LearnVest: Get your Finances in Order with Financial Bootcamps

Do your finances need an overhaul?  Maybe you just need some reminders or want to make sure you are on the right track financially.  Whatever the case, you can get it with one of the LearnVest Bootcamp programs.

Sign up for the short programs and receive an email from financial experts daily to get your money organized.  This is what they have available:

Personal Finance Basics Bootcamp

In 17 days you will become the master of your financial domain. Get the accounts you need, create a budget you can stick to, and get on the right track for retirement.

 

Get out of Debt Bootcamp

No matter how much debt you have, this 15-day Bootcamp will give you the tools, support, and know-how to tackle it once and for all.

Cut Your Costs Bootcamp

LearnVest and Real Simple team up to bring you a 15-day Bootcamp that will cut your expenses one room at a time! From your cable bill to your closet, we'll give you insider tips to drastically reduce your living expenses.

 

Build Your Wealth Bootcamp

The foundation of building your wealth is understanding and tackling investing. This 15-day premium program will get you started on a path to successful, confident investing.

 

Join LearnVest to find out more!

Living Below Our Means Has Saved Us From Financial Disaster

Living well below our means has saved us from financial disaster several times over and has kept financial stress at bay. We would not be where we are today without living by standards we set for ourselves early on.

What does living below your means mean?

Living below your means does not mean living on beans and rice or driving a car set for the junkyard. It simply means monitoring and cutting spending where possible. Saving money and spending carefully are important components. Often it involves making sure you get the best possible price for something. Other times, it means evaluating your wants versus your needs and deciding not to spend the money at all.

You are probably already on the right path to living below your means if you are here. However, here are some of the best wasy to live below your means:

1. Never pay retail!  Get the items you need at a fraction of the cost by using coupons, shopping sales and combining the two!

2. Buy used cars and keep them for a long time. Buying used cars even with just a few thousand miles takes of thousands of dollars. Keeping your car well serviced and keeping it for a long time will give the most bang for your buck.

3. Plan and cook meals at home. Eating out can eat away at your budget. Save by planning your meals and eating at home.

4. Don't use credit cards unless you can pay them off immediately. Using credit cards requires self control. If you can't control what you spend on a credit card, get rid of them.

5. Don't take out loans. Save for the items you need and pay them off immediately.  If you must take out a loan, do it very short term.

6. Be careful what you pay out in monthly bills. Monthly bills can wreak havoc on your bottom line. Do you really need that cell phone and a land line? Does your cable package really require all those channels? Take a long look at what you are paying monthly and learn to weed out the things you don't need.

7. Eliminate monthly spending in areas that are not necessary. Do you really need daily trips to the coffee shop or fast food restaurant? These things don't appear to be huge until you actually add them up. Other unnecessary items may be soda, tobacco products, and junk food. You'll be healthier without them too!

Everyone will have different priorities as to what they can live without. At my house we live very well and don't even come close to spending 50% of our income. A very large percentage of our income goes to our savings and investments each month. But that doesn't mean we are not constantly looking at ways we're being wasteful.

Living below our means has given us an enormous amount of financial security. Having financial security has put us in a stress-free situation when it comes to finances. Not having enormous monthly bills has saved us from financial disaster several times and we are quite aware of that as we move forward in life. We've conquered major surgery, cancer and job loss, without having to dip into our savings.

How are you living below your means?

Save Money By "Doing it Yourself" -- Lessons Learned

When my husband and I got married I was determined to make smart money decisions.  I was working two jobs that complimented each other.  When I was off from my teaching job I was on at my job as a manager at a local country club.  My husband was working long hours as a chef.  None of those jobs paid a lot, but together we made a good income.

We bought a very reasonably priced home, very much under our budget and decided to fix it up.  We worked hard and felt we deserved to have a nice home.  So in a few years time we dropped over $60,000 in repairs to our home.  The repairs were not over the top by any means.  We hired a very reasonable handyman and found that a custom kitchen actually would cost us less than premade cabinetry.  We installed all new windows, doors, a new furnace, paved our driveway and the list goes on.  The repairs were much needed.

