For the average person their home is their biggest asset and, when it comes time to sell, it is vital that they do everything they possibly can to get as much profit out of this asset as possible. With that in mind I put together a blog about some of the best things that a homeowner can do, for a relatively inexpensive cost, to immediately increase the perceived value, salability and final price of their home. With the housing market still relatively flat these tips may allow you to make a few extra bucks and sell your house a bit more quickly. Enjoy.

Before you begin it’s a great idea to take a look at your house from a buyer’s perspective. Think about how you would feel about certain aspects of your house and, if youwere going to buy it, what you would want to do to it once it was yours to make it look better and more appealing. Also, try to put your pride to the side and realized that, even though you think that your house is perfect, others viewing it for the first time may not share your opinion.

Next, what you’re going to want to do is improve your homes ‘curb appeal’. This simply means that, at least from the front, you want your house to look as presentable as possible so that if somebody pulls their car up to the front curb they’re going to be seeing something attractive and pleasing to the eye. Many people forget this obvious factor because they don’t spend nearly as much time outside looking at the front of house as they do actually living inside of it. Some of the things that you should definitely consider doing before you put your house on the market are;

• Make sure that the front lawn is attractive, green and well-maintained. If you don’t have much of a green thumb then definitely hire a lawn maintenance company to come in and spiff things up. The cost to do this is relatively low but the effect that it will have as far as making the front of your house look better is undeniable.
• If your front yard is relatively bare and bland you may consider putting in some shrubbery or planting a flower bed. You can do this yourself but, again, if you don’t have a green thumb have your lawn maintenance contractor do it for you.
• If your paint is old and fading, and it’s in your budget, you should definitely consider having it painted. If the front façade is brick or another washable surface a great idea would also be to have it power washed.
• Make sure that all of the front windows are very clean and that if there are curtains hanging in any of them they are attractive and well kept.
• If your mailbox is old, broken in any way, rusted or just plain ugly you should definitely consider replacing it.
• Take a look at your driveway. If it is looking worn, stained, cracked or otherwise unattractive you may wish to consider having it resurfaced (if it’s in your budget of course) or at least power washed.

Moving to the inside of the house you’re going to again have to put your pride to the side and consider that not everyone’s taste indecor runs towards leopard-print upholstery and light green walls. Your best idea when it comes to the interior of your home is to neutralize anything that might be distasteful to a prospective buyer. Remember that, while you may enjoy the color scheme immensely, it’s not about what youlike anymore it’s about appealing to the largest amount of prospective buyers as possible.

In effect what you want to do is take away anything that is overly loud, garish or unattractive. (Remember, put your pride aside and keep your overall goal of making the most money in mind.) If you’ve used lots of bright colors you may wish to consider having a professional painter command and put some new, neutral colors up that will match with any prospective buyers furniture. Removing excessive family photos from the walls, moving furniture around to de-clutter rooms that might be too stuffed and of course cleaning up all clutter are all great ideas.

There are companies that provide what are called ‘staging services’ that you can hire to come out and help you as well. For a fee these companies will come out to your home and ‘stage it’ for you so that it has better appeal to a wider audience. They can give you quite a bit of advice, show you what needs to be done or even do everything for you including moving your furniture out and putting different furniture in its place. Depending on what you have done your price will vary of course and, if you have a little bit of interior decorating skills, you can probably do what they do for much less. That being said, a staging service can really make the difference in how fast and for how much your home sells.

One thing that you should definitely do is make a thorough inspection of everything in the house to make sure that it’s all functioning correctly. Windows that stick, doors that creek when you open them and cabinet doors that don’t hang correctly should be repaired, replaced or at least oiled to get rid of that squeaky noise. Minor repairs like these should be no problem for the average homeowner but, if you have bigger ones like cracks in walls and ceilings or doorframes that are rotting you should definitely consider having a professional come in and putting them back into tiptop shape.

One last thing that you may wish to consider is having a professional cleaning company come in and perform a very thorough and deep housecleaning from top to bottom. Keep in mind that, since you see it every single day, you may not notice those skid marks on the floor, rub marks around the doors and the fact that your once tan rugs are looking a bit more brownish. A deep cleaning may be just the thing you need to brighten up the place and make it more appealing.

