As we move into the New Year, our national economy is in shambles. It is more important now than ever before to protect your finances as well as your identity. So to get you started off right, here are some tips and ideas to get your financial stuff in order.
1. Separate Needs from Wants. Financial security and independence relies heavily on being a smart spender. Don't, for example, eat out when you can cook at home. Eating is a need but eating out is a want. Being thrifty is truly a necessity. Pay close attention to discounts for things you need, and clip coupons whenever possible.
2. Have 6 months of living expenses in Savings. Take account of your monthly bills, including groceries and gas, and save 6 months of these in a savings account for a rainy day. It's very easy to save a little every month from your paycheck and put it into an account that may be difficult to get into. This will become your emergency fund and should only be touched in emergencies ( i.e. someone looses their job). If you must dig in, be sure to replace it immediately.
3. Categorize your bills and start to pay them down or totally off. Start with personal loans, then move onto credit cards. It is important that these responsibilities be taken care of as quick as possible. The interest accrued by credit cards and loans is staggering over the span of the life of the loan.
4. It has become increasingly more important to protect your identity. Identity theft is becoming the favorite crime among criminals. It is estimated that it costs victims of identity theft over 5 billion dollars a year to pay for identity theft. However, identity theft protection is now offered with services like Life Lock. Life lock guarantees the protection of your credit backed by a $1,000,0000 payment to you fit they don't. They will help reduce the number of credit card offers you receive and will actively monitor you credit.
5. To keep away the temptation to spend all your hard saved money, put money into CDs other financial securities that are harder to dip into. That way you won't have easy access to spending the money, and will therefore be less likely to spend it.
6. Get on a budget and stay on it no matter what. This is really simple to do. Label some jars or boxes with things like "savings" "eating out" or "entertainment". Every payday, put $50 in each jar. That will be your allowance for that category until the next payday. When ever the money from one of the jars is used, you simply move to the next jar until you reach the next payday and can replenish. This sounds tough but it can pay off, literally.
The current world economy is in bad shape. That is no big, sensitive secret. As a result, we have already seen government bailouts of major companies we thought would always be there. Dont let that happen to you in 2009. Follow a simple budget, look for deals and just spend smarter.
If you are careful with your money, you will not require a bailout in 2009. Hey, maybe we can become the example and teach the major corporation CEOs how to do this.
1. Separate Needs from Wants. Financial security and independence relies heavily on being a smart spender. Don't, for example, eat out when you can cook at home. Eating is a need but eating out is a want. Being thrifty is truly a necessity. Pay close attention to discounts for things you need, and clip coupons whenever possible.
2. Have 6 months of living expenses in Savings. Take account of your monthly bills, including groceries and gas, and save 6 months of these in a savings account for a rainy day. It's very easy to save a little every month from your paycheck and put it into an account that may be difficult to get into. This will become your emergency fund and should only be touched in emergencies ( i.e. someone looses their job). If you must dig in, be sure to replace it immediately.
3. Categorize your bills and start to pay them down or totally off. Start with personal loans, then move onto credit cards. It is important that these responsibilities be taken care of as quick as possible. The interest accrued by credit cards and loans is staggering over the span of the life of the loan.
4. It has become increasingly more important to protect your identity. Identity theft is becoming the favorite crime among criminals. It is estimated that it costs victims of identity theft over 5 billion dollars a year to pay for identity theft. However, identity theft protection is now offered with services like Life Lock. Life lock guarantees the protection of your credit backed by a $1,000,0000 payment to you fit they don't. They will help reduce the number of credit card offers you receive and will actively monitor you credit.
5. To keep away the temptation to spend all your hard saved money, put money into CDs other financial securities that are harder to dip into. That way you won't have easy access to spending the money, and will therefore be less likely to spend it.
6. Get on a budget and stay on it no matter what. This is really simple to do. Label some jars or boxes with things like "savings" "eating out" or "entertainment". Every payday, put $50 in each jar. That will be your allowance for that category until the next payday. When ever the money from one of the jars is used, you simply move to the next jar until you reach the next payday and can replenish. This sounds tough but it can pay off, literally.
The current world economy is in bad shape. That is no big, sensitive secret. As a result, we have already seen government bailouts of major companies we thought would always be there. Dont let that happen to you in 2009. Follow a simple budget, look for deals and just spend smarter.
If you are careful with your money, you will not require a bailout in 2009. Hey, maybe we can become the example and teach the major corporation CEOs how to do this.
About the Author:
Linda Seamore is an expert on the subject of personal finance and has written many articles on it and on credit protection programs like LifeLock. She suggests researching all credit protection programs like www.lifelock.com before signing up.
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