Discover Debt Freedom!

Would you like to be able to save $500 or more in a matter of months?  Saving $500 can be a simple task if you are willing to follow some basic advice that can cut your monthly expenses by a significant amount.  Most experts recommend having at least $500 as a cushion in your bank account so that you will be able to handle any financial emergencies that may arise and not have to borrow money or go into debt to handle these problems.  By following these 5 simple steps for increasing the amount of money that you save each month, you can easily save enough money to have a $500 cushion in your bank account.

1. Reduce The Amount Of Gasoline You Are Using
Although it may seem like the price of gasoline is slowly receding back to its previous levels, the cost of a gallon of gas is still much higher than it was even a year ago.  For many families, purchasing gasoline is a significant part of the family budget and by taking steps to reduce the amount of gasoline that you are consuming on a daily basis, you will have more money to save for a rainy day.  Simple changes in your daily routine, such as taking your lunch to work instead of driving somewhere to pick up food or running errands on the way home from work to avoid a second trip out, can stretch the length of time that you will be able to go between fill ups, reducing the amount that you are paying for gasoline each year.

2. Reduce The Amount Of Energy Your Home Is Using
Energy prices across the board have seen dramatic increases in the last few years, battering the budgets of many homeowners, especially those who use natural gas or heating oil to heat their homes.  But households that exclusively use electricity for their homes could benefit from an overall reduction in the amount of energy that they use as well, saving the homeowner a significant amount of money each year.  There are a number of different ways to reduce the amount of energy that your home is using, including moving the thermostat dial closer to the average temperature outdoors, turning off lights and electronic equipment when not in use, and ensuring that your home is not releasing heat or cold through drafty areas around the attic, doors, and windows.

3.  Reduce Your Entertainment Costs
Many people have cable or satellite packages that give them a massive amount of channels to choose from, but will often only watch a small number of these channels on a regular basis.  To stop paying for the dozens of channels that you do not watch or that you watch infrequently, you should reduce your entertainment package to a basic package and invest in a DVD collection of things that you know that you will watch on a fairly regular basis.  With the recent growth in the number of DVD resale shops across the country, many of the movies that you would be watching on cable or satellite can be purchased for less than $5 for a copy that is guaranteed to work like new.

4. Buy Store Brands When Shopping
Many of the name brand items that you purchase at the grocery store have store brand or non-branded counterparts that could be as much as 50% cheaper than the name brand item.  In most cases, you would not even be able to tell the difference between the name brand and the store brand versions of the item other than the change in packaging, and you may even find that you like the store brand version better than the name brand version. Make sure to pay with a best cash back credit card to get paid when shopping.

5. Carefully Monitor Your Spending
Many people spend money each day on items that are wasteful or more expensive than if the person had taken the time to perform the action on their own.  For example, if a person chooses to purchase a specialty coffee on the way to work (about $2.50 per cup) instead of brewing the coffee at home (about $0.20 per cup), then they are spending about $600 more a year to purchase their coffee.  There are many areas in life where people pay extra for convenience, but with some careful time management you can do these things for yourself and save a great deal of money over the course of a year.

With food prices rising at an alarming rate, many people are concerned about their food budget purchasing less and less each month.  In the last year, the price of groceries has risen by 30% and there seems to be no end in sight, causing many people to reevaluate the ways that they are spending their money in the grocery store.  There are some easy ways to cut your costs at the grocery store and following these tips can save you hundreds of dollars on your grocery bills each year.

Look For Sales
One of the easiest ways to save money at the grocery store is to purchase the items that you need while they are on sale.  Every week, most of the grocery stores across the country print or send out a sales flyer that details their sales for the week and by a little careful planning, a person can get many of the groceries that they typically purchase at a discounted rate.  The sales flyers can generally be found in the local paper or even in the entryway of the grocery store and will list numerous items in many different categories that are on sale for that week.