The fact is that there are plenty of things that you can do on your own to increase the perceived value of your house. Remember that at the end of the day your goal is to find a buyer that loves your house as much as you do and pays the price that you’re asking without trying to lower it too much because of any exterior blemishes that it may have. The more time you take to make your house attractive the better chance of doing just that.

We hope you enjoyed this blog today and that it gave you some great ideas. If you are in the process of selling your house we wish you the best of luck and we also invite you to come back and visit us sometime soon for more helpful information about a wide variety of topics from finance to fuel and energy savings and everything in between. See you then

Frankly, setting up a simple budget is well within the abilities of the average person (and we certainly have written enough blog articles about how to do it) so if you’re keen on setting up your very first budget go back and take a look at some of the excellent articles we’ve written that will show you how. Today’s blog article is about avoiding common mistakes that people make either when making or when using their budget.  So, if you’re keen on avoiding these common mistakes please keep reading and will show you how. Enjoy.

Many people make the mistake of setting budget limits that are much too rigid. For most people their expenses will fluctuate from month to month and, if their budget is too strict, they will end up overspending and nothing will go into savings (not good). For example, a budget that doesn’t give you the flexibility to spend a little extra during the holidays, for birthdays or for vacations will make it nearly impossible for most people to maintain an accurate perspective on their finances and make it much more difficult to save. Also, many people do not fund an emergency account adequately and, when an emergency pops up (as they tend to do) they end up having to raid their savings to pay for it.

Another common mistake that people make is to not include an amount for saving into their budget. Smart savers will always include a certain amount, either weekly or monthly, as an ‘expense‘ in their budget so that they can accurately figure out what they’ll need as far as spending and what they need as far as savings. One of the best ways to do this is to have a specific amount automatically taken out of your paycheck and deposited into savings before you even get paid. That way the money never needs to pass through your hands and the likelihood of spending it is considerably less.

Waiting until the end of the month to log their expenditures and review their spending habits is a mistake that many people make with their budgets. Simply put, tracking your spending is one of the most essential factors to making sure you stick to your budget. Making decisions about your spending is much more difficult if you don’t have a good idea of exactly what is going on with your money (or at least have a good idea). That’s not to say that you need to spend hours a day poring over your spending habits and tracking every last penny but, in most cases, a weekly check of what’s coming in and what’s going out is a good idea. Logging your receipts every day is a good idea however and will help you to stay on budget and not spend more than you had planned.

Unless you have a separate account or you prepay for regular expenses, your budget may not be accurate. What we are referring to hear are bills like property taxes, car insurance and other regular monthly expenses that you must know in order to be able to incorporate them into your budget and will accurately determine what you’re going to need. If you know how much money that will be going out for these expenses every month (and you really need to know) you will have a much better idea of do what it takes, dollar-wise, to maintain your particular lifestyle.

Lastly, many people make the mistake of setting up a budget that is overly complicated. Unless you are going to have a professional set up your budget and take care of it for you, you can do away with elaborate systems or special tools and use a simple budget plan.  And simply put, the more complicated you make your budget the more likely you will be to avoid it and end up right back where you started; not using a budget, spending too much money and saving too little.  If you have access to a computer (and these days, who doesn’t?) consider purchasing Microsoft Excel or a similar program and creating a basic spreadsheet for your budget. If you’ve never used a spreadsheet program there are plenty of tutorials online that will show you how. Once your simple budget is set up you will be able to easily keep track of your monthly expenses, keep your spending in check and avoid the tediousness of budgeting that turns most people off and keeps them perpetually living from paycheck to paycheck.

And as we mentioned earlier, we have written several articles on how to set up your first budget so, if you have a moment and have never done it, take some time and find one of these articles to get started. We promise that it will be well worth the effort and, once your budget is set up, the amount you will be able to save will increase substantially as well as your sense of well-being.

However banks offer plenty of other services that you may not know about and these services could help you in a variety of ways.

Helping you start your own business

If you’re considering starting your own business, opening a business bank account will probably be on your to do list. But you may not be away of other ways in which a bank can help you to make your start up a success.

