Dave Ramsey is fond of saying that you don’t want to be normal because “normal” is broke.  Now, CreditLoan has graphic proof of that in the infographic, “A Lifetime of Debt: The Financial Journey of the Average American.”   Comprised of information from several sources, this infographic, which is laid out like the Life board game, shows Americans’ journey into debt.  Would you believe that it begins in high school?

Debt Often Begins In High School

By high school, the average American has a department store credit card.  While many teens want to be independent and show that they are grown up, is incurring debt the way to do this?  I would prefer that my kids show they are grown up by avoiding credit until the end of their college career, but that doesn’t happen typically.  In fact, according to the infographic, 84% of college students have credit cards, and the average undergraduate carries a balance of $3,200.  Only 2% of college students do NOT have a credit history.

I don’t know about you, but I didn’t earn much money in college.  I did have credit cards, and I was “normal” and carried a balance.  All I could afford was the minimum payment, which was often just enough to pay the interest for the month.  Let the enslavement begin.

Student Loan Debt

The infographic explains that the average undergraduate graduates with $20,000 in student loan debt; if they go on to graduate school, they amass $17,000 more for a total of $37,000 in student loan debt.

Unfortunately, once again I was completely normal.  My mom was a widow who had never worked outside the home until my dad died, so she didn’t have any money to pay for my college education.  I got the first two years of college free by attending a community college’s honors program, but I amassed $20,000 in student loan debt for my last two years of undergraduate work.  I took two years off after that and worked and paid down as much debt as I could before going to graduate school, which is the only reason why I left grad school with “only” a combined total of $22,000 in student loans between undergrad and grad school instead of the “normal” amount of $37,000.

Sadly, I am still paying down my student loan debt, in part because my husband and I thought we could afford our lifestyle when we should have been paying down debt.  However, the student loan is my next target on my debt snowball, so I expect it to be gone by this fall.  Yeah for giving up a lifetime of normalcy!

Home Loans And Auto Loans

According to the infographic, after students graduate college and move on to adulthood, they continue to amass debt.  The average home loan is $240,000 and after 30 years of making payments, the homeowner will have paid a total of $580,000 over the life of the loan.  (Suddenly the monthly payment doesn’t seem so affordable.  I wonder how many new homeowners take the time to compute exactly how much they will pay over the life of the loan.  I am guessing that most blissful believe they are paying down $240,000.)

Most “normal” Americans own two or more cars and take out a car loan of $30,738 for 6 years.  Their average interest rate is 7 to 9%.  (This infographic was created in 2009, so I am guessing the interest rate should be lower now, but on a loan of more than $30k, you are still paying quite a bit of interest.)

A Lifetime Of Debt And Interest

The most staggering fact of all—over a lifetime, a “normal” American pays out $600,000 in interest for all of these loans they take out over a lifetime.

Paying cash and paying for only what you can afford is considered weird, but it is no wonder “weird” people get ahead in life—they have an extra $600,000 to use or invest that they are not paying out in interest.

Until last year, I was living a very “normal” life.  However, last October we swore off credit cards and have paid down nearly $10,000 in debt in 7 months.  We are on our way to being “weird” and couldn’t be happier.

How about you?  Have you thought about being weird and swearing off debt?

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No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he’d only had good intentions. He had money as well. (Margaret Thatcher)

Looking at your finances through the paradigm of stewardship profoundly affect how you manage your personal economy, operate your businesses, capitalize on marketplace opportunities, and respond to perceived risks. Stewardship, acting on the behalf of others, can markedly change your financial world. Here are 3 ways stewardship can revolutionize your finances!

Being A Responsible Steward Pays

Inherent in financial stewardship is that you pursue something beyond a self-serving agenda. You are not the owner. You’re compensated to manage of the affairs of another. You aim to see his or her wishes fulfilled.

I saw a surprising example of stewardship via my interaction with Dr. Bill Evans, the CEO of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. When he spoke at UNC School of Pharmacy, I expected a research-centric presentation. After all, he’s a seasoned scientist and author of over 300 research and textbook publications. However, he delivered so much more than a boilerplate “research talk” or an organizational infrastructure talk. He discussed their mission to find cures and save lives. He connected their key research objectives to this mission. There was an entirely different texture to his talk compared with the other presentations. He wasn’t just there as a scientist or CEO; he was their ambassador, and he was a good steward.

In the midst of many charities closing their doors, St Jude took in a staggering $1,051,623,909 (including $183,752,685 net investment income) for fiscal year ending June 2010. Its assets exceed $2.4 billion. People open their wallets because St Jude prompts them to first open their hearts. When you decide that there are bigger things than your own personal gain, you become a magnet to those on a similar path. They will rally to support your vision: an authentic quest to do great things.

The personal application is that the same sense of responsibility that prompts the St Jude team to excel can change the finances of your household, your extended family, and perhaps your community. For example, a speaker at a recent conference was so motivated by the need for education that in addition to giving generously to schools in his community, he also decided every Christmas to personally invest $1000 into the education of each of the children of his relatives (all 30 of them). His contributions enabled one of his sisters to receive her bachelor’s degree in her fifties! He also inspired his own daughter to forsake a $150,000 starting salary upon graduation to develop a social entrepreneurial business employing under-served people and revitalizing their communities. She gets to build the wealth of these communities and her own balance sheet. What a win-win strategy!

If you’re willing to be your community’s steward, there’s good to be done and profits to be made.

Stewardship Can Prompt You Take Proper Inventory of Available Resources

Additionally, an important aspect of stewardship is that when you feel responsible for acting on the behalf of another, you will likely take better inventory of your available resources. We see it frequently with expectant parents who radically change their lifestyles (from their diets to spending habits) in anticipation of a baby.

This is why belonging to a team, association, church, mastermind group, and other organization that will hold you accountable can be tremendously beneficial. I remember some challenges that seemed insurmountable in my own life. If it wasn’t for the odd email, phone call, smile, or other form of encouragement from a colleague, I might have quit. However, I had a sense that not only would I be failing (them and myself), but we would both KNOW this is something that I could have accomplished but didn’t. Thus, my relationship prompted me to draw on dormant potential and to utilize available resources, even through unpleasantness.

