20 Ways To Earn $100 A Day

10 Money Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Wed, 24 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

By Catherine Alford

I regularly write about my own money mistakes, from the time I paid 3 rents in one month to my crushing student loan debt.

However, I’m happy that I’ve wised up over the past few years and have been able to help others avoid common money mistakes, like the ones I’ve rounded up below.

1. Incurring Late Fees. Always set a reminder on your phone or create automatic withdrawals.

2. Not Having a Budget. Set one up today. It will only take you a few minutes, and you can use a simple excel spreadsheet or an online program.

3. Neglecting Your Company Match.You’ve been meaning to update this with your HR department for months now, right? It’s time to head over there and make sure that you are getting as much of that free money as possible.

4. Being Impatient About Your Savings. Just like anything worthwhile, building wealth does not happen overnight. Instead, celebrate the small victories, and take it one day at a time.

5. Loaning money to friends and family. This one can be debated, sure, especially if you are a parent who is helping their child. However, I know from experience that when you loan money to a friend, you probably won’t get it back. We recently loaned $200 to a friend who was having a really hard time, but my husband and I agreed that it was more of a gift than a loan. We don’t expect to ever get it back, and it’s better that way.

6. Playing the stock market like a wild child. Lots of people are interested in getting their investing feet wet, but it’s not something you should do unless you spend a considerable amount of time planning and learning about how it works.

7. Taking out too many student loans. I wish I would have avoided this mistake like the plague. As many of you know, my husband and I will have over $300,000 of student loan debt combined to pay back starting in two years. We’ve done the best we can with living on less, but I definitely took out too much in my younger years.

8. Saving cash in buckets. Like, literal buckets. I have a family member who does not trust banks and keeps all his savings in cash in his house. This was a big problem when Hurricane Katrina hit, and he had to go back and look for his life’s savings. Always put your savings in a bank, preferably in a high yield savings account or other investments.

9. Choosing stocks because they are popular. Warren Buffet is famous for saying invest in what you know. So, just because someone on the news is talking about a new technology stock does not mean you should go out and buy it. Always take the time to research and understand your investments before taking the plunge.

10. Buying a home you can’t afford. People young and old often fall into the trap of lifestyle inflation. It’s natural to want to upgrade your house, but if you can’t afford it, it’s not worth the stress.

READ MORE: youngadultmoney.com

Quotes by Zig Ziglar

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 23:58:00 +0000

11 Ways Budgeting Can Improve Your Life

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 00:30:00 +0000

By Jeremy Vohwinkle

Living without a budget is similar to traveling across the country without a roadmap. While both can be accomplished, the result is usually expensive and wasteful. The household budget lists every anticipated expense in major categories that can be directly tied to actual expenditures. Many people view the use of a budget as restraining and remedial, but most wealthy people have grown their financial wealth through the use of a strict budget. Budgeting activities provide substantial benefits to personal financial health because the budget:

1. Acts as a roadmap – Creating the budget will reveal where every dollar is currently being spent. The visual representation of the actual expenditures reveals the direction followed. When the course being followed is incorrect, the budget can be used to re-route your plan. The budget is a living document that must be updated with the changes that occur in your life.

2. Reveals waste - A detailed budget that is compared against the actual monthly expenditures will reveal the incorrect use of money. When money is spent on non-budgeted items, budget shortfalls are created and can be corrected. When you can identify a source of waste you can then take corrective action.

3. Aligns priorities – Family discussions over the budget can reveal differences in priorities that may often cause conflict. Conversations to address the underlying priorities will correct the problems and reduce disagreements over money. Since money is such a stressful part of marriage, identifying discrepancies before they become an issue can do a lot of good.

4. Builds new habits – Efforts to stay within the budget will build new spending habits that can be maintained over time. Working within the budget will shift actual expenses from unnecessary categories into the most essential household categories. Money will be available for the most important expenses and debt reduction becomes possible.

5. Reduces stress – Following the budget throughout the year gives everyone an accurate picture of the financial health of the family. Guesses are no longer required to determine if large purchases and vacations are affordable. When annual expenses are budgeted each month, sufficient funds will exist to pay the bill when it becomes due.

6. Controls spending – If expenditures exceed budgeted amounts, corrections can be made in the coming months to control the monthly flow of money. When outstanding debt is weighing on the monthly finances, the budget can show areas where spending can be reduced to find the money to repay the debt.

7. Coordinates efforts – Setting budget amounts allows every family member to provide input. If the family goal is to have an annual vacation, simple reminders can be given in response to why money cannot be spent on other categories until enough money is saved for the vacation. The budget acts as a barometer for the family finances.

8. Transforms money into a tool – Budgeting all monthly expenditures will change the mindset toward money. Instead of spending impulsively, money will be valued as a tool to reach goals and fulfill needs. Children raised under a budget will learn the value of money because they are involved in some of the decisions necessary to establish the budget.

9. Creates margin – Debt repayment and living according to the budget will move the family toward living within the monthly income. As less money is spent, excess income becomes available and is considered financial margin. These funds can then be applied to other financial goals.

10. Grows savings – Budgeting activities make money available to save some of the monthly income for various reasons. Short- and long-term goals can be reached through savings efforts that seemed impossible just months before a budget was created. Savings becomes the highest priority and money can be saved ahead of paying the bills since every expense is closely monitored and compared to the budget.

11. Accelerates financial goals – As margin is created within the financial budget and savings becomes a priority, the family can move toward major goals like funding college education for each child. Many goals can be set and reached because the budget has been used consistently to monitor the financial activities.

While budgeting requires some time in the early months, learning to maintain a budget will pay dividends in ways never imagined. Schedule monthly budget reviews and stick to a strict plan to bring the financial health of the family in line with the goals. Reward the family for staying within the budget and remember that not all rewards are monetary.

READ MORE: financialplan.about.com

Enjoy your Own Life

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Tue, 23 Sep 2014 00:27:00 +0000

Follow This Money Do Checklist To Change Your Life in Six Weeks

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 01:46:00 +0000

by Anita Saulite

Money matters don't need to be unmanageable or headache inducing. Most of us are time starved in that we have demanding lives, careers and families that consume most of our energy or calories. There is little desire or hours in the day to spare worrying about our personal finances, and how to take the guesswork and worry out of it. But the reality is it is easier than we may think.

Most of us want to get more out of our life and money but may not know where to start. It can be daunting. Confidence comes from knowing where you are going in life, having good money habits and being in control of your destination. In order to focus on the bigger picture and what really matters to you, the best and easiest way is to get your personal finances on track to achieve a monthly routine. It's no different then having a daily and weekly routine for yourself.