Banks are always keen to attract business accounts as, on average, once a business has chosen a bank, they tend to stick with it – bringing the bank more business as the company grows. As well as loans to help you cover start up costs, some banks will offer free business advice, seminars, preferential rates and continuing support from financial managers.

Giving your career a boost

If you’re looking to change jobs, or just get a leg up on the career ladder, banks can help you by providing professional career and development loans. This allows you to cover the expense of course fees and living costs, only repaying the loan once you’ve completed your course.

Getting a bank loan to help with career development might seem like a big commitment but your improved career prospects should easily cover the cost of the loan and leave you in a better financial position for the future.

Helping make your house a home

With the housing market still uncertain, many homeowners are choosing to improve on what they’ve got, rather than move house. With UK finances already stretched, many are struggling to find the money for essential maintenance and renovation.

This is where banks can help. With a homeowner loan, you may be able to borrow money secured against your home. Giving you the freedom to create that dream kitchen, build an extension or simply give your whole home a face lift.

This should actually help to increase the value of your home, whilst giving you and your family a great place to live.

Insuring your valuables

Your bank may not be the first thing to spring to mind when you’re sorting out your travel insurance but if you get a premium account, some banks will include travel and mobile phone insurance as part of the package, you could even get car breakdown cover thrown in as well.

This can take a lot of the stress out of managing your finances and if you do need your insurance while on holiday, you’ll know you’ve got cover you can trust.

Helping the environment

The banking industry is helping the environment in a number of ways. Firstly by encouraging customers to use paper free banking they are decreasing the demand for paper, and therefore the toll on our forests and woodlands.

Secondly, ethical banks such as the Co-operative bank, actively seek to encourage lending within the renewable energy and carbon reduction sectors. This helps to develop environmentally friendly technologies and works towards creating a healthier world for us all.

So next time you’re planning some home improvements, a career change or a holiday, have a look at what your bank has on offer to see how they can help you.

This plan is called a Cash Balance Plan or CB and it’s a hybrid pension plan that has been getting a lot of interest since about 2000. In fact, in the year 2000 there were approximately 1,300 CB plans and they held about $426 million in assets. That number had quintupled by 2010 when there were 7600 plans with a total value hovering just around $800 billion. The question that any retirement investor must ask then is why has the number of people participating in a number of CB plans grown so much in the last 10 years?

There are several answers but one of the most important reasons for their growing popularity is that CB plans have a high amount of ‘portability’, meaning that they can be easily taken from one employer and brought to the next. When a person leaves one job to go to a new one, unlike with a 401(k), they can actually withdraw the full amount of their Cash Balance Plan. The reason for this is that, unlike a 401(k), a CB plan has both a defined benefit and a defined contribution aspect to it, something that a 401(k) does not.

What this means is that, since it is essentially a hypothetical account,  the entire account balance of a CB can be easily rolled over when the participant leaves their employment whereas someone who has a 401(k) will either have to wait until they retire to withdraw funds or draw them as an annuity. With a CB, whoever is sponsoring the plan will contribute to it based on a set interest crediting rate.

The fact that they have reduced load activity and low risk level is another reason that CBs are gaining in popularity on 401(k)s. For someone that is starting a retirement savings plan late in their life this can be a big advantage. It can also be advantageous if your pay is relatively high and the fact is that most CB plan participants earn $250,000 a year or more.

That’s not to say that a CB plan is not without its flaws. Typically, a 401(k) has a lower level of risk but this depends on the company that is sponsoring the CB and can vary widely. Although not related to risk, the participant’s cash flow and the current interest crediting rate will also need to be factored in and will cause the structure of the CB to vary. Setting up a CB, at least for the plan sponsor, can also be quite complicated and laborious. Most experts will tell you that you should peg the liability of your investment to the balance of your CB account balance.

In the end however, a CB plan is generally a lot easier to comprehend for the retirement investor and, if there is a capable plan sponsor and an investment strategy that is skillfully planned out, a cash balance plan can be a superior option as far as pension plans go for many employees.

