Credit Cards

By Stephanie Mojica

After Valentine’s Day and other expensive winter holidays such as Christmas and New Year’s, your credit card interest payments may be piling up. You can combat this type of post-holiday financial bloat by finding—and using—0% APR balance transfer credit cards. Balance transfers allow you to move debt from a high-interest rate credit card to a new credit card with a low interest rate. Many credit cards allow new balance transfer customers a 0 percent introductory interest rate, which can really help you save money on high interest payments. But before diving into a seemingly great deal, carefully study these secrets so you can keep more money in your wallet.

1. Run far away from balance transfer deals that use promotional language like “up to.” This type of wording is rarely great for your wallet or bank account. If the advertorial offers 0 percent interest rates for “up to” a period of time like 18 months, then read the fine print. In most cases, only a select handful of applicants actually get the promotional rate for the amount of time advertised.
2. Stay away from balance transfer fees. Nothing will kill a potentially great balance transfer deal faster than fees. Some companies charge flat-rate fees for transferring the balance of one credit card to another; other issuers assess fees ranging from three to five percent of the balance transferred. No matter how the language is worded, you want to stay away from balance transfer fees whenever humanly possible. If you must accept balance transfer fees, then make sure that the rate does not exceed three percent.
3. Accept that a balance transfer option is not necessarily a way to permanently get out of debt. Some people make a career so to speak out of constantly moving credit card balances around, searching for the best deal. If you’re seriously in over your head with credit card and other types of unsecured debt, you probably need to visit a credit counselor or in extreme cases a bankruptcy attorney.

Stephanie Mojica is a writer for www.smartbalancetransfers.com/blog, where she specializes in giving consumers advice on how to find great balance transfer deals.

1. Declutter

Start the New Year by cleaning your house, clearing clutter and making sure everything is where it should be. You may be able to find things that you needed and save yourself from buying new items and new organizers. Recycling will save costs and you can be proud to call yourself a minimalist.

2. Budget

Make one and keep track of your daily spending. People often lose track of their expenses and end up going over their budget. By writing it down, you will personally be able to see and be conscious how much money you are wasting on all kinds of unnecessary things. Update it daily.

3. Unplug

You don’t need cable. Much of what you need to know about the world is found in the internet. Entertainment included. Besides, becoming a couch potato is not one of your New Year’s goals right?

4. Simple living

Learn to live with the simple things in life. Use a fan instead of the air conditioner, water instead of soda and walking instead of paying for transport if possible. You get to save on electricity, transport and calories.

5. Smart shopping

Buy more of what you need and less of what you want. Before going shopping in the malls or supermarkets, make a list of what you really need to buy. So when you go out, you know what you want and you won’t be wasting time looking around and buying unnecessary items. You save time and money at the same time.  Also, if possible, buy your groceries in bulk and go for generic brands; you’ll be amazed as to how well they fare against branded goods.

6. Electricity Savings

Unplug those household appliances when not in use. You’ll see your electricity bill go down.

7. Used Goods

When you are in need of new books or magazines, check out those secondhand stores; you may be able to find what you’re looking for and at a much lower price. This concept applies to other things such as clothes as well.

8. eBay

Sell things that you don’t need any more using eBay or through personal connections. You can also find affordable goods to buy on eBay if you’re really savvy.

9. Home Cooking

Minimize your food expenditures by eating out less often. Eat at home and cook something up for yourself. You get to learn a new skill for the New Year and your food will probably healthier than what you eat in those fast food stores. You’re also being environmental friendly by using recyclable containers as compared to disposable utensils and containers.

10. Healthy Living

Have a proper diet. Eat fruits and eat vegetables. Exercise whenever possible and try to live a healthy lifestyle in general. Chances are, you won’t be visiting the doctor that often and your productivity will increase.

