Archive for the ‘Inspirational’ Category
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 |
Retail prices are a lot more negotiable than you might think. But before you go out and try to play hardball to get a discount, learn the rules of the game.
This is a very long read but well worth it By Katherine Reynolds Lewis at MSN
You see an item you want in your local big-box store. The price seems too high. You ask for a discount — and you get it!
This scenario may seem far-fetched, but expert negotiators say it occurs every day in retail outlets across the U.S. With consumers restricting their spending, store owners need every sale they can close, even if it means accepting a smaller profit.
“Retailers, particularly a number of the high-end retailers, are in real trouble given the current recession, and they’re willing to bargain,” said Joel C. Huber, a marketing professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.
That’s not to say it’s easy to win unadvertised discounts. The art of the haggle is an intricate dance, and you must know the steps before you venture onto the dance floor.
And you have to be willing to ask.
“The thing people don’t understand about the retail industry, especially brick-and-mortar stores, is that prices aren’t fixed,” said Albert Ko, a co-founder of bargain-hunting site CheapCheapCheap.com. “With the economy, it’s all about the numbers and getting goods sold. . . . They’re willing to listen and work with you.”
Really, you have to ask
Americans are notoriously uncomfortable negotiating bargains, said Julie Parrish, the chief executive of Hot Coupon World.
“My dad’s from the Middle East, and they haggle for everything. You grow up knowing how to ask,” Parrish said. “People are scared. They view it as a confrontation, and it’s not. You’re simply asking. There is so much leverage in pricing other than the price of a gallon of gas.”
You may think you can’t negotiate with a mainstream retailer with fixed prices. But even discounters such as Kmart give their stores the leeway to cut a deal if you give them a good reason. That can be as simple as pointing out a scratch or flaw, or bringing in a flier advertising a lower price at a competitor.
Lila Delilah, the founder of Madison Avenue Spy, has found that boutiques offer discounts upon a hint. She was looking at a children’s coat that was 30% off and remarked that she saw it for 50% off the previous season. The owner immediately offered an additional break.
“I have a friend that’s been walking into every boutique she goes into and asking for the ‘recession price.’ Amazingly, she’s getting 25% to 30% off just by asking for it,” Delilah said.
When should you ask?
When you’re buying a lot. At Costco, Parrish saw a man taking dozens of packages of baby back ribs out of the display to put in his cart. The manager stopped him and asked how many he wanted. The man ended up buying six cases of ribs at a 10% discount.
Indeed, volume discounts are a key way to save in this economy. If a department manager can move a lot of inventory, he’ll be flexible on price.
“They’re happy to do it because they get bonuses tied to volume by department,” Parrish said.
When the product is on its way out. Stores also like to get rid of all units of a clearance item so the display can be used for another product. Using this knowledge at Walgreen’s, Parrish’s business partner got about 50 Burt’s Bees lip gloss tubes for 50 cents each, down from the clearance price of $1.59 and regular price of $3.99.
Consider the meat department of your local grocery store just before closing time. The manager might prefer to sell the entire display of ground beef and go home, rather than spend 45 minutes wrapping and storing the meat. If you can freeze the beef, either as patties or cooked taco meat, you can end up saving more than $1 per pound.
When you’re dropping a small fortune. At high-end department stores, if you spend more than $15,000 or $20,000 in a single visit, you can usually get 20% off the entire purchase, Delilah said.
“Stores that sell Christian Louboutin shoes, you can say, ‘These are very expensive. Is there any way you could give me something off?’” Delilah said. “In this economy, everybody’s looking to crack a deal. If you’re ’spending bank,’ there’s going to be more flexibility.”
When you pay cash. Because merchants can’t legally charge extra for credit card payments, the cost of the associated fees is built into every transaction. But they can offer a discount for cash. Ask.
First, do your homework
The seller is unlikely to accept a deal that leaves no profit. So before you enter the store, check out comparable items online or in the store’s competitors. That will give you the range of prices.
Make sure you understand which items have a larger profit margin and which have a shorter shelf life, such as perishables, seasonal clothes and consumer electronics that become outdated. You’ll have better luck negotiating if the manager wants to clear the inventory out of the store, said Jim Crawford, the executive director of the Global Retail Executive Council.