When deciding between 1) failing and disappointing the people you are working for or 2) pushing through unpleasantness and having a reasonable possibility of success, the choice may not be easy, but it is often simple.

Stewardship Liberates You To Take High Reward Opportunities

I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver (Maya Angelou )

While the steward has implied accountability to fulfill the wishes of those he is representing, he is not necessarily responsible if those wishes do not prove fruitful. If extenuating circumstances prohibit you from achieving the desired results, that’s rarely catastrophic.

At another business conference, a Morgan Stanley managing director discussed this very issue as it applied to the modern workplace. She mentioned that fear is often False Evidence Appearing Real. She stated that it will prevent you from taking advantage of the very opportunities that will give you the competitive advantage in your organization. She indicated that even if you failed while attempting something great, you would have not only 1) gained wisdom from the experience but 2) would often be given another opportunity to prove yourself at a high level because of your willingness to try. Since failure is often temporal, why should we fear? You can experience a do over!

Men don’t drown by being underwater, they drown by staying underwater.

When you are willing to be held responsible for something greater than yourself, to strive for excellence, and to use the available resources to the best of your abilities, you may find that the critics are not so quick to hang you. After all, inactivity or avoiding risks doesn’t necessarily spare you from workplace adversity no more than it would solve your household economics. No guts…no glory!

Closing Thoughts

Harness the power of stewardship to improve your finances. Pursuing abundance is not selfish. To the contrary, some of the most selfish people only want enough for themselves or their families. The challenge is to expand your vision to contain something greater than you, for therein lies your power to achieve the impossible.

This was a guest post by Roshawn Watson.  Roshawn writes at Watson Inc on eliminating debt, investing money, and building wealth. Get his free eBook Your Foundation to Wealth by signing up for his email updates (no spam I promise). Get his RSS feed and connect with him on Twitter @roshawnwatson too.

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If you’re pregnant, congratulations! If you’re in the beginning stages of planning for a new addition to the family, congratulations. Possibly one of the largest financial mistakes that future parents make is to underestimate the cost of a baby. It’s hard to say no to the sometimes called biological clock and the pull it has on us and that can sometimes make us forget that a baby costs money, and a lot of it.

Rather than taking a more business-like approach and using a budget spreadsheet to see if we can really afford a baby, we sometimes says yes to a child without figuring out if we really can afford it. Make your financial situation just as large of a part of the decision to have a child as other decisions you’ll make. With that in mind, let’s look at how a baby will impact your finances.

Total Cost

Ready for this? According to babycenter.com, the total cost of raising a child from birth to age 18 is about $200,000 and that doesn’t include the cost of a college education.Although the monthly costs will change as the child grows up, that is an average of $925 each month.

In the current economy, starting a college savings account is a necessity if your child is to avoid the crippling effects of student loans. Parents can expect to pay $78,000 for a four year college education starting in 18 years. Not counting any investment income that comes with a tax advantaged education savings account, that’s $361 per month making the total more than $1,200.

Any amount of money saved for college is a great start and $361 may end up overfunding the account but remember that the overfunding could be used for a second child or even yourself.

Furniture

Furniture is an upfront cost that comes with welcoming a son or daughter in to the world and compared to your bedroom suite, the cost is relatively small. Designer cribs could cost $1,000 or more but other models may cost as little as $100. Sites like Criagslist may have great deals on higher end cribs for very reasonable prices.

Along with the crib comes the changing table and maybe a rocking chair for the baby’s room. All of these together might cost $450 or less depending on how skillful you are as a thrifty shopper.

Disposable or Cloth?

Now we reach the great debate among moms. Should you use disposable or cloth diapers? According to diaperingdecisions.com, the cost of disposable diapers is $2,700 over three years while cloth diapering is only a fraction of that since cloth diapers are washable. A set of cloth diapers comes with a $300 price tag but saves money over time. If it were that easy, there would be no debate so this may be an issue that will require a lot of reading during those nine months.

Baby Formula

A year’s worth of formula will cost between $1,000 and $3,000 depending on what you buy. If you’re looking to cut down on those costs, a breast pump costs about $300.

We’ve all heard how the price of food is skyrocketing and baby food has seen the same inflation. There are so many variables that estimating a cost is nearly impossible as a general number but some people learn to make their own baby food to save on the cost of grocery store food.

Final Thoughts

Although looking at the costs of a child may take all of the joy out of your plans, just as you would with any other financial decision, collect all of the facts and design your budget around the added cost. Being prepared now instead of surprised later is the best way to avoid financial disaster.

Bob enjoys dark chocolate, paying off debt, giving, Foosball, loose-leaf tea, and helping people succeed. He started ChristianPF in 2007 and Co-Founded Blogging Your Passion in 2011.

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My Lending Club account has been kind of hands off the last couple of months, with no new loans being bought or sold.  The good news is that my returns are continuing to improve.  My returns are now up to 11.93%, getting close to the 12% I said I was looking for a while back.  By moving away from purchasing only A and B grade loans, and selectively choosing more C, D and F grade loans I’ve been able to boost my returns significantly.  Hopefully next month I’ll be over that 12% hump.

Lending Club continues their steady growth, as they added an another 42.1 million in new loans for April 2012.  From SocialLending.net

When you look at the numbers Lending Club issued almost $42.1 million in new loans this month. The total number of new loans was up substantially (over 10%) from last month with 3,230 loans issued. This meant for the second month in a row their average loan size reduced – in April it was $13,019. The total loans issued since inception is now around $612 million and with eight months left in the year it is clear that Lending Club will cross over $1 billion in total loans before the end of the year.

Lending Club has continued to show strong growth, and should be able to cross $1 billion in total loans by the end of the year. I think that goes to show that they aren’t just a flash in the pan. Peer to peer lending is here for the long haul!  Prosper has also continued to show growth as well, and may be worth a second look by investors.