Stephanie Mojica is a writer for Quizzle.com, where she specializes in helping consumers with debt management and financial planning. She’s also a business success and prosperity coach and author of the eBook “How One Writer Shifted From Settling For $12 An Hour To Prospering At Over $90 An Hour.”

One New Years resolution that can really pay off for your financial health is to improve your credit score.  Often times a bad credit score can be attributed to bad money habits. The New Year is a good time to kick those habits and start financially healthy ones.

Improving your credit quickly can be tough since the whole point of a credit history is to establish good financial trends – a pattern of paying off your debts.  However raising your score over a longer period of time isn’t too tough if you consistently follow good money habits.

Here are 3 credit score resolutions for the New Year that can help improve your credit.

1) Pay Your Bills On Time

Having a late payment doesn’t automatically damage your credit score.  Most lenders have a certain number of days grace period before they report the late payment to the credit reporting agencies like Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.  Of course, you don’t really want to depend on that grace period to avoid dings on your credit history.

The best way to avoid making late payments is to setup a process that you follow each month to get the payments in on time.  For example, you could always sit down Sunday afternoon on the third weekend of each month to pay your bills. Pick the day and time that work best for you, just stick to them each month.

Another alternative is to use online bill pay and schedule your payments to be sent the same time each month. I really like using online bill pay and actually even schedule two payments to go out a few days early.  Even though they have a 10 day grace period I setup our mortgage to be paid a day or two early to make sure it’s there on time and to avoid late fees.

I also pay our Blue Cash card a few days early.  If you have a late or missed payment then you forfeit any cash back earned for the month. I don’t want to risk losing those rewards so an early payment is worth it to me.

2) Establish Credit History

If you’re in the habit of paying only with cash, you may have a limited or non-existent credit history.  When lenders are trying to determine whether to loan you money they want to be able to see how you handled the payments of past loans.

If you haven’t taken out any loans then they have less information to base their decision on.  A lack of credit history will definitely negatively impact yourFICO score that lenders examine when they do their credit scoring. You can help your score out by opening a line of credit and keeping it in good standing.

One Catch-22 is that it can be hard to get credit if you don’t have a credit history.  If that’s the case you can take out a secured loan or get a secured credit card.  These allow the lender to loan you money with reduced risk but still allow you to establish a history of making regular payments.
3) Check Your Credit Report Regularly

Make it a habit to check your credit report several times a year.  One way to remember is to check it at the end of each quarter when you get a quarterly statement from your bank or retirement account.

Make sure there’s nothing incorrect on your report and look for anything new that might have popped up.  If any troubles arise you want to catch them early and help negate their impact on your credit. You can get free credit reports from the Annual Credit Report site – one from each of the three main consumer credit reporting companies every 12 months.

Of course that still leaves one you have to pay for if you’re checking it quarterly. If you want to get one every four months instead of ever three it will save you money. Just make sure you have a way to remember it and help make it a habit.

I wish you good times and good credit in your New Year!

And unfortunately, that is how most Americans live today – carrying monthly credit card debt with no end in sight.

The solution is that we need to make getting out of credit card debt one of our top priorities. I know this is easier said than done, but there are lots of simple and easy ways to make significant progress with credit card debt reduction.

Then, instead of your credit cards costing you money each month, you can actually use them to generate real, usable, spendable cash in your everyday life. This was something that I never even knew was possible before I got out of debt. Once I learned it, I took full advantage of it in every way that I could.

The following are 4 tips and strategies for how to generate this real cash. Of course, most of these are not feasible unless you are out of debt with your credit card and can pay off your balance in full each and every month.

