Personal Finance Today

The internet has infiltrated every aspect of our modern lives. We can watch movies, listen to music, talk with friends, and make phone calls online. We can buy a car, buy a house, or meet a future spouse, all online. Why should our banking be any different? Online banking is not only convenient it is safe, as long as you are responsible with your banking practices.

Banks are really hyping up online banking. They offer special incentives for opening checking and savings accounts online; higher interest rates, free checking, free personalized checks, the list goes on and on. What are the advantages to using online banking? Well, there are many. First of all, many banks offer higher rates for your savings or checking accounts if you use online banking. The higher your interest rate is for either of these accounts, the more money you make every year.

Banks want you to use their online services because it saves them money. If a person can use online banking to electronically pay a bill or transfer money from one account to another, that means their phone bankers or tellers do not have to do this, enabling them to help more customers and in the end making the bank more money. So, the more customers use online banking the more business the bank can do, and the more profitable they are. More profit for your bank isn’t always a bad thing; if the bank is profitable then they may offer more incentives like even higher interest rates, which means more money in your pocket if you have an interest bearing account. Who doesn’t like more money?

Online banking can have a seedier side. In today’s climate of identity theft, one can never be too careful with personal information. Many banks require username and passwords to access account information online. Security questions are another method these sites verify customer identity. When choosing usern (more…)

Eastern philosophy is based on the concept of balance. The symbol of Yin/Yang illustrates the theory. (If you can’t visualize this symbol, a Google search will lead you to several illustrations of the Yin/Yang.) Day and night, good and evil, pleasure and pain, inner strength and physical strength are examples of opposites that need each other in order to maintain equilibrium.

The approach commonly used in personal financial planning focuses on a rigid set of rules that works well in business budgeting but fails too often when used by individuals. In developing a business plan the primary day-to-day expenses, such as rent and utilities are identified first. Then the next level of expenses is listed, and so on. Having all expenses prioritized in this manner allows for a systematic reduction of expenses when income targets are not met.

Individuals are told to do something similar. Review all personal expenditures and categorize them into two categories, “needs” and “wants”, forming a table.

After you pay for all your “needs”, you can then decide which “wants” can be fulfilled with whatever money that’s left after the “needs” are paid for. People fail to meet their goals with this system for several reasons:

1. We live in an “instant gratification” society. We’re encouraged to buy now and pay later making the distinction between “needs” and “wants” difficult.

2. The rigidity of partitioning all expenses in a table form is intimating requiring a level of discipline that few people have.

3. No expense fits neatly into either category. For example, you can pay $500.00 a month in rent or $5,000.00 a month. There’s no question that you “need” a place to live but there certainly is a “want” component in determining how expensive a place you decide to live in.

Devel (more…)

Prices for everything in our economy seem to be going nowhere but up right now. With fuel, stamps and other things on the rise, it is becoming necessary to cut corners wherever you can. Grocery shopping is one area to do this in. There are several tips and guidelines to follow when making and executing your grocery list that can make all the difference.

Of course, there are the obvious coupons. These may seem like a too easy way to save money many times, but they are definitely worth it if you are willing to be diligent. Keep them in a safe place, put them all together, and check expiration dates regularly. A dollar here and there over a month or two can begin to make a decided difference in your grocery shopping budget.

If possible, shop in bulk. There are many grocery stores and bulk stores that offer foods in large quantities for drastically reduced prices. If you know you will need more than a box or two of something, why not buy it in bulk? You spend a bigger amount of money at the present, but in the long run, it ends up saving you in a very big way.

Do your homework by comparison shopping. Do not keep going to the same grocery store out of loyalty or convenience. If you have to go another mile or so to one that has significantly lower prices on the items that you consistently purchase, do not hesitate to do it! Spend that extra five minutes in the grocery store and find out what items you regularly buy are cheaper. Sometimes you may not have to switch grocery stores at all, just brands. Many times you buy a brand because you are familiar with it. There is nothing wrong with this, but if you look closely, many of the generic brands are almost exactly the same for a considerably different price. If you have to, take a notebook with you to the grocery store and mark down what brands are the best after you have compared them. Nex (more…)