Archive for June, 2007

Money Up Front: 5 Tools for Paying Right Now

Friday, June 29th, 2007

In her recent article, "Many In U.S. Don't Have Bank Accounts", Jeannine Aversa indicates that "As many as 28 million people in the United States are forgoing traditional financial institutions..."  More than likely, those people are living, working, and buying without plastic! In today's society, there are very few things that cannot ...

Having Money to Make Money

Tuesday, June 26th, 2007

Unless you are very unusual, you have loose change around your house, car, purse, etc.  By some estimates, there is as much as $10 billion is loose change sitting in American homes right now.  That's a lot of money to be gathering dust instead of earning interest!  Before you get ...

The Envelope Please: A Guide to Hands On Money Management

Saturday, June 23rd, 2007

How much cash is in your wallet or purse RIGHT NOW?  If the answer is little to none, you are not alone.  Increasingly, Americans rely on plastic (debit or credit) for their day to day financial transactions, even the small ones.  I cannot prove it, scientifically, but it occurs to me ...

Simple Supermarket Savings

Wednesday, June 20th, 2007

One of the largest categories in our monthly budget is FOOD.  Here are just a few ideas that save me money at the store without costing me a lot of time in preparation! 1.  SHOP REGULARLY - When you shop on a regular basis, you begin to get a feel for ...

From the Fine Print: A Closer Look At Credit Card User Agreements

Sunday, June 17th, 2007

Every credit card that you have includes pages and pages of "fine print" known as the CREDIT CARD USER AGREEMENT (CCUA).  This printed agreement spells out specific details between the credit card issuer (CCI) and the card account holder.  Each card agreement is different.  The best way for you to ...

What’s Breaking YOUR Budget?

Friday, June 15th, 2007

I have some good news and some bad news.  The bad news is that, if your budget is broken, you are the person that broke it.  The good news, however, is that your budget doesn't have to stay broken! Whether you have it organized and written down or not, you have ...

“Consider It Spent!”

Monday, June 11th, 2007

Early in their marriage, my father served in the U.S. Air Force and my parents lived on a small miltary salary.  They had 4 short military assignments in just 2 and 1/2 years.  These assignments were at bases far from their homes and families in Alabama.  During one of their ...

Banking Basics

Friday, June 8th, 2007

How much do you really know about banking?  Not YOUR bank, necessarily, but the banking process in general.  Do you know how banks operate the way they do?  I confess that banks are one of those things that I have thought were just there because they had always been there.  ...

5 Reasons to reduce or eliminate debt

Tuesday, June 5th, 2007

1.  TO RAISE YOUR CREDIT SCORE One component of your FICO score is based on your debt load.  Debt load is calculated by looking at the #number of credits accounts you own and the proportion of revolving debt to the amount of credit available.  Reducing or eliminating debt will increase the ...

Creating a Financial Organizer Document: What do you have and where do you keep it?

Saturday, June 2nd, 2007

A couple of years ago, my husband had some serious health problems.  After that experience, we spent some time re-evaluating our finances, wills and insurance to make sure everything was current.  Part of that process was the creation of a document called a "financial organizer".  It is a word processing ...