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We have public transportation too.  Like everywhere else, there are trains, buses and metros.  It’s just that the routes cover so little of the area that it is impractical for most of us.  So over at this side of the pond, many of us are used to calling car expenses a necessity.

As a frugal minded person, there is no need to be upset because we cannot eliminate this expense.  We can still drastically reduce the money we spend on a car by making financially sound decisions.  Here are a few areas to look out for.

When to Replace Your Car
The easy answer is to drive the car until it no longer functions but for most of us, it’s impractical and unbearable.  Who wants to drive a car that is 30 years old and breaks every other day unless we are proficient in car repairs and can do it ourselves?

If you want to be practical about this, why not drive the car until the repairs are so frequent it starts to affect your daily lives?

Which Car to Buy
Who doesn’t want that Porsche?  If financial independence is your priority, then get a car that is affordable for your circumstances.  Forget about the exotic cars because all they do is give you temporary fame and not long term happiness.

Knowing Which Finance Option is Right for You
Many people want to know whether it is better to finance or lease a car.  While these options might be better for a few people, buying the car in cash is the most financially sound approach for most.  If you don’t think you can afford to pay it in cash, get a less expensive car!

Gas Mileage
The great thing about an inexpensive car is that it usually comes with better mileage per gallon of gas too.  Gas prices so high these days that this expense is really becoming a major portion of our monthly budget.  When you buy a car, look for cars that don’t require high octane gas because that adds another 5% to your overall cost to fill the car up.

Maintenance
Going to a dealership is great but all the same things can be done at a local car shop.  If you’d like to be safe, read through the owner’s manual and ask the local car shop to check on the specific things that the dealership maintenance schedule calls out for.  Beware though that you find a good local car shop as the wrong choice can turn out to be a very expensive and dangerous decision.

There are also places who will install parts for you if you buy them yourself, which is quite easy with the internet these days.  Remember that the more you can do yourself, the more you are saving!

Car Insurance
When purchasing a car, insurance premiums should be very high up on the list of items to check for.  As the monthly premiums aren’t necessarily proportional to the car price, we should make sure that the premiums don’t change the affordability equation.

Even with the same car, insurance premiums can be drastically reduced if we just take the time to shop around!  Calling several car insurance companies can yield different results and the best negotiation tactic is always to have a lower offer in your back pocket!  Another great way to lower your premiums is to specifically ask for discounts because many insurance salesmen don’t offer it up front!  This exercise doesn’t stop after you purchase your vehicle because regularly shopping around will give you insurance discounts that you didn’t think was possible!  Make sure to keep your rep honest about what he or she is quoting you!

Final Thoughts
With so many people mindlessly overspending on their cars, it’s so easy for us to cut back and make a huge positive difference in our financial situation!  Write down the points listed above and keep reminding yourself what can help you save money!

This is a guest post from Debt Lead, who has a debt consolidation website by Kimberly Credit Counseling.

Many consumers underestimate the potential cost of a mismanaged check account so let’s look at how to stay organized with a managed checkbook and protecting ourselves with overdraft protection.

Staying Organize with a Balanced Checkbook
When you balance your checkbook, it requires that you keep track of all transactions you have made through your checking account, including direct deposits and debit card purchases. Most ATMs will give you a receipt with your withdrawal, but this balance may not include outstanding checks that have not cleared your account. Once you get home make sure you put all transaction that you did into your checkbook.

To keep an accurate balance of your checking account, make sure you balance your checking account every month and review it against your monthly bank statement to make sure your numbers are correct. To reconcile your account, you must compare your bank statement to what you have written in your check register. Check off each item in your checkbook that matches the corresponding amount on your bank statement. If there are any transactions on your bank statement that do not match or appear in your checkbook, you need to get to the bottom of this and adjust the transactions so they match with your checkbook. If the bank statement amount is not accurate or valid, you should notify your bank immediately of the discrepancy.

Overdraft Protection
Banks offer overdraft protection to prevent bounced checks. Some banks will automatically enroll checking account customers into a program where the bank covers overdrafts for a fee, which could exceed $30.