1. 0% Balance Transfer
There are many ways to take advantage of 0% APR balance transfer credit card offers, but one popular strategy recently gaining steam is known as 0% balance transfer arbitrage. Here is a step-by-step process of how the strategy works:

1. Find a credit card offer with a 0% APR, 0% balance transfer fee option (the most difficult step).
2. Apply and open a credit with as high a credit limit as you can get.
3. Take out the full balance allowed under the 0% APR offer.
4. Invest this money in a liquid, ultra-conservative financial instrument that offers a reasonable interest rate (I personally use a high-interest savings account that gets me 4%). You can also explore peer-to-peer lending networks like Lending Club to invest the money with significant returns.
5. Do not use the card for anything else other than this balance transfer.
6. Pay off the balance in full before the the 0% APR period ends by taking out the necessary money from the financial instrument you chose. This period is usually a 12-month introductory period. This is the most important step! If you cannot pay your balance off in full, you will be hit with hefty interest rates once the introductory period has expired.

By following these steps, you will have created 4%+ in “free money” simply by taking advantage of the 0% APR credit card offer. Balance transfer arbitrage is by far where I generate the most cash from my credit cards. You have to be organized and stay on top of things, but it’s literally like taking candy from a baby.

With that said, this strategy is not for everyone. You need to be disciplined and 100% confident that you will be able to pay off the balance in full before the 0% APR period ends. If you have any hesitance that you will be able to follow through with the process, then don’t try it. Instead, take advantage of some of these other great strategies.

2. Set Up Monthly Bills on Your Credit Card
Setting up automatic payments for your bills takes some time and effort. It also takes a lot of follow up and attention to detail because it is easy to lose sight of these bills once the automatic payments are set up. Pick out the credit card with the best rewards percentage and put all of your monthly bills on this card. Then, watch your rewards account skyrocket for doing something you would have had to do anyways: pay your bills. But again, even once you have set up automatic payments, you still need to keep track of things to make sure you are remaining within your monthly budget.

3. Take Advantage of Credit Card Rewards
One aspect of credit cards that many people overlook is the awesome rewards that many of them offer. And you don’t need an amazing credit score to quality for many of them. For example, the following are my favorite 3 cards for cash back rewards and savings on everyday items: Citi Forward Credit Card, Discover More Credit Card and the Chase Freedom Credit Card. And if you don’t qualify for some of the best offers out there, there is still hope; there are ways to improve your credit score rating.

4. Only Redeem Your Rewards Points for Cash
This has always mystified me. You’ve got a card that gives you a great rewards percentage, you do your best to grow your rewards account, and then you use it for something other than cash. OK, using your rewards for free flights I can understand, but how about some good ol’ American cash instead! Who needs an inflatable pool for the backyard which will break in a few months anyways? And do you really need a Homedics Foot Massager? And that DXG Handheld Camcorder that looks so cool in the picture will probably turn out to be a piece of junk. And the best part is you can always use the cash from these rewards to purchase any of these items, often at a much better deal than you would have received had you gone directly through the credit card company.

Build up that account balance and take it in a check, or apply it to the balance of your card. I currently have about $750 waiting for me on one of my cards – as soon as it gets to $1,000, I’m going to cash it in. Imagine that – especially right around Christmas time!

Final Word
Instead of having your credit cards cost you money, why not turn the tables and get them to generate real usable cash in your everyday life?

Do you have any other great strategies for generating money with your credit cards? As always, your questions and comments are greatly appreciated!

Coupon Specialty Sites

According to eMarketer, who analyze digital marketing and Internet shopping trends, the number of online US shoppers is approximately 139 million and is expected to jump to 149 million by 2011. As more stores begin to focus their attention on engaging prospective online customers, the prevalence of online coupons will readily increase. The growth in online shopping and the industry’s desire to attract customers with coupons has given rise to various sites that specialize in compiling all the available online coupons that can be used at various retail stores.

Generally, these coupon sites work through a vigilant community of members who report the latest valid coupons categorized by retail stores. Online visitors can then take advantage of the coupons and can often even rate their success in using each specific coupon. This gives future visitors information on how often a coupon was successfully used and pertinent details on when it will expire. Coupon specialty sites are useful year-round but provide frugal shoppers with an extra tool during holiday shopping, when online retail stores are much more susceptible to releasing valid Internet coupons.