Now, many of you reading this may be thinking to yourself “there is no way that I would ever fall for an Internet scam”. You may believe that only older people and idiots fall for them but, frankly, some of the scams online today are so slick that even the most savvy internet surfer can be taken for a bad ride. With that in mind, here are 5 Internet scams that you need to be aware of so that you don’t find yourself on the losing end of one of them with a surprised look on your face and a zero dollar amount in your bank account. Enjoy.

1.        The “FBI – Illegal Download Fine’ Scam. This is one of the newer scams being used online and it can scare someone enough to cause them to make a foolish mistake.  It starts when an Internet surfer mistakenly clicks on a website in the ‘nether regions’ of the Internet. (We won’t ask why you are there but we will caution you that it happens with illegal download sites and pornography sites more than any other kind.)  Once a person clicks on this website a malicious program will take over their computer (its very powerful) and won’t allow them to do anything.

A page will then pop up that you cannot click out of and it will look very convincingly like it is from either the FBI or Interpol (the International version of the FBI). It will go into detail about how you have been ‘caught’ looking at either illegal pornography or have been illegally downloading music or other files and will tell you that, in order to get use of your computer back, you will need to pay a ‘fine’. It will then tell you that in order to pay his fine you need to go to a place where they sell money orders (Walgreens, 7-11, etc.), get one in a specific amount and then send it to them electronically. While the program that has taken control of your computer is certainly real and may be hard to purge, the rest is completely false. It preys on the fear that people have of being ‘caught’ illegally downloading content or their embarrassment of looking at internet porn. The best way to get rid of this file program is to reboot your computer in ‘safe mode’ and revert back to a prior saved hard-drive date before the event occurred. The best way to avoid it of course is to stick to webpages that are legitimate and, frankly, to avoid Internet porn and illegal download sites at all costs.

2.        The ‘Grandchild in Trouble’ Scam. This is a particularly vile scam in that it preys on an elderly person’s love for their grandchildren. What happens is that they will get either an early morning or late night phone call (when they are sleepy) from someone who claims to be their ‘grandchild’ (they will, in many cases, even know the actual name of  one of them). The ‘grandchild’ will then tell a sob story about how they are stranded somewhere and need money for either bus fare, bail or some other fine in order to ‘get back home’. Of course what they will tell the unknowing grandparent is that they shouldn’t tell anyone else because, if they do, they will get the grandchild ‘in trouble’.

This scam is happening all over the country as the population of the United States gets older and older. The best way to avoid it is to talk with your elderly parents and tell them to never send money to anyone for any reason until they’ve actually conferred with you to find out if the need, and the grandchild, is legitimate.

3.        The “You’ve GOT to see this!” Scam.  If you’ve ever heard the old adage “it’s like a train wreck; you don’t want to look but you can’t look away” you know why this scam works. We humans have an odd interest in jarring, disturbing or even tragic events. (Think 9/11 or the recent Boston Marathon bombing.) What happens is that scammers use this natural propensity for morbid curiosity to relieve you of your money by telling you to click on a link to see video or pictures of a particular event. When you do you and then land on their linked page it will look like a normal YouTube or other website but, unbeknownst to you, malicious HTML code will load onto your computer and start hacking into your personal data and sending spam to your email list to perpetuate itself. The best way to avoid this scam is to never click on a link in an email that hasn’t come from a trusted source and isn’t a regular email that’s been addressed directly to you.  

4.        The “This Needs Your Attention Immediately” scam. (Otherwise known as phishing.) This is one of the most damaging and dangerous scams on the Internet and has been around longest. How it works is that scammers send you an email that looks like it’s from your bank, credit card company, the IRS, PayPal or any one of a number of large companies that you work with financially. The email will have logos and verbiage that look and sound legitimate and will tell you something to the effect that you need to contact them immediately about a ‘problem’ with your account. When you do you will be taken to a website that looks amazingly like the bank or financial institution that sent you the email and will ask for your password and other ID information. Once you give it, your financial goose is cooked as they now have complete access to your account and can drain it at their leisure. (They usually do so right away.)

