Financially Poor

Should I Buy This Book? Review: Student Entrepreneurs

Kevin — Wed, 30 May 2012 07:56:31 +0000

I’m a big believer that you’re not truly financially sound until you control your own income. If someone can get rid of the money you bring in by simply saying “We don’t need you here anymore”, then your financially dependent. So I’m trying to educate myself to not let that happen to me.

Every once in a while I’ll be reviewing Entrepreneur/Business books I’m reading, so I can pass on to you which books to read and which ones not to.

This week it’s Student Entrepreneurs. It’s a book about 14 student entrepreneurs that have won a Global Student Entrepreneur Award. It’s basically a short bio on each student going over their first business and how they got into their current business. Along the way they give you a few pointers for you to succeed. What I got out of the book, but that you should already know, is that creating a successful business is hard work. That’s pretty much sums up the books.

The Negative

Some of the stories were kinda boring and there were really only a few tips that I could use in my life. The first couple of stories I could have done with out.

The Positive

It is full of success stories, so it is somewhat inspirational. Even though they were few and far between, there were some good tips in there that I’m going to use in the future.

Would I buy It?

I don’t think so. The stories were ok but it just didn’t give me much value.

Buy It

But if you want to give it a whirl since it’s pretty cheap:

Student Entrepreneurs New or Used

I really like this book. The title pretty much sums up the book. It goes over how to save money by

getting discounts on pretty much everything. It gives tip on:

Coupons
Negotiating on everything
Traveling
Buying a house
Shopping
Buying a car
Shopping on the internet

I found it really helpful. My favorite chapter is the last one because it goes over making goals and goes over how saving money takes work.

The negative

The only thing I really found negative was that the author doesn’t believe in budgets, and equates it to dieting. I can see where he’s coming from but I think that budgets are essential to having a solid finance life. But to each there own.

The Positive

Pretty much the whole book is a positive. There are tons of money saving tips for the various things I mentioned before. It does promote buying but it does save over and over that it’s not about buying stuff you don’t need. It’s about buying stuff you would buy anyway and saving money on it.

Would I Buy it?

Absolutely. It’s a great book and I learned a lot from it as far as savings go. I would recommend it for someone who wants to learn how to save money and negotiate prices. If you are having trouble sticking to a budget then his advice on not budgeting might before you. I’d at least try it to see if it works.

Buy It

It has my recommendation.

Spend Your Way to Wealth New

Spend Your Way to Wealth Used

P.S. Some of the links in this post I earn a little bit of money from, in order to pay my bills. But I promise to never to intentionally lead you to a bad company and to never let the money affect my opinion.

Slice Your Insurance Costs – Dice Your Fixed Expenses

Kevin — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:42:53 +0000

As households continue to struggle with a tighter budget caused by unemployment and underemployment, many people are wondering how they can cut their expenses to have money to pay all their bills while still having some left over to put away for the future. One of the best ways to free up money in your fixed budget is by cutting down on insurance costs and fixed expenses.

Car Insurance

Although increases in the cost of car insurance have slowed down in recent years, the trend still indicates higher costs over time. If you want to pay less for your car insurance, look at your current policy to see what kind of coverage you have. You may be paying for optional coverage that you do not need, or you may have low deductibles in categories that you can afford to raise your deductible amount on and therefore lower your car insurance premium.

Are you a safe driver? If you have not been in any accidents that were your fault in the past, consider asking your car insurance company about a discount. Many insurers are willing to give a safe driver discount, but sometimes you have to specifically ask about the discount to receive it.

Homeowners may save money on both their car and home insurance policies if they choose the same insurer for both policies and ask for a bundling discount. To save even more, pay these policies in full once per year rather than paying a monthly fee towards your policy. Most insurance companies charge a convenience fee for the ability to make payments on the policy rather than paying it off all at once.

Mortgage Costs

You may think that your monthly mortgage payment is something that you cannot adjust to be more affordable. However, there are a few ways that you can lower your mortgage payment.

The most common way to lower your mortgage payment is through refinancing. This is only beneficial if current mortgage rates are low and the fees you will need to pay to refinance are not excessive. Talk to a mortgage broker to discuss how much you will need to pay to refinance your mortgage. If the amount you save through refinancing is less than the fees it will cost you to refinance, refinancing is not worth it.

If you are truly having trouble paying your mortgage and you are afraid that you will not be able to keep up with payments, consider asking your lender to add time to the term of your mortgage. This will mean you pay more interest on your mortgage over time, but you will save money on your monthly payments to make them more affordable. This is a last resort option only to be used if you really cannot afford your payments.

Your total mortgage payment includes taxes and insurance fees. While you cannot lower the taxes you owe on your mortgage, you may be able to find a better rate on home insurance. Contact several insurance companies and ask for a quote to see if you are paying too much for insurance. If you find a significantly lower rate, switch your insurance to lower your monthly payment.

