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Newsletter to Your Friends (Use this link only if you receive this newsletter by email) Week of December 21, 2009This is an OPT-IN list ONLY! If you feel that you have received this message in error, please follow the directions at the bottom of this email to unsubscribe. Thank you.Click Here to view this newsletter online. Navigate This ColumnGrandpa Terry's Update Welcome to The Budget Stretcher! It's hard to believe that Christmas is almost here. I sincerely hope that each and every one of you enjoy the holidays as much as I intend to. Take a break from worrying about your money and just enjoy the season. "Free Candy Christmas Wreath e-Book" "24 Days of Christmas" I've put together a few free Christmas download sites where you can get everything from a Christmas cursor to screen savers and ebooks. Have fun... Christmas downloads More Downloads from My Merry Christmas That's all for now. Remember, I really enjoy hearing from you folks. If you have any comments, complaints, suggestions or just want to say Hi, please send me an email to tre2000@midwest.net If you know someone that may be interested in subscribing to our newsletter just copy and paste the below link into an email to them and have them subscribe: http://www.homemoneyhelp.com/confirmsubs.html Have a great week, Grandpa Terry Sponsor AdvertisementPaying highest-interest debt first is the SLOWEST way out ... You can laugh at money worries - if you follow our simple plan. Discover savvy consumer money secrets your friends don't know and banks won't tell you. Limited time only. ACT NOW: ///////////////////////////////////////// Grandpa Terry's Tip of the WeekBy Terry Rigg I've had a lot of people tell me that setting up their budget was simple but when it came to living by it payday after payday they admitted losing interest in a very short time. Let's face it. The day to day drudgery of trying to figure out how to best spend your money isn't the most interesting aspect of our lives. Let me see if I can make the budget process a little more appealing to you. I don't have any magic or secret process to tell you about but I do have a method that will show you why a budget doesn't have to be boring. I can do this with one word. GOALS When we think of goals most of us look far into the future to our retirement. That's the problem. It's hard to imagine when your 20 what you will need when you are 65. Accomplishing your goals doesn't have to take a lifetime. Even when they do you can set milestones along the way to break it up and get a sense of accomplishment much earlier. If you have problems staying on a budget try setting some short term goals. We can start with an easy one. Try to save $100 without missing it. Unless you have no income at all this is easy. Don't spend any coins for any reason. If you buy something for 25 cents break a dollar. Then all you have to do is put the change out of your pocket or purse in a jar every day. This sounds simple enough and you've probably heard about saving change before. If you are a skeptic like I was you probably think that this isn't going to lead to any real savings at all. Let's get back to that $100 I was talking about. How long do you think it would take you to save enough change to equal $100. 6 months? 1 year? The fact is that the average person can save $100 in less than three months. In some cases even sooner. That's not very long to accomplish a goal. Now let's look at setting milestones using the same method. Roll your change once a month to see how close you are to your goal. Write down how much you saved that month on a piece of paper and put that and your rolled change back in the jar. Keep doing this until you've reached your $100 goal. Now, what do you do with that $100? You could put it in a savings account and earn a little interest but it still wouldn't be worth much more than $100 even after a year. My suggestion would be to pay it on one of your credit cards. That way you could turn that $100 into much more with the interest you would save. It may sound like I strayed from the topic of this article by talking about saving your change. Actually a budget is just a system of reaching goals. You do this by working backwards. You decide what it is you want to do and then make all of your money decisions based on that end. Setting up and maintaining a budget is going to take organization and discipline. This task will be much easier if you are working toward something you really want. To learn more about Budgets you can visit The Complete Budget and Bill Organizer to find Budget Stretcher's free budget system complete with all of the forms and worksheets. Sponsor AdvertisementDo you ever get stuck in a rut, preparing the same meals for your family week after week? I do! What's for dinner tonight?? The Creative Homemaking What's for Dinner? cookbook contains more than 250 quick, easy, family-tested dinner ideas plus a lot more. http://terryrigg.recipeclub.hop.clickbank.net Grandpa Terry's EmailTerry,You and I have been connected through your budget stretcher for a long time. I wanted to ask you a question about a product I offer. I market a product for people who make excuses for not sending thank you cards to follow up with clients like I used to do. I used to forget to mail the the cards, even after I wrote a note and would just make an excuse by saying "I'll do it later". I wanted to send birthday cards to my kids and notes to my new clients, but I would write and forget to mail them, and by the time I wrote them or even sent them, it would be a "belated" birthday or after