Overdraft protection is a good way to protect yourself from inadvertently writing a check that you did not have funds to cover. Below are the common ways that banks offer overdraft protection:

Checking Account Linked to Savings: If your checking account does not have the funds to cover a check or debit, money will be taken from your savings to cover the amount. Overdraft fees still apply if your savings account balance cannot over the expense.

Linking to a Credit Card: Banks can link credit cards to the checking account to avoid overdraft fees. Usually, banks will transfer more than is needed to cover the overdraft (usually in $100 increments) and you will be charged for the interest equivalent to a credit card advance.

Tied to Line of Credit: If you have a line of credit established (usually tied to your home), the bank will transfer funds from this account to cover any overdrafts made to your account. Interest is then charged on the amount of money transferred from the credit line.

Overdraft protection is also a great way to guarantee that your credit score will not be negatively affected. Ultimately the end result of this protection guarantees that a bad check will never appear on a credit report and may ultimately enhance your credit score even though the costs to you may be high.
Let’s reduce our banking fees by staying organized and on top of our finances!

Larry King Live on CNN interviewed two families in trouble because of the recent housing crisis last night.  The first family was starting to get behind on their payment, while the other already lost her home and is now living in her car!

Overview of the Two Situations
Family Hope
The first family (which we will referred to as Family Hope) lived in what they believed a $300,000 house.  They are starting to get behind in payments but they haven’t received their default notice yet.  They want to save their house but here are a few signs of why I think they haven’t really been doing something about it.

• Larry asked them how many months they are behind and they did not really know.
• When asked what their monthly mortgage is, they “think” it is around $2,100 - $2,200 instead of knowing
• They seem to have 2 jobs, but they believe it is impossible to come up with $2,200 to pay the mortgage.
• They are hoping that they won’t lose their house, but they aren’t making any effort to pay the mortgage payments and they’re not trying anything else to solve their situation.

Family Optimistic
The second family (referred to as Family Optimistic) is actually a female living with 2 dogs.  She is a notary who was helping mortgage companies approve loan documents.  Once the credit market and housing crisis started, no one could get loans and she was out of a job.  She knew she was getting into trouble at the beginning of the year and now she’s lost her 2-bedroom condo and just living in her car.  Even though her circumstances seem much worst, here’s what I observed.

• She didn’t try to delay the inevitable of losing her home.  Once she knew she was in trouble, she got rid of the house.
• She is out of a job and living in her car, but she found a part time job which gets her $500 a month.
• She is extremely optimistic, and truly believe that she will live through this crisis and find a job and get her house back.
• She is still genuinely thankful for everyone who donated money to her.

Thoughts on the Two Situations
Family Hope
It’s very difficult to understand why this family would think they could save their home when they aren’t even making payments.  To make it worst, they don’t really seem to know how many months they are behind on payments and what exactly the monthly mortgage payment is!

Larry asked them about the payment and after some mumbling (and probably guessing), they came up with a figure of $2,200. If that was true, why do they not think it was possible to come up with the payment with two incomes?  This family doesn’t even seem to be trying!

Family Optimistic
This lady on the other hand sounds more likely to bounce back from losing her home. Despite the fact that she has to sleep in her car every night, she is still extremely strong and optimistic about finding a job and one day living in a house again. She doesn’t know how she will do all that yet but she believes she will, she truly believes. I’m sure she will find a way, because she will keep trying.

What Can We Learn From This?
There are many things we can do to avoid situations like these.