At a Best Buy recently, Ko’s father wanted to buy a 42-inch LCD television. When they first spoke to the manager, he said he couldn’t give a discount. Ko then said he had seen the TV for less on the Internet but wanted to buy it in person and suggested a package deal.
They ended up getting $200 off the television, bringing it under the Internet price, by purchasing a warranty and accessories, both big-margin items.
Jewelry has one of the highest markups of any product category, said Kit Yarrow, a psychology and marketing professor at Golden Gate University.
“Even at mall jewelry stores you can negotiate,” Yarrow said. “I don’t think I’ve ever in my life purchased jewelry without getting a discount.”
Stick to your guns, but be flexible when you can
Before you get carried away with the power of haggling, an important note: You must keep your key criteria in mind when you’re negotiating and be willing to walk away if they’re not met.
The most important parameter is your top price. If you are bargaining and it becomes clear the seller can’t do better than your top price, thank him for his time and leave.
Also, be willing to give on features or criteria that don’t really matter to you.
For instance, Parrish wanted a new minivan that had sliding doors but didn’t care about the color or model. She walked into the dealer saying, “These are the must-have features, and this is the price I want to pay.”
Even if a retailer won’t cut the price, it might throw in some extras for free. If you’re making a major purchase, ask for complimentary delivery or installation. For clothes, suggest free alterations or cleaning and pressing.
Parrish recently walked into a Lowe’s store looking for a front-loading washer-dryer set. She didn’t care about the brand and noticed a Maytag floor model with a scratch on the dryer and only one display pedestal, for the washer. She asked to speak to the manager and negotiated a discount based on the scratch and it being a display model. Then she asked what they were going to do with the pedestal.
“Is somebody going to buy that sitting by itself?” she asked, mentioning that she’s a mom with three kids and couldn’t bring the set home in her vehicle. The manager threw in the pedestal and delivery as well. The entire transaction could’ve cost $2,100 but ended up being $1,100.
Haggling rules to live by
Make it personal. Try walking into a store with the best attitude possible. Be friendly, respectful and interested in developing a relationship with the sales staff. (See “Know thy enemy: Understanding the salesperson’s tactics.”)
“Introduce yourself with your name and a handshake so you take away the anonymity,” Parrish said. “Now I’m working with Bob the sales guy, and he’s working with Julie customer. You make it personal.”
Talk to the manager. As sugary sweet as you can be to the frontline sales clerk, you’ll never get a worthwhile discount. He simply doesn’t have the authority to offer one.
You have to speak with the manager, the person who has the power to negotiate. But when you ask, be nice, and offer to help that clerk who’s now your first-name buddy.
“You say, ‘John, I’m looking at this television,’ and I have a question about the pricing,” Ko said. After a friendly conversation, say: “You’ve been very good to me. I’d like to help you. Where’s your manager? Let me throw in a good word for you.”
Keep your word. Your career as a negotiator will be short-lived unless you follow the haggling protocols. If you tell a frontline clerk you’re going to put a good word in with her manager, do so.
“Always follow through; don’t say it and not do it. Execute on it and respectfully do what you say,” Ko said.
Don’t make them regret it. The last thing the retailer wants is to have 50 of your friends walk in and ask for the same deal. Stores don’t want it known that they will cut special deals. Few were even willing to talk for this story.
In an e-mail, Lowe’s spokeswoman Abby Buford said, “Managers do have the discretion to adjust prices if necessary to be competitive in the market.”
Costco generally offers volume discounts only when customers buy a product by the truckload, Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti said in an interview.
“We sell at incredibly low prices every day,” Galanti said. “When someone wants a discount beyond that, it’s going to be at the discretion of the department manager. We don’t encourage or discourage it.”
8 phrases that win discounts
* Use “if . . . then” statements. For instance: “If I buy two of these Tiffany necklaces, then can you give me 25% off?” Or: “If I buy the entire rack of ground beef, then what’s the best price you can give me?”
* Begin by saying what you do like about the store, service or product. It establishes you as a loyal customer and a decent human being.
