Fortune Watch

Let’s face it: Most people spend way too much money on things they don’t really need. The more money we make, the more we tend to spend. This endless cycle of materialism has led many people to confuse the word “need” with the word “want.” As in, “we need a big-screen TV for our new home theatre.” Or, “I need a new pair of shoes to go with my new outfit.”

If you want to achieve your vocational passion, where every day you jump out of bed and can’t wait to go to work, then you need to re-order your priorities. Stay away from the purely material.

The pursuit of material success often is the root cause of burnout at midlife. In fact, a recent study found that people primarily motivated by the love of their work grow dissatisfied as they begin to make more money.

The first step to breaking free from the materialism trap is to understand the difference between “need” and “want.”

We need food, clothing, shelter, reliable transportation, education, enrichment, and the technology necessary to do our work. Also, we need the occasional small indulgence to treat our children and ourselves.

We do not need 500 cable TV channels, brand new luxury cars, 5,000-square-foot homes in exclusive neighborhoods, lavish ski vacations, and smart phones that do everything but think for us.

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With interest rates still on the rise, now is the time to take a good look at your finances. You may find that there are some things that you need to change.

If you have debt that is affected by interest rate, you need to look at where it is going to take you. This is a good time to make an effort to start eliminating your debt.

Interest rates are raised to stimulate savings and slow down borrowing. That is exactly what you should be doing.

You may find that a substantial portion of your money is going towards credit card debt. With interest rates on the rise, you will be paying more to your credit cards.

Start with a little financial planning. Make a list of all of your credit cards and other unsecured debt. List each account including the payoff amount, monthly payment amount and interest rate charged.

There are two ways to start paying off your debt. If you need a boost to get you started, start paying off the smallest debts first. This gets you on a roll. It feels really great to mark off each account as it is paid off.

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As important as your saving and spending habits are, being truly financially responsible involves much more. To this end, I’ve put together some ways to cover your ass (ets).

Wealth Creation to Wealth Protection Equals Financial Planning

… This list is by no means exhaustive, but it’s a good starting point.

Do you have life and Disability Insurance Of course this really only applies if someone depends on you for support. I’m a big fan of life insurance. And don’t just rely on the insurance that you get through your employer… The base coverage may not be enough for your needs, and it’s also tied to your employment — lose your job and you’ll lose your insurance. Also, if you’re young and in good health, you can probably get a term policy for less money by shopping around instead of buying additional group through your employer.

“Life Insurance is like a parachute, if you don’t have it when you need it, its too late”.

For the average person the odds of suffering a debilitating injury are considerably higher than the odds of dying young. What if you couldn’t work? How would you get by? Long-term disability insurance covers your butt in the event of that you suffer, well, a long-term disability.

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I hear you are planning to have a baby…

If you considered only the financial implications of having children, you might end up childless. There’s no two ways about it: having a child is very expensive. Financial experts say a home is the biggest investment most people will ever make, but they’re forgetting about the cost of raising children, which far exceeds the average home price in many parts of the world.

Fortunately, most people don’t base this important decision on financial issues alone, but as with any other decision that will impact your financial situation, it’s smart to go into it with your eyes wide open and to be prepared. The changes that accompany adding a new little member to your family can be stressful, but you can reduce the stress greatly by minimizing the financial factor.

First, have you considered how you’ll manage on the reduced income caused by time off for the pregnancy and birth? Check with your employer to see if you’re covered by short-term disability insurance, which covers pregnancy.

In planning your personal finances for the baby’s arrival, there are several issues you need to consider. It’s time to get out a pen and paper and work out a budget that you can use once you’ve brought the baby home. Remember, these figures are in addition to your regular weekly and monthly bills.

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The most popular way for families to reward themselves for months and months of hard work is a nice family vacation; it’s what we all dream about all year long. Escaping from your everyday world and your usual climate takes a lot of planning and financial resources, that’s why it is so important to create a budget all year long so you can reap your rewards.

Financial planning is a must for your vacation, not just simply setting aside an amount every payday but taking into consideration the timing of your vacation, do you have any idea how much you can save? In the travel industry peak vacation times are more expensive. What are they referring to as peak time? Usually it is in the summertime, because that is the time that families have to spend together because the kids aren’t in school. So it is to your advantage to entertain the idea of vacationing during these non-peak periods of time and make your family budget stretch to maybe a better vacation destination then you thought you could afford.

Accommodations can be made for your children to take school assignments on the vacation with them. This can also help if you are taking a long car trip or airplane ride, your children will have something to focus on and keep them busy during these times. Surely if you asked your child if they would like to take a vacation in the middle of the school year they would definitely love the idea and you will love the savings. Make sure to speak with your children’s teachers and school and there should not be any problem.

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Here are three words you rarely hear: “Get rich slowly”.