This scam is powerful and still works because it preys on a person’s propensity for wanting to protect their money. (Talk about ironic.) You can avoid these nasty b*stards by never clicking on an email link that you get from any financial organization asking for your information. None of them ever sent an email asking for this info, ever. If you want to contact your financial institution online, type their exact URL into your browser to go to their legitimate website directly. While it is true that your financial institution will send you an email from time to time they will, again, never ask you for your secret code, ID numbers or anything of the sort. If you received a phishing email forwarded to phishing-report@us-cert.gov  and let the feds handle these scums.

5.        The ‘Help those in Need’ Scam. Another scam that proves that the world is full of sc*mbags is one that takes advantage of people’s generous and giving nature after a disaster. With this scam you will again receive an email that looks like a legitimate charity sent it. It will, once you click on the inevitable link it includes, send you to a well-made but fake website where you will be asked to make a ‘donation’ in the dollar amount of your choice.

Here’s the thing;  very few charities will send a solicitation for donations via email and even fewer will pressure you to donate ‘immediately’. The best way to avoid this scam is to  surf to the online charity where you wish to make a donation on your own and, if you want to go a step further, contact them beforehand to make sure that they are legitimate. Many times this scam will be taken into the ‘real world’ and you’ll receive a phone call from someone telling you that they are collecting donations for whatever recent disaster or tragedy has struck. Again, most charities do not solicit donations by phone and you’d be best to just politely tell them to go shove their head in a hole and hang up.

It’s a shame that we have to even write about these scams but the fact is that they happen every day and many people lose their hard earned money to them. If you want to avoid them the best thing to do is use common sense and, before you ever send information or make any type of payments or donations to anyone or any website, talk to others in your circle of friends or family to make sure that you’re making a good decision.

Rick Cesari, founder of Cesari Direct in Seattle, Washington, was big on using his credit card points to buy gifts for his best performing employees. Today he still uses one card, an Alaska Airlines Visa Signature card, and charges around $200,000 on it every year, heaping the rewards on his top employees.

As a $100 million provider of entertainment and travel services, Brett Reizen will tell you that he didn’t buy furniture for his business for the first six years, something that helped him to save quite a bit of money and reduce his upfront cash needs substantially. He found used office furniture on sites like Craigslist and got by for quite some time with nothing really fancy but definitely sufficient.

This next bit of advice will not only save you money but also is good for the planet. When his online garden supply business was first starting founder Nate Lipton was only spending $300 a month on shipping supplies even though, within nine months, his company,Growers House had skyrocketed to $2 million in revenue. What he did instead was, every time a shipment came in, he and his people used the same boxes that  it arrived in to turn around and send out orders to their customers. If you are keen on doing something similar keep in mind that the USPS also offers free boxes and envelopes and you can also find tons of free use boxes on websites like Craigslist.

When RetroFitness founder Eric Casaburi began to sell his health club franchises he used an extra room in one of his existing health clubs to do it rather than spending money on a new office, a move that saved him over $10,000 in rent and also was a great fit for the image he was going for with his startup. Today there are co-working spaces all over the United States that allow startups to have access to the normal necessities that you would need an office like printers and so forth but at substantially reduced costs.

Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Parks founder Jeff Platt had a novel way to cut employee costs; he trained his people to be able to handle multiple roles, saving him over 5% on the payroll.  Eric Casaburi from RetroFitness did the same thing. Both saved big bucks by taking one employee and turning them into people that could handle multiple tasks and roles, something that practically any startup can do and obviously something that’s highly recommended.

Another excellent idea that these startup founders shared with us is that they did a lot of their own market research rather than hiring it out to research companies. For example, Casaburi would actually drive to a location where he was considering putting in one of his health clubs and literally count the cars coming in and out as well as the people. This automobile and foot traffic gave him the information he needed to find out if a location would have enough activity to support one of his gyms.

The simple fact is that, as a startup, one of your most vital tasks is to save money at every single turn so that, if you have a setback or a slowdown, you won’t have spent all the money that you need to survive either one. The ideas and examples that we presented here today can be used by any entrepreneur who’s keen on making sure that his new business prospers. We hope you enjoyed it and that you found some useful information here today and we invite you to come back and visit us again soon for more of the same. See you then.

More than likely the majority of your money is going towards housing, food, clothing and of course gasoline. One of the best ways to make sure that you aren’t overspending on any of these is to closely monitor and scrutinize your spending over a 1 to 3 month period. If you do this diligently you will get a lot of valuable information about where your money is going and where you can possibly cut back on spending and increase your savings.