Social Lending Video Course

Also this month Peter Renton of SocialLending.net has relaunched his peer to peer lending training video course.  The course goes over the social lending sphere in depth, talks about how to maximize returns and gives some of Peter’s best investment strategies to help you succeed.  The course is well worth the cost, and worth a look if you’re interested in maximizing your returns with P2P Lending.

More Details + Video Overview Of Peer to Peer Lending Wealth System

Returns Now At 11.93%

A week or two ago I started looking at my Lending Club account for 2011 tax purposes. Trying to figure out your taxes when it comes to Lending club can be extremely confusing as the reporting processes can vary depending on how much you’re investing in each loan, how your interest income will be reported, etc. If you’re as confused as i was when I started looking at it, check out my post on Lending Club and taxes.

A couple of months ago I had my first charged off loan. It was disappointing to see my perfect record of no charged off loans go down the tubes, but it wasn’t completely unexpected. With as long as I’ve been investing with Lending Club I would have expected at least 1 or 2 charged off loans a while ago. Here’s a look at my account to date:

1. Net Annualized Return of 11.93%: Up from 11.61% in early April, 11.44% in February, all the way back to 10.53% in July of last year. It  continues showing progress.
2. Number of defaults.. one, with 2 new late: A few months ago now I had my first charged off loan, a Grade B loan. It’s interesting that the loans I’ve had either go late or get charged off have mostly been the higher grade loans. I’ve now got two more late loans, one of them a grade A loan, and the other a Grade D loan.   The grade A loan is thankfully almost all paid off already, so even if it gets charged off my losses would be minimal.  The grade D loan that’s late is about 1/2 paid off by now, and is already on a payment schedule to hopefully get them back on track. We’ll see.
3. Twenty seven loans have been paid off early: Ten were A grade loans, eight were grade B loans, six were C grade, two grade E and one F. Looks like grade A and B loans are more likely to get paid back early, reducing returns. Another reason why I’ve started investing in more higher grade loans.
4. My account balance increasing, re-investing returns: I currently have $2,777.11 in my account, with $170.87 of that ready to invest. I’ll get around to re-investing that money soon.
5. I’m still diversified by investing across a large number of loans: I’ve had 169  loans, with no more than $25 in each loan. In other words, I’m diversified across a large number of loans, lessening my risk from any one loan going into default or getting charged off.

NOTE: Did you know that 100% of investors who have invested in 800 notes or more had positive returns. Not too shabby, not everyone in the stock market can say that!

What’s Your Actual ROI?

When you’re looking at the numbers on the Lending Club and Prosper sites, it has been pointed out time and again that their numbers are overly rosy view of what your actual return on investment will be. The ways that they calculate the ROI isn’t really standardized, and they don’t take into account how old your loans are, possible future default rates, or other things that may become a factor. The numbers they show are just something you have to take or leave.

A site that I discovered a while ago that gives what I think is a better picture of the actual ROI you can expect is Nickel Steamroller’s Lending Club portfolio analyzer. Basically the analysis tool with give you an estimated ROI after you download all your notes from your Lending Club account and upload the .csv file. It will go through you notes and give sell recommendations, show duplicate notes and highlight notes that are below Lending Club’s average return (so you can sell them on the secondary platform). It will even give you a fun little map showing where your loans are (see mine above).

In looking at my returns on the analyzer, my actual return according to the site will be closer to 10.74%.  It also gives me quite a few sell recommendations, particularly on some of my older lower interest loans that I did when first starting out. Those particular loans tend to be grade A or B, and have interest below 8%.

Evolving Lending Club Strategy

Here’s the basic strategy I’ve been using with Lending Club since I started investing.  The strategy has changed a little bit over time to include more low grade loans and a few loans with higher balances.

• Less than $10,000: I believe I’ll still be sticking with mostly loans below $10,000. Lower amounts mean higher likelihood of payback of the loan.
• Zero delinquencies: Again, I may fudge slightly on this one, but I still want it to be very few or zero delinquencies.
• Debt to income ratio below 20-25%: I like to invest in loans where the borrowers have a lower DTI ratio, and preferably have higher incomes. I’ll try to keep this as is.
• Good employment history: I like loans with a decent employment history of at least 2 years, and a decent income.

So that’s what I’m doing with my Lending Club portfolio right now, and how I’m investing.

Not ready to invest, but looking to consolidate debt or pay off a high interest credit card? You might want to consider borrowing from Lending Club. Check out my post on borrowing from Lending Club.

Are you currently investing in Lending Club? How are your returns looking? Tell us in the comments!

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My wife and I have pretty good credit. We’ve never missed a payment on any of our debts, have had a variety of credit types (installment loans, mortgages and credit cards) and the cards that we do still have, we’ve had for years.

We’re not too concerned about having a good credit score these days because we don’t really use debt that much, we pay cash for most things.  There is one thing that we DO need a good credit score for, however, that may be happening within the next year or two. Buying a house.

When buying a new home it is important to stay on top of your credit situation as your credit score can have a huge impact on what rate, and what type of loan you can get.  In the end it can save or cost you thousands of dollars. So today I thought I would do a quick review of why it’s important to stay on top of your credit when looking for a home loan, and how to do it in a way that doesn’t cost you very much.

Why Having A Good Credit Score Matters When Buying A House

When you’re buying a house having a good credit score is integral to getting a decent rate on a home mortgage.  The better your rate, the less you’ll pay both in the short term on your monthly payment – and in the long term in interest.  It can also mean the difference between getting a longer and shorter term loan – which can end up saving you even more!

Let’s look at an example scenario in my home state of Minnesota using the calculators found at myFICO.com.

Let’s say you are you seeking a 30 year fixed loan for $250,000 to pay for a new house.  Depending on your credit score range the rate that you get can vary pretty widely.

Even if you have a good credit score, and not an excellent score, you’re losing out on thousands of dollars in interest.  Boosting your credit score to the excellent category would save you an additional $11,107 in interest!  Going from an average or poor credit score to a higher credit score range could save you even more!  So be aware of where your credit score is, and do your best to improve your score!

What Is A Good Credit Score?

