No matter how much you make, you can probably find a way to spend it. But if financial freedom is your goal, it’s important to keep trying to achieve better financial results. Simply being more aware of your spending is sometimes enough, though not always effective.
The way I try to analyze my spending in order to be the most effective is to create two main categories (or buckets if you will). This allows me to quickly make decisions about my money, and it helps to keep things simple. No complicated budget needed.
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Does a big raise ever not feel good? And have you gotten a pay cut and not feel bad?
It doesn’t matter what the original salary was and how much it’s changing. Though there are no references, getting more is almost always better and receiving less than what we are used to just plain sucks. Why does making $50,000 after a $5,000 raise feel better than making $90,000 after a 10% cut?
Human nature.
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You can’t drive your car if it doesn’t have tires, but pieces of rubber, especially those for some of the newer all wheel drive models, can be very expensive. If you require snow tires as well as three-season models; that will double your cost. What is a car owner to do? The simple answer is to play the system.
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Gerad wants to know the best way to handle extra payments to his loan servicing company.
I have a question about my private student loan. Most of my loans are federally backed and I have consolidated them. However, I have one loan, which was private that I was not able to consolidate. Currently, I am paying about double on this loan so I will be able to retire it at about the same time as my consolidated loans. My question is how to allocate the extra I am paying on this loan every month. I know normally you would want all the extra to go towards principal. However, because this is a student loan, I will get some of this money back on my tax return (although I am not exactly sure how this works, i.e. is it a dollar for dollar return?) So maybe it is better that I let them allocate the extra the way they would do it, if I don’t tell them to put the extra on the principal, i.e. I end up paying more interest. Currently the rate is 3.85% but I think it will fluctuate. I am scheduled to pay it off in 20 years but I am trying to pay it off in 10 years. Do you have any thoughts on what is the better way to allocate the extra I pay every month? Thank you.
There really isn’t an automated way to make sure your extra payment gets applied to the principle, but you can get this accomplish pretty easily. All you have to do is just call. Yup. Call the loan company up, and ask them exactly how extra payments get applied. Most likely, they will tell you that it will be applied to the principle anyway, but there are some shady practices who will hold onto your extra payments and apply it as your next minimum payment. You don’t want this, so call to make sure.
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Saving is key to financial success, and it is a healthy habit which develops with time. It might take some time to get into a mode of saving but once you master the art, it’s like having an anchor that would never let you drown in the sea of debt. While there are many tricks people use to help them save more, here are six simple tips you can employ to save money today.
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Getting the freshest produce available, even when living in a city, can simply be a matter of joining a local CSA. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) offers you the opportunity to get fresh vegetables and fruits literally the same day it’s picked. Some CSAs offer flowers, honey, meat and even vinegar, but it’s important to know how a CSA operates before joining.
How CSAs Operate
The typical CSA provides you with a box full of produce every week for a set number of weeks (typically based on the growing season in your area). In exchange, you pay the CSA, which also happens to be a farm, an amount that can range from a few hundred dollars all the way up to nearly a thousand dollars. That money doesn’t actually pay for your weekly box, however. It’s actually the cost of purchasing a share in the CSA’s harvest for the year. When you pick up your produce every week, you’re picking up your share of what has been harvested.
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