Posted by M.S. on July 1, 2009
Want to have lots of fun this 4th of July and save some money at the same time?
Be sure and check out the guest posts I have been writing for the Charlotte Observer Newspaper in a series called “Hot Summer Savings, 2 Weeks to Save You Money”.
Read about lots of money savings ideas including how to get free money through coupons and discounts, travel the world without breaking the bank, and undertake a fabulous and frugal home makeover.
Read about the terrific items I found on a recent visit to a Habitat for Humanity ReStore.
Included is this brand new pedestal sink for $ 22! Wow!
It’s time to get going on that bathroom project!
I LOVE this fabulous Black chest of drawers I found for $ 25!
Give a room a whole new look for very little money!
Read much more at the Charlotte Observer.
Posted by M.S. on June 8, 2009
There was a great personal finance article in today’s Wall Street Journal called “When I was Your Age“.
The article features prominent people recalling the best—and worst— financial advice they received as new college graduates.
I believe you can learn almost everything you want to know from people that have already done it successfully!
Included in the survey were David Bach, author of the best-selling FinishRich books, Paula Deen, restaurant owner, author and Food Network host, and Robert Kiyosaki, businessman and author of the best-selling “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” books.
David Bach told how he had learned the value of hard work and purchasing a home while in his 20’s. I agree wholeheartedly with what he said regarding how hard work and saving in your 20s and 30s can determine your future! Amen to that!
Ask all the broke 50 and 60 year old people if they regret not saving and investing when they were young, now that they are running out of time to build their wealth!
Paula Deen learned the value of heeding the advice to do what you love–which was cooking! Look at what a fabulous success she has made of that!
Mary L. Schapiro, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, said her parents warned her about getting into debt. She listened to them on that point, but regrets not getting into the habit of saving right away. Her advice to grads is to fully understand the implications of debt and what it will take to repay the loan.
Probably my favorite is from Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, president of the Charles Schwab Foundation. She said the best advice she heard was to live frugally and save for a rainy day. She suggests living off 90% of your income and save the other 10%. I would aim for saving more than that!
Look at how compounding interest on your saved money grows over time so you get wealthy.
You will be SO glad you saved, when you are fishing, while your friends are still working!
Posted by M.S. on June 4, 2009
If there were 8 simple rules you could follow that would help you build a fortune and a satisfying life, would you be interested to learn about them?
Just in time for Summer reading, I recently came across a very inspiring book written by Dwight R Lee and Richard B McKenzie called “Getting Rich in America“.
I highly recommend this book because the focus of the book is on “ordinary people” like you and me, people of modest means and talents and how they “made it” through simple steps taken without sacrificing their quality of life.
I believe wholeheartedly in the idea that if you want to accomplish something, model someone that has already done it. This book uses real life examples of people that have accumulated enough money to be financially independent and tells you how to do that too!
They went from Frugal to Rich!
Here are the 8 Simple Rules featured in the book:
1. Think of America as the Land of Choices
2. Take Compound Interest Seriously
3. Resist Temptation
4. Get a Good Education
5. Get Married and Stay Married
6. Take Care of Yourself
7. Take Prudent Risks
8. Strive for Balance
The quote from Ben Franklin at the front of the book explains it well. “The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on 2 words, industry and frugality: that is neither waste time nor money, but make the best use of both. Without industry and frugality, nothing will do; and with them-everything!”
So basically, that means work hard and be frugal! If you save your money and invest, it will build wealth!
Look at these thought provoking questions the authors pose to help you on your way to getting rich!
Buy it used on Amazon.com or request it for FREE at your local library!
It is well worth your time!
Posted by M.S. on May 29, 2009
I LOVE to save money every way I can and that includes on cosmetics!
Many years ago, a frugal friend of mine told me she used a brand of cosmetics called “Wet & Wild”. They make a full line of cosmetics including foundation, eyeliners, lipsticks, nail polish and mascara. They work great, are super economical and I have used them ever since!
The lipsticks and eyeliners are what I use the most and they are each only 99 cents a piece!
The regular price is a super bargain- but you can get an even better price this week!
This week at Rite Aid you can get 1 Wet & Wild item for full price, for only 99 cents and get the second one at half price, that’s only 49 cents.
That works out to only 75 cents an item! Compare that to the price of some of the fancy brands of cosmetics! What a deal!
This best part is, as you can see on my receipt, I used one of the $25 Rite Aid gift cards that I had received FREE for transferring a prescription to Rite Aid! Getting these items on sale, leaves me with extra money on the card to buy other goodies!
Another great tip I received from a thrifty lady was for hairspray that is also just as effective as the expensive fancy brands! It is called Rave and is about $1.29 a bottle! I plan to get some of that with my FREE gift card too!
That’s money I am saving to build my wealth! I want to make ME rich–not the cosmetics companies!
And don’t you feel much more beautiful knowing you have money?
Let me know if you have other tips like this please!
Posted by M.S. on May 13, 2009
Want to pay off debt and start to accumulate savings, but you don’t know where to start? Let me tell you about the technique we used many years ago when we wanted to save for our first piece of real estate.
Determine the exact amount of money you want to accumulate per month. Earn that extra money and along with your reduced expenses, pay off debt, then start SAVING and Investing it. Then, Get Rich!
There are so many ways to increase your income that you might not have considered! Keep an open mind!
My Absolute Favorite: Sell on eBay www. eBay.com There is a market for practically everything on eBay! Clear out your closets, go to Spring yard sales, or offer to sell things for other people and make a commission! I will talk much more in depth about this in future posts and give you tons of ideas to get maximum money for your items.
Check out Amazon. com to see how easy it is to sell current books, tapes and DVDs. Amazon.com
You don’t even need to take pictures or write descriptions! Simply enter the name of the item you want to list and Amazon will bring up all the information. Along the right hand column, look for More Buying Choices. Below that it says “Sell Yours Here”. Click that and fill out your info–and the item is listed!
Are you crafty or artistic? Check out www.Etsy.com This website allows anyone to sell their handmade items! I know 2 gals that are making great money by selling their handmade yoga bags, totes, and clothing!
The beauty of the Internet is that you can make money online with NO childcare costs!
Learn how to do something that other people want to know about–then teach others how to do it!! Call community colleges and continuing education departments at local universities, as well as senior centers! That’s what I did after becoming a successful eBay Powerseller! Now, I am trained by eBay & teach folks how to become successful sellers on eBay!
I wanted a website and didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars to get one, so I took training and learned how to build my own FREE website. Now, I teach other people how to build their own Free websites!
There are teachers for everything from painting to auto mechanics to cake decorating. Anything you can think of could be offered as a class! Learn something!
An added bonus of my teaching gigs is I get a gift certificate from the school that allows me to take 2 FREE classes each year! I receive that just because I am a teacher!! How awesome is that? Ask your school- maybe they offer teachers free tuition too! What a great way to learn more skills to make you extra money–at NO cost to you!
Take look at this fabulous list of 52 other ways to make extra money. 52 Ways to Make Extra Money
Now–get going!
Posted by M.S. on May 12, 2009
As we mentioned in the last post, I’m Drowning in Debt, What Do I do Now?, there are 2 components in the plan to eliminate debt. They are: spend less of what you currently earn and make more money.
Today,we will look at the expense side of things. Remember, this is about building an exciting future, not about dull budgeting and deprivation!
To keep you motivated, I highly recommend cutting pictures from magazines so you know what you are aiming for and to inspire you to stay on track when the going gets tough or you feel deprived.
Long ago, I cut out a picture of a beautiful home as a short term goal and a beautiful beach as a long term goal. The beach photo reminded me that I want to be able to sit on the sand some day and NOT work hard every day.
I decided to sacrifice spending now for financial freedom and life at the beach later! Now that you know what the goal is–you can determine how to get there!
Simply–Eliminate every expense you possibly can!
- Drive an inexpensive car Save with a Cheaper Car.
- Eat at home and bring your own food to work. Muffin Calculator
- Quit buying junk you do not need!
- If you need clothes, buy them on sale or at the thrift store or at a garage sale. I buy almost brand new clothing that way! Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it!
- Adjust the the thermostat to save energy costs.
- Cancel Cable TV.
- Do not smoke!
- Get your books and movies FREE from the library!
Cutting these expenses will give you cash to pay down your debt, so you can begin to save and invest.
If that sounds extreme or harsh–ask yourself these questions: Do I really want to be rich or don’t I?
Will spending on this item get me closer to being rich or keep me poor?
You get to decide!
Posted by M.S. on May 11, 2009
According to recent news reports, the average American family has credit card debt of over $8,000. You will NEVER get wealthy carrying this kind of debt, because your money is going to paying off your past rather than building your future! Let’s create a plan to get rid of it NOW.
Did you know that when you have this type of debt, the magic of compound interest is working against you, rather than for you? Face it, you are making the credit card companies rich–not yourself! That should the incentive to get moving on this!
Start to turn things around right now and gain some financial peace of mind.
First and most importantly, STOP using your credit cards now! Don’t make things any worse than they already are! The next step is to determine what money is coming in and what is going out each month. Where do you stand on both sides of that equation?
Let’s look at the income side of things. How much do you have coming in each month? Add up all salary and wages, child support and any other income you receive.
Then, determine what you have going out each month. Be honest! In order to see exactly what you owe, add up all credit card bills and the all bills paid through your checkbook. Once you you know exactly what is coming in and what is going out, you can develop a spending plan. If you find you are spending more than you have coming in, you are not alone! It is reported that over 40% of American families spend more than they earn each month!
Once you know exactly where you stand, you can focus on the 2 basic sources for the cash you need to pay off debt: spend less of what you currently earn or make more money. We’ll examine the ways to do both of those in Part 2.
Posted by M.S. on May 9, 2009
When our children were born and people wanted to get a gift for the baby, we asked everyone to give the baby the gift of money that we would invest for them.
We knew the immense power compound interest would have over time and wanted our offspring to take advantage of that fabulous wealth builder. Most people honored our wishes! We set up a stock index mutual fund along with a general stock mutual fund for each child and start investing.
When the children were old enough to start working, we wanted to really encourage their frugal living and investing, so we made them an offer they could not refuse! We said for every dollar they contributed to their savings, we would match it–so they would double the amount of money they had to invest!
We set up a spreadsheet that we reviewed with them periodically to demonstrate how much richer they were getting. They became much more enthusiastic about saving their hard earned money after they started to see how their investments were earning them “free money” they didn’t have to earn by working.
On the day our children graduated from college, we switched the entire portfolio into their name! They EACH had a nest egg of over $25,000 to begin their adult lives at 22 years of age!
That’s a whole lot better than a bunch of smashed up old toys and NO money!
Wouldn’t that be a fabulous graduation present for your child too?
Posted by M.S. on May 6, 2009
Wouldn’t it be amazing if, just because you asked, you were given a 25% reduction on the exact item you wanted to buy?
Well, that is precisely what happened to us recently! My husband and I had been searching for just the right rug to go in our kitchen. It had to be a certain style and color and lo and behold, we came upon it on our weekly trip to Costco. There were numerous rugs of this style and type, all wrapped up in a tight package, and then we spotted the exact rug in the color we wanted!
This rug was unrolled and our impression was that someone had purchased it, then returned it. It had no label and clearly had some lint on it, which indicated it had been tested out at someone’s home. As anyone who shops at Costco knows, you can return items to Costco with no questions asked. We assumed this was the case with this beautiful rug. We laid it out on the warehouse floor and looked it over carefully. It was flawless!
My husband said, “I wonder if they would give us a discount on the price since it is out of the original wrapping and has no paperwork with it?” We learned a fabulous maneuver long ago, after reading that Donald Trump said “He who mentions a price first, loses!” That meant we did not say how much we wanted as a reduction. We would leave that up to them. We could always attempt to negotiate the price if they didn’t offer to reduce it enough.
So, we found the store manager, who looked it over and said “I couldn’t take anymore than $ 75 off!” We were speechless! This was a $300 Wool 8′ by 10′ rug with nothing wrong with it except that it was out of the package– so that amounted to a 25% reduction!
My husband casually responded, “Well, I guess that’s okay. We’ll take it!”
It looks fabulous in our kitchen!
Are you beginning to see how easy it is to save money and gain wealth?
Posted by M.S. on May 1, 2009
Did you know that the moment a car is driven off the lot, it is worth alot LESS than when it was purchased 5 minutes earlier? One of the very best and easiest things you can do to save money, build wealth and get rich is to ONLY buy USED older model cars.
Remember the rule we have practiced for 32 years–We try to only invest in appreciating assets–NOT depreciating assets. Because our goal has been to save as much as possible, we have NEVER invested in new cars!
Buying used cars has put loads of extra money in our hands which we used to buy stocks, mutual funds and investment real estate. We’d rather gain wealth than try to impress other people and make automobile companies richer!
So, in keeping with that philosophy, 3 years ago we purchased a used company car, as it was about to be sent to the auto auction. The car is a 2002 Ford Taurus, it has 170,000 miles on it and we only paid a couple thousand dollars for it. It’s not super pretty, but it gets us where we want to go!
We figure we have saved $12,600 on that car in the past 3 years, since the average car payment is about $350 per month times 36 months = $12,600. Invest that money for 20 years and you’d have almost $60,000 if you could earn 8% on the money! The car still runs, so we are continuing to save money each month!
We’ll take the money rather than the new car or the admiring glances!
Click here to calculate what you can save.