Use Coupons
Many manufacturers place coupons for their products in the local newspapers or online to entice more people to try their products in the hopes of obtaining a regular consumer.  The coupons serve another purpose as well; saving average consumers a good amount of money on the products that they purchase regularly.  Grocery store coupons can be found for every category, from cleaning supplies to dog food to meats, so chances are pretty good that you will be able to find coupons for many of the things that you purchase regularly from the grocery store, which could save you as much as 25% off of the price of the item.  The savings are even more dramatic when the coupons are applied to items that are already on sale.

Buy In Season
Certain types of foods are more abundant at different times of the year, such as apples in the fall and strawberries in the summer.  Because these items are more abundant at these times of year, they are generally priced lower so that more of them can be sold during the harvest season and may even be marked as a sale item during the season to attract the attention of more shoppers.  By purchasing the items when they are in season, you will be purchasing them at their lower price and may even be adding some variety to your diet by eating different types of fruits and vegetables at different times of the year.

Stock Up On Staples
There are a number of items that people use on a regular basis that can last for months inside their packaging and purchasing these items in bulk when they are on sale can save you a great deal of money over the course of the year.  For example, if your family goes through a bag of rice that costs $5 every month, then the price that you will be paying for the rice over five months would be $25.  Now, imagine if you bought those same five bags of rice in the week that they were on sale for $3 per bag.  You would be able to purchase all five bags for $15, resulting in a net savings of 40% off of the regular price.

Many people across the country have a credit account and use the credit account to charge purchases on a regular basis.  Businesses that deal in credit accounts love when individuals are using their credit accounts more often because it gives the business more chances to obtain more funds from these people by charging increased interest rates and fees for using the accounts.  There are many ways for a person to turn this around and decrease the amount of funds earned by the business in fees on their credit account.

1. Reduce Usage Of The Credit Account
Businesses that deal in credit accounts have started to offer different types of rewards to individuals that use their credit accounts to make purchases at places where lower dollar amounts are the norm, such as fast food restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores.  This can entice individuals to use their accounts to pay for more items more often, creating a higher balance on the account that will be subject to fees and interest payments.  By offering these rewards, the credit account business is increasing the amount of money that they are making off of these individuals in fees and paying much less in rewards than the people realize.  It is smarter for the person to use the credit account as infrequently as they can and to pay cash for small everyday purchases to decrease the amount of the balance of their credit account.

2. Pay Off The Balance Each Month
Businesses that deal in credit accounts must give each account a grace period for paying off the new charges to the account before they can begin to charge a financing fee to the account.  This time period is usually between 20 and 30 days and if you can pay off the balance of the credit account in this amount of time, then you will be exempt from the financing fee for charging the purchases to the account.  If you are able to pay off the balance of the account each month, make the full payment and avoid paying extra financing fees to the business.

3. Always Pay The Bill Early
Making a payment on the credit account late gives the business many different opportunities to impose fees on you.  The first fee that they will post against the account will be a delinquent payment fee, which could be as much as $39 for each occurrence, and the business will charge this fee to the account even if the payment is only a few hours late.  If the delinquent payment penalty fee pushes the account over the credit limit, the business can use this to justify charging the account an over-limit fee, which could add another $39 fee to the balance of the account.

In addition, many businesses that deal in credit accounts use the missed payment to dramatically increase the interest rate for the account to the highest allowable limit, which could be as much as 30%.  To avoid these issues, a person should make their payment for the credit account as soon as they receive the bill for the account to make sure that the payment will be received on time.  Many credit companies have an option where you can pay your bill online, which posts the payment to the account by the next business day.  When the transaction has been completed, you will receive a receipt saying that the transaction has been processed and the date that the payment will post to the account.

For anyone who has ever owned a small business, we know that accounting and paying for every day needs can be no small task. Does one pay cash, pay it out of a checking account, use a debit card or credit card to pay their everyday expenses for things such as office supplies? Many credit card companies are offering some very enticing credit card options for small business owners that may be worth looking into. They are offering some very good sign up bonuses for qualified business users. Usually to get the really great rewards you will have to open up a checking account as well as a credit card, but it’s not a big deal to move one’s checking account, since most of the features are usually pretty much the same anyway. One great thing about business credit cards is that you don’t actually have to be a business user in order to get one, they don’t really check and probably don’t care.

