Plan YOUR Work!

Work YOUR Plan!

Don't tell me where your priorities are.

Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are.

-James W. Frick

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

UPDATE: The Breakdown: Defeating That Pile of Billls



As I wrote about in my previous two posts, tackling your finances after a major life interruption can be very intimidating. I admit, I'm extremely intimidated and frustrated with myself for letting all the work I did previously disappear and ending back where I started.



So, I sat down with my notebook and my piles of bills and called the necessities: electric, gas, cable, water.



To my surprise, things weren't as bad as I thought. I woke up today with much less anxiety and it's because I stopped avoiding the mess and dealt with it head on. I still have medical bills and some taxes I need to take care of but home is taken care of.



I wanted to share my small victory. This is what this financial journey us about. Small victories. Small victories add up.

Next, I am planning to address my budget...or lack of a budget....

Until next time...

Monday, January 7, 2019

The Breakdown: Defeating That Pile of Billls

Breaking out of your funk can be intimidating.



In my last post, I outlined what needs to be done. I realized simply following those tips is way easier said than done. I realized this when thinking of my own situation. I'm intimidated. If I am, I know you are too. To lower some of that anxiety, I have decided to break down each step more. More information is always better than less. My hope is to let us all know...we got this!


I have been sitting looking at my pile of now opened, sorted, and written down bills and am feeling intimidated. I'll admit, this pile is scary. Knowing that everything in it needs my attention. Knowing that I owe money to each of those bills. It's all intimidating.

So, let's start at the beginning. Opening those bills.


Grab that pile and take a seat. Make piles. Trash. Bills. Other. That's all you have to do, first. Even if you know it is a bill, open it. Open everything.



Throw the trash out, that's probably a huge part of your pile. You have bills and other important mail left. If you aren't too overwhelmed (take a break if you are. Even if you come back to it a day or 2 later.) get a notebook (a notebook specifically for getting your finances back on track) to make notes on each bill. Write down how much you owe, contact information, any other important information. You can put them in order by when they are due or by how much you owe, but make sure you make a list that makes sense to you. This is the start of getting organized.



In your finances notebook is now a list of things you need to address. You have started your plan.

Next, we will look at your current spending to see where you can open up money to start attacking your financial mess.

Until next time...

Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Sometimes Life Happens...

I started this blog what seems like a lifetime ago. I wanted to share financial tips that I was learning myself and help people reach Financial Independence...but...sometimes life happens and what you have planned for doesn't happen. You get side tracked by a death or an illness or losing your job.

Things happen. Your life might be falling apart, but something you don't realize at the time is that you are most likely neglecting your finances along with what your dealing with. When you make it through your storm and try to return to normal you realize that pile of bills you have been ignoring are bills.

Now you are starting all over financially. You know all the right things to do. You remember the lessons you learned. You know what you need to do.

First thing you do...is open those bills. 



You can't fix the problem if you don't just jump in and see how bad it is. It might not be as bad as you think. Put the bills in piles according to what they are. Get a notebook and write everything down. Putting it on paper helps me to get organized. I'm a list maker. If lists don't work for you...find something that does. Piles. Baskets. Envelopes. Whatever works for you. 

Then put everything in order from the lowest to the highest. Plan to pay the little bills first.

Next, start planning. Look at your bank statements. Look at your current spending. Start a budget. Make a list of your expenses. The plan is forming now. You have a list of what you owe due to, life. You have a list of your expenses. 

I know it looks overwhelming, but you got this!

Now, go through your bank statement and put all your spending into categories to find out where you can cut back to pay off some debts. Make the categories: Essentials, like rent, car note, electric, etc.; Extras; like eating out and entertainment; Savings; you may not have a savings yet but you will.



Take your list of what you spend and breakdown things like eating out and shopping. You can cut these back or even out. You will be surprised to see how much you spending eating out. This category is usually much higher than people anticipate. 

Finally, you can make a budget. 

Budget for the Essentials first. Then, based on what you spend on food and your situation, add Extras to your budget. Your budget will change, so don't be discouraged when if you have trouble meeting every item on your budget. Overtime, your budget will change and eventually become something that you can, realistically, stick too. Make sure that you budget something to go to savings every month or pay day. I use an online savings account and have automatic deposits set each month. This way it is not something I have to consciously do.  

Don't let your current situation stop you from achieving a better life. One step at a time and before you know it your situation will have changed, if you develop a plan and stick to it. 



Until next time...


Monday, July 22, 2013

T.G.I.M. - THE DECISION

Monday's are Thank God It's Monday with ET The Hip Hop Preacher. This man is the living definition of what Personal Finance 4 The People stands for. He was homeless, now he travels and speaks to hundreds of people. He is so encouraging...perfect to start off this Monday morning...Make The Rest of your Life The Best of your Life!