Debt Payments

With the average household debt excluding mortgages edging near $26,000, many families have an overwhelming amount of debt payments to make every month. If you are one of these families, it is possible to lower these payments.

Obtaining a debt consolidation loan may lower monthly payments and make it easier to pay your bills. To decide if debt consolidation will help you, list your current household debts and the interest rate on each debt. If the interest of a debt consolidation loan is less than the average interest you are currently paying on your debts, you will save money by consolidating. You will also only have one monthly debt payment rather than several payments, making it easier to pay your debt and less likely that you will forget to make a payment.

Even if you are not having trouble paying your monthly fixed expenses, finding a way to slash your costs by researching lower interest rates and discounts will free up more money to put towards savings. While it is possible to lower your monthly payments on your mortgage and debts, be sure that you are really saving money in the long run. Fees and longer terms may mean that you pay more over time, so research is important.

This is a guest post

What Is Your House Worth To You?

Kevin — Mon, 28 May 2012 07:54:31 +0000

Let me just paint you a picture. You have a two income family with two children and a lovely house. Your mortgage payment is around $1200 a month plus taxes and insurance. It’s not too bad and hovers around 30% of your income, so you’re sittin pretty.

Bam!! One of you loses your job, and your mortgage payment is now 60% of your income. In order to pay the mortgage you have to pay your other bills with credit cards in hopes that you get a new job soon. But the economy sucks, your cards are maxed out, and you’re passed due on the mortgage, so the bank is foreclosing on your home.

You finally decide that bankruptcy is the best option. So you go through bankruptcy and you say to yourself “I’ll get a modification on my mortgage and keep my home. Even though they’ll only bring it down to $1000 a month I’m sure I’m bound to get a job soon.”

Why?

Why would you put yourself through that again? Why would you want the sleepless nights and all of that stress weighing you down to pay a mortgage you can’t afford? Why would you put yourself into that cycle?

Am I missing something? Is it because I haven’t owned a home before so I don’t know the feeling? Maybe it’s a good thing this is happening to people every day. Kids will get to be on the outside looking in as their parents stress out over a house.

I know that if I was in that position I would have tried to do whatever I could to get rid of the house. Maybe try renting it out if you owe more than it’s worth. You don’t need to make a profit, just rent it for whatever covers your cost. I know that would be good for you and I’m sure some family would love to rent a home from you because it will be cheaper than renting from someone trying to make a profit.

If anything, and I was forced to bankruptcy, I would absolutely not keep my house. My family’s well-being is much more important than some drywall.

What do you think?

No related posts.

9 Tips to Help You Become Financially Fit

Kevin — Sat, 26 May 2012 07:49:43 +0000

Here are some tips I’ve learned through the years that will have a good financial impact on your life. Feel free to do them all or 1 or 2. Just be sure to do something to get your financial life on the right track.

Spend Less Than You Make

This is common sense advice and a pillar of personal finance. If more is going out than coming in then you have a problem that needs to be fixed.

Cut out Extravagancies

Do you really need a 52 inch Hi Def TV or a Coach purse? No, you really don’t. It’s like when you’re a kid and you see something shiny you say “oooo shiny, I want that”. It’s pretty much the same thing but on a more expensive level. I promise you’ll live with out it and be much better off using that extra money to pay down your debt, put into saving, or save up for your child’s education.

Make a Budget

Just seeing where you money goes can help you realize “Wow, I spend that much money on that”. It’s a lot more eye opening when you actually see where your money’s going versus where you think your money is going.

Let Time Work for You

Compound interest is amazing. It works for you by growing over time. The more you add to it the more it will grow. So open up a retirement account a start contributing to it.

Save Your Extra Income

Whenever you receive a bonus check, a tax refund or a raise just put it into savings. Pretend like you never received it and you won’t miss it at all.

Contribute to a Roth IRA

Open up a Roth IRA today and start contributing to it. The money you contribute is after tax and any interest you earn isn’t taxed if you start taking it out after the age of 59 1/2. You are able to take out the principle amount early without penalty if you need to, but you should have an emergency fund for that.

Get Free Money from Your Employer

If your company matches your 401k contributions be sure to at least contribute up to what they match otherwise you’re losing that benefit and free money. Plus that compound interest will work here as well.

Have an Emergency Fund

This is used for emergencies only. I repeat, Emergencies only. Start with whatever you can and start contributing to it monthly so that it eventually builds up to 3-6 months of expenses. The important thing is that this makes you feel secure so that you don’t get stressed out because you hit a bump in the road of life.

Reward Yourself

It can be tiresome saving every penny so buy yourself something every now and then to give you a break. Just be sure you don’t go crazy and ruin all that you have accomplished.