1. It is absolutely necessary to have an emergency fund. We should setup an expense every month and pay the emergency fund account where we put money in and never take money out. If it was never needed, it means you were one of the few fortunate ones. There are many articles talking about having an emergency fund of 3 months of expenses but I think 6 months of your previous salary is much safer. With this fund, it is much better to be safe than sorry later.  Having an emergency fund would’ve helped Family Optimistic while she was trying to look for another job.
2. When times are good, you don’t spend the money but instead save as much as you can!  During times when money seems easy to come by, it is the best time to save.  I know first hand that it is very easy to spend more when large amounts of money are flowing our way, but life has its ups and downs and being prepared for the unexpected is always good.  If we don’t save when times are good, we may not have a chance when the tide shifts.
3. We need to be sensitive to our own financial situations.  Family Optimistic knew she was in trouble and moved on from her mistakes in a timely manner even though it meant her sleeping in a car.  In Family Hope’s situation, they still have a $300,000 house that they could sell and start over. This way, they can start saving up immediately for the down payment to another house in the future.  As it stands now, they are just furthering themselves into debt and delaying (or even eliminating) their chances to ever get a new house.
4. We absolutely need to cut our spending.  Family Optimistic is living off $500 a month while Family Hope cannot come up with $2,200 per month on two income.  As I mentioned yesterday, there are always ways to save more money!  Live frugally and be happy.
5. We need to act promptly with a sense of urgency!  Both of these families don’t seem to have the “I got to fix it now” attitude.  Family Hope should be cutting back on everything they are spending immediately and Family Optimistic should be out looking for another job instead of doing an interview with CNN!  The most responsible and sensitive person to our needs is ourselves.  Act immediately!
6. Believe that there is a solution!  Although Family Optimistic is in a much worst situation than Family Hope, she brings a feeling of optimism into her attitude which will propel her to find a solution to her problem.  I wouldn’t be surprised if she is back on her feet and sleeping on a comfortable bed in 6 months while Family Hope is sleeping in their cars by year end!

Final Words
Many situations can be avoided if we do some preventive actions.  In order to be trouble free, we need to be proactive instead of reactive.  If you don’t have one yet, setting up a family emergency fund for example would be a great first step.

Believing that a solution is achievable in any situation is also very important.  Never give up on yourself, even in a foreclosure situation.  It’s not the end of the world if you lose your home.  It just means you can start working towards your dream home again.

My parents taught me so much of what I know today.  The importance of living below our means, the understanding of money matters and the appreciation of compound interest are all values that were ingrained into me at a very young age.  I remember my mom used to tell me “there are always ways to save more money so keep looking”.

So mom, I am practicing this today.  I will keep looking for ways to cut my spending.  To help me do this, I listed out my average expenses for the last 3 months.

Expenses for the Past 3 Months (April to June 2008):

There seems to be major differences with just 3 months alone! The total for “low” represents me being ultra frugal while the total for “high” represents me as a major spender. Just this quick look has already established a dream goal of just spending $1417.14 per month. Now let’s break down the spending in each category to see whether this goal is achievable.

Food

This one is easy to cut back. All I need to do is eat out less and order less expensive food when I go out! Out of the $223.21 monthly high, 4 meals make up $180 of it so my goal here is to shoot for the low, $66.02.

Gas

Spending less money on gas is harder than cutting back on food but some ways include:

• Drive less by grouping trips with similar purposes
• Be more patient on the road and drive with less emphasis on strong acceleration and hard braking
• Think about the route that I will take before getting on the road to avoid driving unnecessarily

With these tips, I’m aiming for the average, $135.37 a month.

Goods

This is one where cutting is easier said than done. It’s very easy for me to just say that I will not buy anything each month, but it is very difficult to accomplish. Therefore, I’m going to try not buying anything in the next 3 months instead of saying I will never buy anything ever again.

Entertainment

I know doing this wouldn’t make it the ultimate guide to cutting my budget but I’m going to keep the entertainment expense at $150. As you can see, I can be totally frugal and just keep the entertainment expense to only $19.24 but I need to be sensible and make this goal practical and achievable. Therefore, I’m keeping some “fun” money in my new budget, making it $150 a month.

Misc

This one is easier than it seems. The $347.85 is actually a car maintenance expense last month. Since I don’t foresee anymore unexpected expenses, my goal is $20 a month for miscellaneous expenses.

Average Spending of the Last 3 Months: $1875.18
New Budget Goal: $1601.39
Savings: $273.79

I feel good already knowing there are more ways to save! Follow me and do the same analysis with your budget today! Then come back and tell us how much you will be saving!

One morning while I was saying something to my wife, I realized that perhaps the way we think about wealth is way too complicated.  It happened when I was telling her that for the first month in a long time, I spent more money than I made.  We were going through the list of expenses for June when I said “It’s just simple.  You save money when you make more than you use.”

Money management is just as easy as that isn’t it?  Make more in a given time period than you spend and you will be ahead.  No complications, no 101 list of ways to do this and that, no messy calculators and no need to use complex software.