Keep your life moving in the direction you want, supported by a good plan, will keep you focused on achieving your personal and financial goals! Live your best life today.

Here's how to change your life in 6 weeks by following The Money Do Checklist.

Tackle one Money Do Checklist item every week for the next 6 weeks. You will feel empowered and in control of your life. You will worry less and increase your financial security. It's that easy.

Focus on your weekly accomplishments and highlight what you have accomplished as oppose to what you still have left to do. Surely this could have been called an Accomplishment List instead...a Money Do Checklist will keep us focused and on track to betterment in just 6 weeks.

Take the challenge and make the Money Do Checklist work for you. Tick the box or scratch the item off your list. It's as easy as 1, 2, 3...

• Set 2-3 personal goals. Take stock of your life. Map out your future by defining a series of short term personal goals. Create an action plan for success that includes a timeline and mini steps to get you to where you want to go. Save money for goal related pursuits and you will reach your goals faster.

• Create a spending plan. You have heard it 1,001 times before. But, if you can't stand the money in/money out cycle then now is the time to take the guess work out of your money. Life adds up and if you want to reach your goals in time, you will want to rein in your spending.

• Reduce debt. Over spending is easy to do, but carrying larger amounts of debt and paying too much interest could be weighing you down. Pay down any non-mortgage debt you have to simplify the payables. A debt consolidation loan is one option to address high credit card debt. Reducing and eliminating debt will help you reach your goals sooner.

• Consolidate your accounts. Do you really need 3+ credit cards in your wallet? Keeping track of balances and transactions may be too much for you. Consolidating your accounts will make it easier to keep track of where your money goes.

• Put your saving strategy & bill payments on auto pilot. We all know it, but saving money each month is saving for the future. Just know, savings are what you pay yourself, and if you want to secure your golden years and worry less, then pay yourself first. Set up automatic bill payments. You will never miss a bill and worry less about being late with payments. Set it and forget it.

• Review and update your policies. Make time to read and review your coverage on all policies (home, life, auto) so there are no surprises. Disability benefits have changed- do you know your coverage? Comparison shopping can be done each year, even if you are happy with your insurer. Do you have a will? Have your family circumstances changed?

You can't boil the ocean, but what you can do is to focus on some very tangible and easy to implement strategies on the Money Do Checklist that will enhance your financial security. You will worry less and find the time to focus on what really matters - living your best life today. This is simply good living.

SOURCE: huffingtonpost.ca

When Nothing goes Right... go Left

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Mon, 22 Sep 2014 00:06:00 +0000

10 Steps to Making a Financial Budget

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Fri, 19 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how to budget by following these 10 steps on how to bring your spending under control.

1. Budgets are a necessary evil.

They're the only practical way to get a grip on your spending - and to make sure your money is being used the way you want it to be used.

2. Creating a budget generally requires three steps.

- Identify how you're spending money now.

- Evaluate your current spending and set goals that take into account your long-term financial objectives.

- Track your spending to make sure it stays within those guidelines.

3. Use software to save grief.

If you use a personal-finance program such as Quicken or Microsoft Money, the built-in budget-making tools can create your budget for you.

4. Don't drive yourself nuts.

One drawback of monitoring your spending by computer is that it encourages overzealous attention to detail. Once you determine which categories of spending can and should be cut (or expanded), concentrate on those categories and worry less about other aspects of your spending.

5. Watch out for cash leakage.

If withdrawals from the ATM machine evaporate from your pocket without apparent explanation, it's time to keep better records. In general, if you find yourself returning to the ATM more than once a week or so, you need to examine where that cash is going.

6. Spending beyond your limits is dangerous.

But if you do, you've got plenty of company. Government figures show that many households with total income of $50,000 or less are spending more than they bring in. This doesn't make you an automatic candidate for bankruptcy - but it's definitely a sign you need to make some serious spending cuts.

7. Beware of luxuries dressed up as necessities.

If your income doesn't cover your costs, then some of your spending is probably for luxuries - even if you've been considering them to be filling a real need.

8. Tithe yourself.

Aim to spend no more than 90% of your income. That way, you'll have the other 10% left to save for your big-picture items.

9. Don't count on windfalls.

When projecting the amount of money you can live on, don't include dollars that you can't be sure you'll receive, such as year-end bonuses, tax refunds or investment gains.

10. Beware of spending creep.

As your annual income climbs from raises, promotions and smart investing, don't start spending for luxuries until you're sure that you're staying ahead of inflation. It's better to use those income increases as an excuse to save more.

READ MORE: money.cnn.com

I will Persist Until I Succeed

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 23:48:00 +0000

Making Money (And Teaching Others To Do It Too)

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 00:30:00 +0000

by Karsten Strauss

Anand Sanghvi (AKA Sang Lucci) makes money trading options
and teaching others to do the same.

Wall Street is pockmarked with traders that broke free of investment banks and trading firms to manage their own portfolios. What’s less common is for a successful trader to do so and deign to help others learn how to succeed in the game as well.

Options trader Anand Sanghvi took such a path. Only 30 years old, Sanghvi’s highs include ballooning his father’s retirement fund to over $2 million, and his lows at the trading table have showed him what it’s like to lose $350,000 in 20 minutes. Bouncing back, his firm – a small group of friends that live together in a Manhattan apartment and operate under the collective name Sang Lucci – is closing year two of a hedge fund adventure in which an initial $400,000 has grown to almost $2 million. All the while Sanghvi has taken on students – disciples, if you will – that pay to learn what he knows about making money fast by trading options on blue chip stocks.

Beginnings

Sanghvi carries with him a basic entrepreneurial spirit. He found ways to make extra money while a finance student at UMass Lowell by flipping sports tickets, selling goods on eBay and buying and reselling gaming consoles. “In college I always had a side business, always had something going on,” he remembers, enjoying a late breakfast in the vast, high-ceilinged apartment he shares with his team several blocks from Wall Street.

Things took a more serious turn when, at 21, he became a father and moved in with his girlfriend, Lisette. “I had to get things going and sustain a household.” Always interested in finance, he took a position as an analyst and staff accountant at Fresenius Medical Care . “I was miserable because I was going in every day, looking at the same spreadsheet and hating it one hundred percent.”