* To begin negotiations, say, “I’d like to pay X” or “My budget is Y.”
* Give them a reason to say yes, whether it’s a scratch on an appliance or a model from last year.
* When the seller turns down your offer, ask, “Is there a price you’d accept?”
* “I want to stay a loyal customer. But I’ll tell you the truth — it is tough to pay the bills.”
* “I’m not happy with the price I’m paying for this service.”
* “What’s the ‘recession price’ for this coat?”
Posted in Informational, Inspirational, purchases | 3 Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009 |
Found this gem by Rachel Zupek on cnn.com
With an abundance of job losses, salary cuts, eliminated bonuses and diminished 401(K) matching contributions, your income is shrinking — but the bills aren’t.
If your regular job isn’t earning you enough cash or you’ve lost your job altogether, these simple side gigs can help put some padding in your pockets until — maybe even after — you get back on your feet.
Here are 10 ways real people are creatively taking home some extra dough:
1. Do freelance work
Felice Premeau Devine left her lucrative, full-time job two years ago to raise her son. In the interim, she’s picked up writing and editing freelance work and started a blog, where she is able to earn a little cash from advertising.
Nowadays, almost any job can be done on a contract or freelance basis. Check out sites like Sologig, which lead job seekers to contract, consulting, freelance, temp-to-hire and part-time project opportunities in your field.
2. Sell your books
If you’re a college student or you hung on to your college textbooks thinking you might want to read them again somewhere down the line, select retailers like Barnes & Noble allow you to sell your textbooks for some quick cash. Or, take some classics from your personal library and sell them at a local second-hand bookstore.
3. Search circulating coinage
Susan Headley, the “guide to coins” on About.com, is a lifetime coin collector who has been boosting her income by searching through circulating coinage for the past six years. In 2008, she made about $2,500 and so far in 2009, she has earned approximately $500 from coins she’s found.
People who search circulating coinage successfully for a side income do so in very large numbers, she says. They buy rolls of coins from banks, typically in whole boxes, and sort through it to find stuff that just doesn’t belong, Headley says. Half dollars, for example, were no longer made from 90 percent silver after 1965, but they still had 40 percent silver in them until 1970; either of these turn a nice profit. Presidential dollar errors can be worth $50 to $5,000 each; uncirculated state quarters can sell from $10 to $50 per roll; and rare error coins can value up to $35,000.
4. Start a “business”
Turn your hobby, skills or expertise into a part-time business. Sites like Jobvana can help you do so by providing you with free tools to market your services and offer specialized skills to those looking for help.
Peter Olson says he built a profile in September 2008 offering to teach guitar lessons. He has since gained two students, earning about $240 extra dollars per month and grossing around $1,000 since he started teaching.
5. Enter local and online sweepstakes
Wendy Limauge has been entering sweepstakes since 1993 and teaching others to win through her Web site, Sweeties Sweeps, since 2002. Though winning sweepstakes rarely provides actual cash, her winnings have consistently provided her and her family with 200 to 300 prizes a year, many of them large items she and her husband couldn’t afford on their incomes alone.
Prizes she has won include three TVs, two of which are flat-screens; a home theatre system; three dishwashers, each won on separate occasions; at least $1,500 in grocery gift certificates; an $18,000 voucher for the vehicle of her choice; a trip to France valued at $25,000; and, in March 2009, she won $5,000 in an instant-win game.
“The Internet has so many options for saving money, getting something for free, winning a prize or earning money from home,” Limauge says. “You just need to find those resources that offer helpful information and point you in the right direction to get you started and keep you motivated.”
6. Give your opinion — and get paid
Linda Childers, a California-based freelance writer, says many of her friends participate in focus groups. Contributing an hour of your time can earn you up to $100, sometimes more. Online surveys, phone surveys and product trials can also earn you anywhere from $5 to $150. Check out Free Paid Surveys or FindFocusGroups.
7. Sell your junk
Terri Jay earns $2,000 - $3,000 per month just by selling junk. On eBay, Jay not only sells stuff she isn’t using; she hits up local thrift stores on 99-cent days, garage sales and tack sales, looking for things of which she knows the value. She says her best sale was for a drink tray from the 70s: She paid 25 cents for it and it sold for $87.
