The current financial climate has brought plenty of uncertainty with it for workers young and old.

As incomes are being squeezed by high inflation rates and reluctance on the part of some bosses to raise wages in line with inflation, saving for future might not seem like an option for many workers; especially those who are still saddled with student debts.

However, as a survey conducted by the National Association for Pension Funds revealed, younger workers who might be a long way from paying off debts accumulated while at university are more willing than their older peers. Surprisingly, a healthy 53% of 25 to 34-year-old workers said they planned to put some money in their pension fund over the course of 2013.

Youth trumps experience

While more than half of young workers said they planned on saving for the future, the same can’t be said of older workers. A disappointing 26% of workers between the ages of 35 and 44 said that they were willing to save for their pension at some point this year. The average figure for all workers stood at 38%, which equates to a disappointing less than four out of 10 people in employment.

Among the possible reasons why younger workers seem more willing to save for retirement may are:

• Likely changes to the way in which the state pension works
• The mass rollout of auto-enrolment in workplace pension schemes
• Uncertainty over whether pensions will offer good value for money in the distant future
• Being more financially astute as the result of this climate of austerity

Whatever the reason may be, some experts believe that saving for retirement early on is a good decision for a young worker to make.  According to a spokesperson from mypensionexpert.co.uk:

“Starting saving for retirement at the youngest age possible is always advisable and beneficial. Saving over as many years as possible will no doubt help boost the funds available at retirement and will take the burden away from the later years of working life.

“These figures are therefore encouraging and could be down to the increased media activity surrounding one of the biggest financial services shake up, Auto Enrolment. The new switched on generation cannot fail to notice the coverage of these changes.

“The increased awareness could also be coming from their parents who are facing record low annuity rates and low retirement income and are therefore warning their children in advance”, they added.

The post Why Are Younger Workers More Interested In Saving For Retirement? appeared first on Money Q&A.

With rent prices going higher and higher all renters are going to reach a point where enough is enough. When a rent payment is more than a monthly mortgage payment and they have nothing to show for the thousands of dollars at the end of a lease, frustration mounts. Many would-be buyers shy away from the daunting process of  home buying as lenders put buyers through more scrutiny than ever before. But with high availability of homes, all time low interest rates and no hassle lenders like American Financing, now is the best time to go through the extra effort to buy a home. When contemplating jumping into the home buying pool, please consider the following tips will help you get prepared for the home buying process.

Tip #1 – Create a Home Buying Budget!

This is pretty easy if you already have a budget that includes your housing expenses. If you don’t have one yet then start by keeping a daily log of your expenses and spending for a four week period. Most banks and lenders will check that your monthly housing expenses are less than 28% of your monthly income. If you just over this threshold you may be able to fix it by looking at what you can cut out of your budget to make a home purchase affordable. Keep in mind that a housing payment can be less than what you are paying for rent and it might bring you in line with that threshold.

Tip #2 – Get Pre-Qualified For a Mortgage.

Many home purchases fall through because buyers find their dream home before they secure a loan. Shop around to three or four lenders and compares the rates and loan types offered. After finding the right loan for you, the lender will issue a letter telling you, and sellers, the amount you are qualified for. Being pre-qualified lets you shop with greater confidence and move quickly on your dream home.  Sellers feel more confident dealing with you as it will speed up closing and reduce their costs.

Tip #3 – Get to Know the Neighborhood.

While searching for homes within your price range, your agent may show you a home in the part of town you are not as familiar with. You may fall in love with the home, yard, garage and view but you should research the neighborhood itself. Bad neighbors, crime rates and poor schools can have a negative affect the value of a home. Check with online databases to see how the neighborhood stacks up.

Tip #4 – Understand the Costs After Closing.

Most buyers get so excited by the home buying experience that they lose sight of what their actual monthly spending will be AFTER the closing is completed. In addition to a monthly mortgage payment you are going to have insurance, taxes, HOA (Homeowners Association) fees, and maintenance fees to keep the house in working order. These costs should be considered so you do not spend every available dollar on a mortgage payment.

Tip#5 – Work With a Good Lender.

Working with the right lender can make all the difference. An experienced mortgage lender like American Financing, with a record of excellent customer service and is known for providing a the most stress-free and hassle-free experience that is possible. American Financing’s excellent reviews attest to their service quality. Look for a lender with positive reviews and a good rating from consumer agencies like the Better Business Bureau.

