If you make huge money mistakes early on in your life, it could have a negative effect on your future. This is why young people starting out in their career need to be very careful in making financial choices. Any of the 7 money mistakes listed here could easily develop into a habit that could have a lasting impact on View full post…
I get a lot of e-mails from readers who bought into the idea that every child should have a college education. By the time Johnny graduates, he’s facing about $100,000 in student loans, and is having a hard time finding even a low paying job, let alone in his career field. Starting out your life with little income and very high debt, can be very depressing. There are many good careers without college education.
I’ve been preaching this for View full post…
Either one is an acceptable goal, but is one better than the other, or maybe you should do both? There are many opinions to the answer to this question, so let’s explore some of them. People who have created a budget and have extra cash, are sometimes faced with this dilemma.
So, should you pay off debt or invest that extra cash? A broad answer is there is no one size fits all situation. It all depends on a lot of factors surrounding your personal financial circumstances.
Using your spare cash to invest or View full post…
Managing your money effectively is not hard to learn. The very first thing you need to understand is your monthly bills don’t determine how all of your money is spent. You do! Spend as much time as you need, to know exactly where your money goes, and why.
If you ask the typical person “where does your money go”, after a blank stare, he may say, my bills. They may, in fact, go to the bills, but what bills? Most of us have rent or a mortgage payment, maybe a car loan, and today especially, student loans. Many others have high credit card balances too.
If you really want to get a handle View full post…
5 Tips for Couples to Manage Their Joint Financials
Financial issues often lead to frustrations when they are not organized well enough. When it comes to couples, it is even more important to have strict and tight administration, as it can slowly but steadily build up unwanted tension even in the best relationship. In this article, we gathered a few tips and tools that make our lives easier.
Tip #1 – Be open about it
Both members of the couple will join the relationship with some kind of history. One may have had an adventurous life, while the other may have had an eventful financial past. If you are open about your economic background from the beginning View full post…
There are many challenges that an entrepreneur faces daily, and one of the major ones is improving cash flow. Practically every small business owner looks for ways to cut expenses and to collect money that is owed to them. Working capital is needed no matter if it happens to be in a slow period or a time of expansion. Here are a few small business tips for your annual checkup.
Getting all of your financial records together for your accountant to file your annual business tax return takes some time, but it will give you the information needed for a review. This is a good time to take stock of your business operations for the past year. You have what you need to make sure that it is operating as efficiently as it can.
Your accountant can be a big help in pointing out areas that need to be reviewed. If certain expenses appear to be out of line, he can steer you in that direction to see why. In conjunction with the preparation of the business tax returns, we offer the following small business tips that may help you increase your cash flow for the new year.
Review your business plan – You do have one, don’t you? Many View full post…
Getting married is still at the top of the list for being one of the most important decisions that we make. It’s amazing how those two words “I do” or “I will” can change our lives in very significant ways, especially in managing money.
In some states, marriage can change our financial picture whether we intended it to or not. There are a number of issues that newlyweds will need to discuss, but we’ll touch on the five that should be dealt with first. It’s very important that both spouses get on the same page as quickly as possible to avoid potential conflict.
The first important issue to discuss is the area of taxes. Usually this will focus on whether to file separate tax returns or to file jointly. Generally, filing jointly will result in lower overall taxes, however, this is not always the case. There are some situations where filing separate returns result in less taxes.
Some other caveats to consider. When filing jointly, both spouses are liable on the return. If, as an example, one of the spouses makes an error in reporting or not reporting income, both are View full post…
If you think getting married is a tremendous emotional step, you would be correct. But, it’s also a major financial one too. Each one has their own individual goals and ways to handle money. We offer these money management tips in an attempt to get both spouses on the same page and frame of mind.
It’s best to discuss money management before marriage and decide on the method of handling the finances. Both long term and short term goals should be discussed. A lot of stress can be avoided later in marriage if these financial issues are taken care of early by View full post…
You can ask several financial planners this same question and you will get different responses. Some will advise you to get rid of all credit card debt. Some will say to setup an emergency fund first to cover such expenses as a major car repair or some large expenditure in your home.
What are you supposed to do, however, if you have an emergency fund and the balance in it is just enough to repay all of your credit card debt? Wouldn’t the credit card debt with very high interest rates be considered an emergency expenditure?
The general consensus here is no, don’t use the entire balance of the emergency fund to repay your credit cards. Instead, just use some of the cash savings to repay some of the debt. Keep some of the savings available for a bona fide emergency.
We’ve found that many individuals have financial problems due to a lack of understanding in the best way to manage their money. Quite often, they make mistakes that prove to be quite costly, especially when it involves an increase in debt. Money management software can be a big help in many cases.
There are several reasons that these individuals get into financial distress.