Christmas. So, then I tried SendOutCards and after a few days I was not only remembering birthday cards and thank you's, but I was even finding new reasons to send cards. It feels great to send cards to friends and new acquaintances and really show my gratitude. Do you know anyone who might be interested in a product like that? Just in case, here is the link: A Time For Cards Annie Sires My Response: Hi Annie, I'll bet there are several of the subscribers that could use a service like this. Thanks, Terry Featured ArticleStaying Bankruptcy Free By Lyle Evans What exactly is bankruptcy? Bankruptcy is when your assets are tied up and you cannot pay your debts. There are a number of different bankruptcies that are open to individuals. These different bankruptcy options were created to help individuals and their special needs. However, bankruptcy's effects can last for years, including difficulty finding a job, getting insurance, renting an apartment, buying a home and financing a car. Bankruptcy can stay on your credit record for up to 10 years. The rest of this article will deal with ways to try and avoid bankruptcy. As mentioned in previous articles a good budget is one of the most valuable financial tools you can have. Every individual or family needs to develop a budget and follow it. Impulse buying is not only dangerous for large expensive items, it can also be costly for smaller purchases that add up, killing your budget and pushing you further into debt. When going to buy a large or expensive item a good rule of thumb is to go and look and leave your checkbook, credit card, or financing information at home. When looking to buy these large items go and look around at more than one place. There is usually more than one store or dealer in the area that has comparable products to look at. The more places you visit the better idea you get of what a fair price is. Take time to evaluate the merchandise you have seen. When you do this, you will eliminate impulse buying or buying on emotion. When you have done your research and determined that you really need the item, then you are prepared to go and purchase it. Living within your means creates a future of financial stability. There are many things that can be done to live within our means. Some of these things include driving nice, dependable vehicles, not the latest and greatest; and purchasing a home that meets your needs, not a large home which carries an astronomical mortgage. Don't get caught up in trying to impress your neighbor by buying things you can't afford or don't need. There is only one person that can keep you from bankruptcy and that's you. Have some self control. If you find that you are really in overwhelming debt, there are steps that can be taken. Evaluate your financial circumstances. If you have large credit card debts that you can't afford, contact the credit card company and try to work out a payment plan that works for you. If you have other large bills, try and contact these companies and see if they will work with you. Sit down and figure out what your debt to income ratio is. This can be done by adding up how much take-home pay there is against how much there is in bills. If your debt ratio is close to or higher than your income, then you need to seriously evaluate your spending habits. Unavoidable medical expenses or disasters that cause major debt have to be dealt with on an individual basis and may require the advice of a competent financial planner. Day-to-day financial monitoring will help you improve your financial future. If you need the help of a financial advisor, it will be worth your time to do your homework and find out who will be the best at helping you. There are a number of ways to go about finding a financial advisor. A good place to start is by asking friends and acquaintances if they know or have heard of anyone that is good. You can also check in the yellow pages. However, be aware of billboards and radio/TV ads, and check with your local BBB. Once you have found a good potential advisor, ask them about their credentials and ask for references of satisfied customers. Ask how their work will help you and how it will effect your credit. Don't be afraid to ask questions to find out if this is the right person to help you. Remember this individual is going to give you advice that is going to effect your financial future. There are financial services that charge large service fees, and those that are non-profit that are less expensive. It will depend on what you feel comfortable with and who you think will give you the most help. Finally, if you own a lot of expensive items, you may think about trying to sell off items to raise money to pay off debt. Consider getting a second job to help to bring in extra income. Look at borrowing against any reserves you may have. (Do this only after consulting a good professional advisor.) Avoiding bankruptcy requires vigilance and determination. Bankruptcy and its long-term effects should be considered very carefully. Working hard to overcome financial woes will give you an improved sense of self-worth and well-being. ************************************************************ © Simple Joe, Inc. Lyle Evans is a software testing specialist for Simple Joe, Inc., makers of the popular Simple Joe's Income & Expenses PC software. Income & Expenses is a quick and simple way to keep track of your cash flow and stay within your budget. The Income & Expenses software (http://www.simplejoe.com/incomeexpenses/index2.htm) is ideal for personal, business, home and club accounting. |
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