Right now there are many viable and affordable homes on the market, with additional homes being added daily from foreclosures and new constructions. Stop paying your landlord’s mortgage and take advantage of low rates before they go away. Converting your rent dollars into a real estate investment is a smart choice.

The post Five Tips For New Home Buyers appeared first on Money Q&A.

I wanted to let you all know some exciting news if you haven’t seen or heard it already. Money Q&A has teamed up with Matrix Media, a national talk radio syndication firm to produce a bi-monthly Money Q&A podcast.

Matrix Media is the company that launched Animal Planet Radio, Travel Channel Radio, the HGTV Design Minutes, and many other national programs.

We’ve been working hard to produce the Money Q&A Podcast,  “Your Money: Your Choices”. We are even looking to turn it into a weekly hour long podcast in the very near future.

Subscribe To The Podcast!

Money Q&A has its very own podcast! Be sure to check out “Your Money: Your Choices”, the Money Q&A Podcast,  is available on iTunes. Click here to download the podcast from Apple’s iTunes or subscribe in iTunes and get it delivered right to you.

Do you want to be a guest on the podcast?

If there are any topics, issues, or events that you’d like to see me cover on the radio show, just drop me a line and I’ll see if I can work them into the editorial calendar.  On that same note, if you have a guest that you’d like to recommend for an interview, I’d love to hear it.

Finally if you have a business, a book, or a service that could benefit from a sponsorship or commercial on “Your Money: Your Choices”, I’d like to put you in touch with the crew from Matrix Media. Send me an email…

Hank [at] MoneyQandA.com.

Roth IRAs, CDs, stocks, insurance, your 401K . . .what are the right choices for your financial future? “Your Money: Your Choices” will clear out the cobwebs and confusion surrounding these concepts and more with clear and concise information. You’ll hear tips and tools that you can put into action right now to help save your hard earned income in way that will protect your future for a healthy retirement. Whether you are a single mom or a father of five, “Your Money: Your Choices” will get you on track and put your money back in your control where it belongs!

Email Is The Best Way To Subscribe To Money Q&A!

Get an email every time a new article or podcast is added to Money Q&A right in your email inbox. It is the best way to keep up with new, fresh content on the website. Or, by clicking here to enter your email too.

The post Have You Heard The Money Q&A Podcast? appeared first on Money Q&A.

Are you an impulse shopper? If you buy things you didn’t set out to buy, and do so on a fairly regular basis, it’s likely that you are. Everyone has the odd impulse purchase every now and again, but if you’re doing it all the time and using your credit cards to make purchases, then you could have a bit of a problem. It’s time to cut down, and the way to do this is to distinguish between needing something and simply wanting it.

There’s no getting away from the fact that we live in a consumer culture. People like to buy things, and shopping can give many of us a bit of a high, which is why shopping is often called ‘retail therapy’. However, most things that we buy aren’t things that we actually need, in the true sense of really needing something, because the things we crucially need to survive are things like food, medicine, a roof over our heads etc. To cut down your spending, you don’t need to do away with everything but the basic things you need to survive – you just need to know the difference between purchases that are useful (i.e. a warm coat in winter if you don’t have one) and purchases that are simply frivolous (i.e. a new purse when you already have a closet full of perfectly serviceable purses).

The conversation you need to have with yourself when shopping

When you’re out shopping, or browsing online, it can be difficult to separate the useful from the frivolous. It’s simply too easy to justify or rationalise it, convincing yourself that you do actually need the item. You need a system, so try having this conversation with yourself before you have to apply for a credit card because you’ve maxed out the old one. Ask yourself ‘do I need it?’ If the answer to this is no, ask yourself ‘will I use it?’ If you can find a good use for the item and you don’t have something similar already, you can go ahead and buy it. Before you do, however, you should be checking to see if you can find it cheaper anywhere else. Unless you have cash to burn, if the answer to whether you need it and whether you’ll use it is no, you shouldn’t buy it. The last thing to do, if you’re really on a budget and you’re trying to curb a shopping addiction, is to give yourself one week before actually buying the item. This will give yourself time to cool off and assess whether you actually need to buy it.

The post Need vs. Want – How to Shop Sensibly and Stop Impulse Spending appeared first on Money Q&A.