Six years later as our little family grew from two to five, we outgrew our little bungalow and decided to put our house on the market.  There were two huge problems.  The housing market was failing and our house was worth more than other "comparables" in the neighborhood.  We knew there was no way we would break even.

We decided to save realtor's fees and sell our home outright.  We underpriced it, however it was still overpriced for the neighborhood.  We ended up selling our home in under 30 days, taking a loss of over $25,000.  OUCH.

Realizing it could be much worse, we decided to move on with the knowledge of our mistake bound and determined not to make it again.  As the state of the economy worsened we knew there was no way we could hire someone to do the things we needed done in our new home.

We had two choices.  Make no upgrades or do the work ourselves.  We began thinking there was nothing our brand new home needed.  But as we lived in the house we realized our family needed the basement finished and we needed a shed - at the bare minimum.  The cost for having the basement finished would cost over $30,000.  We knew we could not put that kind of money into our home and hope to get it all back someday.

There was just one little problem.  My husband had NO carpentry skills and I had minimal skills.  I decided to do the work myself anyway, determined to figure it out.  And by myself, I mean just ME.  I Googled drywalling and asked a whole lot of questions at 84 Lumber.  The worst that could happen was I would need to hire someone to fix my mistakes.  And believe me, I worried, and my husband had little faith and thought I would fail.

I am happy to say my "Googling" paid off.  I was able to enlist the help of my dad for free on weekends and put in some very late nights after my children went to sleep.  I drywalled and installed hardwood, I mitred wood trim, hung doors and a suspended ceiling, did minor electrical work, rebuilt stairs and created a hardwood railing (by far the hardest job).  Our $30,000 basement finishing job turned into a $7,000 job.  I finished our 1000 square foot room in a little under 9 months and only hired an electrician to do major rewiring.

My work made us extremely proud and gave me confidence that I could do just about anything.  I went on to build a shed from blueprints with the help of my dad and my husband, installed two new sinks in bathrooms, did more drywalling and the list goes on.  We have not needed a handyman and we have saved thousands!

In this economy, I would encourage you to "Google it" and do it yourself too.  You'll be glad you did!

Save Money By "Doing it Yourself" -- Lessons Learned

When my husband and I got married I was determined to make smart money decisions.  I was working two jobs that complimented each other.  When I was off from my teaching job I was on at my job as a manager at a local country club.  My husband was working long hours as a chef.  None of those jobs paid a lot, but together we made a good income.

We bought a very reasonably priced home, very much under our budget and decided to fix it up.  We worked hard and felt we deserved to have a nice home.  So in a few years time we dropped over $60,000 in repairs to our home.  The repairs were not over the top by any means.  We hired a very reasonable handyman and found that a custom kitchen actually would cost us less than premade cabinetry.  We installed all new windows, doors, a new furnace, paved our driveway and the list goes on.  The repairs were much needed.

Six years later as our little family grew from two to five, we outgrew our little bungalow and decided to put our house on the market.  There were two huge problems.  The housing market was failing and our house was worth more than other "comparables" in the neighborhood.  We knew there was no way we would break even.

We decided to save realtor's fees and sell our home outright.  We underpriced it, however it was still overpriced for the neighborhood.  We ended up selling our home in under 30 days, taking a loss of over $25,000.  OUCH.

Realizing it could be much worse, we decided to move on with the knowledge of our mistake bound and determined not to make it again.  As the state of the economy worsened we knew there was no way we could hire someone to do the things we needed done in our new home.

We had two choices.  Make no upgrades or do the work ourselves.  We began thinking there was nothing our brand new home needed.  But as we lived in the house we realized our family needed the basement finished and we needed a shed - at the bare minimum.  The cost for having the basement finished would cost over $30,000.  We knew we could not put that kind of money into our home and hope to get it all back someday.