I wasn’t even thinking too much about it when I made the statement, which meant that I knew this golden and simple fact all along.  As a PF blogger, I am guilty of complicating the personal finance subject all the time.  I think about another 45 ways to save that extra dollar, 32 ways to invest in the next stock and find the next 87 ways to motivate myself to make more money.  I let all these minor issues cloud the main focus, which is really to just make more money than I spend.

With about 150 personal finance blogs, 15 PF magazines out there and tons more ways to read about money matters, it is so easy to get consumed in the little things that we forget about what’s the most important.

Today, I want to alert and remind everyone of something we all know about money managment.

Make more money than we spend.  It’s as easy as that.

Welcome to the 146th Carnival of Personal Finance, Q1 Financial Advice Edition.

There are many things we can do to help our finances throughout the year and certain ones are time sensitive. Now that the first quarter of the year has officially past, let’s look at what we could’ve done during this time while enjoying the following great articles!

Editor Choice

There is no doubt that great financial articles help us gain knowledge and in turn provide a solid foundation for us to build our wealth on. Here’s a few of many around the blogsphere…

• FMF from Free Money Finance gives us 10 Things to Discuss Before You Get Married. Everyone should read this article!
• Paidtwice from I’ve Paid For This Twice Already knows that Budgeting On An Irregular Income is still possible and tells us how! Valuable advice!
• David from Money Under 30 presents The Annual Cost of Pet Ownership: Can You Afford a Furry Friend?, and says, “How much is that doggy in the window? More than you think…”. I don’t know anyone who would ever do a calculation like this before he/she buys a pet but maybe we all should!
• Silicon Valley Blogger from The Digerati Life gives us Smart Moves To Lower Your Health Care Costs! This is probably one of the areas that people most often overlook so remember to check this out!
• NCN from No Credit Needed presents Getting The Entire Family Involved With Managing Our Finances, sharing with us how his family manages finances together.

Credit

Did we do anything foolish during the holidays last year? If so, usually Q1 is spent thinking about our past and whether we can do anything to fix our credit. The worst of these might be those that bought that Lexus as a Christmas gift but did it on credit!

• Devray from Managing Personal Finance offers his knowledge on what the banks are up to when they offer us credit card and urges us to start our fight back against the banks’ policy.
• Bill from The Money Hacks tells us the ins and outs of Building a Credit History.
• Penelope from Our Fourpence Worth tells us that Closing Your Credit Cards Can Hurt Your FICO Score.
• Pinyo from Moolanomy gives us a little example to show us The Cost of Instant Gratification.
• JS from Smart Money Daily presents FICO Score Facts, Stats & Mysteries, and says, “Your FICO score can affect a lot of aspects of your life: everything from your chance having a decent retirement fund, to ability to get a job or find a place to live. Until a couple of years ago there wasn’t much known about the magical FICO number, but now information and mis-information is everywhere.”
• debt freedom fighter from Discover Debt Freedom presents 10 Facts Credit Card Companies Don’t Want You To Know.
• The Happy Rock from The Happy Rock presents Cash Back Credit Card Analysis For The Happy Rock.
• Credit Addict from creditaddict.com presents Beware of Falling Credit Limits.
• Hannah from The Penny Mine presents How to Get Great Credit in 2008.

Economy

The economy has certainly been the center of attention during the past quarter. With the current housing crisis and perceived lack of credit for business borrowing, everyone is thinking about recession. In this environment, it is even more important to increase our retirement savings and emergency funds just in case something happens!

• vh from Funny about Money is skeptical that the Economy is in good shape even though the stock market has been up in his piece - What next? Will corporate welfare and financial socialism save us from recession?
• The Financial Blogger thinks Canadian Banks are Going Bankrupt!! Not a good sign!
• Seb from Pinching Copper presents There are no victims in the housing bust, and says, “It seems like I can’t go a day without watching or reading another news story about how an innocent American family has become completely overwhelmed by debt.”
• Mom from Wide Open Wallet presents The pawn shops are thriving.

Money Management

Managing our money is timeless and probably one of the most important aspect of increasing our wealth. I personally take the “put everything in my bank/brokerage accounts and then do everything I can to not withdraw approach.” It’s worked for me and maybe you can try it too!