“The trick is to [sell] what you know,” she advises. “Therefore you can list them [at correct prices] so they will get picked up in searches [on eBay].”
8. Join a direct selling company
Direct selling is one of the easiest ways to earn some extra cash, especially if you sell products you love. Avon, for example, allows you start your own business for $10 — your take home depends on your efforts. Some full-time representatives earn six-figure salaries, others own licensed Avon Beauty Centers and many just sell Avon part time around their families schedules.
Haizel MacIntyre started her Avon business in June of 2008 to earn supplemental income to her full-time job when her husband was laid off. Since joining Avon, MacIntyre averages $1,800 a month in sales and her husband is helping her run the business. Her Avon earnings help pay the bills, provide extras for her three kids and she is hoping to earn enough to put towards her college tuition when she goes back to school to get her Masters in Social Work.
9. Be a secret shopper
Keen eyes for detail as well as a good memory are really all that it takes to succeed as a secret shopper, says Zippy Sandler, who has been mystery shopping for about 13 years. After registering with a secret shopping company, you are paid to basically go undercover and report on a company’s operation from the customer point of view.
Sandler decided to start secret shopping not only to earn money eating, traveling and shopping, but also to learn customer service skills to pass along to the employees she managed at a retail store. Depending on the clients she is shopping for, Sandler says she has earned everywhere from $100 to $2,000 per month.
10. Sell your photos to stock agencies
It doesn’t matter if you’re a hobbyist, an amateur or a seasoned photographer - anyone can submit their photos to stock photo agencies like Shutterstock.com. If your images are accepted, they will be available for download by subscribers. Each time someone downloads your photos, you get 25 cents.
Posted in Generate income, Informational, Inspirational | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 |
We’re done! My wife and I set out on a mission to give 10% of our generous gift to various family and friends in need. Do you know how hard it is to give money away to people not only in need but deserving?
We figure, we could have blown the money on dumb stuff ourselves so we wouldn’t give it to friends and family members who had no business with a lump sum of money. So we had to quietly (since no one knew we even inherited the money) weed out qualifying targets.
We gave the money on 2 conditions:
- They don’t tell anyone we gave it to them
- They help someone else out in the future.
There were tons of people that needed the money but we were skeptical as to if they’d actually be responsible with it. Some we KNEW wouldn’t be, so we paid bills off for them. Others we gave straight cash to because they had no choice but to be responsible with it. You know the types that have plenty of mouths to feed or young ones depending on them and just need a small “push”. Some just bought a house and since they were first time home owners, didn’t expect bills to mount so quickly and the utilities to be so expensive.
I must say, the feeling it gives you to be able to help someone is AWESOME! We all talk about what we’d do for each other if we ran across some money. The wife and I, actually followed through with it. What’s amazing about it is we all fantasize about the million $ lotteries, all the while, we were able to make a difference in a lot of people lives with only $4,000.
The reaction from people was various. It’s amazing how many people quickly turn to God to thank you for their blessings. Some started tearing up. One confessed that we’d changed his life (beyond comprehension) since he was dealing with some personal issues and he’d let me know when it all got sorted out (still waiting).
Truthfully, after having the money for about 6 months, it started to feel like a curse. It started feeling like, “we had good intentions”, and would just pocket the rest. We were constantly trying to identify people to give the remaining $1000 to. It got to the point we were like Will Smith in seven pounds where we were trying to see if people had a bad side to them before we sacrifice the money to them.
I actually, ran across one person (who shall remain nameless) that kept ignoring me over the Internet when I asked him a questions about how much things were going to cost to get him out of a rut. Only after I’d already given the remaining $536 away would he respond with “what did I want again”. His loss.
All in all, I’m happy to even have the had opportunity to bless people. Giving should be something that we all practice. I’m even leaning towards a new idea that instead of going Xmas shopping for the kids this year, we take that money to do a sort of Secret Santa type deal during the holidays. That’s only in thought at the moment, because right now, we’re in the brunt of the recession just like everyone else.