There was just one little problem.  My husband had NO carpentry skills and I had minimal skills.  I decided to do the work myself anyway, determined to figure it out.  And by myself, I mean just ME.  I Googled drywalling and asked a whole lot of questions at 84 Lumber.  The worst that could happen was I would need to hire someone to fix my mistakes.  And believe me, I worried, and my husband had little faith and thought I would fail.

I am happy to say my "Googling" paid off.  I was able to enlist the help of my dad for free on weekends and put in some very late nights after my children went to sleep.  I drywalled and installed hardwood, I mitred wood trim, hung doors and a suspended ceiling, did minor electrical work, rebuilt stairs and created a hardwood railing (by far the hardest job).  Our $30,000 basement finishing job turned into a $7,000 job.  I finished our 1000 square foot room in a little under 9 months and only hired an electrician to do major rewiring.

My work made us extremely proud and gave me confidence that I could do just about anything.  I went on to build a shed from blueprints with the help of my dad and my husband, installed two new sinks in bathrooms, did more drywalling and the list goes on.  We have not needed a handyman and we have saved thousands!

In this economy, I would encourage you to "Google it" and do it yourself too.  You'll be glad you did!

Teaching Your Kids About Money: Part 1

When I think about our economy and some of the daunting financial burdens our kids will face as adults, I regularly remind myself that teaching my kids about finances very early will impact them positively as adults.

Teaching kids about the many aspects of money is quite a task that some parents never pass on positively to their kids.  Possibly it is because they've never mastered their finances themselves or they don't find it important.  My children are at the ripe age to learn and I'm taking every opportunity to tell and show them how we deal with our finances. (They are 9, 7 and almost 6.)

There are so many ways we teach our kids, the first and foremost is being a good model.  How I deal with money, how I spend it, how I save it and how I act regarding our finances is important.  I recently read the book Mind over Money: Overcoming the Money Disorders That Threaten Our Financial Health by Brad Klontz which gave me a perspective on how people learn to make financial choices because of events in their childhood, ways their parents dealt with finances or lack of financial know-how. 

Luckily, I grew up with parents who taught us about money at every opportunity and were great role models.  My parents passed on a wealth of knowledge, understanding and common sense about money.  When I hear the terrible financial troubles some are going through as a direct result of their lack of self discipline or knowledge, I thank God for my parents and their ability to pass on something that has directly resulted in a life that is not overcast by financial hardship.

It may seem like common sense, but these are the ways I directly teach my children about money.

Modeling & Dialogue

The way I spend money and the way I save money is apparent to my kids, so I am a very careful spender/saver.  I talk to my kids about the things we buy and how we have saved.  Some of our best discussions happen in the car and in the checkout at Walmart!  Money isn't the most important thing in life, and we don't discuss money all the time.  We do find the opportunity to have important conversations, when needed.

Saving
I often take my kids to the bank with me and explain to them what a I am doing there.  While I don't give them the full scoop, I normally tell them I am depositing money into my savings account where it will earn interest.  This usually leads into a deeper conversation about where the money comes from, how interest is earned, and I answer their questions. 

A few times per year, I take the kids to the bank with their own savings passbook and the money they've saved, to make a deposit.  I show them the book and explain that the money is growing with interest. 

The Value of Money
We try very hard to teach our kids the value of money.  They may not get it now but they will someday.  They see me using coupons, finding the best deals and making decisions about what to buy.  We don't buy just because we have the money.  We think about our purchases and we don't waste our money on things we don't need.

The Difference Between Wanting and Needing
While we may have the money to buy the things we want and need, we don't always buy those things.  When our children want something at the store, we discuss whether or not it is a good way to use our money.

When I feel my kids have all the knowledge they need to make the decision, I leave it up to them.  I tell my kids to make the wisest choice and to buy it if they feel it is the best choice.  They often decide to keep their money in their pocket!

For larger purchases, I tell them we are going to think about it until a certain future date.  When that day comes, I ask them if they still want the item.  Often they've decided --NO. 

Hard Work
My husband and I work hard for our money and that is apparent to our kids.  But what is also apparent to them is sacrifice.  If we don't see them comprehending how we get our money, we simply explain it. If they don't see how we sacrifice certain things for others, we tell them.