The stock market itself is hot right now, and I think that it is definitely going to be a continuing trend higher this year. With all of the investment options to consider, wouldn’t it be nice to have some very helpful information to base your decisions upon? That’s why I’ve turned to investing newsletters to help me pick stocks. I mentioned one of my favorites, Jason Bond Picks, when I talked last week about short term swing trading that I have been doing for the past six months.

Online Investing Newsletters Are A Great Resource

Sure you can go find information about which stocks to buy and sell by yourself, and you will still need to do a little bit of your own research. You don’t want to just take anyone’s word for it. But, investment newsletters are offered by some of the top financial advisers, stock pickers, and investing companies. They can be extremely beneficial when examining the market.

Which investing newsletters that you subscribe to also has much to do with the type of investments you are interested in making. For example, I have been investing in small cap stocks based on Jason Bond Picks newsletter like I mentioned last week. It is a great service where he alerts you to what he’s trading, sends emails and texts, and also runs a killer website with a chat feature.

If you’re looking for general financial advice on investments, then again the top financial firms and reputable people within the industry have some great advice to offer like the crew at the Motley Fool and Jim Cramer’s Action Alert PLUS.

Another thing that you can choose depending on the investing newsletter is how often are the newsletters sent out. While you may want to receive newsletters often to keep up, you might not want one every day in your email inbox. There are several investing newsletters that send out their newsletters once a week. You want to read different newsletters from different viewpoints in order to get all perspectives on the market, and one of the best resources are those who vary in the timing of their newsletters. Consider a daily newsletter or two supplemented by a weekly and/or monthly ones.

Physical Copies Of Investing Newsletters

The chances are that you have seen or read a newsletter at one time or another in your life. Newsletters can be used for a variety of reasons, all with the main goal of informing the reader of everything contained within. Many businesses, clubs and schools will put out regular newsletters to help inform the masses about any happenings or relevant stories. Even Money Q&A has its own free weekly newsletter that we email readers. You can benefit greatly from properly planned out and distributed investment newsletters.

Quality investment newsletters are published to help give its subscribers insights on the stock market as well as current trends that investors will be interested in. Many financial planning and investment firms will put out these investing newsletters as a way to put together an informative piece that is filled with stock recommendations, stock market moves, forecasts, news pertaining to the various markets, commentaries by trading professionals, and analysis of stocks or the market as a whole.

Many investing newsletters often start off each installment with a company profile detailing your business along with your current stock performance charts. They also often contain other current information such as news articles from the investment world and tips that help investors to navigate through the trading system. Many times, there is even a helpful section where they can ask questions to have them answered by a trading profession. Such advice pieces are often the first thing that clients will turn to when they are reading through investment newsletters.

Today, many investment companies, stock brokerages, and famous individual investors like Jim Cramer and Jason Bond put out their investment newsletters online, either through a subscriber’s email or on their company website. The option is usually always there for a client to be able to print or save off their copies of the investment newsletters so they can refer to them in the future should the need arise. All in all, such email investing newsletters can be a valuable tool readers who want trading information and recommendations in a quick and effective manner.

Additional Benefits Of Investing Newsletters

While analysts often reach a consensus on stocks and mutual funds or an average opinion, each one of them thinks differently. It’s nice to get all the different perspectives about the investments that are out there. This helps you become a more knowledgeable person.

Also, one of the many benefits of investment newsletters is that they help bring to light many things you just aren’t going to find by doing your own research. No one investment newsletter is the same, and that is because no one person or firm can focus on all aspects of the market at once. There are going to be many things that you might miss out on if you do all your research on your own, no matter how much time you spend.

Therefore, allow other entities to bring information to the table. This way, you can be sure that you have a broad range of options and can better manage your portfolio. You might be your own investment adviser, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need any help from different people. The more you know about the market, the better off you are.

Be careful what investment newsletters you sign up for, and be cautious not to just agree with everything you read. There are all types of investing newsletters out there both in print and online form. It is just like with any other business niche, and there are one or two bad apples spread throughout the bunch. But, overall investing newsletters are a great resource for investors to not only help you find individual stocks to invest in but also to help you become a better fundamental and technical trader.

The post How Investing Newsletters Can Make You A Better Investor appeared first on Money Q&A.

Join me this week on the Money Q&A podcast where I talk about the different life insurance policies you do not need. Very few people understand the true reason for buying life insurance policies. Many people have life insurance questions about their policies and do not know where to turn for the answers.

