on how you are going to start saving for emergencies. Set up a regular savings amount from your pay that automatically goes to this account.
Whatever your goals are, you have to learn to live within your means. That means that you cannot spend more than you earn. For every dollar you bring in, you need to spend less than a dollar so that the remaining amount can be saved.
Go back to the numbers you did earlier this month. Are you including money for savings? If not, you need to figure a way to do that. In a perfect world, you need to have savings for emergencies, savings for retirement and savings for wants. Today, think about how you will get that money to save.
It’s Day 20 of Financial Literacy Month – time to make a list of things you really want. Maybe it’s money to pay for your children’s college? Maybe it’s more money to save for retirement? Maybe it’s enough money to be able to live monthly and not worry about how to pay your bills? Whatever you want, today is the day to make a list and meditate on your goals.
Do you spend lots of money on greeting cards and postage? Do you forget to send cards? Try an online greeting card service. I use one that’s less than $10 per year (with no postage). I get reminders for special dates, and can schedule ahead of time, or send right away. No special day slips by me. …Of course, nothing beats markers, paper, and hand-delivery. 🙂
Board games aren’t just for kids. Lately, teens, college students and adults have rediscovered game night parties thanks to new games like Apples to Apples, Ticket to Ride, Last Night on Earth (a zombie game), Pandemic (a plague game), Settlers of Catan, and the crazy fun Quelf. Personally, I love a fast-paced game of Mexican Train (dominoes).
How about a movie marathon at home? Go to your local library, borrow several movies, and watch them on your own TV with homemade popped corn. If the library doesn’t have what you want, rent them from your local grocery store movie kiosk for minimal cost. Netflix members can use a Roku or compatible game console.
If you want something more than pot luck but don’t want to pay a fortune for dinner out, try a BYOB restaurant. Check around, some restaurants will let you bring your own bottle of wine. Ask first, because there could be a “corkage fee” for bringing your own bottle. When you buy wine from a restaurant, your favorite bottle can be double the price of what you would pay retail. Check with your state, because some states will let you bring the partial bottle home, and others won’t. This is one way wine lovers can enjoy dinner out and still save some money.
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April is Financial Literacy Month and I want to spread the word so that everyone can improve their finances.
For the month of April, we will be posting daily tips from my book Thrive In Five: Take Charge of Your Finances in 5 Minutes a Day on Twitter, LinkedIn and my Facebook Fan Page. We need you to share and repost to your connections and friends so that these simple tips spread across the internet. My goal is to increase my exposure and increase the number of people who subscribe, so we can ease the financial confusion that holds so many people back.
As new people subscribe to my newsletter, we will be asking them to tell us who referred them. Remember to ask them to use your name. The top person who gives us the most new subscribers by April 30, will win a free 30-minute coach session with me. It’s that simple. So tell your friends, family, co-workers and everyone else you know so you can increase your chances to win.
First, remember to connect with me through social media – Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook Fan Page, or you can forward this blog post for them to sign up for the newsletter. Thank you for spreading the word.
If you want an additional way to win a free coaching session with me, tell us which tip has inspired you to make a change in your finances. What have you added to your routine, or what have you stopped doing? Maybe you read that you could keep the same routine if you just did things a little differently. Tell us your story in a few sentences that we can use as a testimonial. Don’t worry; we will only use your first name. We will select one quote randomly from all submitted and that person will also win a free 30-minute coaching session with me during the month of May.
We want everyone to have some extra cash this April, so let’s make it rain by sharing financial information that really works.
Last month (as we do every January) we got back on track after holiday spending. We looked at our finances and made some changes. This year, we tracked our spending to see where our money was going. Not many surprises for us – that’s a good thing.
We find that when we track our spending, we think twice about those little impulse expenses: bringing lunch from home instead of eating out, planning dinner ahead versus picking up take-out. All these little things add up for us.
I encourage you to do this for 30 days. It takes less than 5 minutes a day and can be eye opening. Let me know what you find out about your spending habits. If the thought is overwhelming, my budget tracker could make things easier for you. You just enter the numbers and it adds it all up for you.
We’ve received some great name suggestions, but we’re still looking for more. Quick Tips will become something new, fresh and inspiring and we need a new name. We’d love to hear some creative new ideas.
Want to help? Submit your name suggestions to jill@jillrussofoster.com or on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or here. I know you have some great ideas, so share ’em with me!