In 2006 Sanghvi’s dissatisfaction led to his resignation, but he soon found a commission-based trading position with PTG Capital. Toiling for over a year, the nuances of trading began to sink in and he started making money consistently. By the 2008 crash, Sanghvi was named top trader using the short as his tool. “In the crash you could push a button and short something and make money in seconds—it was just panic every single second.” After the market bottomed, PTG began investing long on financial institution. When the banks fell, so did the firm. With his leverage capped, Sanghvi left in early 2009.

Going Solo

Anand Sanghvi

Taking his savings – as well as his father’s retirement nest egg – he set out on his own solo trading adventure. Picking up cheap stocks like Las Vegas Sands LVS -1.58%, Bank of America BAC -0.18%, Citigroup and others – also playing some options – he grew their portfolio value to over $2 million.

Jubilation turned to dismay, however, when Sanghvi lost over $350,000 investing in SPY fund. “It was just bad timing,” says Sanghvi. “I was super cocky at that point because I had made all this money.” The shock of the loss marked the beginning of period of introspection. “It just broke me mentally,” he says. “When you’re sitting there looking at the screen on a loss, you’re losing the kind of money that people never really see on a daily basis, or even a yearly basis or even in their whole lives.”

What followed was a year of market inactivity for Sanghvi. He traveled, spent time with his daughter Avani and contemplated his next move. To hear him speak about that time, one wonders whether he’s ever been able to shake the trauma of losing a sizeable chunk of a hard-earned portfolio in less time than it takes to watch a single episode of a sitcom. One also wonders if that impact was a priceless lesson that’s made him better.

A Return to the Market

Taking his lumps, Sanghvi returned to trading in late 2010 with a perhaps more grown-up decision to cultivate a side business. He started a blog focusing on the market, his moves and debunking what he felt was misinformation in financial news. Calling his site SangLucci.com (“Sang” taken from his last name and “Lucci” a hip-hop reference for money) he wrote four articles every day, hosted a free chatroom and held one-on-one Skype sessions ($89 for four sessions) from his office in Boston. As his understanding of social media grew, so did his following, and Sanghvi raised prices on his information products high enough to cover all of his basic expenses.

An 8-month partnership with trading education site Profit.ly, raised Sang Lucci’s profile but he found he was spending more time on his 250 plus subscribers than he was on his own trading. “At the end of the day I know, hands down, that I will always make more money trading than running an alert service.”

Sanghvi, Bathgate and Zhang.

With a renewed focus, Sanghvi found a kindred spirit in Peter Zhang, whom he met at a Las Vegas conference in early 2011. At the time, Zhang – now head of risk management at Sang Lucci – suggested over sake bombs at The Venetian hotel that the two could start their own hedge fund. Sanghvi wasn’t sold. Undeterred, Zhang recruited Charlie Bathgate, a Hollywood capital campaign worker, to help set the groundwork for a fund. The trio set up shop in New York and began raising money from friends and family.

Today the fund stands at just under $2 million in assets, up from an initial $400,000 raised in February 2012 from 11 investors, including $100,000 from Sanghvi himself. “This year our last numbers were up over 400%,” says Bathgate. “But I would say that with a strong disclaimer that every investor in our fund knows it’s a very high-risk, high reward proposition.”

Sanghvi admits that investing someone else’s money initially made him trade more defensively. After seeing some losses due to his trepidation, he nipped that tendency in the bud. “Look, I know what I’m doings—this is what I do,” he says.

Teaching

The firm’s website services have also grown. Charging $250 for yearlong membership or $83 for three months, the site has attracted about 300 subscribers at recent count. The modern trader has evolved to be more accepting of an educational service like Sanghvi’s site. “They now expect to pay somebody to help them start in the game,” he says. The axiom “those who can do, and those who cannot, teach,” may not be applicable here. Sang Lucci’s modus is to take screenshots of its moves and results at the end of each trading day and post them on their Twitter feed, regardless of whether they won big or lost.

“Right now (Sanghvi) has over 7,000 followers on Twitter,” said Bathgate. “If he posts a big loss, there are all kinds of people that come out of the woodwork and say, ‘You’re an idiot for doing that.’” Criticisms aside, that kind of transparency is essential for convincing newbie investors that the service, and traders behind it, are for real. “This is the cost of what we committed to and it’s worth it.”

The high frequency options game, though risky, allows Sanghvi to make fast headway in his portfolio. He finds that young investors fresh out of college are not equipped to fully understand that strategy. “I remember one professor told his students that what I was doing was not possible,” Sanghvi says. Investment curriculum needs to be updated in order to ready finance students for modern trading realities, he added.

Most recently, Sang Lucci launched a second hedge fund with a $450,000 startup kitty. One trading partner is Haim Bodek, former Goldman Sachs and UBS insider who founded the now defunct Trading Machines. Bodek,

a groundbreaking high volume options trader, blew the whistle on what he felt were unfair advantages handed out by stock exchanges to certain high frequency trading firms. His testimony has led to an SEC investigation, the book Dark Pools by Wall Street Journal writer Scott Patterson and a documentary called The Wall Street Code, which features Zhang and Sanghvi.

What does the team do for fun? Bars, clubs, concerts, tennis at the West Side Highway courts… “By the way, we throw crazy parties,” says Sanghvi. “We pack 100 plus people in here and it gets crazy. There’s no doorman and nobody lives downtown – nobody lives in lower Manhattan – so we never get busted.”

SOURCE: forbes.com

Whisper Words of Wisdom, let it be

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 23:58:00 +0000

How to Make Money on Instagram

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Wed, 17 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

By Kristi Hines

Instagram started as an image-only-based network, but has now expanded its functionality to include 15-second videos to trump rival Vine, which offers 7-second videos. This gives you a great way to market the areas of your business that will help you make money online. In this guide, we’re going to skip the basics of setting up an Instagram account and instead dive into the ways you can increase your earnings by growing your mailing list, selling products, offering services, promoting books, promoting webinars, and marketing affiliate products via Instagram.

(By the way, you may also be interested in our guides to making money on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Google+, iPhone/Android, and with display ad networks; you can subscribe to our newsletter to receive new monetization guides as we publish them.)

Note that links on Instagram aren’t clickable, but they will be if you share your Instagram posts to Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr. For those viewing your post on their Instagram app, make the link memorable (http://bit.ly/free15tips vs. http://bit.ly/dlI03Cl) and make sure the target squeeze / landing page is mobile optimized with a responsive design. Keep this in mind throughout the post as many will link to the specific thing you are working on — mailing list squeeze pages, product landing pages etc.