What a good credit score is can vary a bit depending on who you ask, but in general it’s safe to say a good FICO credit score is going to be anything above a score of 700-720. In the 680-700 range, you’ve got average credit. If your score is 620 or below you’ll most likely be tagged as a poor credit risk.  Here’s a general look at the credit score ranges.

So what is taken into account with your credit score?  According to the FICO site:

• Payment History (35%): How good are you at making your payments, and making them on time?
• Amounts Owed (30%): How much credit are you using – how much do you owe?
• Length of Credit History (15%): How long have your accounts been open, and how long since you’ve last used them?
• New Credit (10%): Are you opening a lot of credit cards lately, or other lines of credit? Lots of inquiries for credit?
• Types of Credit Used (10%): Number of and different types of accounts.

Where Can You Check Your Credit Report?

There are a couple of things to stay on top of when carefully monitoring your credit, your credit score and your credit report.  Your credit report will be a detailed listing of your credit situation showing all of your accounts, loans,  negative events on your record, missed payments, etc.  In other words it will give you an overall look at your credit situation.

You should never really have to pay for your credit report as you can get a free report from each of the three agencies every year through the government site at AnnualCreditReport.com.  Personally I like to stagger pulling my reports for each agency, and get one every 4 months to better monitor my situation.  If you haven’t pulled one in a while, however, and you’re hoping to get a loan soon, you may want to pull all three.

• AnnualCreditReport.com

Where Can You Check Your Credit Score For Free?

There are several places that you can check your credit scores from the three agencies, TransUnion, Experian and Equifax, for free.    Keep in mind these credit scores are not the FICO score used by the banks when deciding on your rate, but they are similar and can help to inform you and give you a good idea of where  your FICO credit score will probably be.

You can currently get your credit scores from the big 3 agencies for free if you know where to go.  Here is how I get mine.

• Credit Karma: Get your TransUnion credit score for free.  Credit Karma Review.
• Credit Sesame:  You can get your Experian credit score for free. Credit Sesame Review.
• Quizzle: You can get your Experian credit score for free here as well. Quizzle Review.
• Equifax: Get your Equifax score for free by signing up for a free 30 day trial. Just don’t forget to cancel.

Your credit score for the three agencies can help to inform you of approximately where your credit score will be when the mortgage companies check it.  But where can you go to get your actual FICO score?

Where Can You Get Your MyFICO Score?

Your FICO score, the one used by the mortgage companies in order to give you your home loan rate, is a bit harder to come by without paying for it.   Places I’d recommend going to get it:

• FICO score from Equifax:  a $15.95 one-time fee.
• FICO score from MyFICO.com: Several different ways to get your score. The cheapest is a free 10 day trial in their Score Watch product, or a one time $19.95 fee.

Conclusion

Changing your credit score isn’t an easy process and won’t happen overnight. So if you’re hoping to make a big purchase anytime soon, like a home, make sure to get your credit scores early, and do what you can to improve them by the time you finally apply to get a loan.  Have a decent amount of accounts, utilize the credit responsibly, don’t cancel old accounts and make sure that all of your payments are on time.

Have you recently purchased a home and seen what kind of an impact a credit score can have? Hoping to buy sometime in the near future?  Tell us your thoughts on credit scores and buying a home in the comments.

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When it comes to saving for your retirement, a Roth IRA offers you a simple and understandable vehicle for planning ahead.

But while investing in your Roth IRA isn’t rocket science, investors from all walks of life tend to encounter the same potential pitfalls over and over. So make sure you know the rules of the game as well as the hidden dangers which threaten to throw a wrench in even the best laid retirement plan.

Here are seven Roth IRA mistakes you need to avoid:

1) Not Making The Maximum Contribution (or Any At All)

One of the worst mistakes you can make is to not make any contribution at all to your Roth IRA. If doing so is part of a well thought out financial plan, that’s fine. But if it’s due to a failure to plan, you’re making a big mistake. Investing just $5,000 per year at 10% for 35 years is $1,495,634.03.

Likewise, a failure to contribute the maximum amount to your Roth IRA each year is also a big mistake. Let’s say you contribute $1,000 per year less than the annual minimum. At 10% a year over 35 years, that $1,000 per year adds up to $299,126.81!

2) Not Understanding The Ordering Rules For Withdrawals

Few people know that the IRS has a specific set of rules regarding the order in which you withdraw funds from your Roth IRA. Under these rules, you must withdraw funds in the following order:

1. Your original contribution amounts
2. Conversion and rollover amounts
3. Earnings on your original contributions

When it comes to Roth IRA withdrawals, you can always withdraw your original Roth IRA contributions tax-free and penalty-free. However, in most cases, you need to wait until age 59 ½ (as well as meet the provisions of the five year waiting period) before you can withdraw earnings or conversion amounts. Furthermore, each Roth IRA conversion you perform is independently subject to the Roth IRA five year rule, and this tends to be a major stumbling block for some people.

For instance, let’s say you’re 62 years old, and you’ve had a Roth IRA for ten years. Three years ago, you performed a Roth IRA conversion, and you’ve currently withdrawn every penny of your original contributions tax-free and penalty-free. Since your Roth IRA meets the provisions of the five year waiting period, and you’re older than age 59 ½, you can withdraw your remaining funds tax-free and penalty-free, right?

Wrong. Under the IRS ordering rules, you need to withdraw your conversion amounts after you’ve exhausted your original contributions. But since you performed a conversion three years ago, the conversion does not yet meet the provisions of the five year waiting period, so you need to wait another two years to avoid the 10% early withdrawal penalty.

3) Making An Excess Contribution

Believe it or not, it’s relatively easy to make an excess contribution. For instance, let’s say you max out your Roth IRA contribution for the year, but then experience a significant rise in income. That’s great news! But if your income increases beyond the IRS limits, you’ll end up with an excess contribution.

Fortunately, it’s easy to correct. As long as you remove the excess contribution prior to filing your taxes, you don’t have to worry about any penalties. Otherwise, you’ll incur a 6% annual penalty on the amount of your excess contribution until it’s removed.