Maybe I’ll compromise my thoughts and get them all one gift a piece and plant a bigger seed in their heads with the gift of giving.
So what would I do differently if the opportunity presented itself again? Not a damn thing. The experience was awesome and right up there with the births of my children or swimming with the dolphins in Nassau.
Posted in Inspirational, Uncategorized, success | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 |
Yup.
This is one of those articles that should have no place in a financial freedom blog.
Let’s be honest. Who am I kdding?
There’s a reason I haven’t been one of those success stories I constantly read about. You know the one, (The typical Dave Ramsey caller just sending in their last mortgage payment and get to yell “I’M DEBT FREE!!!” with some idiot named Jimbo in the background). I Loathe to become “Jimbo”.
Or do I?
How is it I can hear the background so clearly in their household? And how did they pay off $120K in mortgage debt in five years while only bringing home $60K/year between them? I started thinking about the difference between me and them and quickly realized that the reason that their background is so quiet is because of the absense of kids.
Now, I’m probably an atypical parent that makes jokes about kids being worrisome or being around. Truth is, I’d be lost without them. I have a great nuclear family and couldn’t /wouldn’t ask for anything more out of what the wifey and I have made. Having said that, we currently have 4.7 to be exact (one due in July) so there has to be an end to this madness somewhere right?
RIGHT! On April 10th, 2009. I sat down on the Dr. Teitjan’s slab in Lee’s Summit, MO and did the unthinkable/most femenizing thing a man could do…
I GOT SNIPPED!
Not only did I get snipped. Teitjan had problems finding my left vas deferens and poked and prodded for 20 minutes too long causing post operative complications. It’s not his fault my vas defrens was retracted further than normal so I blame him for nothing. However that doesn’t stop the hemotoma I’ve now developed immediately afterwards because of the complications.
So as I’m typing this article almost 3 weeks to the day later, I have a hard lump the size of a egg in my scrotum. It’s not as bad as it sounds and Teitjan says it should go down after several weeks while the body slowly absorbs it.
Now enough about my castration. Back to Jimbo in the background. Jimbo is able to pay his mortgage down so quickly because he doesn’t have the pleasure of paying for $80/month gymnastic classes, $250 for softball registrations, $640-$1400/month in daycare (when the wife was working), $1000 Christmases, $80 every time a violin string gets severed. I stopped there but that doesn’t include the co-pays and extra money we have to pay for health care costs for the kids.
Sounds like I’m bitching about my predicament with the kids. Trust me, I’m not. I love my life and the challenges that present themselves. The kids keep the wife and I young, entertained, and constantly appreciative.
So while I’d love to have that paid off mortgage in the next five years, I’m going to have to cut back on my intensity towards my goal because our family is evolving at the moment. We’ll eventually get there, but I’ve come to understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day (we’re only 32) and sometimes it’s just not in the cards.
The reason I’m writing this is because even though I can get preachy/demanding towards my goal, I have to realize that my goal is to really be healthy and fit for my kids for as long as I can. I’ve always realized it and have never put the kids or my family second. I just felt I needed to say it loud in case some of you may have forgotten.
Having had this cum-bah-yah moment… we still need to get to work on our secondary goal on becoming debt free so having kids doesn’t let us off the hook.
Posted in Inspirational, Personal debt, Uncategorized, goals, relapses | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 14th, 2009 |
A number of the people profiled in “Millionaires tell how they did it” made their millions as entrepreneurs. But working for the Man doesn’t mean you have to be a wage slave or resort to buying lottery tickets to strike it rich. The trick is to maximize your income on the job (and know when to move on), make the most of your employee benefits and tax breaks and use that extra money to start investing.
1. Keep your eyes peeled for better ways to do your job. Streamline a procedure, shave costs, create a new profit center, become an expert on a specific topic, volunteer for a company committee — anything that will make you stand out as a prime candidate for a promotion or a pay boost.
2. Don’t be afraid to negotiate. In a study of master’s degree graduates from her university, Carnegie Mellon economics professor Linda Babcock found that those who negotiated their first salary boosted their pay by 7.4% compared with those who didn’t bargain.