Comparison Shopping

Everyone loves to get the best deal possible, particularly when they want a product that is sold in different variations by several manufacturers or stores. This is where online comparison shopping comes into play. There are several sites that are specifically designed to help you find particular products being sold by different stores, so you analyze the pricing of each offering. It’s also possible to do this by simply using an Internet search engine and working your way through search results. Most importantly, comparison shopping is highly beneficial when you’ve located a money saving online coupon but want to make sure that there no better deals available from other retailers.

Retail Memberships and Newsletters

Most online retail stores are interested in obtaining certain bits of information about you such as your e-mail in order to stay in touch. This usually results in frequent automated e-mails about deals or available services that you have no interest in. However, this doesn’t make online store newsletters and membership deals completely useless.

Be a smart shopper by selectively choosing what online stores you want to receive newsletters and sale reminders from. It’s wise to only pay attention to the stores you most frequently visit or online stores that have a history of good incentives. You can usually apply for incentive newsletters or membership information directly when completing your first purchase from the online store.

Stay attentive to all possible deals that are sent to your-email. You may find some very useful Internet coupons for 5% to 50% off on certain items or coupons for free shipping. Because e-mailed newsletters keep you up to date on the latest deals, you might even be able to use them as leverage by getting another store to perform a price match. Online price matching is generally not common but is still an often used sales method for large chain retail stores. This means that you could potentially find a great deal or coupon online from a large department store, drive to a competing store and get them to match the price.

Saving money from the comfort of your living room has taken on a whole new meaning thanks to online shopping. There’s no need to drive to and from multiple stores or sift through the coupon catalogues in order to find the best deals. Simply let the Internet do the tedious work for you by using specialty coupon sites, online comparison shopping tools and online retail newsletters. This way, you’ll be informed about the latest online coupons, deals and money saving opportunities while resting comfortably in your living room.

What is a Cinderella Loan?   A Cinderella Loan is where the debtor, this means you, agrees to terms that are too good to be true because they either hold out hope the future will be better than the present or in most cases they just don’t understand the terms of the loan.  Like Cinderella must return to her life of toil at the stroke of midnight, the Cinderella Loan promises zero interest for a period of time only to turn into a loan shark equivalent interest rate at a later time.  I have seen many of these loans where they offer zero percent interest for 6 months or 12 or more but if you don’t pay them off in full by the due date, they charge you almost 30% interest.  Once you add late charges and other fees, if you are caught in one of these you may never get out.  Avoid these loans at all cost.

My readers know that I find credit cards to be a modern day convenience but a double edged sword.  I use them and pay them off every month.  The Cinderella Loan is a loan but it often comes disguised in the form of a credit card and typically when you buy depreciating items such as furniture, appliances or expensive discretionary services such as Lasik or cosmetic surgery.  If you sign up for a pay no interest until some “far off date” like Cinderella at the stroke of midnight, you probably have one.  If you sign up for one of these make sure you understand the terms and most importantly when your loan turns from a fairy tale into a nightmare.

One of the leading providers of Cinderella Loans is General Electric.  Their motto is “We bring good things to life.”  However, after midnight, their motto should be altered to “We bring financial devastation to your life.”  I don’t want to pick on General Electric because Cinderella Loans are everywhere.  Go to a department store and you may leave with one of these ticking time bombs.  Go to an appliance store and the same may happen.  These financial land mines are everywhere and you must avoid them or else you may find yourself forever toiling.  There are many perpetrators like them roaming the financial landscape so beware.

Here is an example.  You want to buy a $500 sofa but don’t have $500.  General Electric like a sinister fairy Godmother has a solution.  They will lend you the $500 and you don’t have to pay them anything for 24 months and at the end of the 24 months you can pay the $500.  In essence they are saying—please come to the ball, enjoy your sofa and don’t worry about the consequences because it will end for you like it did for Cinderella.  Trust us we have a magic wand and we are looking out for you.  24 months later you get your statement and it says you owe them more than $800.  How can this be you wonder?  You say to yourself, just last month I only owed them $500?  Welcome to the Cinderella Loan.  Not only do you owe a multiple of your original purchase price but they will charge you interest on this higher number at close to 30% until you pay it off.