There are so many planners and agents selling life insurance products that most people simply do not need. They often mistakenly buy life insurance as an investment, to pay taxes, build a nest egg, or even to leave a legacy. Most people often forget that life insurance is to protect your family from the sudden loss of income.

Join me as I talk on Your Money Your Choices about the life insurance policies you do not need and why you don’t want to buy them. Did you buy life insurance with your mortgage from your home lender? Do you have additional accidental death coverage? Have you ever thought of buying cancer insurance? You won’t want to miss this great conversation about the life insurance policies that you are wasting your money owning.

Roth IRAs, CDs, stocks, insurance, your 401K . . .what are the right choices for your financial future? Your Money: Your Choices will clear out the cobwebs and confusion surrounding these concepts and more with clear and concise information. You’ll hear tips and tools that you can put into action right now to help save your hard earned income in way that will protect your future for a healthy retirement. Whether you are a single mom or a father of five, “Your Money: Your Choices” will get you on track and put your money back in your control where it belongs!

Past Episodes Of “Your Money  Your Choices”

• Episode #7 (5-20-13) - Why Everyone Needs To Have A Will And An Estate Plan
• Episode #6 (5-6-13) - Increase Your Investment Return With Peer-To-Peer Lending
• Episode #5 (4-22-13) - Living Your Life And Completing Your Bucket List
• Episode #4 (4-8-13) - How To Incorporate Your Values Into Financial Planning
• Episode #3 (3-18-13) - You Need A Side Hustle To Earn Extra Income
• Episode #2 (3-4-13) - Conquering Your Debt With The Debt Movement
• Episode #1 (2-18-13) - Everyone Should Be An Entrepreneur

The post Latest Podcast: Life Insurance Policies You Do Not Need appeared first on Money Q&A.

A friend that I looked up to recently died. June Walbert, a Certified Financial Planner with USAA, recently lost her battle with cancer. June had a huge presence as one of USAA’s spokespersons on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. (Side Note: You should definitely check out her great personal finance videos on June Walbert’s YouTube channel)

But, June’s death happened to coincide with my own recent writing about estate planning and recently interviewed Rob Aschbach about estate planning for the Money Q&A Podcast a few weeks ago as well. So, to say that I’ve been thinking a lot lately about estate planning and what happens to our accounts and now our social media after death is an understatement.

So, the question remains. What happens to your social media after death? Where do your accounts go? Who owns all of that data and content? Does your family or your estate’s executor know where all of your social media accounts are at on the internet? Here’s what you need to know about your social media after death.

Your Social Media Accounts May Live On Without You

Do you have some skeletons in your social media closet? Are you tagged in some embarrassing photos of yourself on Facebook or Instagram? Not only is your Facebook and social media accounts jeopardizing your career, but this content has the potential to live on long after you have passed away if you are not careful. And, these might not be the most flattering either of course.

How To Delete Or Memorialize A Facebook Account

It is Facebook’s company policy to memorialize the Facebook account of a person who has passed away. But, a verified immediate family member can request that Facebook delete the account altogether from the website though. There is a bigger question though as to who will own the content that is left on the social media site though. It is Facebook’s policy that memorialize accounts and its content such as photos, posts, and videos will stay with the account so it can continue to be shared with people as the deceased person had originally shared it. This may not be in keeping with the person or their family’s wishes though. That is why it is incredibly important to make your wishes known to your family about your social media after death.

What Happens To Your Twitter Account After Death

Much like Facebook, Twitter requires a deceased person’s next of kin or estate to notify Twitter of the fact. In almost every case, the responsibility is on the family to do all of the leg work. Twitter will work with the estate after verifying the immediate family member or executore of the deceased to have the Twitter account deactivated. You can see the exact steps that you have to take on Twitter’s website.

How Flickr Deals With Death

Flickr, the photo sharing and storage site, will keep a deceased person’s account running until an immediate family member notifies them with proof of the person’s death. Like most social media sites, Flickr will keep almost all pictures, except those labeled by the user as private, open for the public to see on its site.

Make A List Of Your Social Media Accounts

There are a lot of types of social media out there now. Beyond Facebook and Twitter, there is a plethora of websites out there that we are all using on a daily basis. Whether it is YouTube, Instagram, Flikr, Four Square, Google Plus, and the list goes on and on, our lives online continue to grow every day.