THE DECISION

 

Check out ET the Hip Hop Preacher:

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

52 Week Money Challenge - Week 27 - 39 Tips That'll Save You Hundreds on Your Next Trip

So far we have started bringing our lunch to work, used the Latte Factor, cut back on travel expenses, taken a long hard look at our finances, negotiating your bills, found way to make money (or other things you need) by bartering, implemented a 30 day rule for purchases over a certain amount, found 25 ways to have frugal fun this Spring, and discovered 18 frugal and romantic dates. Hopefully, after looking at your finances you found some more places to cut back.
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Wise Bread lists 39 Tips That'll Save You Hundreds on Your Next Trip  that will help save a few bucks and help you find cheap ways to travel for the summer. Check them out...and safe travels!

 

1. Flash Deal Sites
If you already have several destinations in mind, then check out travel flash sale sites, which can save you hundreds of dollars! Here are a couple to browse through.

2. Check Out Underrated Places
Try up-and-coming cities for some of the best deals. Big cities like New York, Rome, San Francisco, and London are always popular, but other places that may not make the rock-star list often offer you more bang for your buck.

3. Cruise Deals
If you're planning on stopping by a lot of locations, then take a look at some cruise deals. It may be cheaper to travel by boat with an all-inclusive deal. That way, you may be saving on additional airfare, lodging, ground transportation, and meals.

 

4. Use Your Memberships
Check with your organizations to see what kind of travel discounts they offer. Some to consider include AAA, the AARP, or warehouse clubs like Costco. Get discounts on your flight, hotel, and even your planned activities like visits to amusement parks.

5. Cancel Within 24 Hours
If you change your mind on traveling, then cancel your plane ticket within 24 in order to get your money back without penalties.

6. Price Predictor
Use tools like Bing's Price Predictor feature to see if the ticket price is predicted to drop or rise. The tool even gives a "confidence" percentage in its evaluation for a better gauge of accuracy. A third-party audit has found that the Price Predictor works 75 percent of the time.

7. Book Unpopular Times
It goes without saying that booking unpopular flight times, such as with red-eyes, weekdays, or off-season periods, will garner better prices. Travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays also tends to be cheaper.

 

8. Use the Right Travel Credit Card
Signing up for a credit card that will give you great travel rewards would be worth considering. Before doing so, keep in mind that you should only charge what you can realistically pay off soon.
That said, if you know you can pay off what you owe, then travel reward credit cards will be a neat way of earning free flights and hotel stays. Here are some good options.

 

9. Currency Exchange
When you're in a foreign country, you can get some of the best currency rates by swiping your credit card or withdrawing money from a local ATM with a debit card.

10. Go City Card
Research to see if the Go City Card will save you money. It's available in nine US cities and lets you visit selected attractions for free for a fee. It's worth getting if the attractions you are planning on visiting are on the Go City Card's list.

11. Buy Your Tickets at the Right Time
The best times to buy your tickets are Tuesdays and Wednesdays. More specifically Tuesday at 3 p.m. EST. Don't buy your tickets on the weekends, as they are the most expensive then.

12. Lock Down Your Seat
If you don't want to commit, some airlines give you the option of holding your seats; Continental lets you hold it for 24 hours and allows you to cancel without penalties. You can also lock down the fare for three or seven days, but it comes with a $5 or $9 fee depending on your chosen time frame.

13. Track the Prices
If you buy your ticket early, then be sure to track it on Yapta.com to see if the price changes. Yapta will send you an email alert when it finds that you can change your ticket without taking a loss on rebooking fees.

14. Book Through the Airline
Oftentimes it's better to book through the airline so you'll be able to to see all the hidden fees that are not necessarily revealed through a booking website. You can also sometimes find deals that are only available on the airline's website.

15. Pick the Right Site
There are some companies like Orbitz that will refund the difference to you if you find a lower rate on a ticket on another site. Research the different travel sites and see which one offers a similar service. After you buy your ticket, keep looking at other sites to see if the ticket price goes down.

16. Check the Hotel Site
Oftentimes, third-party sites don't show many specials that are featured on hotel sites. Check both the hotel and the third-party site before booking the best deal.

17. Airbnb
Fancy a stay with a homey feel? Check out Airbnb.com, a site where individuals rent out their rooms or house to travelers. I found some pretty great deals on the site, with discounted pricing on rooms situated in prime locales. The multiple pictures will give you a good idea of what the rooms look like, and if you're still a bit hesitant, there are plenty user-generated reviews for you to check out.