3. Get your ducks in a row and your numbers on paper. If possible, quantify how much your efforts add to the company’s bottom line. If that’s not feasible, spotlight your value with comparable salaries for workers in your position from a Web site, such as Salary.com, or from a professional association.
4. Plot your strategy when it’s time to move on. Create a professional-looking page on MySpace that tells prospective employers why you’re an exceptional candidate, recommends John Challenger of the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. And don’t neglect more conventional networking: Join a professional association or show up at school reunions toting business cards.
Milk your benefits
5. Contribute as much as you can to your 401(k) and other tax-deferred retirement plans. You’ll not only build a bigger nest egg, but you’ll also cut your tax bill. In the 25% federal tax bracket, every $1,000 you contribute to a 401(k) trims your taxes by $250. And you’ll save on state income taxes, too.
6. Flex your tax-saving muscle. Contribute pretax dollars to a flexible spending account to pay for dependent care or out-of-pocket medical expenses. If you set aside $1,500 per year and you’re in the 25% bracket, avoiding federal income and Social Security taxes means Uncle Sam will subsidize almost $500 of your expenses.
7. Review your tax withholding. If you’re expecting a refund this spring, you’re having too much tax withheld from your paycheck — and making an interest-free loan to Uncle Sam. That’s no way to become a millionaire. Put more money in your pocket by using Kiplinger’s withholding calculator and then filling out a new Form W-4.
8. Stash savings in a Roth IRA if you’re eligible. Withdrawals in retirement, including decades of compounded earnings, will be tax-free. This year, income-eligibility limits for a Roth increase to $114,000 for individuals and $166,000 for married couples.
Invest like crazy
9. Don’t delay. The quicker you get a jump on putting money aside, the easier it will be to stuff a seven-figure cushion. If you start at age 25, for example, investing $286 per month will get you $1 million by age 65, assuming you earn 8% annually.
10. Invest automatically, either through your employer’s retirement plan or by setting up a regular deposit to a mutual fund or broker. You’ll never miss the money, and you’ll avoid two big mistakes: buying too much when stock prices are high and not buying at all when prices fall.
11. Watch for fund fees. The more you pay, the tougher it is to earn an above-average return. The typical hedge fund, for example, takes 20% of any gains, a huge hurdle to overcome. A better bet: no-load mutual funds with expense ratios of 1% or less. If you trade individual stocks, watch those commissions.
12. Keep it simple. Be wary of get-rich-quick schemes or sales pitches for complex investments, such as oil-and-gas partnerships, that trade on the millionaire cachet to lure investors into buying high-fee products they don’t understand. Most millionaire households accumulate their wealth over the long term by sticking to a regular investing plan in a balanced portfolio.
Posted in Informational, Inspirational, education, success | No Comments »
Monday, November 24th, 2008 |
That’s right! The wifey has now been bitten by the layoff bug. Her entire department is no longer with us. I came home for lunch to play Call of Duty 4 on the XBox 360. While I was in the middle of spreading my wrath on some inferior victims I got a phone call from the wifey. She informed me that she’d been let go.
Right away I knew she was serious but for some reason I didn’t even feel an, “awe damn” moment. Truth is, I’ve been telling her for the longest that she needs to find another job. She was comfortable so she stuck with them. Now they forced her hand and she’s currently unemployed.
Now we have to find a way to get health insurance since we were using her health benefits. It doesn’t help that we found out a couple of weeks ago that we’re expecting our 5th child (July 5th ‘09). Meanwhile, I’ve been researching some health insurance possibilities. Besides the expensive COBRA option ($775/ per month) to continue our same benefit coverage, I’ve been using ehealthinsurance.com to get some much more affordable quotes.
All in all, it’s not ALL BAD. For starters, she gets a severance package of 14 weeks pay (2 weeks for the 7 years she’s been there), 1 week of profit sharing as well as her 21 days of vacation pay. To top it all off, she still gets $423/week in unemployment benefits. So once again, our layoff situation may have us coming out smelling like a rose.
It’s feels GREAT to not have worry about a job loss. But at the same time, this is the 3rd big event to happen to us this year in the negative column. 3/21, I Lost my job (quickly found another one). 9/23, I lost my grandfather (he passed away without suffering or anything). Now this.