Allowance
Allowance has been off an on at our house. While I feel it is good to learn to work for our money, it seems with school and activities, it is hard to keep up with it.  This summer we are putting our best effort towards an allowance system (more on this in Part 2).

Spending
We don't want our kids to end up being "stingy" savers either.  We want them to make informed decisions about spending and to feel good about their purchases.  So if they want something badly, we allow them to think it through, save up, and purchase that item. 

What you teach your kids now will lead to successful financial independence later, that's for sure!  We all want what's best for our kids.  If you have a great money strategy, story, or way to teach your kids about money, we'd love to hear it.  After all we can all learn from each other!

Stay tuned for Part 2:  Teaching Our Kids to Save, Spend, Give and Invest.

Credit Cards Can Be Rewarding

Responsible credit card use can reap some big benefits.    They are a great way to earn rewards for purchases you are already making.  There are lots of different credit cards with rewards like cash back, gift cards, store rewards and coupons, and airline miles.

Credit cards have been very rewarding for us.  I have personally been using credit cards since I turned 18 and have never, ever charged anything to a card that I could not pay off immediately. 

The key to success and getting the benefits of credit cards is to outsmart them!  Credit card companies can give you cash back because statistics show the majority of card users are carrying a monthly balance, paying interest and late fees.  You can reap the rewards without ever paying your card company a dime!

A few years ago my husband and I searched for the credit card with the best rewards for us.  They are all vastly different and you really have to read the fine print.  Since we own a business, we selected the American Express Simply Cash Business Rewards Card, but there were others we liked including Discover.

The American Express Simply Cash Business card rewards us with cash back on our purchases.  We earn 5% on office supplies, 5% on wireless (cell phones), 3% on gas, and 1% everywhere else. The rewards we earn this month come off our bill next month.  The more you use it for regular everday purchases, the more you get back.

We use the card for almost everything to reap these benefits: 

• We have redirected all of our bills to the card.  Electric, phone, internet, you name it.  We're earning 5-1% cash back in places we'd already shaved money off.
• We're earning 3% cash back on gas.  Every bit counts!
• Our reward is automatic cash that comes off our next bill.
• We've consolidated bill paying and spend less time paying bills seperately.
• We find it easier to balance our checking account with most of our transactions going onto the card.
• We never miss a utility bill payment, therefore never paying late fees.
• To keep our card secure, we write "See Photo I.D." on the signature line.  This way cashiers must ask for identification and if the card is stolen it is useless.

We are very careful about our credit card spending and don't put any charges on the card for which we don't currently have the money for.  We pay our bill off as soon as it comes, every single month.  The total bill is almost the same each month because our monthly expenses are similar.  If we add anything extra to the card, we keep track of it.

Since we got the card three years ago we have saved between $25 and $60 each month on our normal everyday expenses we redirected to the card.  Using the card for extra purchases and while on vacation has saved us more.  Over three years we have saved $1561.10, and paid nothing in interest or late fees.

There are lots of rewards cards out there.  If you are looking for one, make sure to get a card with no fees.  Pay your entire bill off each month and don't spend money you don't have.  Discover Card has some good options, allowing you to choose cash back or gift cards.  Be sure to research fully and read the fine print!

I am aware that credit card use is not popular in some circles, especially with those who follow Dave Ramsey.  I certainly would not promote or suggest credit card use to anyone who can't control their spending, buys impulsively or misuses credit cards.  If you are deeply in debt, credit cards are not the way to go.  Credit cards are not responsible for putting people in debt, PEOPLE are.  It works for us and it saves us money. 

Do you use credit cards for the benefit of rewards?  Go ahead and tell us!

Frugal Living & Finance Tips From LearnVest

Have you been reading your daily frugal living tips and finance advice from LearnVest?  There was recently a great article about TLC's Extreme Couponing that I absolutely love and agree with!

Get your finances on track with LearnVest Boot Camp!  GO HERE get the latest LearnVest money advice, finance tips, couponing articles, and so much more!

