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I love Christmas, but I’ll admit that I breathed a small sigh of relief when all of the holiday stuff got put away until next year.
So it’s strange to admit that I’ve already started doing my Christmas shopping for 2015. In fact, I get most of my Christmas shopping done 11 months in advance every year. Why exactly? Well for several reasons, but mostly because planning ahead saves time and money. It’s as simple as that!
Here are a few of my tips for those who want to get their shopping done really early and save.
Lodging is often the most expensive item in any travel budget. And when your whole family is traveling, not just you as a single person or couple, it can get even more pricey. But there are a few well-known discounts available when talking to a hotel representative:
What is your best rate?
Are you running any specials?
My spouse works for a major corporation, do you offer a corporate rate?
This had me thinking. Are there discounts available for memberships besides the normal AAA? My wife and I had first-hand experience with this recently and here’s what we found.
The start of a new year is a perfect time to get your financial life in order, and commit to saving more and spending less. In order to do that though, a budget (or what I like to call a spending plan) will map out your expenses and help plan for your goals.
But I’ve found that sometimes budgeting is difficult — it’s a chore that seems like work and not many of us enjoy it. Spending and saving seem like meaningless line items that we strive to get by with until the next month.
However, there’s one simple trick that can change your relationship with your budget and that’s creating a budget that reflects your values. Here’s what I mean.
We all want to improve our productivity, increase our time, and have more energy for the important things — I know I do. So this year I’m particularly focusing on how I can boost my productivity. I’ve found that it’s not so much about trying to work more,but about how to work more effectively.
As I’ve worked on my productivity over the last couple of years, I’ve discovered that I can do more in three or four hours than I used to be able to do in six or seven. How?
The key is understanding my own tendencies, and applying principles of productivity to my everyday life and my business.
As I look at the New Year, I recognize there are still some areas that I can improve upon (can’t we all?). So here are some of the ways I plan to further boost my productivity:
It seems like everyone wants to be a minimalist these days. In the past few years, the “hot” New Year’s resolution is not to get fit but to live with less. The Tiny House movement has inspired many of us to appreciate what we have, and be happy with less.
When this trend first started catching on, I was skeptical. Being a minimalist made me think of the “extreme cheapskate” style of living. Sure, I would love to learn to be happy with less stuff but I wasn’t ready to go cold turkey.
However, the more and more I’ve learned about minimalism, the more I’ve embraced it. The idea of letting go of material needs, being more productive and, best of all, spending less money appeals to almost everyone.
Up until our late 20’s, my husband and I didn’t think much about retirement at all. We were far too busy being 20-somethings – too busy hosting dinner parties with our friends and planning weekend getaways and pool parties. We never looked much further into the future than a month or two, or past whenever our next vacation or relaxing weekend was on the agenda. And why should we? We were in our 20’s, after all, and middle age and retirement seemed like a lifetime away.
But then we had our first daughter, Lydia Rose, and our entire world changed. Almost overnight, we had something to plan for – something to protect. Out of love, we did what most parents do; we bought life insurance to make sure she would be okay if something were to happen and started a college fund for our tiny surgeon, lawyer, or day trader in the making.
We also got serious about retirement because we wanted to take care of our precious child – not the other way around. Fortunately, time was on our side, so we progressed slowly to the point where we could max out retirement accounts and save lump sums for college, all while prepaying our mortgage on a monthly basis.
And by the time our second child came along, we were painfully aware that we were responsible for the outcome of our lives, financially and otherwise. We knew that we needed to take control of our financial situation – because no one would do it for us. We also learned that we had the power to make a positive change for the future; we only needed to seize it. [ continue reading… ]
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