50 Plus Finance

Friday, December 31, 2010

New Years Eve Roundup

The New Year will begin very soon, it's a fresh start for all of us. Around the house we are decompressing from Christmas still. One more weekend to go before things get back to normal. The kids will be back in school and the tax returns carnage will start. This week on the Blog scene we had some pretty good reading . I picked out a few of my favorites.

Mint.com has really done a great job this year including this item. 5 Personal Finance Lessons From “The Biggest Loser”

Squirrelers.com says to think about your decisions in Penny Wise and Dollar Foolish: When Not to Be a Cheapskate

Personal Finance By The Book really hit it on the head with the gift giving at Christmas with Rethinking Our Family Christmas Gift Exchange

Canadianfinanceblog.com had some great and interesting insights on Christmas shopping with Annual Shopping Tips

The Biz OF Life Is always keeping an eye out on our wasteful government with another great article called Top Charts of 2010

Bargaineering.com had a great post about True Wealth Isn’t About Money , I agree.

Fivecentnickel.com told about Jim Otar’s book “Unveiling the Retirement Myth.” Free Retirement Planning Book

Dinksfinance.com had a great post about my favorite subject planning your financial life. We can’t predict our future, but we can make a plan

Cleverdude.com is cutting up some credit cards.And then there were 7…credit cards

20somethingfinance.com is listing all the free things in life with 10 FREE Financial Services to Help you DOMINATE your Financial New Year’s Resolutions

frugaldad.com is celebrating being 3 years old. Happy Birthday and a great post A Letter to Frugal Dad Readers: The Last Three Years

barbarafriedbergpersonalfinance.com has some great tax advice for us with TAX HELP; Tips to Lower Your Tax Bill

Carnivals I have participated in:

Carnival of Money Stories #86: New Year’s Resolution Edition

To everyone Happy New Years.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

5 Easy Steps To Start The Financial New Year Off Right

The New Year is always the calendars way of saying here's another chance to get it right. We make resolutions to eat better and exercise more. Trust me, I have tried that resolution every year. But there has been one resolution I have been successful with and that is getting my financial life in order. You have to much debt and are not saving any money. It's the result of sloppy managing of your money. Get out a pencil and paper, its a lot easier than exercising and eating right, I know. Here are 5 easy steps to get you going.

Step 1: Admit that you have a financial problem. Admitting that you have a financial problem, whether it’s charging too much on credit cards or acknowledging that you own too many credit or store cards is the first step. You can’t begin to erase debt until you are able to admit to yourself (and maybe others) that you have a issue.

Step 2: Make a list of all your debts. You can’t know where to start until you have some sort of blueprint in front of you. And that blueprint will be your list of debts to attack. List out every debt you have (you can even put down your mortgage if you’d like) but list EVERYTHING! You cannot forget, by accident or on purpose, any of the debts. Many people will purposely not add a debt to the list on purpose because it’s a way of ignoring the problem. Part of your success in erasing debt will be how well you acknowledge each and every debt you have. List your debts starting with the smallest debt to the highest. Place them all in a column, one above the other.

Step 3: CREATE A BUDGET. The dreaded B-word. Everyone has a story or excuse or reason why they can’t create a budget or stick to a budget or a budget doesn’t work for them. I’m here to tell you that a budget does work if done properly. I’ve done it wrong and I used all of the excuses in the book to avoid creating one. But a monthly budget that is constantly reviewed and updated is the KEY to erasing your debt. Oooh, that sounds like work. Well, yes it is….

Step 4: Maintain Your Budget. You cannot create one budget and then think that that one budget is going to be the same budget used, month-after-month for the next few years until you get out of debt. If you do that you’ll be frustrated by month two and your budget will go down in flames as a miserable failure as most budgets do. A budget has to be modified every month to meet the needs of your family’s life style. Maybe even updated every week until you feel comfortable with it. And then even when you are out of debt, you will need to continue with a budget. The one guarantee I have for you if you stop doing a budget is that once you stop doing a budget, I guarantee that you’ll be back in debt again. Once you get use to managing a budget, it shouldn’t take up a lot of your time.