4) Paying Too Many Fees

One of the most common Roth IRA mistakes involves paying too many of your hard-earned dollars in unnecessary fees.

Some financial institutions charge an annual fee for hosting a Roth IRA account. Make sure yours isn’t one of them. Any number of discount brokers will offer you a no-fee Roth IRA. So save your money.

Also, the majority of account holders use their Roth IRA to invest in the stock market, usually through mutual funds, index funds, and/or exchange traded funds (ETFs). Each of these funds comes with an expense ratio – an annual fee which covers the cost of operating, managing, and marketing the fund.

Some expense ratios can run well in excess of 1.5% annually, but a good S&P 500 index fund (or other widely held benchmark fund) will have an expense ratio of 0.10% or less. Unless you’re absolutely in love with your mutual fund manager (and the market-beating returns make the added expense worth it), you should shop around for the lowest expense ratio possible.

Why? Because just 1% annually can add up to a lot of money. For example, let’s assume you invest $5,000 per year at 11% for 35 years, but I invest the same $5,000 per year at 10% over the same time period – a mere 1% difference. How much more money do you end up with? $1,900,822.03 vs. $1,495,634.03 – a difference of $405,188 or 27% more money!

5) Overdiversification

You hear a lot about the need for diversification in the financial media, and the wisdom of diversification is well documented. Nevertheless, it’s possible to be too diversified. How?

Let’s say in an effort to be truly diversified, you own multiple mutual funds and ETFs. You may be diversified in terms of owning multiple funds, but does that make you anymore diversified in terms of what stocks you own? You may be surprised to learn those multiple diversified funds own pretty much the same stocks. If so, your effort toward diversification efforts is sticking you with several unnecessary costs. It might be best to go with a broad market index fund such as the Vanguard Total Market Index (VTI) which sports a 0.07% expense ratio and provides you with all the diversification you need.

6) Not Contributing Because You Earn Too much

Another common Roth IRA mistake is thinking you earn too much to make a contribution. IRS regulations prohibit you from making a Roth IRA contribution if you’re married filing jointly and earn over $183,000 or if you’re single or head of household and earn over $125,000.

But that doesn’t mean you should give up on making a contribution! If you earn too much to make a direct contribution to your Roth IRA, you can always make non-deductible contributions to a Traditional IRA, then convert your Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Since your Traditional IRA is funded with non-deductible contributions (meaning you already paid income taxes on those contribution dollars), performing a Roth IRA conversion won’t trigger an income tax liability.

So even though you technically earned too much to make a Roth IRA contribution, for all intents and purposes, you just made one!

7) Thinking December 31st Is The Contribution Deadline

Many people make the mistake of thinking the end of the calendar year is also the Roth IRA contribution deadline. But the actual deadline is the same as the tax filing deadline – April 15th in most years.

So if January comes around, and you only managed to contribute $4,000 of your $5,000 maximum annual Roth IRA contribution, it’s not too late. You still have until April 15th to contribute the remaining $1,000.

Conclusion

Avoid these seven common mistakes, and you’ll thank yourself in your retirement years. Why? Because you’ll have more money. Just a few pennies here and a few dollars there can add up to a substantial sum of money over long periods of time, so make sure you don’t commit any of these mistakes when it comes to your Roth IRA.

This is a guest post from Britt at http://www.your-roth-ira.com, the Web’s #1 resource for Roth IRA information. You can follow him on Twitter.

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About six years ago, my husband and I had a fairly comfortable lifestyle.  I worked full-time and my husband worked part-time as a graduate assistant.  We had one child, and we had no credit card debt.  We did have my student loan debt from graduate school, though it was less than $10,000.  We budgeted and set aside money for yearly expenses such as home insurance and twice yearly expenses such as car insurance, as well as car repairs.  My employer automatically withdrew 8% of my salary and deposited it in a retirement account.

Sounds good, right?  We thought so.  We thought we could afford vacations and a weekly outing to our favorite sushi restaurant at the tune of $50 a visit.  After all, we were able to pay in cash.

In retrospect, we were misguided.  We couldn’t afford our lifestyle.  Here is why:

We didn’t have a big enough emergency fund.  We did have an emergency fund of about 3 months of living expenses.  In an era where “fewer than four of 10 American adults have an emergency fund to fall back on in the event of some financial disaster, according to a nationwide Bankrate.com poll” (Bankrate), we were doing  good, but we stopped saving when we hit 3 months of saving.  We should have kept saving until we reached 6 to 12 months, but we didn’t.

If we had, it is very likely that when we had two more kids back-to-back and I quit my job because daycare was going to eat up so much of my salary, we would have avoided racking up much of the credit card debt we are now trying to pay off.  We would have had a large cushion, which, in retrospect, I would have taken over weekly sushi dinners any day.

We didn’t fund Roth IRAs.  Yes, my employer automatically took 8% of my salary for retirement, for which I am very glad, but we didn’t save independently for our own retirement.  We should have set aside an amount every month to contribute to our Roth IRAs.  Just making a few simple changes to our lifestyle or our bills could have helped us find more ways to contribute to our retirement.  We became complacent because my employer was deducting money for retirement.

We didn’t fund an educational savings account.  We now have three kids and no money saved for college.  Our oldest is almost eight, so college is only 10 years away.  Our youngest two are much further away from college, but when they go, we will have to pay for both of them at once because they will be only one grade apart in school.  We have a lot of catching up to do, as does most of the country.  The New York Times reports, “The findings of a survey of 1,200 parents of children under age 18 . . .by the Gallup Organization and Sallie Mae reveal families, on average, save $2,676 annually for their children’s education, for a total of just uner $14,000.”

We didn’t save for a house.  We live in an area where homes in less desirable neighborhoods go for $300,000 (and that is after the housing market bubble) and property taxes average $8,000 to $12,000 a year.  Thankfully, we didn’t fall into the trap of buying a home we could not afford.  However, in the next few years, we plan to move to an area of the country with a lower cost of living.  In anticipation of this move, we should have been diligently saving for a house, but we didn’t.