What happens to your social media after death? Where do your accounts go? Who owns all of that data and content? Does your family or your estate’s executor know where all of your social media accounts are at on the internet?

You need to make a list of all the online social media accounts that you own for your loved ones. You should add it as a letter of instruction to your last will and testament. Be sure that you include your username and passwords for your loved ones to easily be able to access your social media after death.

There are services now such as, Legacy Locker, which is a company that offers to store your website and social media passwords and account information in order to give them to a person that you designate once it is proven that you have died. The service does cost either a monthly fee or a one-time fee in most cases. You could almost do better including a letter of instruction listing all your accounts and passwords in your will yourself and save the fees.

Note: June Walbert was a rock start Certified Financial Planner (CFP) if there ever was such a thing. She was one of the best and someone that I wanted to emulate. I hope and pray that her legacy and passion to want to help people with their finances will continue to live on for a long time to come.

The post Social Media After Death – What Happens To Your Accounts And How To Prepare appeared first on Money Q&A.

I have a confession to make. For the past six months, I have been buying and selling stocks at a rapid rate lately. It haven’t been day trading, but I haven’t held a stock for more than a week before selling it. I’ve been swing trading.

I have been swing trading with a small portion of my investment portfolio. I have been buying and selling stock and holding shares for only a few days in the hopes of short term price movements. And, I am really loving it I have to admit. Like when I started playing fantasy baseball and it renewed my love for the game, short term stock trading has renewed my love for trading.

It’s not for everyone. I will readily admit that. And, I only trade with a very small portion of my total investment portfolio, less than 5%. But, it has been a profitable venture and a lot of fun. I’m up over 20% in the past six months.

What Is Swing Trading?

Swing trading is a speculative investment in individual stocks where the shares are held for only between one to five days. It is very rare that swing traders hold investments for more than a week. Swing traders look to profit from a stock’s price changes or swings. A swing trading position in a stock or multiple stocks is typically held longer than a day trader would flip stocks but much shorter than your typical buy and hold investor which can hold stocks for months, years, or maybe never sell a share.

Investors who practice swing trading use technical analysis instead of financial analysis to find the potential short term price movements and momentum of stocks they are targeting. Swing traders are in and out of stocks so rapidly over the course of a few days that they do not typically care about the company’s overall fundamental or intrinsic value of the stock’s shares like a traditional investor who is looking for growth or value stocks to invest in for the long term. Swing traders are looking for share price trends and patterns in the stock charts.

Where To Find Stocks To Trade

For the past six months, I have been using Jason Bond’s Swing Trading service. JasonBondPicks.com is an investment newsletter, and it is the first one that I actually took the plunge and signed up for. I have to admit that I couldn’t be happier. A friend initially recommended his service, and I decided to give it a try. Now I’m hooked on his newsletter, text alerts, and website for my daily stock trading.

Jason Bond’s swing trading service is centered around education, teaching new and experienced investors alike how to read technicals and trade stocks based on short term momentum and price movements. Jason is a former teacher with a knack for breaking down concepts and teaching while you follow his stock picking. While he doesn’t recommend specific stocks per se, he opens up his portfolio to you and alerts clients to trades in real time through his website, emails, chat room, and text message alerts when he is buying and selling a stock.

I was very hesitant at first to sign up for a stock newsletter service on the internet. I had dabbled briefly years ago with Jim Cramer’s Action Alert PLUS. But, I am so glad that signed up for Jason Bond’s Swing Trade service. It has been great. So far I’ve made over 20% return in six months investing in companies like Zynga, GEVO, GLUU, OCZ, and many other small cap stocks.

The best part of Jason Bond’s swing trade service is hands down his text message alerts. The entire newsletter is build for busy professionals who already have a day job and do not sit infront of their computer screens staring at the stock market ticker.

Lessons Learned Swing Trading In Six Months

Like all traders, I have had my ups and downs. I’ve had to hold a few stocks for over a week to earn the rate of return that I was looking for. I have also had to sell a few stocks for a loss. But, that has been the vast minority of the stocks that I’ve been swing trading these past few months. I would be remissed if I didn’t share with you a few lessons that I have learned along the way of short term swing trading.

Invest Only A Small Portion – Swing trading or any short term trading should only be used with a small portion of your investment nest egg and not with retirement funds. I am only investing with a small 5% portion of my entire portfolio. This will limit the damage if things go completely south. The vast majority of my investments and retirement funds are in index funds, mutual funds, DRIPs, Roth IRAs, and my company’s 401k retirement plan. Don’t make swing trades with money that you can’t afford to lose.