American Express offers a card called the “Business Gold Rewards Card.” It offers $150 in easy rewards in the form of a $100 credit on your first statement, so you’ll want to spend at least $100 your first month or you lose it! You also instantly get 5000 points which can redeemed for about a $50 gift card when you make your first purchase. The downside to this card it that there’s a $125 annual fee, but it’s waived for the first year. So you can apply for it, pocket the $150 quick and just cancel before the first year is up.

American Express also offers their Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card which by signing up for you will instantly earn 10,000 points which is redeemable for a $100 gift certificate on your first purchase. There’s an annual fee off $30 which is waived for the first year. So much like the first card, you can take the bonus and close the account without paying a dime.

Citibank offers its Citi Business Master Card with “ThankYou Rewards”. If approved for this card, you’ll receive $100 in ThankYou Rewards which are redeemable for various gift certificates with your first purchase, and there’s no annual fee!

In addition, Citibank features their Citi Business Premier Pass credit card. With this card you’ll receive $150 worth of ThankYou Rewards which you can redeem for gift certificates and the like with your first purchase. There’s an annual fee of $75 which is waived the first year. So you can sign up, take the rewards and run.

If you were to apply for all of these cards and get approved, that’d be $500 in your pocket with no expense!

One of the biggest reasons that people fall into insurmountable debt is because they routinely spend more than they intend to, reducing the amount of money that they have available for any financial emergencies that arise.  For many people, it is very difficult to get out of debt and the troubles caused by a high amount of debt could last for many years.  The best way to avoid getting into debt is to learn some money management tips that can help you save more of your money and provide a cushion for any financial emergencies that you may encounter.

Tip 1 – Document Your Spending Habits
In order to learn how much money you are spending on a monthly basis, you should document all of your financial transaction and whether they were paid with money from your bank account or placed on your credit card.  This will give you a good idea of how much money you are spending and identify areas where your spending could be cut to save money.  It will also prevent you from spending more than you intend because you will be able to see the amount of money that you are spending add up each month.

Tip 2 – Avoiding Paying For Overpriced Items
There are a number of items that many people purchase everyday that are greatly overpriced compared to purchasing the items from the grocery store or preparing the items for themselves.  For example, purchasing a six pack of beer at the grocery store will cost you about $5.00, but purchasing those same six beers at your neighborhood bar will cost you about $18.00, an increase in price of 260%.  Specialty coffees are another item that could be avoided in order to save more money as coffee made at home costs about 1/8 of the price.

Tip 3 – Use Automatic Deposits For Your Savings Account
Many businesses will now allow direct deposited paychecks to be split into as many as three different accounts, so take advantage of this benefit and set up to have a percentage of your paycheck paid into directly into your savings account each payday.  Having the money directly deposited into your savings account prevents you from spending the money just because it is in your checking account and saves you from having to remember to make the transfer.

Tip 4 – Round Up Your Purchase Amounts
Want an easy way to create a cushion of money in your checking account?  Every time that you write a check or use your debit card, round up the amount of the purchase in your ledger to the nearest whole dollar.  This makes it easier to subtract the purchases from your balance because you are not dealing with dollars and cents and over time the cents that were not included in the accounting will add up to a significant amount of money to hedge against going over the balance of your checking account by accident.

Tip 5 – Remember To Check Your Credit Report
Experts estimate that as many as 25% of the credit reports held by the three major credit bureaus contain mistakes that can be very costly.  By reviewing your credit report on a regular basis, you will notice any mistakes that have been placed on your credit report and take the steps to correct the information in a timely manner, which will make resolving the issue much easier.

With the real estate industry in a tizzy due to foreclosures and downsizing of family homes, it is more important that ever to make sure that you make the right choices when it comes to trusting the sale of your home through a realtor.