We thought that we were living a comfortable lifestyle that we could afford, but we left out several important aspects of a strong financial position.  Now, we have to pay off debt before we begin to tackle the missing components of our financial lifestyle.  Had we realized earlier that we couldn’t afford our lifestyle, we might not have so much debt to pay off.

Can you afford your lifestyle, or do you just think you can?

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A week or so ago I published a post called 50 Easy Ways To Save Money Every Month where I gave tips for how people can save money every month and improve their bottom line.  We gave tips on how to save on regular recurring bills, how to repair money leaks, and how to get creative to find other savings around the house. The idea is to have more left over to pay off debt, or if you don’t have any debt -  more left over for giving, saving and investing.

While I think it’s important to find ways to save every month, I also think it’s important to make sure you maximize what’s coming in as well.  You can only cut so many things out of your budget, but you can always find ways to increase your income.

How To Get Money When You’ve Already Got A Job

One objection I often get right off the bat when talking about creating new income streams is this:

“I’ve already got a full time job. How am I supposed to find the time to make money on the side”?

I’ve been working a full time job, raising my son with my wife and making a great side income all at the same time for the last 4 years. It’s isn’t easy, but it’s possible and it can be done.  You just have to decide how important extra income is to you, and find ways to make creating income fun.  You can make it more fun by making money off of your hobbies like I did, or do things more casually to create income.

So without further ado, let’s jump into a list of 50 easy ways to make money (admittedly some of these are not easy).

Improving Your Existing Income

This may or may not be obvious, but one of the first things you can do to raise your income is to work at increasing the money you’re making from your day job. Or if  an income boost isn’t in the cards, get better benefits!  There are a couple of ways to maximize your current income.

• Ask for a raise:  A lot of people would never even think about asking for a raise, but in most cases there’s nothing wrong with asking. If you don’t ask, how do you know what will happen?  If your current job doesn’t show any increase, are there opportunities for advancement?
• Ask for more perks or benefits: While a raise isn’t always necessarily in the cards find a way to get a raise without increased income by getting better benefits, a company car, company cell phone, tuition reimbursements or other perks.
• Find a better paying job: If your salary isn’t increasing at the pace you’d like, you can always look for a better job! Just make sure not to print out that resume on the company printer.

I know these things aren’t always going to be options in this economy, so let’s continue looking at other ways to make money.

Making Money On A Hobby

Most people have hobbies or things that they enjoy doing in their downtime.  For me I enjoy writing, so I started a blog. After writing for a short time I figured out how to make money from my blog. I have a friend who enjoys photography and she turned it into a side gig taking pictures of events for friends.  Here are some more ideas:

• Start a blog:  I started my website as a hobby in my free time and only later realized how much money could be made from a blog.   Check out my e-book talking about how to make money with a blog.
• Make jewelry:  Another friend got really into making her own jewelry and then realized that there was a huge market for that kind of thing on Etsy.com.
• Knit or crochet things to sell:  Another friend knits things in her free time and resells some of it for a pretty penny on Etsy as well.
• Doing caricatures or other art:  I have a co-worker who would make some spare money doing caricatures at local fairs, parks and attractions.   Another friend would make sculpture to sell at local art fairs.
• Roast and sell your own coffee: My brother has turned his love of coffee into a side venture.  He buys green coffee, roasts it and then resells it for a profit (while still being a better value than Starbucks!) His coffee wisdom is free of charge!  (Head over to his site to get some coffee!)
• Be a DJ: Have a love for music?  Be a DJ and make a little extra change.
• Be a freelance writer: Have a love for writing, but no desire to start an entire blog?  Be a freelance writer for other people’s blogs, websites and more – and make some money while you’re at it!
• Watch TV, get paid:  There are now companies that will pay you to watch TV.  For example, one company has an iPhone app that you open when watching TV, and it automatically logs what shows you’re watching. You get paid based on a point system.
• Cooking/Catering:  Love to cook as a hobby?  Turn your love of cooking into a side business. Offer small scale catering, dessert service or meal preparation for friends, family and others!
• Woodworking:  Love woodworking in your spare time?  Turn it into a money making hobby by making things that people will want to buy at flea markets, Etsy or elsewhere.
• Scrapbooking:  I was reading about how one lady turned her love of scrapbooking into a side income.  Clients tell her a page they’d like her themes to create for their scrapbook, and she’ll put one together for a cost.
• Be a personal shopper:  Some people love to shop, and others would rather die than shop.  Be a personal shopper for those who hate it!
• Write songs for people:  Post an ad on Craigslist or Fiverr.com offering to write songs for people. Write on request, record and send over an .MP3

The point is, find something you like doing, and get creative about finding a way to make that  hobby pay!

Find A Need And Fill It

Sometimes in the course of your day you’ll figure out that you’re constantly getting asked by family and friends to do something for them. Instead of doing it for free, turn it into a service and charge!  For example, I kept getting requests from friends to do logo designs for them, so eventually I created a website and started charging for my hard work.

• Graphic design:  I do some graphic design through my day job, and friends were asking me for help.  I turned my skills into a side gig with my graphic design site.
• Computer support: Another friend of mine is good with computers and will help people out on the weekend for a small fee.
• Walk dogs or be a pet sitter: Good with dogs? Be a neighborhood dog walker, or offer your services as a pet sitter!
• Create websites:  A gentleman I know through work consults with local businesses and helps them create a basic website using WordPress and his design skills.
• Consult in your area of expertise:  Run a successful web business? Consult with other entrepreneurs for a reasonable fee.
• Write an ebook: Know a lot about a certain topic, or are interested in learning? Research and  put together an ebook about a certain topic and sell it!
• Open a niche store:  Think of a product that would sell well online?  Open a niche store as others have done with some success.
• Be a virtual assistant: More and more online entrepreneurs are looking for reliable help in performing everyday tasks online.  You can make a few hundred a month at this if you want.
• Create and sell t-shirts and other products:  Keep tabs on popular culture and then create and sell t-shirts based on popular events and people. Check out my blogger store on  CafePress.com or also use a site like Zazzle.com.
• Offer to do odd jobs:  Sites like Zaarly.com make it easy to post a job you’re willing to do online, and then have someone hire you to do it.
• Rent your parking spot: Have a parking spot near a popular attraction or sporting event?  Rent it out by the day and make some money.  I know some people near our Minnesota State Fair make hundreds of dollars every year allowing people to park on their lawns and driveways.