Another reason to keep your links short and memorable? You’re going to manually have to enter them into the image / video description on your mobile phone.

Grow Your Mailing List

First, let’s start with growing your mailing list. For all of these tips, make sure you include a customized squeeze page for your mailing list that matches the image / video that you share on Instagram.

Promote your latest lead magnet using images or video. For example, if you’re giving away an e-book, share a screenshot of the cover. If you’ve created an educational video, share a 15-second highlight of that video.
Create a personal message inviting people to subscribe. Use the 15-second video recording to create a video greeting for potential subscribers telling them why they should join your mailing list.
Do you get replies from happy subscribers? Ask if you can use their replies as testimonials for your list, then create an image that has the best part of their reply, name, and website. Share it on Instagram.
Leak some stats and tips from your lead magnet as images. These should be teaser quotes that will make people want to subscribe to learn more.
Take a screenshot of your best looking opt-in form and tell people why they want to subscribe in the description for the image.

Sell Products

Do you sell physical or digital products? Here are some ways to promote them on Instagram.

Run a pre-launch on Instagram with teaser photos and videos of your new product. Get people intrigued enough that they are dying to know what you are launching. Increase the hype by adding on a customized product hashtag.
Create 15-second commercials for your product. Specifically make sure you can highlight the best parts of your product and get a shortened website URL into the 15 seconds.
Do you have video testimonials from customers? Mash up the best 15 seconds of those testimonials and share them as Instagram video.
Create collages of photos from fans who share photos of them using your products with a particular hashtag.
Turn your customer Instagram photos into an album on your website. (Get their permission first, of course.) Show potential customers how happy people are with your products, and it will increase the likelihood of a sale.

Offer Services

Instagram offers lots of ways to promote your service-based business, whether you are a Web designer or accountant. Here are some tips.

Turn your Instagram into a portfolio of work you have done for clients. It can be a screenshot of a graphic design, shots from your latest wedding, you reading a letter from a satisfied customer on video, or similar.
Follow your target customers and critique their work. A product designer could easily follow big brands and share some feedback about their latest product packaging. You never know where this could lead.
Create a commercial for your services. Specifically make sure you can make a description of a problem and how your service can solve it fit into 15 seconds.
Invite your target customers to submit a photo that represents a particular problem they are having using a unique hashtag. Turn it into contest where you give a free 30-minute consultation. The winner will likely want to buy services from you, and the ones who don’t win will be interested in the same.
Create images with testimonials from clients as part of your social proof.

Promote Books

If you have authored a book on Amazon or just give away a book as a lead magnet, these tips can help you get more exposure, sales, and downloads.

Screenshot your five-star reviews and share a snippet of them with a link to your book. It allows you to brag about your book using someone else’s words.
Create images with quotes from the book, or share images directly from the book. Go with the parts that will get potential readers most interested in buying.
Create images with questions that can be answered by parts of the book. Include a page number as an additional bonus to get people excited about buying and finding the answer.
Share a screenshot of any special sales or discounts for your book as they happen.
Get a video from your book signings to boost credibility and authority for yourself as an author.

READ MORE: monetizepros.com

Time you enjoy Wasting was not Wasted

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 23:43:00 +0000

How To Make Money Without A Job

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 03:00:00 +0000

By: Deborah L. Jacobs

Before joining the staff of Forbes in July of 2011, I was happily self-employed for 23 years. For much of this time my husband and I ran two mostly unrelated home-based businesses. He worked in his office in the front of the house, while I was in mine across the hall. Our office doors were usually closed and we knocked before interrupting each other. Until our son was old enough to go to school, we had a full-time babysitter to take care of him downstairs while we worked upstairs. Our only break during the workday was to eat lunch with our child.

Upon observing our traffic patterns, our house painter once said, “It’s like you’re in an office!“ Others remarked about our discipline. We didn’t have a choice. If we didn’t produce, we didn’t get paid, and we needed that money to live on. So for all the flexibility about setting our own hours and balancing work and family, we didn’t vary much from the routine. If we took time off to see the class play or take our son to the pediatrician, we made up for it in the evening or on weekends. Come to think of it, we worked a lot of evenings and weekends anyway.

With widespread layoffs pushing many people into business for themselves, we hear from a lot of folks who are wondering how to set up shop and structure their new work life. We tell them that self employment can be a bit of an emotional roller coaster, with higher highs and lower lows than you’re probably used to. Whether you want to start something on the side or say goodbye to corporate life forever, here are some tips for starting your own business.

Leave yourself a financial safety net. While creditors require you to pay promptly, most of your own clients won’t rush to compensate you. Even if you write “payment due in 30 days” on your invoice, it’s a rare client that sticks to that time frame. Schedules of 60 or even 90 days are all too common. Complaining about tardy payment or imposing a late charge could drive business away. To minimize tensions while you wait for the work to come in — and then wait to get paid — set aside enough money to cover six months of expenses (a year is even better).

Do what you know. Don’t waste savings on buying an existing business or a franchise. Instead, get ready for what Arlington Heights, Ill. new-business consultantJeff Williams has dubbed the “scratch startup.” Williams counsels “desperation entrepreneurs”—laid-off employees who aren’t likely to get back into the corporate world. He tells them to sell a skill or a product they already know.

Ken Proskie, 59, is a Williams client who was laid off in 2004 from his job as a health and safety manager for a large manufacturer. Working from an office in his Evanston, Ill. home, he began pitching his services to a network of 300 colleagues from professional associations. After three years, Proskie says, he matched his corporate salary and today has more than enough work. “Now I wish I had made the transition five or ten years sooner,’’ he says. It would have given him time to take on employees and expand.

Don’t bet your savings on a long-shot new venture either. New York financial planner Karen C. Altfest says she has one 70-year-old client who can’t retire yet because she sank all her money into a perfume business startup—in her 60s. Although she worked very hard in the enterprise for two years, going from store to store, it bombed; turned out not enough people liked her scents.

Find a comfortable workspace. It’s important to choose a spot where you won’t have a lot of interruptions and distractions. Working at home avoids the need to pay office rent and makes you eligible for tax write offs. But you must jealously guard your work time, which means limiting trips to the refrigerator, telling friends and family you can’t chat during the workday, and explaining to the UPS guy that you won’t accept packages for neighbors. If you find you are unable to be productive at home, consider working from another location.