There are several things to think about before signing a commitment with a realtor. Going with the wrong person or company can end up costing you more money that you ever anticipated. Selecting a realtor will require a little work on your part. It may be necessary to essentially interview several before making a final decision.

Before you talk to a realtor, make sure to have a good mortgage (conventional, rural home loans, vha, fha etc). Checkout USDA Loan Guide for more information about mortgages.

Here are some things to look for in a realtor:

Reputation - If you live in a smaller community, it may be a little more cut and dry to evaluate a company on personal reputation. You may have family, friends, or business associates that can recommend someone that is good. You may also have the advantage of knowing who to avoid.

Exposure - If you live in a larger area that may have access to many realty companies, you may have to base your choice on advertising. There may be certain companies that are all over the television, radio, or billboards but it doesn’t mean they are the best. Pick two that are very high profile and two from the phone book and compare them before making a decision. Those companies who can afford large scale advertising may be able to bring more attention to your home quickly with the right resources.

Operation - Evaluate how much commission the realtor will take after the sale. Typically, the realtor is looking for 6-7% of the sale but it may be worth your while to negotiate one or two points lower in order to get more money back in your own pocket. If you must also find a realtor to help get you in a new home, find out if the realtor will give up some more of their commission if you agree to use them to buy a home as well as sell one.

Track Record - Do not be afraid to ask for their statistics. Find out how many homes they have sold that is similar to yours. Ask if they specialize in a certain price range that is similar to yours. Inquire about the amount of homes the realtor currently has under contract at the time.

References - You should also not be afraid to ask for referral names and then make sure you check a few of them out. Check out the realtor’s membership with the local and national realtor associations.

Overall, you want to have a great working relationship with your realtor and personality does matter. Signing a contract will commit you to working with that person or company many times until the house is sold. Read all contracts thoroughly before signing anything and make sure there is a stipulation that allows you to cancel in the event you are not happy with their efforts after a certain period of time. Do not get suckered in to a long term contract and opt for a 3-6 month initial time period. If the realtor will not allow such negotiations, you may want to reconsider your commitment. While it is okay to get some advice on selling your home and setting the price, ultimately the decision should be yours and your realtor should not force you into anything.

In today’s troubled economy, many people are learning the value of a dollar and are increasingly trying to save money on the things that they would like to purchase.  In the past, people did not take the time to research ways to save money on their purchases because they believed that the task would be time consuming and the amount of money that they saved would not justify the time spent.  Today, people are realizing that there are many simple ways to save money on their shopping trips that do not take a lot of time and can result in a savings of between 30% and 70% on their purchases.

1. Using Coupons
Clipping coupons is one of the oldest ways around to save money on purchases, but in recent years the coupon has evolved into something much more than a slip of paper for a few cents off of a product at the grocery store.  Today, coupons can be found for everything from clothing to furniture to household appliances and can be redeemed in stores as varied as toy stores and retailers of electronics.  Most coupons can be found in the advertising section of your local newspaper, but some companies have begun to mail their coupons directly to the homes of consumers or place their coupons online to be reviewed and printed out by the consumer at their convenience.

In order to get the best deals on products by using coupons, one effective strategy is to take the time each week to clip or print the coupons for products that you use regularly or need to get soon.  Most coupons are only valid for about a month before they expire so you have until then to use them to purchase the products.  Then, each week you should review the advertisements to see if any of the products that you have coupons for have gone on sale.  Purchasing the products with a coupon while they are on sale can save you as much as 70% off the price of the product depending on how deeply the product was discounted for the sale.

2. Price Match Guarantees
Many stores have begun offering price match guarantees for the products that they carry in their stores.  The way that this works is if the person can find a lower price at a different retailer for a specific item within a certain time frame, either before purchase or within a few week after purchase, then the retailer will either honor the advertised price for new purchases or refund the difference between the advertised price and the price that was paid for the item.  This is especially useful if you purchase an expensive item, such as a home appliance, and notice that the item has gone on sale within the next few weeks after you have made your purchase.  In these cases, you may be able to claim a refund of several hundred dollars.