Step 5: Include Everyone in the Budget. Be sure to communicate with everyone in the family (spouse and kids) about the budget. Everyone needs to be on the same page and rowing in the same direction. You can’t have a wife following the budget and the husband off buying tools that weren’t budgeted for. It won’t work. EVER! Even tell the kids about the family budget. Now a nine year old doesn’t need to know all the finite details. But make them aware that there is only so much money. And that money is allocated to certain things. And some things are “not in the budget.” They will catch on soon and before you know it, they will be telling you what is not in the budget.

Bonus Step: Start living on a budget. It’s all fine to create a budget and talk about it. But if you don’t implement it, it will never work. What’s the worse that can happen if you go on a budget. You finally may actually start to understand where all your money is going. That may be scary at first but eventually it will feel liberating and you’ll soon erase that debt and start saving.

We are still not done yet. You need encouragement from friends and family for sure. You also need to keep on educating yourself in this money adventure. You must read books and keep reading blogs about personal finance. Also get some of Dave Ramsey's books. His "Total Money Makeover Book" is what you need to read again and again. Find other authors to read and learn all you can. You will be successful if you have a plan and follow it. I Promise.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

How I Used My Emergency Fund

Well, it just happened to me. A rainy day. An emergency. Emergency might be too strong a word. But I did have something break that required repairing. Two days ago the a leak started on my water heater. I didn’t realize it at first. I saw some water on the floor and later that day no hot water.

I called around to get some prices for a new water heater. I called Lowe's and Home Depot they both had good prices. It turned out I had a 10% of coupon for Home Depot so I went there. The cost for the heater was $420. I got out the checkbook for the Emergency fund account and went down to get the heater. The store was offering 10% off if I opened up an account with them. It was tempting, I could have another 10 percent off. I was justifying it that I could open the account and just pay it off, then close it. Use credit or pay by check. Of course I chose the latter and paid by check from my emergency fund.

But it was because I had erased my debt and built up an emergency fund that I was able to deal with this in a calm state of mind and not worry about where was the money going to come from to make this repair. I didn’t panic and place the payment on a credit card. I had the cash in reserve and I used it. Of course my wife and daughter laughed at me because they kept joking how it “hurt” me to part with the cash. And they were right – I hate parting with my hard earned money and savings. But better that than to go back into debt.

Sure, $420 may not seem a big deal to some folks. But to others it could be the source of great stress if they don’t know where the money will come from. Others may feel self-defeated and think, “stuff always breaks and I have to put it on credit card. I’ll never get out of debt.” But with a plan to erase debt and build an emergency fund, an emergency will just be an inconvenience and not a nightmare of falling further into debt.

Erase your debt and you too will have the money to take on life’s surprises.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Make Money, Sell Your Stuff, Try WorthMonkey.com

Now that the holidays are over, you may need some cash to pay off those abused credit cards. You go over to EBay and list your stuff. But don't know what price to sell your items for. That's where WorthMonkey.com comes in.

You enter the item you want a price for and hit the search button. You will see a list of the price range of the item searched. Worth Monkey also gives you a list of where you can buy the item along with the prices.

Worth Monkey was founded in July of 2010. Based in San Luis Obispo, California. Worth Monkey sees itself as the blue book for used electronics and more. The idea arose from the need to find what a good price of item was before purchasing. With some knowledgeable people and only a few experts, it was hard to get an accurate price range. Worth Monkey is intended to give users a single resource to find out the value of an item before they buy or sell without the need to consult someone else.

Worth Monkey is a site that does not sell anything. It's intended to give users a n independent resource to find information and pricing on products they want to buy or sell. The also helps users find the sellers of the products they want to buy. Checking Worth Monkey, before making your purchase can save the buyer a great deal of money.

Using the site is extremely easy. The initial page gives users exactly what they need. No annoying banner ads or clutter. Just type in the item to be searched for and your done. The search bar is large with no distractions. Only a few buttons taking you to Worth Monkeys about page, feedback, and registering.

There is no cost to use Worth Monkey. You can access it without an account. No subscription or fees involved. If you do register you will be allowed to enter feedback on the search and you will be able to enter what you believe the item is worth. Worth Monkey promises many more registration only features in the future.

Worth Monkey is best for users who do a lot of online buying. A novice will have no trouble searching for items and comparing prices. It's free and you can search as often as you like.