Let’s analyze this.  Just 24 months before, you had no sofa and no debt.  You didn’t have the money to buy a sofa but the magic wand made it possible.  Now its 24 months later, you have a used sofa that you can’t resell for even $100 you still don’t have the $500 it would have taken to buy it in the first place and now you owe more than $800.  This is not the type of happy ending you imagined.

What does GE know that you don’t?  They know a certain percentage of the population won’t be able to pay when the ball ends and they will torment you with letters, phone calls and threats until you do.  It is a complete confiscation of wealth from the innocent to the informed. In this case it’s a transfer of your money or Cinderella’s to the sinister fairy Godmother.  A $500 sofa may end up costing you thousands by the time you are through dealing with the General Electric predators.

We live in a capitalist society that has as a mantra “Buyer Beware.”  This means people must assume personal responsibility so I am not railing against GE Credit or the other providers of these loans.  These are high risk loans and GE and companies like them have every right to defend their positions and justify their existence.  However, I find it intellectually dishonest when they hide behind the mantra of capitalism while preying on people weakness of hope and ignorance.  They prey on people’s need for immediate gratification and it’s a shame they must make their money in this way.  Nevertheless they wouldn’t exist if people didn’t have a demand for them and this is America so “Buyer Beware.”

For a way to avoid these pitfalls I urge you to read a few Cautionary Tales at Financial Tales.

Now you may be thinking that if I didn’t maximize my experiences by spending for such things, that I would have been maximizing my finances, but I didn’t.

While I was very frugal and did have some investments, I did so by living a fairly frugal existence in college.  Often times, my college roommates would find clever activities for us to do because none of us had money.  But while I partook in those activities, I missed out on the ones that they would charge to their credit cards.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s okay to use credit cards and build up debt!  But if I had to do it over again, I definitely would have tapped some of the money from my investments.

In fact, if I had to do it all over again, I would have invested money that I made from working since I was sixteen into stocks.  I would also invest all the money I got over the years from birthdays and Christmas, into stocks that would yield dividends too.

Next, I probably would have created a spreadsheet document that track all my finances including the dividend stream from my dividend stocks.  Since the GreenSherpa software didn’t exist when I was in college, I didn’t have an option to use such a program.  Today, I would check into using such software, especially since it’s now free!!!

The beauty of having such an income stream would be that I could have maximized the money to use to gain more experienced back then.  Many of these are age specific experiences that once you miss them, you really can’t go back!  So I would urge others to do such a thing, especially if you are frugal like me!

I was so frugal, that there was a point in my life where I wouldn’t even go on a date because I felt like I couldn’t afford it.  Luckily, I was still able to find a few girlfriends that I was able to go out with while staying on a frugal route!

The above is only part of the process though.  It’s the bean counting part that while crucial, in just part of the puzzle.  The other part is spending intelligently, and keeping your eyes open for oportunities to make money.

While I don’t think I saw any opportunities that would have made me rich in college, it may have happened if I tried!  If you don’t explore and try such things, you never know.  You don’t have to start the next Microsoft, it could be a small money making venture, experiment!

For my kids, I’ve already creating an investment portfolio that will contain a portion that will have stocks invested in dividends, so they could use the money from the dividends for their future college fun expenses.  That way they will get to experiences more than I did while going the college thing!

• I had two separate incidents of account takeover where the thieves used my credit card information to make unauthorized purchases.
• Ron at The Wisdom Journal had his identity stolen (application fraud)
• My father had his identity stolen in Thailand

How Do Thieves Get Their Hands On Your Personal Information?