3. Taking Advantage Of Sales
Most stores will have sales on different items at different times of the month and by keeping track of the things that you need and when they have gone on sale, you may be able to get most of the things that you need for a sale price, effectively cutting 30% to 60% off the amount of money that you are spending each month.  The trick is to always purchase the items while they are on sale and never paying the full retail price for an item. 

Some people will only purchase grocery items that are on sale at a deep discount and then will use a coupon for the item that will reduce the cost even further.  For example, let’s say that you have a coupon for $0.75 off a specific type of chicken that would cost $5 a pack and you notice that your local grocery store is selling that particular type of chicken as a buy one, get one free offer.  By using your coupon, which will probably be doubled by the store because it is less than $1.00, you can get $10 worth of chicken for $4.50 for a net savings of 55%.  This is even more lucrative when applied to higher valued items and you can save a great deal of money over the course of a year.

Many people view the consequences of a late payment as something that is insignificant and not worth worrying about.  After all, the person pays a nominal late fee and that is the end of the story, right?  Wrong.  Late payments on your accounts can have a number of devastating consequences that you may not be aware of until it affects your life in a major way.  In these days of tightening credit standards and lender’s reluctance to lend to any but the most worthy borrowers, the pain created by multiple delinquent payments on your accounts may be felt sooner than you think.

The Late Fee
The first result of a delinquent payment is the late fee that is charged to the account.  The amount of this fee can range between $5 and $39, depending on the type of account that the payment was going towards and the individual rules of the company that issued the account.  Although some people may believe that the amount of the late fee is too small to worry their head about, the truth is that paying a late fee is giving your money to a company for nothing and multiple late fees will begin to add up and hurt your wallet more than you can imagine.

Account Default
If your payment becomes late by thirty days or more, it could throw your account into default.  This means that your account is no longer in good standing and the company will consider you to be a risk to their bottom line.  Having your account placed into default makes it much more difficult to do business with the company holding the account because you have showed yourself to be untrustworthy when it comes to paying your debts.

Higher Interest Rates
Even if the payment for the account is only hours late, most creditors reserve the right to dramatically increase your interest rate in the event that a payment is not made in time and will exercise this right in the majority of the cases that they come across.  The increase could double or even triple your interest rate, which could be financially devastating if there is a large balance on the account.  In some cases, some people that have made a late payment on a credit card account have seen their interest rates skyrocket to almost 30%.

Universal Default
In one of the worst consequences of a late payment would have to be triggering a universal default clause for your accounts.  Under this clause, if you default on one of your accounts, creditors can apply the default to all of the accounts that you hold, triggering massive interest rate increases across the board.  For example, if you have four credit cards and you make a late payment on one, the interest rate for all four cards will rise as if you had defaulted on all four accounts.  The accounts do not have to be issued by the same creditor for universal default to take place because as soon as other creditors see the late payment on your credit report, they will automatically invoke the universal default clause.

Decrease In Credit Score
In addition to placing a blemish on your credit report, a late payment can decrease your credit score by a significant amount.  When the late payment is reported to the three major credit bureaus, they respond by deducting points from your credit score.  Because it is much easier to decrease your credit score than to increase it, the results of the decreased score, such as higher interest rates and the denial of credit, can follow you for a number of years before you can get your credit score back up to its previous level.

There are a number of habits that people follow every day without thinking that can have a devastating effect on their financial stability.  Although the dangers of these habits are not readily apparent, over time the habits will end up costing the person a great deal of money in late fees and interest payments.  These habits can also harm their credit score, causing a steady decrease that lowers the credit score month after month.  By changing these habits or eliminating them from your daily life, you will be able to decrease their effects on your financial future and may even find yourself more financially stable within a short period of time.

Bad Habit 1 – Being A Free Spender

Many people neglect to budget the amount of money that is coming into the household each month and the amount of money that is being paid out for bills and other additional expenses.  In many cases, the failure to create a budget for the household results in a person spending more money each month that they intend to spend and often leaves the person with no money to be placed into savings.  In some cases, the person overspends the money that they have and are left without an amount adequate for paying their bills, resulting in late charges and higher interest payments on other accounts.