I personally love finance articles.  I frequent YahooFinance and several other sites that give great advice and remind me of why I do the things I do!

Prescription Savings Card = Actual Savings!

If you pay out of pocket for prescriptions, you need to print this Prescription Savings Card Coupon!  I use this coupon monthly and save $45 on one prescription.  The coupon will work only if your insurance is not covering any part of the prescription or if you have no insurance.

Unfortunately our health insurance plan excludes certain prescriptions.  Thankfully there's a way to save!

In some cases, if you're paying a high out of pocket, this printable card can save your more than using your insurance!  Print it HERE and ask your pharmacist to check it out for you the next time you pick up a prescription.

Reduce Your Energy Bill with Smart Strip Technology

You may not be aware of it, but your energy bill is greatly influenced by electronics that are actually turned off.  This is called phantom energy use.

One way to prevent phantom energy use is to unplug all electronics that are not in use.  This is easier said than done!  About every six months, I unplug things in my house that are using electricity but are not used daily:  the coffee pot, the toaster, the crock pot and stereo system.  Little by little all of these things are plugged back in and forgotten.

Using a Energy Saving Surge Protector with Autoswitching Technology eliminates the need to unplug your electronics, yet eliminates phantom energy use.  These Smart Strip Surge Protectors are just beginning to appear in stores.

How it works:

The Smart Strip power strip is indeed smart. Just plug your computer or TV into the first outlet, and all of your related accessories (printer, speakers, VCR, DVD player, etc.) into the remaining outlets; and the Smart Strip will automatically disable power to these items when your computer or TV is turned off – a simple way to eliminate the phantom energy users in your home.

Since the first outlet on the strip (the control outlet) receives constant power, you don't have to deal with the hassle of reprogramming your TV each time you turn it on (the reason flipping the switch on a regular surge protector doesn't really work).

Need to maintain power to a DVR or modem? The Smart Strip has this covered too. Just plug these items into the designated "always hot" outlets, and they'll receive a constant supply of power just like your computer or TV. This is one surge protector that can be customized to your needs, whatever they may be.

Amazon  sells several of these Smart Strips and it is proven that they will save you as much as you pay in a short time!

Saving on Prescription Medications

I am heading to the pharmacy today to pick up a prescription not covered by insurance.  Unfortunately is is really expensive.  There are a few ways I offset the cost at the pharmacy, but I'd love to hear your ideas too!

1. First I called around to see who had the best price.  I found prices to be within a few dollars, so I stuck with CVS where I could get a better deal in the end.
2. I'll be using the Pharmacy Savings Coupon.  I hope to save at least $20-$50 with this, but honestly would be happy to save any amount.
3. I checked online for drug specific coupons.  You can find a list HERE.  I was able to find one, however it cannot be combined with any other coupon, so I will take the better of the two deals.
4. I was hoping to find a $25 gift card coupon for a new prescription, however I didn't.  I do have a $10 Gift Card coupon from Kmart, which my CVS will honor as a competitor's coupon.

Your turn.  How do you save on prescriptions?

ING Direct: $121 in FREE Money for Signing Up TODAY

If you are not familiar with ING Direct -Electric Orange, they are a online checking account that yields higher savings than a regular checking account at a bank. If you sign-up today 11/27, you can get $121 deposited into your account 50 days after you open it! All you need to do is make three signature transactions within the first 45 days!

Go here to sign up and use code EOSAVE.

Thanks, Deal Seeking Mom!

Discounts on Cell Phones

Are you saving money on your cell phone bill by taking advantage of work related discounts? If you are a teacher, educator, professor, or work in a school setting with a work related email account, you could be saving up to 25% on your cell phone bill through various carriers including Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Nextel and more! Many college students can even get discounts by providing their school email in some of these programs. Just visit the link below that corresponds to your current cell phone company, use your work/school email and check for discounts!

AT&T

T-Mobile

Verizon Wireless

These are the links I found that include definite discount programs. Other cell phone companies do also offer discounts. Call your cell company to inquire about teacher or employee discount programs.

Let me know if you are able to save money using any of these links.