Thieves can be pretty creative when they want your information. And the worst kind of thieves are the one that you trust, such as your own family, service providers, businesses, etc. Here are a few common methods:

• “Dumpster diving” — they go through your trash and find the information they wanted
• Stealing mails from your mailbox
• Overlook your shoulder at various locations — i.e., at a bank, while processing your credit card, at a store, etc.
• Search for your personal information on the Internet — this one scares me the most, especially with some of the new personal information sites that are popping up.

How To Protect Yourself Against Identity Theft

There are several things that you can do to reduce your chance of becoming an identity theft victim.

1. Remove all unnecessary items from your wallet. For example, you should never carry around your Social Security card or your social security number in your wallet.
2. Never give away your Social Security Number unless it’s absolutely necessary
3. Carefully monitor your credit score using service providers like IDENTITY GUARD^Æ and MyFICO.
4. Regularly review your credit report from each of the three credit bureaus. The easiest way is to order one free report from AnnualCreditReport.com every 4 months. You are eligible for 1 free credit report per bureaus per year, so you can stagger the requests as follow:
   • Each February, order from Equifax,
   • Each June, order from Experian, and
   • Each October, TransUnion.
5. Invest in a good document shredder (I have a cross-cut one), and destroy all sensitive documents before throwing them out. These documents include credit card solicitations, loan applications, tax forms, bills and invoices — anything that contains personal information.
6. Keep a list of all your account numbers and contact information in a safe place. You can use this to quickly call and close your accounts if necessary.
7. Invest in a mailbox that could be locked and only accessible by you.
8. Avoid questionable online merchants

If you have a personal experience with identity theft, please leave your comment below.

Source: How to Avoid Identity Theft and Protect Your Finances

1. Stick to your budget. The easiest way to break your budget is not to have one. Before you start your holiday shopping, create a list of people you want to give gifts to, decide how much you want to spend on all gifts, then decide how much you want to spend on each person. Then stick to it!

2. Write out your gift list. Refer to your budget and come up with a gift idea for everyone on your list. If you don’t know what to buy, then at least write down a rough idea. Having a gift list will make it easier to hit the right stores and buy a gift your friends and family will remember.

3. Make a plan. One of the best ways to save money is to come up with a plan. Many websites have already started leaking Black Friday promotions, and more will release info in the coming days. If you want a specific gift, then find out where you need to be and get there early. If you don’t want to wait in line for the door buster deals, then at least come up with a plan of which shops you want to visit and the best order in which to visit them.

4. Stick to your list. Cross off items as you go or write a new list as you buy each gift. Be sure to keep a running tab of how much you spent – that way you know exactly how close you are to your budget.

5. Avoid credit. Credit cards can get you in trouble if you aren’t careful. In fact, some studies show that shoppers spend as much as 30% or more when they swipe the plastic instead of using cash or a check. If you must use a credit card for convenience or rewards, then be sure to pay it off in full at the end month.

6. Don’t sign up for store credit cards. Store credit cards usually offer a nice incentive to open an account – often a 10% discount or other perks. But they usually fail to mention the extremely high interest rates and the fact that store credit cards are often treated differently on your credit report than a traditional credit card (they can actually hurt your credit score in some instances).

Black Friday can be a fun day of you make it a challenge to find the best deals and enjoy bargain hunting. But it isn’t enjoyable if it leads to high interest credit card debt or other financial problems down the road. Make a plan and stick to it, and you will have a great time.

Before we jump into our favorite articles of this past week, I want to take a second to remind everyone to head on over to GreenSherpa.com and sign up for your exclusive invite to the new, FREE GreenSherpa!  For more information, check out our recent post, Personal Finance, Meet Online Gaming.

Now, here are our favorite articles from this past week.  Enjoy!

