High Cotton

Spring Cleaning. Its either a YIPPEE or UGGG thing for most people. For me, its mostly YIPPEE. I get to open the house up, let the breeze off the water blow through the house, hang the bed linens on the line outside to dry, and basically feel spring throughout the house. Being closed up inside all winter, I get cabin fever. So, the first inkling of spring, brings me back to my childhood; where on Saturday morning, before we sat down for breakfast, all the beds were stripped, windows were opened and a cool southern breeze wafted through the whole house. Saturdays were work days back then. There were floors to be stripped and re-waxed, windows to be washed, grass to be cut and a thousand other chores (or it seemed like it) to be done. Being the "girl", I had the joy of dusting and ironing. I’d try to trade those jobs, but more often than not, there was not a taker. The smell of furniture polish, floor wax or starch can take me back 40 years in just a sniff. That was Saturday, all day, for as long as I can remember. Of course, we had some fun at it. (kids always find a way) Waxing floors in sock feet, sliding up and down the hall (until we got caught), pillow fights as we stripped the bed linens (until a feather pillow popped, picking up thousands of down feathers by hand just isn’t fun). But, we worked. By sundown, Daddy would fire up the huge barbeque pit he’d built in the back, and we’d feast on burgers or hot dogs. We were kings and queens. We hadn’t a clue that our parents scrimped and saved and how frugally we lived, in those days.Friday fish sticks and french fries were a treat we looked forward to all week (eaten a fish stick lately?)They did without a lot for themselves, so that we could have a good education and nice clothes on our backs. (Put kids through Catholic school for 12 years today. You need a second mortgage) Though, hand me downs were worn, there was never a piece of clothing with a hole in it. Everything was carefully checked in the laundry process. If it needed mending, it got mended then. If it was worn out (after several hand me downs), it was turned into a cleaning cloth or strips to tie beans and tomatoes with. There was a use for everything. And sometimes, 4 or 5 uses. That was the way it was in our house. We thought that everybody lived that way. We were in "high" cotton. That is what frugal living is. Its not living poor. Its not wearing clothes with holes, or onion sandwiches for supper. But rather its a mindset. Setting financial goals and a means to an end. There are a bazillion frugal living sites out on the web today, and about half of them will tell you that you need to set your mind to living without. I disagree. To live frugally, you have to set your sites on a goal, set a budget and live by it. You can have a "high cotton" mindset and a frugal purse. However, it takes some practice, some discipline and some time. Commit yourself to your goal and there is nothing that’s impossible.

1 Day To Financial Freedom

I opened my first checking account the day I graduated high school. It was always a given that I’d do business at the same bank my father and his father had done business with. Besides in those days they gave you free stuff if you opened an account. My free gift was a coffee pot. (Perfect for the dorm room) Besides, all banks seemed the same in those days. Walk in, deposit your money, write your paper checks on that lovely safety check paper that was, by the way, free. Balance your account on the back of the statement at the end of the month. Easy enough. I did business with that bank until 5 years ago. I despised that bank. They were constantly finding new and interesting ways to charge my account and eat up more of my money. If I hated it so much, why didn’t I do something about it? Well, simply put, I never found the time. Besides, it was Daddy’s bank. If it had been good enough for him and his father for all these years, it couldn’t be all that bad could it?

Eventually, they stepped on my toes, one too many times. They failed to stop payment on an automatic draft that I had and cost me nearly $300. That was the day I got my rear in gear. I left work a few hours early, closed my account and started fresh with the competition. It was one of he best financial decisions I have ever made.

That one thing, took only an hour to accomplish. Imagine what could be done in 8 hours. If you have grand financial plans that you never seem to be able to get around to, consider taking a Finance Day. Take one day off from work; make it a normal working day (when banks and the like are open) and get things done! Don’t be concerned with wasting your vacation time on “nothing”. This little trick will save you many times over, and for years.

Before you get started, remove any barriers to success, mental and physical that might impede your process toward your goal. Gather all your financial information, bank statements, credit card bills, insurance policies and the like into one spot. Eliminate distractions. (Turn off the cell phone, let the answering machine get your calls, send the kids to grandma’s if you need to) Commit yourself to spending the entire day to taking care of your personal finances. Time to get crackin on all those things you’ve been putting off till you get around to it.

Now you’re ready. FOCUS ON THE BIGGIES!

If you, too, picked a bank because they were handing out freebees, it’s probably time to find a bank that works for you as an adult. If you’re happy with your bank, then call them and ask them to eliminate service fees or to give you better interest rates. If you’re unhappy with your bank, find a new one. A local credit union is an excellent choice. You might also consider internet banks, which often feature better interest rates.

• Find a high rate savings account and set it up. Most brick and mortar banks pay only about 1% on their standard FDIC insured savings accounts. Many online banks pay several points more. Check bankrate.com for comparison charts
• Start tracking your expenses. If you don’t know where you’re money’s going, find out!