Making Money On The Side

There are a lot of other miscellaneous ways to make money on the side.  These things aren’t going to make you rich, but can be fun or a nice way to get some extra spending cash. Here are just a few:

• Be on a virtual jury:  Some people will make money by being on virtual jury – to help a defense attorney try out a case on live people. You can try sites like http://www.ejury.com/ or http://www.virtualjury.com/ for e-duty.
• Be a referee:  Everybody knows that refs are blind, but you can still make some decent dough reffing on the side!
• Get a paper route: My brothers and I did a paper route with our dad for several years growing up.  It was a few hours on weekends, and made a few extra bucks.
• Deliver pizzas:  The hours can usually be pretty flexible, and you can make some decent money delivering pizzas on the side!
• House sitting: House sit for people and get new jobs via word of mouth.
• Rent out a room:  Make some extra coin by renting out an extra room to a college student or friend from church. Make sure you know the laws surrounding this in  your area.
• Rent out your tools:  You bought all those expensive tools, but hardly use them. Consider putting them to use and renting them out on a site like NeighborGoods.
• Be a tutor: You can tutor kids in an area of your expertise in your spare time.
• Babysitting:  Both teenagers and young adults can do this!  I know some parents who will take in an extra kid on a regular basis for less than the cost of day care.
• Give music lessons:  Play an instrument and love to teach? Give music lessons.
• Be a landlord:  While this one requires a substantial outlay of capital up front, it can lead to some positive cash flow every month if done right.
• Be a movie extra: Sign up with an agency to be a movie extra when films come to your area.  It may not pay much but you’ll at least get a free lunch and a small check!
• Take surveys: There are sites like Survey Savvy where you can take surveys and get paid in cash or gift cards for your participation.
• Use “get-paid-to” sites:  Sites like Cash Crate, SwagBucks or Ebates are sites that will pay you for you shopping via their portals or for filling out surveys or signing up for trial offers. Cash Crate has worked well for me, I’ve made almost $6000 from that site in the past few years.
• Use smartphone apps to make money: There are a variety of smartphone apps out there that you can use to make money for doing simple tasks like taking a picture of a product in store, to checking in at local businesses and more.  A few include: WeReward, CheckPoints and Gigwalk are a few to check out.

Sell Things To Make Money

If you’re short on cash you can also sell things that you’ve got around the house, buy and re-sell things from garage sales – or if you want to live on the wild side – you can even sell your body!

• Sell yourself:  You can make money in some interesting ways, not least among them selling your body!  No, not like that – but selling your plasma, your eggs or your sperm.  If you’re extremely adventurous you can take part in a drug trial!
• Have a garage sale: You can have a garage sale to get rid of some clutter, and make some cash.  Our most recent garage sale made us several hundred dollars!  Here are some tips for a successful garage sale.
• Sell things online:  If you’ve got unused things around the house that are worth something, sell them online.  I’ve had good luck selling smaller items like video games, music and movies on eBay or Amazon.com, while for bigger items Craigslist seems to work pretty well.
• Sell your follicles:  Some people will sell their hair for a good chunk of change.  The hair can be used to make wigs,  hair extensions or used in artwork via sites like TheHairTrader.com.   Some people routinely make between $300-900.

Making Money Doing Things No One Else Wants To Do

Sometimes there’s a buck to be made doing things that other people don’t want to do.  Trust me, there’s a lot of jobs to be done doing things other people don’t want to do.

• Be a poop scooper:  One enterprising young man I read about turned his neighborhood poop scooping  help into a full fledged business where people would pay monthly fees to have their yards scooped for them.
• Cut the grass:  Mow grass in the summer for an extra buck.
• Hunting for lost golf balls:  Get permission to find stray golf balls in course water hazards and near local courses.  Re-sell the balls for a profit.
• Shovel walks or plow driveways in the winter: Shovel walks or plow driveways if you have the strong back and the equipment.
  
• Telemarketing: Seems there are always jobs open in this line of work. I wonder why?
• Hunting for aluminum cans:  Hunt for aluminum cans where no one else will look, and turn them in for (a small amount of) cash.
• Crime scene cleanup: You can find flexible jobs cleaning up houses to make extra money, or even make six figures cleaning up crime scenes if you’re not squeamish!
• Garbage day scrap metal detective: Some people will make extra money by cruising through alleys on garbage day searching for all kinds of scrap metal that they can turn in for cash.

Conclusion

So there are 50+ ideas of how to make money to help your budget stretch a bit further. The list is far from exhaustive and is truly only a starting point to get you thinking about different ways to make money and create a new diversified source of income for your family.

Have your own ways to make money on the side, or experience with one of the ones listed above?  Tell us what they are in the comments!

NOTE: Don’t forget to check out our post on 50 Ways To Save Money Every Month

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Are you engaged? Married? Wondering if you should combine your finances during marriage? What are the pros and cons of a combined financial plan? Let’s explore this topic and figure out why you should or should not combine your finances when you’re married.

Two Arguments on Combining Finances After Marriage

Everyone I’ve met with when talking about this topic has always been passionately on one side of the argument or the other. People a lot of different feelings when it comes to this debate, and I’m going to try and be as objective as possible and then propose the best course of action.

Argument 1: Combining Money During Marriage is Important

For Christians and non-Christians alike, combining finances after marriage can do a number of important things for the relationship.

One of the most important changes it makes is that it creates an environment that fosters trust. Trust is a vital element in any marriage. Without trust, marriages cannot last.

When you share the same bank accounts, agree on a budget, and review each other’s transactions, you’ll know where you’re both headed financially which will give you a greater sense of security. Transparency in a married couple’s finances allows both parties to see the trajectory of their financial situation, allowing a greater degree of planning to take place that leads to a more secure future.