• Dorian from The Personal Financier tells us How to Avoid Crippling Your Retirement Funds. Avoiding a serious blow to our retirement funds is crucial to our future!
• Margaret from You Might as Well Burn $5 talks about the possibility of The $37 Latte!
• Jonathan from Master Your Card gives us more tips on How to Survive the Coming Recession!
• Jennifer Derrick from Saving Advice Blog presents 21 Days to a Negative Money Habit, and says, “It usually takes 21 days to form a habit - they can be both good or bad.”
• Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck presents The Great IRA Contribution Squeeze, and says, “You have until April 15 to make your 2007 IRA contribution. If you’re doing everything you can to come up with cash now, great. But wouldn’t it be nice to avoid the squeeze next year and still make a decent contribution? Here’s how.”
• Deamiter from Handling Finances presents Saving for Specific Goals at ING, and says, “ING Direct’s low costs allow them to offer multiple savings accounts. This is a great opportunity to better organize your money if you find your specific goals being lost in one large account.”
• FFB from Free From Broke presents Four Ways I Upgraded Out Of My Raises, and says, “I’ve gotten many raises in my work career but for a while my savings situation didn’t change. I’ll tell you why - I upgraded!”
• Bob from Christian Finances presents Money Merge Account, and says, “Looking at the pros and cons of money merge accounts - who should get one and who should steer clear of them.”
• Rio from Get Financially Fit presents How to pay off your home in half the time, and says, “Here is how to pay off your mortgage in half the remaining time.”
• Dan Meyer from Tick Marks presents Six Minefields Which Can Ravage Retirement Resources.
• Enoch Ko from The Wealth Accumulator presents Build an emergency cash reserve, and says, “In this post, I discuss why building an emergency cash reserve is important, and how to go about doing it.”
• Starving Artist from Indebted 2 You presents Phone Calls Saved Me $185, and says, “Don’t shrug your shoulders if you get an unfair fee–it’s your money. Here’s a walk through a few instances where I recently put a total of $185 back in my pocket. Live and learn.”
• retirehappy from My Retirement Blog presents Save to Retirement Fund or Emergency Fund?, and says, “Retirement fund or emergency fund?”
• livingalmostlarge from LivingAlmostLarge presents Can you stop the worry?.
• nickel from FiveCentNickel presents a quick list of The Best High Yield Online Bank Savings Accounts.
• mbhunter from Mighty Bargain Hunter presents When do you stop renting and buy?, and says, “Buying is usually cheaper in the long run, but does one have to buy right at the start?”
• Finance Girl from Finance Gets Personal presents Financial “I Never” with Finance Girl.

Frugality

With not many holidays in the first quarter, there shouldn’t be anymore excuses to be frugal! If there still are, acknowledge the fact that they are excuses and stop telling yourself that you cannot be frugal! Spend less, save more and be rich!

• Bryce from Save and Conquer understands that we are all envy and jealous when we encounter someone with more or better stuff that we have and shows us how to Hang with the Joneses.
• Amy from My Daily Dollars presents 5 Tips for a Wedding Under $5,000, and says, “Some ideas to have a wonderful wedding for less!”
• Chief Family Officer presents Creative strategies for coping with rising costs - Part Four: Unusual Ideas For Saving Money Without Reducing Your Standard Of Living, and says, “The key for coming up with unusual ideas for saving money is to think outside of the box - and specifically, outside of *your* box.”
• MoneyKing from The Money Kings presents Be Honest With Yourself About Exercise Equipment, and says, “We all know people that have dusty exercise equipment in their homes. This needs to stop, of course . . . in a major way.”
• Lily from The Honest Dollar presents 100 Ways to Cope with Inflation.
• RC from Think Your Way To Wealth presents Top Ten Ways To Aggravate Your Spouse or Significant Other With Your Frugality.

Investing

The past quarter was a rough one for most investors with the real estate and stock market tanking. Remember though, that the stock and housing market has an historic uptrend so stay calm and keep invested!