•  Carry a small notebook and pen to write down EVERY TRANSACTION.

• Use personal finance software to download all of your banking and credit information.

 Quicken is my favorite, they have an online edition and downloadable products, as well as standard products you can purchase at your local retailer. Two great deals I found are below.
Quicken Online Edition – Try it out for free!
Save up to 36% Off Quicken 2008 Downloadable Products or Try an online budgeting tracker like:

Mint is a modern, powerful, easy and secure web-based solution for managing your finances. And it’s free. You register anonymously using any valid email address, and then add the log-in information for the online bank, credit union and credit card accounts you want to consolidate in Mint.

Mint connects to over 3,500 US financial institutions. Your account information is updated each night. Mint automatically categorizes all your purchases, showing you how much you spend on gas, groceries, parking, rent, restaurants, DVD rentals and more, with amazing precision. An advanced alerting system highlights any unusual activity, low balances, unwanted fees and charges, and upcoming bills so you’re in constant contact with your money – effortlessly

Mint goes way beyond just reporting. Using a patent-pending search algorithm, Mint constantly searches through thousands of offers from hundreds of providers to find the best deals on everything from bank accounts to credit cards; cable, phone and Internet plans, and more. Mint’s suggestions are “unique to you” as they are based on your individual spending patterns. For example, if you have $20,000 in a bank account that’s earning no interest, Mint might recommend a high interest rate savings account from ING or HSBC. Acting on that suggestion would give you an extra $900 in interest income over a year.

I’ve used mint. The only problem I had with it was when it imported checking information it’s recognition of payees is not as good as it could be. Overall I’d give it an 8. Easy to use and secure.

• Get a better rate on your credit cards. If you have credit card debt, getting it under control should be a priority. That’s a whole lot easier to do if your rates aren’t in the exosphere.
  • If you’re FICO score is good (above 700) do some research on credit card rates, then get on the phone with your company and do some negotiating. (More on this tactic later next week.
  • Unfortunately, the more you need a good rate, the less likely you are to get it. If your credit is bad or you’re already behind on your payments, or you’ve maxed out your limit, your credit card company is more worried that you’ll default on your account than that you’ll leave. Make an appointment for credit counseling with a legitimate debt counselor.
• Give your retirement plan a tune up.
  • If you’ve changed jobs in the last few years, roll over those old 401K’s
  • Balance your current 401K. Lots of people select their funds in a willy nilly fashion, not to be embarrassed here, it happens, but you need to balance that fund’s components. Do some research, and talk to your fund administrator about how to get it balanced
•  Get around to your Insurance policies.
  •  Check the deductibles and coverage’s on your homeowners, health and auto insurance. One of the easiest ways to save money is to raise these deductibles. Of course if you no savings, you want to skip this section right now. You’ll be the one to cover the expense of the deductible. In most states, it’s acceptable to carry only liability on your car if it’s past a certain age. This trick will save you a boat load. Check your states requirements then talk to your insurance company.
• Set your goals. Establish a $1k emergency fund. Pay off credit card debt. Save for major expenses. Write your goals down. Use a journal style notebook, or your friendly word-processing software. Just DO IT.
•  Organize yourself. Set up a money file. This can be as simple as a shoebox or as entailed as a complete filing system. You can even keep it in an encrypted file on your hard drive. It simply needs to be an easy-to-access location in which you keep all of your important financial information, including account numbers, service providers, phone numbers, etc. Anyway you do it; all of the information from your money holiday will be in this one central location.

Now what can YOU accomplish in 8 hours? Tell us here, give us your suggestions for getting on track.

If You Build It (Right) They WILL Come

Building Buzz and Traffic for Your Blog in a 1:9 ratio 

 Personally, I don’t read John Chow very much. With a full time job and my blogs I don’t have much time to read about his money making exploits and dining out adventures. But I did find an article he had written very interesting. In his article, titled, If you build it, they won’t come, he lays out the reasons for blog and site failure and how to cure it. And he lays it all on one thing. Marketing!

Remember, if you build it, they won’t come. Successful blogging is 10% blogging and 90% marketing. Learning how to generate a buzz will get you a lot further than learning how to write a better blog post.

Accompanying his theory, he lays out 12 tried and true methods for building buzz and traffic, hence, according to John, success !

One word of advice though, if you follow John Chow’s formula, you’d better make sure that 10% that you devote to blogging is great content. Remember the old GIGO (garbage in, garbage out)  we all learned back in that first computer class. Even he admits that if content isn’t good, he’s not going to take the time to link to it. 

Make great blog posts. If the post sucks, I’m not going to link to it.

Make no mistake, blogging is hard work! Blogging without readers is tougher. Market yourself and your blog well and you’ll reap the rewards soon. Leverage your traffic well and you’ll be sitting pretty before you know it.

Next Page »