Have A Goal And An Exit Strategy – As with all investing, you have to have an idea of what you are looking for in the end, and swing trading is no different. Why are you investing? What do you want to earn? 10%? 20%? You have to know your exit point before you even start to trade. Additionally to having an exit strategy, you also have to set a stop on how much money you want to lose in any one trade if your shares should take a turn for the worst. Setting a stop to trigger a sell after a 5% or 10% decline can help you limit the amount of money you can lose in a single trade.

Small Investments At A Time – I have finally increased the amount of investing to where I purchase shares in 1,000 share blocks instead of round lots of 100 shares. That’s a little easier when I’m investing in very small cap stocks with share prices of $5 or less and market capitalizations of under $1 billion. But, like my Lending Club loan notes where I only invest $25 in each Lending Club loan, I only invest a few thousand dollars at a time in any one swing trade investment. This again limits my down side potential.

It Takes Patience – Swing trading and short term stock trading takes patience. You have to have a goal or an idea of why you are buying your stocks, and you have to have a goal on when you want to sell them. It may take some time, even more than a week, to see if your plan will pan out. You have to have patience with swing trading.

Short term stock trading is not for everyone. And, it is not for your entire portfolio. In fact, I’m still a very firm believer in buy and hold for long term investing goals like retirement, children’s college funds, home mortgage down payments, and the like. But, short term stock trading with a small portion of your overall investment portfolio can be a fun and very profitable venture to keep you engaged and renew your love for investing.

Have you dabbled in short term stock trading? Are you a fundamental investor or do you love technical analysis? I’d love to hear your thought in the comment section below.

The post Confessions of a Short Term Stock Trader with Swing Trading appeared first on Money Q&A.

How accurate is your family’s monthly budget? Do you have false budget assumptions in your family’s monthly budget? Do you guess at certain things that you put in it? You’re not alone. A lot of people do not have the write math in their family’s monthly budget.

You need a budget, but you also need an accurate budget. Budgets are built on both facts and assumptions. You know exactly how much money your home mortgage will cost you. You know how much your car payment or credit card minimum balance payments are at the end of each month. But, there are many things in your budgets that you don’t know exactly how much they will cost you and your family. It is these assumptions that will eat at your budgets and could possibly throw them off.

Why Your Math Budget Might Be Off

There are two types of costs in our lives, just like the costs of a business. You have both fixed costs and variable costs. Your car loan payment, mortgage payment, and the like are all fixed costs. They are the same amount of money every month, and you can accurately predict them from month to month with almost perfect certainty.

Then, there are the variable costs of living. These include things like your water bill, your electricity costs, and other discretionary spending. Discretionary spending accounts for many of these variable costs, and they have some of the biggest impacts in our budget. They are, more likely than not, to be the areas that throw our family’s monthly budget out of whack. Here are a few monthly budget assumptions where our families are most likely not hitting the mark with their forecasts.

Potentially Wrong Family Budget Assumptions

Gas Prices: If you have a set amount of money earmarked for your gas purchases, this category in your budget has one of the highest likelihoods of being blown out of the water. Most people set a figure that is too low for their family’s gas usage.

Gifts You Give: Do you account for all of the gifts that you give throughout the year in your family’s monthly budget? You might have a number listed in your budget as one of your budget assumptions, but it may not be more than a swag. How much do you give in gifts for birthdays, Christmas, or other holiday gifts? If you add up the number from last year, you can simply divide by 12 and save that amount each month, setting it aside in your budget, in a savings account. I like to nickname my savings accounts listing what it will be used for.

Going Out To Eat: If you are not watching this category in your budget like a hawk, you can be greatly surprised by how much money you spend going out to eat each month. The same can be said for going to the movies and other entertainment expenses. Do you increase your budget assumptions when you expect family to come into town? This can quickly be a budget buster.

House and Car Maintenance: Do you have car maintenance or home maintenance allocated in your family’s budget? It is estimated that over the course of a year, most car owners will spend approximately $1,200 on car maintenance costs. Do you have $100 earmarked in your budget for this expense? If you do not, it will pose quite an issue if and when an issue strikes. It could drive you to reach for your credit cards or to dip into your emergency fund if you are not careful.