So why use Worth Monkey instead of just searching on Google? The only benefit at the moment is the precise focus on the search and not having to deal with all the extra clutter of a google search. Worth Monkey is in it's initial debut period but they promise even more features to come.

Monday, December 27, 2010

Economy Boost Attributed To Secret Weapon: Grandparents

Last year America's 70 million grandparents spent $52 billion dollars on their grand kids according to Grandparents.com . That's a lot of spending power in the middle of a recession. But for them birthdays and Christmas are not the only time of year they give to the little tykes. Grandparents also contribute $17 billion dollars to the grandchildren's education. This includes payments for private school tuition, after school programs, college savings plans, textbooks and supplies. They also spend $10 billion on clothing for the kiddies and $6 billion or more on toys.

Today's grandparents are avoiding the silly plastic trinkets and useless electronic gadgets for more long term meaningful things like education. Even though hit by a hard economy and ever rising prices it's a rare grandparent that doesn't sacrifice for their little ones. They are there to also help teach the little ones valuable life lessons as they grow. You will hear grandparents say the way to a happy life is not the latest toy, but education and a good job, it is necessary for a bright future.

The growing trend nowadays is that the grandparents are in better financial shape than their children. This allows them to pick up the slack when it comes to the needs of the grandchildren. Grandparents who are retired or near retiring are able with their extra time or financial resources to help more. The parents may have no money available or are suffering from a job loss and need the help. Thank goodness for the grandparents help.

It's a fact that the generation of the parents will not be as prosperous as the generation of the grandparents. The parents are being called the sandwich generation. They are in the middle of parents who are enjoying extended life spans and children growing up in an ever expensive lifestyle.

If you were able to have your grandparents in your life as you were growing up you were lucky. In my case, my 2 grandfathers were alive to see me marry. Except for my Father, they have been the most influential men in my life. They were frugal before frugal was something new. They taught me about life and family. The made my life richer. I hope I can be half as good as they were. Again, thank goodness for grandparents.

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Sunday, December 26, 2010

How To Go To Medical School For Free

Many government agencies, universities and charities are putting up the money to give free or nearly free medical school educations.

What does it cost to go to medical school? At a home state's medical school your likely to pay as much as $150,000. At a private school the price is double. But when you graduate and finish your residency you will be enjoying a 6 figure salary or more.

Before applying for admission and college funding, check the fine print to see what the school requires as service for the free education. Military scholarships, for example, require students to put 2 years of service for every year of scholarship.

The University of Central Florida is offering completely free medical educations to all 40 members of the class of 2013.

Vanderbilt is giving a few complete scholarships for a few top-notch students here.

Washington University is giving complete scholarships for a few students here.

The military, if your officer material, will pay your tuition and living expenses through 4 years of medical school. No matter if your in the Army, Navy, or Air Force. You will have to serve one year for every year of school.

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The National Health Care Service will pay tuition and living expenses for those training to become primary-care physicians. Recipients will be assigned to needy areas and must work at least one year for every year of a scholarship. They'll also need to be good and lucky: The NHS gets seven times more applications than it has scholarships.

The National Institutes of Health will pay tuition and a living stipend for those interested in spending the eight years in school necessary to receive an M.D. and a research Ph.D. through programs like its Medical Scientist Training Program. These scholarships are designed to help those who want to become research scientists, not Beverly Hills plastic surgeons.

Some scholarships cover only tuition, leaving medical students to pay for their living expenses, which can easily run more than $2,000 a month. Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University will offer free tuition to all future medical students. The Cleveland Clinic focuses on training researchers and academics. You'll need to have good grades, scores, and luck. Last year, before the new scholarship program was announced, the Cleveland Clinic received 1,423 applications for its 32 slots. It'll probably be even more competitive this year.

The Mayo Clinic promises every admitted medical student a scholarship of at least $25,000. That means students in the fall of 2011 will be charged no more than $4,200. And many will get other scholarships to cover that.

The National Health Service Corps will repay $60,000 in education debt for two years of service in needy areas. It will repay up to $179,000 for 5 years of service.

Another great money saving tip is to look into courses online for a variety of fields.

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