Bad Habit 2 – Opening Credit Card Accounts On A Whim

A recent trend has many retail stores offering a discount on their merchandise for people that open up a credit card account with the store.  This can be good for people that choose to do the majority of their shopping at the store that is offering the credit card, but a more common scenario is for the person to open up the credit card account simply to get a discount on the merchandise that they are purchasing at the time and then the card remains unused for a long period of time.  Every time a new credit account is opened in your name, your credit score decreases by as many as 5 points and the number of open accounts that you have in your name may cause you to be denied credit in the future.

Bad Habit 3 – Neglecting To Review Your Credit Report

Many people do not check their credit report because they don’t think that there is anything that can be done to change the information that is contained within the report.  The truth is that nearly 25% of the credit reports held by the three major credit bureaus contain mistakes that could be costing those people hundreds of dollars in increased interest payments and could be causing them to be denied credit that they would otherwise be qualified.  Experts recommend reviewing your credit report at least once per year to ensure that there is nothing on there that shouldn’t be.

Bad Habit 4 – Depending On Credit For Handling Emergencies

The recent years of easy access to credit and high credit limits offered by credit card companies has caused many people to stop placing money into their savings accounts for emergencies because they believe that they will be able to handle anything that comes up with the amount of credit available on their credit cards.  What they fail to remember is that any payments that they place on their credit cards will have interest charges placed on them, making the total amount paid for the item much more than anticipated, and placing the amount on the credit card means that you will not have those funds available for any other emergencies until that balance has been paid off.

Bad Habit 5 – Denying Financial Trouble

The worst thing that a person can do when facing a financial difficulty is pretend like the problem does not exist.  Avoiding phone calls from creditors, throwing away mail unopened, and hoping that the problem will go away will only make the situation worse and cause more financial hardship the longer that the problem goes on.  If you are facing a financial difficulty, the best thing to do is to confront the problem head on and take the steps necessary to correct the problem as soon as possible.

Obtaining a student loan is one of those things that most of the people that are doing it know absolutely nothing about it.  Much like purchasing a home, signing up for student installment loans may only happen once in a person’s life and there are many things that a person will need to know about the student loans being offered to make sure that they are getting the best deal for their needs.  It is very important to research different types of student loans to find out the particulars of the programs before deciding to sign up for any of the programs that are offered.

Student loans are one of the most expensive types of loans that a person can obtain.  The cost of the loan can range between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of dollars, easily one of the most expensive decisions that will be made in a person’s life.  Add this to the fact that many of the people that are looking for a student loan are just out of high school and are not yet financially savvy and you can see how easy it can be to make a bad, uninformed decision that could have dire financial implications on a large portion of the student’s life.

Things To Think About

One of the most important things to research before signing up for a student loan is how much money you will actually need for your studies.  Some people will only need their tuition covered by the loan because they plan on living at home or will have a job while they are going to college, which will pay for some of the items that they need.  Although some people will be tempted to obtain the maximum amount that is offered by the student loan company, it is important to remember that every dollar borrowed will incur interest and raise the amount that you will have to repay once your schooling is done.

Another thing to remember when looking for a student loan is that there are many different loan companies offering different types of cash loans and the first one that you find may not be the best one for your needs.  It is very important for the person to take their time and carefully consider multiple types of student loans to determine which type of loan fits their needs the best.  Different types of loans have different terms so some may prove to be more expensive for the student than others.

One last thing to think about when looking for the best student loan for your needs is the repayment terms of the loan.  Paying the student loan back in a timely manner will ensure that your credit history and credit score will remain in good standing, but you do not want to get trapped into a situation where paying for your student loans means that you do not have the money to pay for the other things that you need to live comfortably.  A lot of consideration needs to go into the decision of which type of student loan to obtain and which lender to obtain the loan from in order to ensure that you are making the right decision for your needs for both today and for the future.