Spend judiciously. New technologies and social media continue to reduce the costs of starting and operating a small business. Put seed money towards equipment that can help you embrace technology: laptop, iPad and smartphone. You’ll want to buy a comfortable work chair, if you don’t already have one, but there’s no need to pay top dollar for other furniture. With so many companies scaling back, there are plenty of good deals on secondhand equipment. Try auctions (live or online), going-out-of-business sales and used office furniture stores.

Create digital footprints. These days if people can’t find you on Google, they might decide you don’t exist. Build a Web site. Then get busy online. Social media like LinkedIn and Twitter, along with the websites and Listservs of many professional associations, make low-cost networking and business-building far easier. If you’re already using Facebook FB -3.74% for your personal life, think about creating a separate page for your business. While some business owners limit their tweets to shop talk, others use Twitter to develop a broader persona. (See my post, “How To Grandstand (Gracefully) On The Web.”)

For professionals, there are a few sites that rival LinkedIn. Write your profile, join groups in your field of interest. Then chime into the discussions. Being the boss is not a job for people who are shy about blowing their own horns, but self-promotion shouldn’t be all you do. As with networking in person, helping other people is part of the game.

Present a professional image. Answer all phone calls by stating your name or the name of your business. Avoid referring to yourself as a “freelancer.” (Instead, use your company name, say you’re a consultant, self-employed, or in business for yourself.) When you finally meet in person, follow these tips to make sure your body language reinforces the good impressions you’ve already made.

CONTINUE READING: forbes.com

Follow your Heart but take your Brain with you

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 01:29:00 +0000

How to Make Money with Google Plus

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 01:00:00 +0000

By Kristi Hines

If you’re a MonetizePros subscriber, you’ve already learned how to make money on Twitter, YouTube,Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. Now, we’re going to look at Google’s own social network, Google+. In this guide, we’re going to skip the basics and jump right into how you can use your profiles, pages, communities, and authorship to make money online.

Grow Your Mailing List

First, let’s start with ways you can build your mailing list using Google+ and increase your earnings by growing your subscriber base.

Add target subscribers who are following your profile and page to specific circles. When you share your latest lead magnets in a status update, share that update with the public and those specific circles. Updates shared to the public are visible to everyone; updates shared to specific circles will send a notification to people in those circles about your update. This should drive more engagement to your update and click-thrus to your squeeze page.
Include links to your lead magnets in the introduction section of your profile and page’s “About” tab. This area is much more effective in getting click-thrus to your squeeze pages because it is above the standard links section of your profile and page.
Create a public/open Google+ community that matches the interests of your target subscribers. Include links to your latest lead magnets in the links below the “About this community” section of your community profile. This will put the link(s) in a section that is always displayed at the top right of the community page. This will give people visiting and engaging in your community the chance to click through to your squeeze page.
Create a cover photo for your profile and/or page that highlights your latest lead magnet and encourages visitors to click on it. Be sure that your cover photo’s description includes a link to your lead page.
If your lead magnet is an e-book, whitepaper, or other piece of content, claim it under your Google+ authorship by adding a link to your squeeze page under the Contributor To section of your profile’s links and add a link to your Google+ profile on your squeeze page with the rel=author tag.
Create images with good quotes, statistics, and other snippets to share on your profile. Include a link to your squeeze page in both the status update (early so that it shows without the visitor having to click read more) and in the image description so people can click through to your squeeze page when they click on the photo.
Does your lead magnet include other people, such as businesses you might have used as examples or people who might have contributed to the information? Tag them in status updates when you share the lead magnet linked to your squeeze page. Hopefully, those businesses and people will re-share your status, sending your squeeze page link to their followers.
Run Google+ hangouts for subscribers only. Encourage people to sign up to your mailing list to “register” for your hangout.

READ MORE: monetizepros.com

Making Mistakes is better than Faking Perfections

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Mon, 15 Sep 2014 00:30:00 +0000

Here's the First Thing You Should Do With Every Paycheck

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 00:14:00 +0000

BY GOBankingRates

Whether your expenses are piling up or you simply lack the financial discipline to sock away a few extra bucks every month, there are myriad reasons why it's difficult to amount a sizable savings account.

Here's the problem: Once you get paid, your money has to go several places at once. Bills need to be paid, credit card balances need to be settled, groceries need to be bought, perhaps even some nonessentials, too -- and, in all the shuffle, the money that you should be saving becomes your discretionary income, and what should be your disposable money, you dispose of. Zero savings there.

You're not going to break this cycle until you start treating your own savings account like a bill that needs to be paid monthly, along with your rent, car payment and utilities. You need to learn to pay yourself first.

This means that each time you get your paycheck, the first thing you do is set aside a portion of your earnings to save before taking care of your bills and other necessities. It guarantees that the money you should be saving, you're actually saving. But a "savings-first" plan requires you to budget your money.

Saving, Bills, Fun: In That Order

As personal finance blogger J.D. Roth noted on his site Get Rich Slowly, "Most people spend their money in the following order: bills, fun, saving." Developing the best pay-yourself-first plan should allow you to save some money and still afford your bills and responsibilities -- neither obligation should suffer. So how much should you save?

In an interview with CBS News, financial expert David Bach said that people should save one hour's worth of income every day (that's 12.5 percent of your gross pay). Most people only save 4 percent of their income -- just about 20 minutes of work. The trick is to start slow.

Here's How to Start Saving Your Income

Calculate how much you can actually afford -- not how much someone else tells you you can spare. Devise a simple budget. Set aside the same amount of money you would for monthly expenses. If they're fixed, like a mortgage, those bills aren't going anywhere. Then, figure how much you can save by cutting back. "You may find that even small changes in spending habits, such as bringing your lunch to work or making less frequent trips to the salon, could create big savings over time," states Wells Fargo's website.
Take baby steps that would make Dave Ramsey proud. Paying yourself first is about setting a goal and working to increase it. A lot like attaining a fitness goal, start with lighter weights and increase the resistance. "Some will argue that saving [1 percent] is meaningless," Roth said. "But if a skeptic will try to save just 1 percent of his income, he'll usually discover the process is painless. Maybe next he'll try to save 3 percent. Or 5 percent. As his saving rate increases, so his nest egg will grow."
Strategize. Once you get into the rhythm of saving, you'll know how much to put away, and where to divert it, like a Roth IRA, high-yield checking account or other investment account. Per Wells Fargo, "Split your direct deposit so that an amount or a percentage goes directly into your savings account before you can spend it. Or, set up an automatic transfer for each payday, regularly sending money from your checking account to your savings account. This can help you get used to managing living expenses with what looks like a smaller paycheck, when actually you're building up your own savings."