It is also argued that combining finances allows greater degrees of simplicity. By not having to deal with multiple bank accounts, couples can more easily track their financial situation. Money doesn’t have to be transferred between separate accounts, and both individuals have equal access to all the funds.

Christians believe that when a man and a woman marry, they are becoming one unit. This sense of unity extends to every aspect of life, including finances. As it says in the Book of Genesis:

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. – Genesis 2:24 NIV (emphasis added)

Argument 2: Combining Money During Marriage is Unnecessary or Unwise in Certain Circumstances

There are those married couples who keep their finances separate. Here are some of their reasons for doing so.

Some couples feel that the money they earn individually should be their own separate money because they earned it individually. They point to personal responsibility and believe that individuals should be self-sufficient and not dependent on their spouse for anything.

Other couples keep their money separate simply because it is what they are accustomed to doing. They started off single, and never took action to combine their finances. For them, it was merely natural to keep individual bank accounts and continue how they were living when they were not married: separate financial lives.

One reason why some couple keep their finances separate is because they have a general distrust of their spouse. Perhaps their marriage is struggling and separation or divorce is immanent. To protect their financial well-being, one spouse might wisely take half of their savings into a separate account to ensure the overspending and abusive spouse doesn’t keep all the money for themselves.

There are married couples who have been previously married and combining finances will be more difficult for them due to previous bad experiences. When this occurs, both the husband and wife have to be careful in how they handle combining their finances.

How to Talk to Your Spouse about Combining Finances

Talking with your spouse about money is certainly one of the most difficult conversations. If you’ve never really discussed money with your spouse-to-be (or spouse), here are some tactics you can use to make it easier.

First, decide which argument above you agree with more. Every married couple is different, but in my estimation most couples should combine their finances except in certain extreme situations. Let’s say you’d like to combine your finances with your spouse but aren’t sure how to go about the discussion. What do you do?

1. Start the conversation with your vision of a better life.

The conversation might start with something like this:

Honey, down the road I want to be able to [fill in the blank with your financial ambitions such as buying a house or retiring early so that you can spend more time with each other]. In order to do these things, I think it would be helpful if we combined our finances. The reason why is that [fill in the blank with your own reasons]. I’d love to continue this conversation with you to figure out a way to strengthen our marriage in this area. I love you lots and want the best for our relationship and future!

Now, whatever you do, don’t memorize a script! Simply think a little bit about what you are going to say and your main points.

2. Continue the conversation periodically to show you value this change.

If your spouse is reluctant to combine finances, you may need to give them some time. Bring it up periodically and remember to stick with your vision of a better future.

Marriage counseling might be required if you feel you’ve hit a dead end in the conversation and it’s becoming a point of contention. Communicate with your spouse gracefully and understand that change is always difficult – especially if it’s not their idea in the first place!

3. When you gain agreement, talk about the specifics.

Once you are both on the same page, talk about how you are specifically going to combine finances. What bank accounts are you going to combine? How will you both make sure you don’t overdraft the joint checking account? What will your budget look like? How much fun money (money spent freely by each spouse without discussion) will you each have? These are all important questions and you should figure out the specifics so you can act on your new plan!

Do you believe you should combine finances after marriage? How do you handle the finances in your household? Leave a comment below and let’s get the conversation started!

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If you are trying to pay down debt or save money, you may try to be as frugal as possible.  Maybe that means shopping at discount shoe retailers instead of buying full price shoes or shopping at the dollar store instead of a mainstream store.

On the surface, by saving money shopping at these retailers, it looks like you are making financially smart moves, but are you?

Because we have been living on a restricted budget for most of our marriage, we used to try to skimp on most things.  However, now we realize that skimping isn’t always the best way to save money.  Here are some examples:

Shoes

Take the example of shoes.  I live in the Midwest where we typically get a generous amount of snow every winter.  I used to buy my boots at discount shoe stores for about $40.  Every year, those boots would wear out, and every winter I would have to buy new ones.  Finally, my husband convinced me to buy more expensive but sturdier boots.  I spent nearly $150 on those boots, but I have now had them for 8 years.  If I would have instead bought a new pair of boots every winter for the past 8 years, I would have spent $320.  Buying a better made pair has saved me $170 so far.

That is not to say that discount shoe stores don’t have their place.  My kids seem to have growth spurts every other month, so I buy their shoes at discount chains.  By the time the cheaper made shoes are worn out, my kids have usually outgrown them.

Kitchen Appliances

If you don’t go out to eat much and prepare every meal from scratch, having durable kitchen appliances is essential.  I have gone through three food processors in our 10 years of marriage; each cost about $40.  Now, we are looking into buying a more expensive model that will hopefully last longer.  If I don’t have to replace it every few years, it will pay for itself just as the more durable boots did.

If you don’t want to splurge on expensive kitchen appliances, consider visiting garage sales.  When I was getting ready to go to graduate school 15 years ago, I found a blender for $3.  It was made of glass and was old already.  I figured anything that old that still works had to have been made well, and it was.  I have gotten 15 years worth of use out of it, and now I finally need to replace it.

Education

While you don’t want to go into debt for education, sometimes a more expensive school has better offerings.  We are committed to giving our kids a Catholic private school education, in part because that is what I had when I was young.  We first sent our son to a school that was offering ½ off tuition for the first two years of a new student’s education.  However, the school had personnel issues and the computers were very outdated and often broken.  We were so dissatisfied with the school that we transferred our son to a different Catholic school less than 7 weeks into first grade.  The second school was double the cost, but they had more rigorous academics and a state of the art computer lab that rivaled some colleges’.  In addition, they have wealthy alumni who offer generous donations which help keep the school up-to-date with technology and trends.

Because he is now receiving a better education, we hope it will pay off in the future when he applies to college and then when he begins his career.  (Of course, we don’t know yet how much this investment will pay off, but we do believe it is important to establish a firm educational foundation from the time our children are young.)

Conclusion

While being frugal on the small things can often save you a great deal of money, for some bigger items and purchases, you may want to splurge to get better quality.  Doing so will very likely save you money in the long run.

What items do you no longer skimp on?

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