• Barb from Bond Index Funds advises us to invest in fixed income securities only through low cost bond market index funds.
• Mr Credit Card from Ask Mr Credit Card talks about investing too! Read about his explanation of the severe limitations of the index funds.
• Dividends4Life gives us some stats and tells us that “Hey, You Invest like a Girl” isn’t really a bad thing.
• Four Pillars from Quest for Four Pillars discusses whether or not We are Missing Out on Hedge Funds.
• Dividend Growth Investor explains his one rule of thumb - one dollar saved in the twenties supplies one dollar of income in the sixties.
• Dan at EverydayFinance from Everyday Finance presents Apparently, It Pays to Be Naughty - Vice Fund vs. Socially Responsible Fund, and says, “An unique view of fund performance with “Socially Responsible” investments vs. “Sin” stocks like alcohol, casino and beverage stocks. The results may surprise you!”
• Ryan Suenaga from Uncommon Cents presents Individual Stocks: Not Gambling, but not for Everyone Either.
• Smarty from Growing Money presents Stock Challenge April 2008.
• Kyle from Amateur Asset Allocator presents Forecasting Stock Returns Using Macroeconomic Growth Factors, and says, “Over time, corporate earnings comprise about 10% of GDP. We can use this as a basis to predict what future stock returns might be.”
• Shadox from Money and Such presents Stupid Financial Advice Revisited, and says, “Here’s one bit of financial advice that would have cost you 38% of your money in just over 5 months… What’s to be learned from such horrible advice?”
• The Dividend Guy presents High Dividend Payout Ratio = High Earnings Growth Rate, and says, “This post looks at that research to see how we as investors should deal with high and low dividend payout ratios.”
• Sid from The Money Well presents Investing In Your Children - Your Best Investment, and says, “The article is about investing money wisely in your children’s education and their future.”
• Bob McDonald from The Platinum Years Network talks about Alternative Investment You Should Know About.
• FIRE Finance presents Tax FREE Money Market Mutual Funds!

Finance

I applied for the CFA level 1 exam in December in Q1. What have you done to increase your financial knowledge in the past 3 months?

• The Skilled Investor presents Objective Personal Finance Answers Are Hard to Find.
• Bill from InsureBlog presents Zap!, and says, “The Repo Man has a new, high-tech gadget in his arsenal, to more quickly reclaim those new wheels. InsureBlog’s Bob Vineyard wonders if hospitals will also pick up on that tech. Ouch!”
• Raymond from Money Blue Book presents Traditional and Roth IRA Contribution Limits and Income Phase Outs.
• Paula from Monroe on a Budget wrotes about the Financial Lessons from To Kill a Mocking Bird!
• Mrs. Micah from Mrs. Micah: Finance for a Freelance Life presents What’s
  Wrong with Being Middle Class.
• Amanda from Value For Your Life presents The Upside of a Down Economy

Debt

Avoid this at all cost whether it’s Q1, Q2, Q3, or Q4!!! This subject is very serious and should not be taken lightly. Debt is never a good thing so remember to think carefully before getting into it.

• Start and Step presents My Snowflake Rules - Snowflake Step #6, and says, “My summary of how I’m going to use snowflaking to attack my debt.”
• Jacob from All About The Ben presents How To
  Eliminate Your Credit Card Debt, and says, “A step-by-step plan for eliminating costly credit card debt.”
• Andy from Tight Fisted Miser presents The CCRA and Law School Loan Forgiveness.

Saving

Saving is the first step to wealth. Most people don’t contribute to their IRAs until the first quarter because the deadline for last year’s contribution is in April. These people usually don’t end up being able to maximum their contributions because they procrastinate!! So moral of the story? Save early and often!

• Penny Nickel from Money Values is looking at I Bonds for protection against inflation!
• Faron from Financial Learn tells us the Importance of Teaching Your Kids to Save!
• Kimberly Palmer from Alpha Consumer presents Smart Splurges and Saves.
• Foxie from Dreaming of Ferraris presents Compromising Spending and Saving, and says, “It’s important to know just how much you have for both spending and saving. It’s also good to remember to allocate the savings in a way that will help you, wherever you financially stand.”
• Aaron Stroud from On Financial Success presents Can we afford college, and says, “A post answering a reader’s question about how to pay for kid’s college expenses.”
• PT from Prime Time Money presents Your Emergency Fund Is So Big…, and says, “Examining the correct size of short-term emergency savings.”
• Jennifer from Getting Ahead talks about 10 Easy Ways to Save Money.
• Super Saver from My Wealth Builder presents Become A Millionaire.
• Andy S from Saving to Invest presents Excessive Taxes and Fees on my Cable/Phone Bill, and says, “Potential savings from high taxes and services fees on your cable and phone bills”