The fact is that very, very few people get rich quickly. It simply doesn’t happen. If it did, we’d all be rich and the world would be a lovely place. It isn’t, sadly. I tell you this not to burst your bubble, but to help you understand the practical reality of how money works.

Lottery winners are among the few who get rich quickly, and statistics show that within 18 months, most of them get poor quickly. Never having had much money, people generally don’t know how to handle it when they win big, and they tend to spend their way to the poorhouse at great speed.

Enough bad news. It is possible to “get rich”, highly possible. The catch, if you choose to look at it that way, is that it takes both time and effort. You can get rich slowly, which doesn’t sound like fun, but is in fact enormously satisfying when you pull it off. All it takes is the application of common sense and an adult attitude. You are capable of both.

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Seriously, you dont….
I advise people on personal finance including banking, budgeting, saving, and investing. How to save your money-tricks, how to budget, and using credit cards, etc. How to make more money by investing? What are stocks? Bonds? Mutual funds? What can you do to start today and maximize returns?

All you need is three ingredients, income, discipline and time. Chances are, you already have two of them, income and time. All you need to do is add the third, discipline.

Here’s how it works: Say you start with nothing, invest $500 (of your income) a month (a healthy discipline), and let your money ride (over time) in diversified investments. Long term, the stock market returns at least 10% annually. Assuming a 10% return, you’d have $102,000 after 10 years, $380,000 after 20 years, and $1.1 million in 30 years.

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Credit cards can be an excellent tool to help you manage your finances. But sometimes we make poor choices, or sometimes the events in life take us beyond our expectations and we are left to foot the bill. Perhaps you have had a few months of extra, unexpected expenses that you are now paying for. What can you do?

Gather together all of your credit card bills and add up the amount that you owe. Factor in the extra expenses you haven’t heard on your credit cards since you receive those bills. Add to that about ten or twenty per cent, which is the “whoops, I forgot about that” factor. Then, with that figure, start shopping around for a loan.

Get the loan and pay off your credit card bills. If you think that you may still use your credit cards, you may want to hide them away so that you reduce the temptation to use them. Now, instead of having several credit card bills at a high interest rate due by the end of the month, you now have one bill that is due once a month at a lower rate. This is called consolidation. At first glance it may not seem obvious why you’d want to do this but there are two reasons:

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Over time, I have realized that without certain good habits in place, my finances quickly get out of order. Perhaps the most important habit that I have learned is regular savings. Long terms goals are described as goals that have a lasting effect should a person’s present actions be religiously maintained.
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Regularly contributing to savings account is important on several levels. Of course, it’s good to have an emergency fund available for any of the countless situations or save for planned major expenses for which you would need extra cash.

Even though I know the importance of savings I will never make it without a plan. Somehow its always easy to spend all the money I have, no matter how much it is. I therefore treat savings like paying a bill, and I guess this is what it means when they say pay your self first. The key elements to making this strategy work are quite simple, first it has to be done regularly. If you miss your telephone or utilities bill this month, you will be expected to pay double next month. You can’t cheat your utilities bill out of a month so don’t do it to yourself.

To figure out how much you can save every month, you have to have a budget and commit to at least that much. If you say well you will save whatever is left, you will probably never end up saving anything or if you are lucky you might end up saving a lot less than what you actually should have. Budget for so many dollars, and put it in savings before you have a chance of spending it.

So how about you? Do you have any tricks you use to help keep yourself disciplined in saving money regularly? If not, why not give this a try?

Financial planning, something we all know we need to do, but always put off to the future. Financial planning is hard simply because it requires financial discipline, which is difficult to have in this consumer society. However, financial planning is very important because you want to retire one day, be financially stable in the event of an accident, or unexpected loss of a job. Regardless of when you begin, the basics remain the same.

Here are my top keys to getting ahead financially. Once you have made financial planning part of your routine, it won’t seem so difficult. But getting your financial planning started can be the most difficult thing. These tips will help motivate you to make financial planning one of your main goals.

No matter how much or how little you’re paid, you’ll never get ahead if you spend more than you earn. Often it’s easier to spend less than it is to earn more, and a little cost-cutting effort in a number of areas can result in big savings. One of the biggest factors fighting against financial planning is debt, especially credit card debt. If something starts off as a small debt it turns into a big one simply because you were not paying off the debt. Financial planning means you have a plan and paying off debt should be the first goal of your plan.

Another financial planning tip is to invest. Financial planning means you are saving for the future in many cases, so you will want to take money you earn today and invest in the stock market, in bonds or a mixture. Saving your money with the help of financial planning will help money grow all on its own.

A great financial planning tip is budgeting. You won’t be able to save unless you know what you spend. Make budgeting part of your financial planning and you will realize saving is not so hard. This is tough for people to understand and often what they resist most when they begin financial planning. Choose one area at a time and set a goal for incorporating it all into your lifestyle.