Unless they are very young it’s okay to have a frank discussion with your children and let them know about your family’s financial situation. You might be surprised how well they understand and how much they are willing to contribute, or at least cut back, to help keep your financial ship afloat.

One area where a lot of savings can be found is on childcare. If you’re lucky enough to have a reliable family member to help you that’s great but if not, check with your work to see if you can alternate your schedule or talk with your neighbors to see if any of them can provide child care in trade for something else, possibly something that you can do for them professionally. There are also options at school, church and other local community organizations so make sure you check into all possibilities.

One of the most overlooked areas to save money is when filing taxes, especially the child care tax credit that you will more than likely qualify for if you’re a working single parent. When you have a spare moment surf to the federal government’s webpage on tax credits http://www.irs.gov/publications/p503/ar02.html.

Depending on the type of work that you do and the type of clothing that you need to wear there are many ways to save money on clothes. Interchangeable items in basic colors that will mix and match easily are your best choice and, if you can put your pride aside for a bit, thrift shops can sometimes offer amazingly good deals on all sorts of clothes and other household items. Purchasing your children’s clothes there is also an excellent idea as well and purchasing clothes for yourself and the kids that don’t need to be dry cleaned is also a great way to save.

Saving money on gasoline is something that everyone wants to do these days as gasoline prices keep rising. One of the best ways to do this is to coordinate and organize your car trips so that, rather than making five or six a day, you make one trip and get everything done during that trip that you can. This will not only save you gas but save you valuable time as well.

Children love books and videos. Heck, we adults love a good book and a great video from time to time as well. If you’re keen on saving money on books, videos, music, magazines and even video games, do yourself a favor and take a trip to your town’s local library. It can not only be a lot of fun but you can borrow all of these things for free instead of purchasing something that will be used once or twice and then put on a shelf to gather dust.

While you may think to yourself that it’s impossible, starting a college and/or retirement fund is vitally important for your future and, even if you only do it a little bit at a time. When it comes time to send the kids to college or retire you’ll have at least something stashed away. If you start when the kids are young you’ll be surprised at how much interest you’ll make by the time they’re ready to head off to university. If you have the opportunity to have money directly deposited into a 401(k) or other retirement plan you should definitely take advantage of it.  Also, consider some riskier investments like forex trading.  Easy-to-use forex accounts aren’t difficult to find, and surprisingly enough they can protect your retirement accounts from the wild effects of currency fluctuations.

Lastly, do your best to purchase adequate insurance so that, heaven forbid something happens to you, you will have enough disability or life insurance to take care of the kids.

We know that being a single parent can be difficult sometimes (some of us here are single parents as well) but if you take the advice above and put some of the tips to good use you should do just fine. Make sure to come back and visit us soon for more financial tips and advice as well. See you then.

Unfortunately, we never know what might happen in the future and an unforeseen event could prevent us from working. Even though there are ways to claim money from psychological conditions such as depression or a physical head injury, we can also safeguard against such events by taking out income protection insurance.

According to consumer group Which?, one industry survey worryingly showed that less than a quarter of people deemed income protection insurance essential, compared to the 74 per cent who believed access to broadband internet was more important.

While it may seem like an unnecessary expense, there are several long-term benefits that simply cannot be ignored. Here are five reasons why it is advantageous to have some sort of cover.

Guaranteed revenue stream

If you are incapacitated and therefore unable to work due to illness or an accident, income protection insurance will ensure you receive a regular source of money. The income will continue until your death, health recovery or retirement or when the agreed contract ends.

Your level of incapacity will be based on whether you can carry out your own or another form of employment. Activities of daily living such as dressing, washing, eating, shopping and cooking will also be contributing factors.

Better than other forms of cover

Alternative forms of protection such as critical illness cover and accident sickness and unemployment (ASU) insurance are available; however, these are not as comprehensive.

Income protection insurance is a long-term solution, while ASU policies typically only last for a year or two. Although large income protection pay-outs over a prolonged period of time will mean higher premiums, this type of cover will provide more revenue compared to alternative options on the market.