18. Couch Surfing
Want to not spend any money on your lodgings? Explore CouchSurfing.org, a volunteer-based network in which you can crash on someone's couch for free. It's a great little community that may enrich your travel experience, because your couch-surfing pal might show you some of the local sights. What better way to view the city than through the eyes of a local?
Bonus: you might even make a lifelong friend!

19. Show Your Loyalty
Becoming a loyal member of a hotel chain will get you lots of benefits, such as discounted prices, better service, and the ability to collect reward points toward a free hotel stay. And if you play your "I'm a loyal member" card and negotiate, then you can even get a full refund on your money when you cancel your stay. I've had to do that a couple times and saved a ton of money in doing so.
Some of the more famous hotel reward programs include Starwood Preferred Guest, Priority Club, and Hilton HHonors. And there is good news for those who prefer independent hotels. Turns out, there is a growing trend of boutique hotels grouping together to form their own loyalty programs; check out Stash Hotel Rewards and Voila Hotel Rewards.

20. Craigslist
Check out the local Craigslist for short-term vacation rentals, but be careful! People who don't their homework can end up forking over cash to a scammer for a vacation rental and not seeing any of it back. Read these safety tips by Craigslist, and try to have a friend check out the place before you send them money.

21. Hostels
Trim off travel costs by staying at a hostel, and spend about $15 to $35 a night. A popular place to find hostels is hihostels.com. Hostels have evolved from their traditional image, and some of the choices on the website even include private rooms for couples, families, or groups of friends.
If you're a first-timer, then be sure to prep yourself before the trip by remembering to bring things like shower slippers and ear plugs.

22. Negotiate Hotel Rates
Don't just call it a night at any price. If you're refraining from making reservations before your trip, then try to negotiate a lower rate for your room when you pull in for the evening. You'll find the most success at accommodations with several noticeable open spaces in the parking lot.

23. Boutique Hotels
Boutique hotels can offer a great price, but be sure to do your research properly, because they can be just as costly and swanky as the higher-end chain hotels. You can check out Orbitz for boutique hotels such as Tablet Hotels, or you can comb through Google search results on your own by using the search terms "boutique hotel [insert city]." Be sure to check out Trip Advisor reviews to see what other people are saying, and if it's in another language, then use Google Translate!

24. Quote Your Price
You can try your luck and opt to blind book on sites like Priceline.com and Hotwire.com and pay for a room in an unknown hotel. The risk is, you won't be able to cancel or change your reservation after you find out which hotel it is.
Do some digging around on betterbidding.com or hoteldealsrevealed.com to see if there are any tips for improving your chances of getting the right hotel. These are forums focused on how to "game" Priceline and Hotwire sites.

25. Sign on to the Computer for Pretrip Activity Savings
Now I assume hope you regularly research prices of flights and hotels before booking, but what about activities? Along with the added perk of looking for reviews to determine whether a particular stop is a tourist trap or worth the money, you can also save money booking "big-ticket" items. Museums, theme parks, and other destinations often offer discounts for activities prebooked online because so many people don't do this and are willing to shell out more cash at the door.
Don't be this person, and thoroughly research your destination and activities. In addition to checking out the tourism board, my favorite place to stop is the website of the local paper or city magazine. Periodicals geared toward locals usually have reviews of newer places and upcoming events — sometimes even discounts, too!

 

26. Investigate Travel Insurance
You'll be charged anywhere from four to eight percent of the cost of your trip for insurance, but considering what's at stake, the extra money may be worth it to protect your investment and buy you piece of mind.

 

27. Get a Cheaper, Well-Researched Hotel Room
Using websites like Priceline could get you half-priced hotel rooms. That being said, shop smart! Playing up the best features with professional photos is the name of any hotel's aesthetics game, but stave off disappointment (and final sticker shock) by asking yourself these questions before booking a room.

28. Consider a Travel Package
You may consider buying a travel package, even if you don't really need it, because they often cost less than airfare alone.

29. Want to Do Good? Plan a Volunteer Vacation
Offering a great way to see and experience a different culture, a volunteer vacation can be an especially fulfilling way to spend time off. The concept's not for everyone — no four-star hotels or five-course meals, and there's service work involved, making it less of a "break" — but it can be an affordable way to travel somewhere exotic and truly experience the other location separate from the confines of any resort. Here's a helpful planning guide.

30. Travel Stateside on the Cheap by Setting Fare Alerts
Airfare sales usually happen early in the week, while increases are usually put into place at the end of the week. Because there's no magic day when the best prices occur, it's best to sign up for email price alerts on all the travel sites that you use. Make sure to check up on your hotel before you book too!