Follow this plan and check back with yourself in two to three months. Suddenly, everything falls into place: You're able to save a bit, stay on top of your bills and have some money left over, too.

What's the Payoff?

So, apart from the physical cash (which was there all along), where is paying yourself first actually taking you? Roth of Get Rich Slowly states three benefits of this practice:

It develops good mental savings habits. "You're telling yourself that you are more important than the electric company or the landlord. Building savings is a powerful motivator -- it's empowering," Roth said.
It creates good financial habits. Remember: savings, bills, fun. By learning to save first, "you're able to set the money aside before you rationalize reasons to spend it," according to Roth.
Saved money is practical money. That savings will come in handy someday because it builds a cash buffer for everything from emergencies, to retirement funding, to a house down payment. "Paying yourself first gives you freedom," Roth noted. "It opens a world of opportunity.

Keep Your Promise

Investing author Joshua Kennon observes that most people are careful to keep their word to someone, but have no problem lying to themselves. Don't let this happen with your new savings plan.

"As soon as you miss one 'payment,' odds are, you will miss another, then another, until you have stopped saving altogether," Kennon wrote. "The secret to success in this game is not so much the amount of money you are investing, but the persistence with which you are doing it."

Don't just rearrange your income, either -- look for ways to save extra money, any way you can. The Digerati Life recommends doing everything from requesting higher withholdings on your tax forms, to banking savings from coupons and discounts, to pretending you haven't yet paid down your debt (even if you already have). In the long run, it'll make a significant financial difference.

It's never the wrong time to begin saving. "No matter what your age, you should make it a priority to develop a regular saving plan," Roth wrote. "Establishing this habit early can lead to increased financial security later in life."

By paying yourself first, the last thing you'll have to worry about is having zero savings when you need money most.

SOURCE: huffingtonpost.com

You are never too old to Set Another Goal

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 22:33:00 +0000

5 Ways To Invest Your Money

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 02:57:00 +0000

by Michael Chamberlain

There are 5 methodologies or approaches to investing. Which one best suits you?

Investing successfully is key to reaching your long-term goals. Your ability to invest successfully, however, is based upon a combination of your knowledge, the tools available to you, your time, your motivation and importantly, the quality of the advice that you receive.

On this topic, the quote from Clint Eastwood’s character, Dirty Harry comes to mind: “A man’s got to know his limitations.” If you have investing limitations your long-term goals may not be reached. Everyone has 5 options or approaches to investing. Which one is right for you?

1. Doing it all on your own:

You conduct the analysis, make decisions as to the correct asset allocation, determine which investments to buy, implement the buys and sells, monitor the portfolio and rebalance the portfolio based on a prudent repeatable process that is tax efficient.

2. Seek counsel from an Advisor that provides you with recommendations; either paid on an hourly basis or as part of a financial plan (and who does not sell a product).

The Advisor provides advice as to allocation and specific investments, but you implement the recommended changes to the allocation and specific investments. It is up to you to return for future advice. The Advisor does not monitor or proactively call you when a change occurs. The advice does not include the payment of commissions.

3. Advisor and you “co-manage” your investments on an ongoing basis.

The Advisor does the analysis, provides recommendations, and does the investment implementation except in the case(s) of employer retirement accounts wherein you implement specific changes. The Advisor monitors the investments and your asset allocation, reports to you periodically as to the performance of your portfolio, pro-actively contacts you if a problem arises, discusses suggested tax efficient re-balances as needed, updates your Investment Policy Statement and changes your asset allocation as your plan changes. The advice does not include the payment of commissions.

4. You turn your investment decisions over to a money manager.

The Manager invests the money according to a pre-determined plan, monitors the portfolio and investments and makes changes as needed. You are an observer to the process and the results.

5. Advice from a salesperson that earns a commission when you are sold a product.

This “non-fiduciary” advice is subject to conflict of interest between what is best for the financial services company and sales person versus what is best for you as the investor. Another issue is that if later you want to change investments, another commission can be charged. This type of approach generally occurs at Edward Jones , Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley MS +1.24%, and other Broker Dealers.

Which Investing Option is best for me?

There are many facets to managing your investments; opening accounts, transferring accounts or assets, buying and selling investments in each account, monitoring individual investments and your overall allocation on a periodic basis, re-balancing the asset allocation, removing poorly performing investment options and replacing with more appropriate alternatives, all in a tax-efficient manner.

CONTINUE READING: forbes.com

When you have a Dream, You've got to grab it and never let go

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 00:43:00 +0000

How to Make Money from Your Blog with Integrity

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 01:58:00 +0000

by Leo Babauta

How can you make money from your blog – and keep your readers with integrity?

It’s a common question from bloggers, especially those who are really passionate about their blog: How do you make money from your blog?

I’ve been lucky with Zen Habits: fairly early on, I discovered how to make a living by doing what I’m passionate about, and within a year of starting my blog I quit my day job.

Making money blogging seems to be a common dream, and also sounds like a bit of a scam.

It’s a dream, because you can write about what you love, interact with others who love the same thing, and be free to work from anywhere, at your own pace.

It also seems like a scam, because there are millions of bloggers, and very few make any decent money doing it. I’ll be honest: it’s not easy, and it takes talent, skill, hard work, practice, and passion.

Unfortunately, there are many marketers out there who suggest an aggressive way of making sales through one’s blog by plastering ads all over it, or by selling all sorts of stuff that the reader may not like, or using all kinds of hype. I don’t buy it: while I’m sure you can make a lot of money fast by being a marketing hype machine, a spammer and a scammer, you’ll end up with money but no integrity, and people won’t trust you.

It’s important to maintain your integrity, because after a while, people will figure out whether they trust you or not — and if they don’t trust you, they won’t listen to you.

I recommend a win-win strategy where you can earn money from your blog, but only promote things that are really useful to your readers and can help them in some way.

The Problem with Spammy Ads/Products

When I first started Zen Habits, the first thing I did to make money was to put some Google Adsense ads in several spots, because it was the easiest thing to do. Later I experimented with other ad systems, including Yahoo and Chitika ads, but they didn’t work as well.

Adsense is a really easy way to get ads onto your site and to earn a little money right from the beginning. It’s not a lot of money — you might make 30 cents in one day if you have a little traffic, or a few dollars if you have a decent amount of readers, or $10-15/day if you have a lot of traffic

But eventually I removed Adsense (only last year actually), mostly because I got a lot of complaints from readers that the Adsense ads were either inappropriate, or spam type ads. One reader even asked me whether I had actually tried the products I was advertising (I think it was milk from cloned cows), and I had to honestly say, “No.”

The problem with Adsense, as I saw it, was that I couldn’t actually endorse the products, but here I was, putting them onto my site. And I didn’t feel good about that. It was like making money on selling products that I didn’t really want my readers to use. That wasn’t in line with my values. So, eventually I got rid of Adsense, even though it was a convenient way to get a little income from my blog.

But that’s a big problem with a lot of ways of making money — you are selling products and services you don’t believe in. Readers will do their best to ignore it, but you’re sending a message to them: you’re willing to make money no matter what. You’re spammy. You put money before the readers’ interest.

It’s more important to me to keep my integrity. I want people to trust me, not tune me out because all I’m trying to do is sell them crappy products.

How to Make Money and Still Keep that Trust

Think about how you interact with your friends: do they try to sell you crappy stuff all the time, just so they can make money off you? Or do you trust them, because they would only recommend something to you they liked, believed in? And remember that crappy friend who kept trying to sign you up for his Amway pyramid scheme? You stopped hanging out with him.

On a blog, it’s much the same: we are building relationships with our readers, and we can either do it by being a good friend, or by being the crappy friend who wants to sell Amway to all his friends.

Only recommend books and products that you really believe in, and don’t just link to them or put ads on your site to make money. Once readers buy a book you recommend and actually like, they’ll enjoy it and come back for more. People trust you if you recommend good things, but if you advertise things that aren’t good, they’ll learn not to trust you.

Some practical ways to do this:

Sell your own 125×125 ads (or whatever format works best for you). Then you can pick and choose the ads that you actually believe in.
Sell your own ebooks and other products. If you made them yourself, presumably you believe in them.
Join ad networks that are careful about screening their ads. Fusion and The Deck are two good examples, but there are others that might be better suited for your blog.
Use Amazon and other affiliate links, but only link to books & products you actually recommend.

The Importance of Integrity and Helping Your Readers

For me, integrity is very important. I want to make money from my blog in a way that is useful for my readers, in a way that I feel good about and that’s in line with my values. I want people to trust me, even after I’ve made a little money off them. But everyone is different in this respect. Some bloggers just want to make money — and they do, in any way they can.

I think it’s important to think of your readers, because if you have no integrity with your readers, your readers will know that and they’ll say, “This guy is not really trying to help us, he’s just trying to make us come to his blog in order to make a lot of money.” If you make your blog all about the readers and create a good readership experience for them, create great content for them, put up a design that’s something they enjoy coming to and looking at, and have advertising and other forms of creating income that are actually helpful to them, people will appreciate that – and they’ll keep coming back.

So, if you have a relationship with your readers, you build that with everything that you do. Every email that you send to them, every comment that you answer, every blog post you write, every design change, and every money-making decision that you make is part of the relationship that you’re forming with them.

And if you build a solid relationship, that’s based on trust and respect, good things will come from it — you’ll be able to make a living doing something you’re happy with, not just make a quick buck off unsuspecting readers.

SOURCE: zenhabits.net

Mistakes are proof that you're Trying

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Wed, 10 Sep 2014 00:06:00 +0000

7 Effective Ways To Make Money With Pinterest

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Tue, 09 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

BY ANGELA BOOTH

Looking for ways to make money with Pinterest? Rather than looking at Pinterest as a simple photo-sharing network, consider it your own global bulletin board. In November of 2013, Pinterest had 70 million users, 80 per cent of them women, and received 2.5 billion page views per month.

There are many ways to make money with Pinterest, and as the network continues to grow, your opportunities will grow too.

Let’s look at some effective ways in which you can make money with Pinterest.

1. Follow your passion, build an audience and sell to them.

What are you passionate about? If people are spending money in an area you love, you can make money.

Let’s say you’re a fitness junkie. You love being fit, and staying fit. You choose a target audience: women in their twenties who want to be fit and attractive. Create a Pinterest account and boards that attract this audience.

Get followers to your boards, and create a mailing list. Some keen Pinterest users have a million followers and more. You don’t need that many followers to your account to sell to your audience. If you don’t know what to sell, don’t worry. Once you have a few thousand followers, marketers will approach you with offers.

2. Choose a company to promote, and ask for sponsorship.

Target a group, and build your Pinterest followers as we discussed above. Then select companies offering products that appeal to your audience. Staying with our “fitness” audience, you could approach companies that sell gym machines, or sports drinks.

Share your Pinterest account’s statistics with the companies you approach, and ask for sponsorship. Offer them a deal: they can use their branding on your account for a year.

3. Promote affiliate products.

Many companies want affiliates who will promote their products for a small commission on the sales that result. Find companies that sell products you can promote, and sign up as an affiliate. Then promote the products on your boards, using your affiliate links.

Tip: use an URL-shortening service like Bitly to manage your links. You’ll be able to track your pins and boards for the number of clicks.

Regarding spamming. Periodically Pinterest takes action against affiliate marketing spammers. If you get caught up in this, link your pins to your own website, where you can use affiliate links.

4. Use search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to get found on Pinterest.

If you want to make money on Pinterest, people have to be able to find your pins and boards, so use SEO strategies. Not only will you be found on Pinterest, you’ll also be found via the major search engines, like Google.

Make the most of your “About” profile. You’ve got 200 characters (around 50 words.) Be clear and descriptive, using the keywords you expect searchers to use.

Also, use SEO strategies on your pins. Each pin allows you 500 characters (around 100 words) of description, so make the most of it by adding keywords and links. Include keywords naturally, rather than in a spammy way.

5. Create contests on Pinterest to sell your own products.

Perhaps you want to sell your own products on Pinterest. Consider creating contests. They’re popular, and can help you to make money.

However, keep Pinterest’s guidelines in mind:

Contests are a common tactic businesses use to get people to engage with their brand, and we’ve learned a lot about how they work on Pinterest. Done well, they can be a trigger to help people think about and talk about your brand. But they can also motivate people to add Pins they aren’t truly interested in, which is why Pins from contests can often feel irrelevant and even spammy.

Pinterest guards its users’ experience. This is wonderful because it ensures that the network will continue to grow.

6. Re-pin others’ pins to win an audience and make money.

Pinterest is a social network, so the easiest way to get people to re-pin your pins is to be active. Pin others’ pins, particularly those people in your target audience. They will notice you, and may even start following your boards.

7. Make money by teaching Pinterest strategies to others.

As Pinterest continues to grow, a small industry has developed around it, with people developing tools to help Pinterest users.

After you’ve been using Pinterest successfully for a while, consider making money by teaching your strategies to others. Create e-books and courses teaching what you’ve learned.

So there you have it: seven effective ways to make money with Pinterest. You’ll also develop further strategies of your own when you become active on the network.

READ MORE: lifehack.org

9 easy money moves you can make in 10 minutes or less

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 01:49:00 +0000

By LearnVest Staff

Minding your money doesn't have to be time-consuming.

No, really!

There are plenty of quick and simple steps you can take that can have a positive impact on your financial well-being — like these nine money to-dos that should take only ten minutes (or less!) of your time.

So what are you waiting for? The clock is ticking!

1. Set up an automatic savings transfer.We all want to save more of what we make, but sometimes life gets in the way. Our best intentions can get waylaid by a busy schedule, a few spending splurges, or just plain forgetfulness.

That's why setting up an automatic savings transfer from your checking account often can be one of the easiest and most effective ways to get on a better financial path, says David Blaylock, a LearnVest Planning Services Certified Financial Planner™.

How to do it: Most major banks offer automatic transfers online — in fact, it's often one of the first options you'll see when you log in to your account.

And you don't need to be overly ambitious with your savings rate from the get-go. You can start by setting up a recurring transfer amount that you know you can afford — and then try to steadily increase that amount every few months.

Time it takes: Less than 5 minutes.

2. Check your credit score.Roughly half of Americans don't know their credit score, which is like the financial equivalent of not knowing your Social Security number. Since it affects the kind of interest rates you'll get on loans and credit cards, you may find it critical to review your credit score regularly to see how healthy it is.

"It's like a report card" for your finances, says Blaylock, explaining that it helps give you an idea of whether you need to pay down debt, avoid opening new lines of credit, or close credit cards you have but don't use.

How to do it: Several online services will provide your credit score from one of the three major credit agencies free of charge. CreditKarma.com offers your score from TransUnion, CreditSesame.com provides your Experian score, and Quizzle.com delivers your number from Equifax. For $19.95, you can also get all three scores through MyFico.com.

Time it takes: Less than 5 minutes.

3. Designate beneficiaries."The last thing anyone wants to do is leave behind challenges for loved ones after we are gone," Blaylock says. But this is exactly what could happen if you don't designate beneficiaries on insurance policies and investment accounts, because it increases the likelihood that family and friends will have to go through the probate process — which typically involves judges, attorneys, attorneys' fees, and delays.

(iStock)

How to do it: You can typically designate a beneficiary online through your insurance provider or brokerage. And it's a good idea to revisit your beneficiary designations once a year to make sure the info is up-to-date.

Time it takes: 5 to 10 minutes.

4. Download a living will."A living will is one of the few estate documents that makes sense for everyone," Blaylock says. Since it spells out your end-of-life medical wishes, a living will is designed to take the burden off loved ones from having to decide if you'd want expensive, life-sustaining treatments — and can help keep conflict between family members at bay.

How to do it: Living will requirements vary depending on where you live. In some states, a living will and health-care power of attorney are a single document; in others, they are separate. And some states require that the documents be notarized, while others just mandate a signature. You can research your own state's requirements, and download forms for free, at a site like Everplans.com.

Time it takes: 5 to 10 minutes.

5. Change financial passwords.If it seems as if high-profile corporate cyberattacks have become the norm, you're not alone in your thinking. In the last year, Target announced that 40 million customers' credit card numbers had been stolen, and eBay encouraged its 145 million users to change their passwords following a major hack.

Bottom line: If you regularly change your money-account-related passwords, you can help limit your exposure to identity theft.

How to do it: Think about setting up a reminder to change your passwords on major financial and investment sites every six months. "And vary it up," Blaylock says. "Then if you get hacked, you may not get everything hacked because you used the same password."

You can also consider using a free password generator, which creates highly secure codes that are harder for hackers to crack.

Time it takes: 5 to 10 minutes.

6. Trim extraneous subscription expenses.Don't waste your money on a health club membership if you never actually make it to the gym. The same goes for a "Cadillac-level" cable TV package if you only watch a handful of channels.

"I recently went through all of my credit card statements and added up my recurring subscriptions, which came out to $280 a month," Blaylock says. "When I figured out what I really used, I cut it down from $280 to $60."

(iStock)

How to do it: Review recent bank statements and identify your recurring subscriptions. "Then have an honest conversation with yourself about cutting," Blaylock says. If you really miss one of your memberships in the next couple of months, you can always add it back. But chances are that you'll forget all about it.

Time it takes: 10 minutes.

7. Enroll in a 401(k) or IRA.Saving as much as you can for your golden years is one of the smartest money decisions you can make. And the earlier you start building up that nest egg, the better your chances are of having a secure retirement.

How to do it: Simply request or download a 401(k) contribution form from your employer, or log in to a discount brokerage's website to get information about opening an IRA.

Time it takes: 5 to 10 minutes.

8. Digitize documents.Even if you have your most important financial documents well organized and in one place, you still don't want to be left scrambling should the unforeseen happen — in the form of a fire, flood, or storm that could damage that stash of paperwork.

How to do it: Consider scanning important financial documents — wills, mortgage, or real estate deeds, insurance policies, and last year's tax returns — and store them on a hard drive or in a secure cloud service online.

If you separate your savings into different accounts, you can instantly assess if you're closer to your goal of financing a down payment for a house, paying for a wedding, or affording that dream vacation.

Don't have a scanner? Apps like Genius Scan or Scanner Pro allow you to photograph documents on your smartphone and convert the images into PDFs. And premium LearnVest subscribers have access to the Doc Vault, where you can securely store key documents in one convenient place online.

Time it takes: 10 minutes.

9. Identify savings goals.Saving money can be difficult on the best of days — especially if you can't see that you're making any progress. But if you separate your savings into different accounts or buckets, you should be able to instantly assess if you're closer to your goal of financing a down payment for a house, paying for a wedding, or affording that dream vacation.

How to do it: You can create dedicated savings accounts for each of your goals, which can often be done online with your bank. Or you can consider opening a separate account with a free online bank that allows you to set up an automatic transfer from your checking account to stash money away for specific goals.

Time it takes: 5 to 10 minutes.

This story was originally published on LearnVest. LearnVest is a program for your money. Read their stories and use their tools at LearnVest.com.

SOURCE: theweek.com

Weakness of Attitude becomes Weakness of Character

noreply@blogger.com (KGee) — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 01:39:00 +0000