Real Estate

The housing market continues to be weak. I’m in Southern California and there are so many foreclosures around here and it’s not a pretty scene at all! With so many loans changing interest rates in the coming months, there doesn’t seem like there is an end of declining house values in sight.

• Kevin from No Debt Plan critiques about “My First Place” TV show and he also offers advices for first time home buyers!
• Dan Melson from Searchlight Crusade presents The Difference Between Note Rate (APY) and APR.
• Debbie from American Consumer News presents Five Ways to Increase the Value Of Your Home For Under $100.
• Frugal Babe presents The Cost Of A Bigger House, and says, “There’s been a lot of effort and a some
  money involved, but it’s a whole lot less expensive than upgrading to a bigger house.
• Joe from Tallahassee Florida Real Estate Blog presents Creative
  Home Selling - Taking A Lesson From Wall Street, and says, “In today’s tough real estate market, where Sellers seem to far outnumber Buyers, it is important to have a complete “bag of tools” when you desire to sell a home in Florida.
• Millionaire Mommy Next Door presents How to Make Money Without Ownership: Take Advantage of the Housing Slump, and says, “As the number of vacant homes for sale surges, creative people, donning their thinking-caps, see dollar signs.”

Budgeting

The beginning of the year is a great time to examine the budget you made last year and make adjustments to the yearly spending limits! Once you come up with the budget, remember to stick to it!

• Mr. Debtbeater from DebtBeater lists 3 Surefire Methods to Paying Your Bills On Time. The way I make sure the bills be paid on time is to pay them when I receive notice of them!
• Shawna from Bumblefucked presents The importance of having wiggle room in your budget.
• Denina from tips and tricks presents April Flowers.

Career

Congratulations if you are one of the lucky people that got a bonuses during the beginning of the year. Remember that the company gave you the bonus because of your good performance so repay the company by working hard! Drill it into your minds that hard work starts in Q1 and extends all through the year!

• tehnyit from Cheap as chips presents You are only worth at market value, and says, “An article on how your salary is determined by market value, not by how good your talents are.”
• Will from Your Finish Rich Plan presents Are You Gaining The Most You Can From Your Current Job?, and says, “This article focuses on making people go beyond the simple per hour rate they’re being paid. It helps them put a dollar value to other benefits they might be entitled to.”
• Debbie from American Small Business News presents Open
  Communication in the Business Environment.
• Joe D from Know The Ledge presents Being A Team Player Only Gets You So Far.
• Lisa Spinelli from Greener Pastures presents IBD’s 10 Secrets to Success.”

Taxes

If you still haven’t filed your taxes yet, you only have a few more days to do so! Don’t be late because you are only giving the government a longer loan!

• Broke Grad Student talks about something that’s closely related to him in Tax Breaks for College Students and Recent Grads.
• Madison from My Dollar Plan presents IRA Recharacterization: What, Why, How and When?, and says, “Just in time for taxes this week!”

Other

• Mr. B from Interesting Money suggests The House Rabbit as Nature’s Economical Pet! Own a pet and meet your budget!
• Kris from Cheap Healthy Good presents Touchy Subjects: Confronting Loved Ones about Weight and Money Problems
• Freethinker from Freethoughtmovement tells us what must be one of the worst experience with a financial advisor as you can get in this world.
• Aryn from Sound Money Matters presents Surprise! Your Car Gets Worse Gas Mileage Than You Thought, and says, “After the new gas mileage rating system was released, I discovered that my car doesn’t get as many miles per gallon as I believed, and new cars don’t fare much better.”
• Junger from Online Savings Blog answers the question of Why an iPhone is a Worthy Investment. Go iPhone!
• Clint from Accumulating Money presents Educating Young Children about Money.
• FT from Million Dollar Journey presents Sustainability and Financial Health, and says, “How we can do things financially to help the sustainability of the earth.”
• Lazy Man from Lazy Man and Money presents Budgeting for a Tank and I say we should all chip in!
• GBlogger from Can I Get Rich On A Salary presents Success Factors of the Really Rich?, and says, “What can we learn from reading and comparing wealthy people?”
• BeThisWay from Are You Going To Be This Way the Rest of the Time I Know You?
  presents Two Steps Forward, One Step Back.
• squawkfox presents Top Ten 80s Songs About Money, and says, “Here are the top ten 80s songs about money”
• Ryan Taylor from Millionaire Money Habits presents The Real Life Money Tree, and says, “Money trees do actually exist, and it greatly boost your earnings, increase investment funds and potentially build a multi-million dollar source of income. Learn how to start growing a money tree by reading the rest of this article.”