31. Eat Like a Local
Avoid expensive tourist traps by asking locals for their recommendations, and save money by ordering area specialties.

 

32. Can't Afford It? Postpone and Staycation Instead
If the best deals you find are still too pricey, then opt for a local vacation for now and postpone bigger travel plans for the location's off-season. Instead, use up some of that hard-earned PTO and take a fabulous staycation in your own city.

 

33. Stay in Neighboring Cities
There's a trend of travelers booking lodgings in the neighboring town of the actual city they are planning to tour. By doing so, you can save up to 40 percent off the usual rate.
But of course there are downsides to that strategy. Staying outside the tourist attractions will mean more time commuting, and you may have to rent a car if there isn't a good local public transportation system. Calculate those costs to see if staying in a neighboring city is worth it.

34. Find the Cheapest Gas for Your Road Trip
A road trip may cost less money than flying, but filling and refilling your tank still isn't cheap. Utilize websites like autos.msn or gasbuddy.com, which track the prices of gas and sort by zip code, in order to find the cheapest place to pump while you're on the road.

35. Redeem Miles Over the Phone
It's more effective to book travel with mileage points over the phone than online because for most airlines, you don't always get access to full inventory of award seats online.

36. Take Care of Your Car
Prepare your car for the road by inflating the tires with air. Filling them up will ultimately save you money on gas. Keeping your lead foot to a minimum will also help you get the most mileage from your tank of gas, and you're less likely to be stuck with a pricey speeding ticket.

37. Estimate Gas Costs Before You Go
When you're budgeting for your excursion, you must consider the inevitable cost of gas. Try using the AAA Fuel Cost Calculator to calculate the cost of your trip. The tool generates its calculations with average regional gas prices and the details you enter, including your starting city, destination, and your vehicle's make, year, and model. Because it uses regional prices, the calculation should be looked at as an estimate, but AAA does update the prices daily.

38. Pack a Cooler
Bring a full cooler along for the ride to save money and your waistline from too much fast food. But you'll need more than a bag of pretzels to get you by. Take ingredients to make sandwiches, containers with cut-up vegetables, fruit that doesn't require refrigeration (like bananas), and plenty of water.

39. Keep Your Receipts
When traveling with friends, it can be tedious to split every expense. If your group doesn't want to bother with exact numbers until the trip is over, then simply designate someone to hold on to all the receipts. That person should write down the name of the friend who paid to make it easier to calculate who owes what at the trip's end.

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28 weeks in, these simple changes should start to become a habit. These are life changes not just to complete the 52 Week Money Challenge. The goal is to change the way you handle your finances and your life.

Challenge Total Week 28 = $406.00 

This is the 52 week money challenge that was shared with me last year. Hope this helps many of you this year.

Saving money is hard. It takes discipline and self-control to stick with the plan you developed.  This year why not make it easy on yourself?

I am a huge fan of ING (ING has been bought by Capital One and will become Capital One 360. Doesn't look like much will change...). ING lets you automate your savings so you don't have to think about it. The greatest feature is that it takes a couple days to get money transferred back to your checking account. There are a couple ways around this, but not being able to touch the money in your ING accounts is great for medium/long term savings goals.

If you have an ING, or other savings account, simply automate your savings transfers each month according to the chart below and watch the money stack up.

If you don't have a savings account, GET ONE! Not just for this challenge but everyone needs at least one savings account - with an Emergency Fund.

This week 28 should be transferred to your savings account. We are up to $406.00 this year. Things from this point on will start to grow pretty quickly. How are you doing? Any savings light bulbs going off? Have you planned what you are going to do with the money at the end of the year?

Even if you missed weeks 1 through 27, you can still get started today. Deposit $378 into a savings account and you will be caught up.


Keep Up the Good Work!

Monday, July 8, 2013

T.G.I.M. - IMPOSING YOUR WILL

Monday's are Thank God It's Monday with ET The Hip Hop Preacher. This man is the living definition of what Personal Finance 4 The People stands for. He was homeless, now he travels and speaks to hundreds of people. He is so encouraging...perfect to start off this Monday morning...Make The Rest of your Life The Best of your Life!

IMPOSING YOUR WILL

 

Check out ET the Hip Hop Preacher:

Monday, July 1, 2013

T.G.I.M. - ENERGY + EFFORT

Monday's are Thank God It's Monday with ET The Hip Hop Preacher. This man is the living definition of what Personal Finance 4 The People stands for. He was homeless, now he travels and speaks to hundreds of people. He is so encouraging...perfect to start off this Monday morning...Make The Rest of your Life The Best of your Life!

ENERGY + EFFORT

 

Check out ET the Hip Hop Preacher: