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Stretching Every Dollar

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With the dismal economy showing no signs of abating, it behooves everyone to keep a tighter grip on money we already have. Personal finance tips are all the rage these days. But too often, the tips are little more than calls to stop spending altogether and save for a rainy day. That’s fine, but everyone needs a little fun now and again.

Seeing government spending continue in spite of growing debt is something you should notice but definitely not emulate. Finding the right balance means knowing the difference between being careful with your money and simply becoming a miser. Now these finance tools and tips on giving you some monetary fun are in regard to personal finance, not business spending. If you are starting a business or already a business owner, keeping an eye on your money is the right thing to do for your company.

The web is the perfect place to find some excellent chances to find some fun with an eye on your budget. Deal-a-day sites such as Groupon, Living Social and Woot offer low prices on one item saving you a bundle. Scores of sites exits solely to let you spend your free time online in the comfort of your home saving travel costs. You can have hours of fun as an avid video gamer, movie watcher and music aficionado.

If games of chance are more your style, there are web sites for every option such as horse racing, sports and classic Vegas-style gambling. There are specific sites that offer an online casino bonus allowing you to stretch your recreational dollars even further.

There is no need to shut yourself off from the world in order to save money. Spend wisely and look for online deals to squeeze every penny.

 

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Filed Under: Financial

Cutting Costs for Business

Cutting costs in your business is an integral step in managing your company’s cash flow and ensuring that your business survives through lean times. The following are some steps you can take to cut costs in just about any business.

Avoid Debt – Paying your bills on time will keep you out of debt and you won’t have to pay fees and interest payments. Use a prepaid Visa card to avoid credit card trouble.

Renegotiate Your Lease – Paying rent or a lease is a huge part of a company’s overhead. Renegotiate your lease payments and cut your overhead costs.

Sell Unused Equipment – Reduce the clutter around your business and sell any equipment or supplies you’re not using. If you haven’t touched it in two years then chances are good you can go without it.

Review Any Dues – Carefully consider if the organizations to which you belong are essential to running your business. Magazines and trade publications are also often not needed. By not renewing these you can cut costs.

Payroll – Either do the payroll yourself with an accounting software package or hire a payroll service. Accountants are very expensive.

Reduce the Phone Lines – Chances are your company doesn’t need as many separate phone lines as it has. Each one costs money. If you can eliminate some phone lines, you’ll be cutting costs.

These are just a few of the many ways that you can cut costs in your business. Take a look around and consider where else you can cut costs, chances are you’ll find plenty of opportunities.

Filed Under: Business, Financial Tagged With: , ,

Know Your Options: Finding Relief from Financial Crisis

Tough financial situations can be stressful and frustrating, and although it is much easier to stay out of a financial crisis, you should know your options in case you get into a difficult financial situation. Here are a few tips to help you find relief from a financial crisis.

You may want to consider saving money in an emergency fund. This is a good way to prepare for emergency situations before a situation arises. If you’re already having a tough time, you may want to consider applying for a loan to help you out.

You should know that selling your assets is an option. For example, if you’re in a financial crisis, you may want to sell a car in order to get some extra cash. Although it is difficult to decide whether or not to sell your assets or use them as collateral in a loan, both of these are an option. This may not be your first choice, but it may help you get through your financial situation. You can look online for quotes if you’re asking yourself, “How much is my car worth?”

Budget your money more efficiently. This can help you immensely, not only through an emergency, but in many situations. This will help you get out and stay out of bad financial situations. You can more easily budget your money by setting your priorities straight. Organize your money by what needs and bills you must pay first. Try to eliminate spending money on wants unless you have extra after you pay necessary bills. If you do have extra money, try to set some aside for emergencies.

Filed Under: Financial Tagged With: , ,

Do Our Tax Dollars Really Fund Education?

You have the question, and you’ve received many and varied answers. But what’s the truth?

It depends on who you talk to.

Take a look at the fine arts program in most schools — if they even have one. Who is providing the supplies? The instruments? If it’s your son or daughter, you are, plus your tax dollars are being used inside that school as well.

Are all school administrators really needed in our schools? What about focusing on the important assets within a school? And what about making our children our most important investment?

What of cutting teachers to keep the budget intact, or getting more teachers to make the classroom size smaller? What about paying for these teachers?

Choices. We all have them, and, naturally, we’d like to know where the money is going. Online searching is great and so are libraries, but what about a class such as the hundreds offered at elearners? What if you were to take a class or two where you could learn the answer to this question (and others of an economic and political nature) through study, feedback, and class participation? And what if the class was held online?

There’s something about gathering our own opinions based on the facts we have studied, the facts we know, over the “seeming” facts someone shares over the transit. If we want to know if our tax dollars are really funding education, we need to find out. If they aren’t, we have even more to talk about.

 

Filed Under: Financial, Spending Tagged With: , ,

Rules and Regulation of debt settlement

Lots of people use credit cards and most of them carrying a high balance on their credit cards and paying back the entire amount seems impossible right now.  But you don’t have to worry because there are companies that can offer debt settlement service. They can offer type of arrangement that for individuals who don’t feel like paying for goods or services they’ve purchased recently and instead of paying cash they charged it on their credit card. Credit card settlement, also known as debt negotiation,  If debtor is dealing with vast or increasing debts his many old bills are still unpaid, his debt is increasing because of high interest rates and late penalties. Negotiating with your credit card company is only to be used as a last option. I know you don’t want to pay a lot of cash to your debts just because your interest is increasing; you need to be aware on how to borrow wisely so that it can make easier for you to repay your debts. For you to be able to maintain your credit debt you should shop or buy the lowest possible interest for you not to experience mortgaged or bankruptcy.

You should make sure you understand all of the rules and regulations that will apply to your debt before you commit to borrowing any money. Shopping is the best way to relieve frustration and can make people happy but when credit card debt comes along your way I don’t think that you would enjoy shopping. Shopping and buying is not a problem, we can enjoy it as long as we pay out debts on time. Always remember that Credit card debt settlement is an approach to debt decrease in which the debtor and creditor agree on a reduced balance that will be regarded as payment in full. Until the consumers continue making minimum monthly payments, creditors will not negotiate a reduced balance.

Filed Under: Financial

For Small Business Owners, Tax Breaks Abound

Every year as Winter gives way to Spring, small business owners across the United States valiantly attempt to get their books in order and file their taxes without pulling all of their hair out. While seasoned entrepreneurs may know exactly where to look to find the biggest and best tax breaks, it might not come so easily to newer small businessmen and women. But it is important for small business owners to be aware of and take advantage of as many tax write-offs and deductions as they can since the more legitimate tax breaks a business can claim, the more money the owners will be able to keep in the coffers.

There are many items that can be written off if they are purchased or used for the purpose of doing business: Office equipment, travel expenses and even the cost of dining with and entertaining perspective clients or partners can all be deducted. What’s not so well known are some other credits that can be taken advantage of, such as credits for energy efficiency initiatives like switching to wind power or electric vehicles or the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which encourages employers to hire employees from certain demographic groups.

A word to the wise: Documentation is key. Keep detailed records and receipts for everything. Also, remember that the tax code is over 75,000 pages long; consider consulting with a tax professional to make sure that you don’t miss anything, and also to ensure that all of your deductions are appropriate.

Filed Under: Business, Financial Tagged With: , ,

Great Ways to Diversify Your Portfolio

Anyone who invests in the stock market or other areas knows the importance of diversification. Unfortunately, a lot of people who should be diversifying their portfolios really don’t bother. Instead, they end up putting all (or most) of their eggs in one basket and they don’t realize how severely they can lose out if the investment that they are banking on tanks. You don’t have to end up with that kind of a problem, though. You can diversify in a lot of different ways that will help you save more money for your future and let your investment continue to grow.

One way to invest is through the use of startup capital for a new, local business. If you’re one of the investors, you’ll have a stake in the business and be able to get good profits if the business does well. Of course, you want to make sure that the business has a good plan and a lot of potential, so you aren’t taking too much risk. You can also buy into promising startups that have inexpensive stocks. That’s not quite the same as providing startup capital, but it can still net you a good profit if the company does well.

Using Portland property management to manage any rental properties that you decide to buy is another good option for diversifying your portfolio. You won’t get quite as much profit when you pay a management company, but you’ll be free of all the hassles that go along with being a property owner. Because those can be numerous, it’s much more enjoyable and relaxing to let someone else handle them. You’ll have to find the rental properties, of course, but there are so many properties out there that you shouldn’t have a lot of trouble finding some that you like and that will make good rentals to build your portfolio.

Filed Under: Capital, Financial Tagged With: , ,

Foreign Aid: Is it that Large of a Drain on our Taxes?

People are loudly and rightly that the government cut funding for many programs. Foreign aid is currently on the hit list for many voters. But is foreign aid really that big of a deal? Doing a little digging around and it turns out that it is but a small part of the annual budget. While the current administration is seeking to increase the budget for the USAID office to $52 billion, almost doubling it, it pales in comparison to how much is budgeted for the military. A total of $700 million dollars is being spent on the armed forces alone.

The head of the USAID office are already planning cuts, ahead of the call for reductions in spending. Cuts can be made, but they do not take effect overnight. Instead it takes time to redistribute manpower, eliminate titles and divest unnecessary real estate. Taking this into consideration, hands should not be forced to move faster. Rushing a balancing act can upset things and start a chain of events that will take years to fix. Stepping back should be the theme of the day. Give the head of the department the space they need to do what needs to be done, and to do it right. As it stands, current changes in day to day administration will save $65 million on its own.

There are those who would see foreign aid done away with completely. But they would be starting down a dangerous path. One of the largest areas that receives aid are unstable regions in the middle east. Spending US money in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan helps shore up the areas. Investment keeps unrest to a minimum, which in turn minimizes the chance that terrorist activities will be able to start up and take ahold again. As much as it may gall some, the USAID office performs an important job.

Filed Under: Financial Tagged With:

My tax dollars went where?

2007 was the beginning. Housing prices fell, the unemployment rate was rising, and the foreclosures were mounting. Towns, cities and states began to feel a money crunch and were forced to re-evaluate there budgets and where the tax dollars were going. The budget cuts began. Where can we save any money that we can? What are some of the worst places that you could possibly cut?

Education is high on the list. Counties began cutting programs that are essential to the growth and development of our children. Where are our children going to go after school if there extracurricular activity is cut from the budget? What happens when we lay off teachers? Will the child/teacher ratio be too high and are children won’t learn as well as the have. Why don’t we cut back on the School Board Member’s pay. There are some areas that pay them over $35,000 a year for a night or two a week of work. If these board members worked two days a week at four hours each day, we would be paying them over $84.00 an hour. Is this too much?

We, also have some municipalities cutting back and laying off Police Officers and Firefighters. Wouldn’t you rather cut back on the people that could save your life, protect you or your children. Wouldn’t it make more sense to cut back on other expenses? Some cities are purchasing Segways, golf memberships for their elected officials, and  even private jets. Is this how they should be using our hard earned tax dollars? Shouldn’t we be using this to help create jobs, save current jobs, or even help the less fortunate? How many unemployed workers does it take to make a change? Let’s not find out and make a change now. What would you do if you were elected?

Filed Under: Financial Tagged With:

How much would you pay?

In a time when the United States is in a recession, gas prices are creeping up, and foreclosures and the unemployment rates are at an all time high we ask ourselves, what is the government doing to help with these issues? Are they hard at work finding solutions to the opportunities that the current economy faces? Let us take a look at how hard they work.

The average pay for the House and Senate members in 2010 was $174,000 per year. Mind you, in 2009 the median household income in the United States was $49,777. Is this enough for our elected officials or is it too much? For the 2011 calendar year, the Majority Leader, Eric Cantor has the House calendar marked with 24.6 weeks or 123 days in session. Let us take out the 105 Saturday and Sunday’s that are in the 2011 calendar year. This leave us with roughly 260 days of work for the average American. Our elected officials are working less then half of the working days that we have. Let us assume that, like most of the employed American’s, that they get a vacation. Since most of our officials have been in office for more then a few years we will give them 4 weeks of vacation. Out of the 260 work days in 2011, this leaves 240 days to actually work. So now, after the normal allotted vacations, our elected officials are working roughly half of what the average American works.

Let’s say that our elected officials work 25 weeks, rounded up from 24.6. Their average pay would be $6,960 for each week worked or roughly $1,414 a day. Do we pay our officials too much or too little? Thankfully, they did not vote themselves a pay raise for 2010. Let’s see if they do in 2011.

Filed Under: Capital, Financial Tagged With: , ,
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