Final Words

What a great week of articles and thank you all for participating and reading! Enjoy the post which will start us off the the second quarter running! If you still have energy to read more, check out my submission for this week!

• Be Human and Buy a Home!

There is no doubt that the market is very volatile and has gone down quite a bit in the last 3 weeks or so. During these hard times, it is crucial for us to be careful about our money management. We will hear about many advices from personal finance sites like this one about buying more stocks when the stocks are down since we are in it for the long run. However, we all need to read these carefully or else we might risk losing all our money.

What I mean is that we need to make sure the stocks we are buying is worth owning for the long run in the first place. The articles offering advices usually steer you towards buying low cost index funds. Because of the diversified nature of index funds, the long term trend is up. However, individual stocks are not the same. A particular stock can go down, and down, and down even more and never be able to recover. Therefore, it is imperative when we read advices that we don’t blindly follow advices incorrectly. We are responsible for our money and we are the ones that need to be careful!

Cheers to the stock market because of its best long term growth. Don’t worry about the current situation and just go out and still have fun.

We were talking about company money management and cash flow last week at work, and I was explaining to my colleagues that I believe the time we spent readjusting inventory levels constantly, getting frustrated with too many changes to meet customer requests probably do not justify the small amounts of inventory that we are able to reduce versus if we just stock some more units than what the system shows we need.

This got me thinking because it totally relates to personal finance. As you know, many of us spend a ton of personal time trying to save that extra dime. These include looking at websites for personal finance articles, checking our stocks every 5 minutes of the day (even though we don’t trade stocks that often), writing budget reports, graphing net worth charts etc. If we really list out everything that we do to try to save money, some people would call it “madness”.

So, is the time we spent justified? Some of us might be spending 2 hours or more a day on something like this. Say we are able save $8 more per day, which might sound great since many of us know that $8 a day is probably going to be worth tons of money with compound interest. But then why can’t we just find a part time job that pays more than $4 per hour? If you think about it this way, is it still worth it?

After asking myself this question, my response came out to be something like this.

Let me first explain that I spend more than 2 hours a day on my personal finance. I regularly read 40 or more websites per day of articles from other personal finance blogs. I even have one of my own, MoneyNing.com. I keep track of my net worth monthly, track my spending with a spreadsheet daily, and check my stocks valuation way too many times each day to name a few. I spent much of my day thinking about how I can save more money, and had been pretty successful in cutting some costs through ideas learnt from the articles I have read (thank you 40+ blogs I have been reading).

For me, it is not so much about maximizing earnings, but rather knowing that I can be better, that I can be more efficient with my money. For sure I want to earn more money, and based on the analysis, it definitely sounds more rewarding having a part time job. If I were to be a part time, I would work at Starbucks, since I would get free coffee which in turn helps me with more money to spend on other things!

However, I know that financial freedom measures us not by how much we earn but how much we can keep! There are many people I know that earn $100,000 dollars a year but are not able to save a dime, while one of my friend earn $50,000 dollars and was able to afford early retirement. Back at the time, I asked my “$50,000 salary” friends how he was able to retire early. His answer was remarkably simple. He told me that the key was discipline, the discipline to live below your means, and to save as much as you can. This stuck with me, helped interest me in personal finance, and motivated me in spending time in looking for ways to save growing up.

I believe I am on my way to financial freedom. For those like me who spend much time thinking of money, I think you are too.