7 Frugal Tips For How To Entertain Guests At Your House For The Holidays – The holidays are right around the corner.  Do you know how to entertain guests without breaking the bank? (Money Crashers)

How Safe are Online Banks? – This is a great question.  Find out the answer by checking out this article!  (Ultimate Money Blog)

Are Outlet Malls Worth Your Time? – Most shoppers LOVE outlet malls.  But is it really worth your time to shop at an outlet mall? (Wise Bread)

How To Be A Smart Credit Card User – Do you know how to be a smart credit card user?  If you don’t (or even if you do), check out this article!  (The Digerati Life)

Saving Money By Paying Full Price – Did you know you can actually save money by paying full price? (Money Ning)

Do Movies and TV Shows Affect Your Purchasing Decisions? – You’d be surprised at how much media affects your purchasing decisions… (Money Reasons)

8 Drawbacks of Being a Millionaire – Sure, being a millionaire has its perks.  It also has its downsides too. (Free Money Finance)

Does it Make Sense to Rent Appliances or Furniture? – We have all heard of renting furniture.  But is it a good idea? (Free From Broke)

When To Buy A Stock: Three Signs It’s Time To Load Up On Shares – Stocks are confusing.  Here are some hints on when to buy shares. (Money Under 30)

What Investors Really Want - The world of investing can be complicated.  Here are some hints as to what makes investors want to invest. (Financial Tales)

Now that I’m one day away from being 23, I’ve realized it’s time to start being more financially responsible.  Those that know me best would laugh at this as they see me as one of the most frugal, financially responsible people they know.  But there are a few changes I need to make when it comes to managing my money.  Changes I have been unwilling to make up until now for various reasons (I was too young, I was in school, I didn’t have a steady source of income, etc).

So, since my birthday falls on the 13^th, 13 is my lucky number, and it’s almost my birthday which means I get to choose how many financial changes I want to make, I’ve come up with 13 financial changes for myself to make now that I am 23.  Enjoy!

1.  Get a Credit Card – I have refused to get a credit card until now because I figured it would be financially irresponsible for me to own a credit card if I didn’t have a job.  Now that I have a job, it’s time to get a credit card.

2.  Use My New Credit Card Responsibly – Once I get a credit card, I will have to make sure to pay my credit card bill in full every time it comes in so I can build credit.

3.  Set up a Retirement Account – Now that I have a job, it’s time to start thinking about retirement.  Step one: open a retirement account through Charles Schwab.

4.  Start Saving for Retirement – Once my retirement account is established, I will try to put 10% of my paycheck each month into the account.

5.  Figure Out How Taxes Work – I hate taxes probably because I don’t understand them.  So, it’s time to start figuring out how they work so I can manage my money better and not go running back to my dad every time I need to know about my tax situation.

6.  Budget In The Fun Stuff – Over the last year I have been so concerned about graduating and being in the “real world” that I have barely spent any money on fun.  It’s time to add a “fun” category into my budget; otherwise being in the real world is going to be a total bust.

7.  Create a Healthy Food Budget – Over the last year, I really cut down my food budget to save money.  However, I didn’t do it in the healthiest way.  Now that I have a job, it’s time to beef up my food budget a little bit so I can eat healthier (i.e. no more cereal for dinner).

8.  Start Saving For My Goal – I normally save money so that I have enough in the bank to cover my butt when bills come in.  But, I have a dream of being able to travel before I have kids and settle down.  And I’d like to have kids before I’m 30 which means the clock is ticking!  So, I will have to start saving to take an awesome trip before I reach my late 20’s.

9.  Re-Evaluate My Budget Every 6 Months – Before graduation, I just spent money when I had to spend it and I tried to spend very little of it.  This was not a great way to manage my finances.  Now, I plan to re-evaluate my newly created budget every 6 months to see where my money is going and find budget items I can cut back on.

10.  Maintain an Emergency Fund – Before I graduated, I created a “post college survival fund” to get me through until my first paycheck (I figured a month or two of funds would be enough).  Now it’s time to turn what’s left of that fund into an emergency fund and build it up to the point where I could survive without a job for at least 6 months.