Cash You Spend: Cash is one of the hardest things to track. That is why my wife and I limit how much money we spend in cash every month. We actually use our American Express charge card which has to be paid off every month to budget what would typically be our cash spending. And, we even earn rewards points for the purchases as well.

What do you do with your cash? Does it burn a hole in your pocket? Can you remember where it all went? Cash is hard to track, but it is incredibly important to keep up with your cash purchases. They have the potential to mess up your well thought out family budget.

How To Account For The Unaccountable

One way to account for the items that fluctuate in your budget is to look at the past year’s worth of data. How much did you spend every month on gasoline for your car or family’s cars? You can either take the average amount of your monthly spending for that year and make that your monthly budget amount for that category this year. Or, you can take the month where you spent the most on gas as a family and make that your monthly goal for each month of this year. The last option is the most conservative with the least amount of likelihood that you will go over your budgeted amount. Using the highest monthly amount from the previous year is one way to ensure that your budget assumptions are as conservative as possible.

You need a budget. We’ve all come to grips with that reality for the most part. But, more importantly, you need an accurate budget. Budgets are built on both facts and assumptions. But, how accurate are your budget assumptions? In many cases, families are not being honest with themselves about how they are creating their budget. They are not sure what they are spending month to month on their budget.

Have you ever seen your budget get out of whack with inaccurate budget assumptions? How do you account for items in your family’s budget that vary every month?

The post Are Your Budget Assumptions Throwing Off Your Family Finances? appeared first on Money Q&A.

This week on “Your Money Your Choices”, the Money Q&A podcast, we talk to Rob Aeschbach who is a veteran, financial planner, and personal finance blogger who is passionate about helping people take control of their finances. He’s the publisher and lead writer of the personla finance blog, RobAeschbach.com. In the podcast, Rob talks about why everyone needs an estate plan, the essential tools that you need, and helps to answer your estate planning questions.

Over half of all young parents in America do not have a last will and testament. They often think they do not need an estate plan, that it is too expensive, or that they just want to hide their heads in the sand and pretend they aren’t going to die. Baby Boomers are even worse about estate planning with over 40% of the generation neglecting to even have a will. A will, of course, is just one critical tool in an overall estate plan that everyone should have. There are other tools you need as well in your estate plan.

Join us as we talk to Rob Aeschbach, who is a financial blogger and financial planner who is the publisher of the popular website, RobAeschbach.com. Rob is a former Marine and a no nonsense financial planner who gives it to you straight. You won’t want to miss this great conversation about how everyone should have a will and the other critical pieces of a basic estate plan.

Interview With Feedly’s Founder

Additionally, I interview Cyril Moutran, who is the lead creator and founder of Feedly. Feedly allows you to organize your favorite blogs, news sites, podcasts, YouTube channels, and more in an RSS Reader. You can access all of those items in one place through your web browser, smartphone, iPad, and more. Many people do not realize that Google Reader is ending this summer. Google is shutting down the Google Reader on July 1st, 2013. With Feedly, you can migrate your Google Reader account and continue reading the blogs you love to follow with this great RSS reader. You won’t want to miss my interview in this episode with Cyril Moutran about all of the incredible features of Feedly.

Roth IRAs, CDs, stocks, insurance, your 401K . . .what are the right choices for your financial future? Your Money: Your Choices will clear out the cobwebs and confusion surrounding these concepts and more with clear and concise information. You’ll hear tips and tools that you can put into action right now to help save your hard earned income in way that will protect your future for a healthy retirement. Whether you are a single mom or a father of five, “Your Money: Your Choices” will get you on track and put your money back in your control where it belongs!

Past Episodes Of “Your Money  Your Choices”

• Episode #7 (5-20-13) - Why Everyone Needs To Have A Will And An Estate Plan
• Episode #6 (5-6-13) - Increase Your Investment Return With Peer-To-Peer Lending
• Episode #5 (4-22-13) - Living Your Life And Completing Your Bucket List
• Episode #4 (4-8-13) - How To Incorporate Your Values Into Financial Planning
• Episode #3 (3-18-13) - You Need A Side Hustle To Earn Extra Income
• Episode #2 (3-4-13) - Conquering Your Debt With The Debt Movement
• Episode #1 (2-18-13) - Everyone Should Be An Entrepreneur

The post This Week’s Podcast: Essential Estate Planning Questions and Answers with Rob Aeschbach appeared first on Money Q&A.