Personal Finance Today

Kids are expensive, there’s no doubt. Food, clothing, entertainment, education… it all adds up.

If you take some time to talk with them, they can also help you save money. That’s helpful at any point.

In my experience, children are very sweet about things when you talk to them about why you want to save money. My daughter at age 5 offered to start a lemonade stand when we explained about money being tight. She just really wanted to help.

The first thing you want to give your children is a reason to help you save money. You may choose to share with them a portion of what is saved. You could set a savings goal for a family vacation. You just need to figure out what will motivate them and you.

Have a family meeting to start discussing options. You want to get everyone on board with the general concepts. You probably won’t come up with every possible idea for saving money right away, but you can get the thought processes moving.

One of the great things about talking things out with kids is that sometimes they are very willing to make sacrifices. They can really surprise you, even at a young age.

Some things they should help you with will be obvious. If keeping extra lights turned off is an issue, come up with a reward system for that. It doesn’t have to be significant, perhaps just a mark on a chart that will eventually lead to something.

You may be able to compete with each other a bit too. You can each pick a habit that’s wasting a bit of money, and see who does the best at beating it. You should be sure the competition stays lighthearted, and keep encouraging your children so that there’s a good chance that they could win. Your purpose here, after all, is two fold. You want to save money but you also want your children to get a good lesson.

Another good area to explore with your children is snacking. C (more…)

When you are starting out with building wealth learning how to invest can seem difficult. There are so many strategies, so many products and so much information, where do you start. With over 15,000 publicly traded companies, where do you even begin? You don’t want to put all of your hard earned savings in a some stock that is just going to lose value, right?

Not to worry. When you filter out all of the noise, learning how to invest is actually pretty simple. First of all, it’s important to realize that the reason there are so many products, strategies, etc. is because it is a lucrative business. By making it seem complicated, everyone but you wins. However, when you keep investing very simple, you actually put yourself in a greater position of making the most money, keeping your risk to a minimum and keeping your costs low.

That’s because all you need to know when learning how to invest is the following:

1. A diversified portfolio will keep you protected from major loses. This does not only mean diversified in different companies, but a portfolio that is appropriately balanced for different markets and company sizes.

2. Around 75% of mutual funds do not “beat the market,” and study after study shows that individual investors and professionals cannot time the market efficiently because it is unpredictable.

3. The only thing that is predictable about the stock market is that over time it will return an around a 10% return on your investment.

4. When you re-invest those profits, you take advantage of compound interest, which allows you to double your money, and continue to double as long as you keep reinvesting your profits.

In a nutshell, this is all you need to know when learning how to invest. With this in mind, the right solution may be to simply invest in an index fund that tracks the stock market, or the (more…)

There are factors that greatly influence the family cash flow. The biggest item is tax-both direct and indirect, which add to the cost of goods and services, operating expenses and restrict activity in the market place.

Taxes are determined by our elected officials. In the budget process the amount to be spent is determined by our local ,state, and federal government. Usually an amount that is the same amount that was budgeted last year plus the current rate of inflation. Taxes are levied to reflect the revenue needed. This process is called base line budgeting

There is not a relation to what was spent or needed to be spent just what was budgeted. These budget have increase continually and taxes raised to raise the revenue needed. License fees are used to control and gather information such a licenses a vehicles, for a plumber, an electrician, barber /hair stylist etc. Fines are to penalize for unwanted behavior. such as speeding tickets, person behavior and more.

Raising taxes is easier than cutting spending for services provided by government. During a recession taxes are not usually raised but fines, licenses, fees, permits and charges for services are raise to increase revenue. For an individual to influences elected officials to reduce taxes is very difficult.

Just stop and think of all the different taxes, fees, licenses that you deal with every day. First there is income tax, sales tax, property tax, personal property tax, vehicle license, capital gains tax, hunting license, building permit, capital gains tax, professional licenses, fishing license, liquor tax, cigarette tax, dog license, court fines, gasoline tax (state & federal), social security tax, court fines, and all he different taxes on your phone bill. The list go on and on.

The amount of money the government is removing from the tax payers just keeps (more…)