Better than government benefits

Even though the government strives to help individuals who cannot work because of injury or illness, the support provided may not be enough.

Income protection policies will provide at least 50 per cent of your regularly monthly income, a big difference to the standard state hand-out.

Reassurance for family, friends and loved ones

If you are unable to work, you may need some sort of constant care which can be stressful, time-consuming and expensive for your family.

With a guaranteed steam of income, your family can spend even more time by your side or be in a financial position to provide the best care possible.

Legal advantages

Once you have taken out a form of income protection, your insurance company are not allowed to cancel or refuse to renew the policy on the provision that you continue to pay the premiums.

In addition, any money you regularly receive on a weekly or monthly basis will be free of tax.

Where I do agree with the naysayers is in the cost of your education.  Too often people think that any degree at any price is worth its weight in gold.  If that were true we wouldn’t have the ever increasing bubble of student loans that we do in this country.  Last I heard it had outpaced every other form of consumer debt out there, which is no small feat.  It’s really quite simple, for example, there are great jobs to be had in IT.  An information security program is worth every penny and is well known for a good return on your investment.  On the other hand, liberal arts is a fine degree, but you don’t need to spend $200,000 on a 4-year degree that will earn your $40,000 a year for the rest of your life.  Considering interest, the time value of money, and inflation, you may not swim out of that debt in your lifetime.

As you can see it is really quite simple, get an education, but be smart about it!  By earning a degree you can earn millions more in salary and benefits over someone with highschool diploma.  In fact, it isn’t even a question about going to college anymore, it’s a question of how many degrees you should get.  Because of this it is becoming even more important in discerning which college will best meet your needs regarding both education and cost.

1. About 65% of Americans that were born during the ‘baby boomer’ years will receive an inheritance from a family member who has passed on. The median amount is $64,000.00 which is no small chunk of change. The mistake? Spending it all immediately on things that you might think are important or might think you need but actually don’t.

The problem is that most people who receive an inheritance are ill equipped to handle it correctly and use it to actually start making more money. Even if you think it’s a great idea to pay off your mortgage or buy a new car in cash the fact is that, if invested correctly, that $64,000 could generate enough interest to take care of the average person for the rest of their life.

1. In 2012 over 40% of workers who left their jobs cashed out their 401(k) plans at the same time. It was also seen that the smaller the balance the more likely the employee cashed out. The mistake? Cashing out a retirement plan early means you’ll get hit with a 10% early withdrawal penalty and also get taxed on the entire amount. Not only that but any future interest that you would have earned will be completely wiped out. Financial advisors would recommend that, rather than cashing out your 401(k), you roll it into an IRA.
2. Want to know the reason that it’s a great idea to have your 401(k) automatically take money out of your check every time you get paid? Simply put, if it were up to most people to put 5% of their pay aside every week their 401K plan would be practically empty. The mistake? Not taking advantage of automatic 401(k) deductions. Your 401(k) shields you from taxes and in most cases your employer has matching contributions. If you don’t put money into your 401(k) you lose both these, a substantial loss over a 30 year period.
3. When the average person gets a raise they suddenly start spending more in many cases. For example, moving into a nicer but pricier apartment. The mistake? This ‘lifestyle inflation’ can eat up your raise and more, leaving you with a more costly lifestyle will that will not only be disadvantageous in retirement but will lower the amount of money you have when you get there. Better to take that raise and fund your retirement with it while keeping your lifestyle more or less the same. (We don’t have a problem with taking a little bit nicer vacation to reward yourself however.)
4. With mortgage rates extremely low many people are using some of the equity from their home to make investments in the stock market, thinking that their money is better used and will make more interest there. The mistake? Historically, when the stock market is at a multiyear high it is the exact wrong time to enter the market. Not only that but investing in stocks is much more risky. And that to the fact that retirees who have paid down their house and were debt-free are in better shape than those who used their home equity to buy stocks and you’ll see that it’s not a very good idea.

Have you made any of these financial mistakes? We hope not and we also hope that this blog will help you to avoid them in the future. Thanks for reading and make sure to come back and visit us again soon. We’ll be here and we’ll have more excellent financial advice and tips for you. See you then.