11. Establish a Will – Alright, so yes this one is a bit of a downer and may sounds a bit absurd given my age, but we all know that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed and it’s better to be prepared.  In the unlikely event that I should die, I want things to be as easy on my loved ones as possible, so writing a will makes sense.

12. Find a Consistent Additional Source of Income – I am a strong believer in having more than one source of income and ever since graduation, I have found odd, sporadic jobs to bring in a little extra money on the side.  The problem with this is that whatever side job I have isn’t consistent.  So, I will find a consistent additional source of income that brings in at least $200 per month.

13. Implement a New Money Saving Technique Every Week – Yes, I write about money saving tips all the time.  But that does me no good if I don’t actively implement them.  Each week, I will take one tip from an article I write and implement it into my life in order to save more.

There they are, the 13 changes I plan to make after I am done celebrating!  Are there any changes that should be on this list that I missed?  If so, please share them in the comment section!

Are the holidays tough on your budget?  Buying gifts for all your friends and family can really take a bite out of your savings account.  It’s tough because you want to show you care about all of them but all those presents can get pretty expensive.

The good news is that there are gifts you can buy for someone you care about that won’t set you back a lot of money and can really help make their life better.  The key is to focus on the things that many of us are short on, like time and money.  Here are four gifts that can help friends and family save time and/or money next year.

1) Home Repair Gift

Home repairs and remodeling can eat up tons of time and money from any home owner’s budget.  I know plenty of people who have tried to tackle a home project themselves only to have it end up taking a lot longer than they thought.  In the worst cases they end up having to hire someone to come in and fix something they messed up along the way.

A few years ago we discovered a service called Angies List that offers customer reviews of local contractors in cities around the country.  We’ve used it to find good deals on several types of local contractors like electricians, plumbers, & home inspectors.  Not only do they offer gift memberships, they also have Angies List promo codes where you can save on your purchase.

2) Car Maintenance Gift

Getting your oil changed can be a pain, not only do you have to make time to take in your car it’s something else you have to spend money on every few months. Although not pleasant, regular oil changes can help add thousands of miles to the life of a car and end up saving a lot more than they cost.

In order to compete with the big chains, some local garages will give you a discount if you pre-pay for several oil changes at once.  Some will even drive you home after you drop off your car and pick you up when it’s ready so you don’t have to waste time sitting in the waiting room.

If any of your local garages offer pre-pay discounts and drop off service, then buying someone two or three oil changes will save them time and money over the coming year.

3) Personal Finance Gift

Personal finances can be a tricky thing to master, not everyone is as interested in managing their money as you and I.  Of course we know that these skills are key to getting a lot out of life, but how can you share this as a gift?  You don’t want to be pushy about it and make people feel like you’re lecturing them and you don’t want to overwhelm them with facts, acronyms, and formulas either.

I’ve found that a good way to help them become a little more money savvy is to buy them subscriptions to top personal finance publications. Particularly ones that don’t focus just on investing and markets but also include topics on things like careers, real estate, and technology.  This can help get people interested in reading and they pick up some good personal finance tips along the way.

Many of these newspapers and magazines offer gift subscriptions and some even offer a trial period, like this Wall Street journal free trial.

4) Dinner Gift

Dinner time can be a challenge for busy families.  Eating dinner at home is both cheaper and healthier than eating out but finding the time to cook can be tough.

One good alternative are “take and bake” services like Super Suppers or Social Suppers that help you quickly make a week or two worth of healthy dinners for a good price.  Of course it’s not as cheap as buying the ingredients yourself but it does save time and it’s cheaper than eating out.  You can help make it even cheaper by buying them a “take and bake” gift card for one of these services.

Hopefully these gave you some good gift ideas; none of them should be outrageously priced.  The most expensive is probably the oil change idea and the cheapest are the Angies List membership and the personal finance magazine subscription.  All of them should help save your friends and family money, happy shopping!