Notice the trend? Despite the hurdles, we’ve managed to take things in stride and be ok. I feel like everything is changing as I feel that the bad comes in threes. Our luck is finally turning and I’m optimistic about the next couple of months.
For starters, I’m in the middle of opening up a second business (tattooing). I hinted on it earlier in the year and it’s finally coming to fruition. MOdify Tattooing, LLC will be up and operational by the first of the year.
Well here’s to a GREAT ‘09. First round’s on me!
Posted in Inspirational, Personal debt, relapses | 2 Comments »
Sunday, November 9th, 2008 |
Live Below Your Means
Live a comfortable life, not a wasteful one. Do not spend to impress others. Do not live life trying to fool yourself into thinking wealth is measured in material objects. Manage your money wisely so your money does not manage you. Always live well below your means.
A penny saved is a penny earned.
- Benjamin Franklin
1. Redefine your definition of “rich”. – “I remember sitting in a cubicle at my first professional job staring at a picture of an SUV I wanted to buy (and eventually did). Now, I sit in my office and look at the pictures of my kids, and just outside my window I can see the beater I drive sitting in the company parking lot. What a difference a decade makes! To sum things up, my definition of being rich is having enough money to meet my family’s basic needs, a few of our wants, and to be able to give some away to others.” – via Frugal Dad
2. Borrow and share. Everyone wins! – “We borrowed a DVD from a friend instead of renting or buying and had a little snack from our own fridge! Way cheaper than using gas to drive to the theater/rental place, paying for a movie, and paying for a snack.” – via My Dollar Plan
3. Avoid the mall. – “Going to the mall is not entertainment! We used to go when we were bored. Of course, we usually ended up spending money while we were there. If you need clothes, then shop sales or go to stores that offer name-brands at a discount. You can save a ton on these items if you are a smart shopper. Dave Ramsey says, “Never pay retail!” We probably save $15 to $30 per month by staying away from the mall.” – via My Super-Charged Life
4. Limit your intake of advertisements. – “Advertising sucks. That’s the cold, hard truth. It’s engineered to make you feel like you’re incomplete, that you have an unfulfilled need, that you’re not good enough.” – via On Simplicity
5. Buy with cash. – “You can’t spend money you don’t have. Many bank accounts provide overdraft protection, so even with a debit card, it’s easier to go over your account balance than you think.” – via Simple Mom
6. Find a better deal and actually SAVE the difference. – “Regardless of what they sell, if you’ve switched companies for price reasons, save the difference. Think of phone companies, internet access, cell phones, credit cards, and others.” – via The Wisdom Journal
7. Adhere to a long-term investment strategy. – “I’m a long-term investor. The stock portion of my portfolio is spread over several mutual funds, a few ETFs and a few individual stocks. Each and every one of these holdings was carefully chosen, after thorough research. I believe in these stocks and funds. I consider them as my best bet in growing my money - LONG TERM.” – via MomGrind
8. Curb your consumerism! – “Have you ever watched how a child can play with a cardboard box for hours, and leave the toy that came in it by the wayside? How is it that children can enjoy themselves without a lot of “stuff”, but we as adults feel the need to reward ourselves by buying more stuff?” – via Billionaire Woman
9. Stay Healthy! Medical problems drain bank accounts. – “James M. Rippe, M.D is a best-selling author, world-renowned cardiologist, and founder of the Rippe Lifestyle Institute. He explains that if you look at all the risk factors for dying, the one that is most predictive is fitness level. In addition, an older person with high cardiovascular fitness is healthier than a younger person who is physically inactive. By increasing your fitness level, you can actually roll back your biological clock.” – via Abundance Blog
10. Stay in and relax. – “So, think about it the next time you go out. Are you going for with a purpose? Maybe the solution is to not go out at all. Stay home and save! Save up for something you really want or need.” – via The Jungle of Life
11. Gradually prepare yourself for a rainy day. – “Even when things are going great, and you feel on top of the world, you must always be prepared for a change. If you take the time and patience to set yourself up properly, then when things to take a turn for the worse, you will be prepared to handle it. If you live above your means, then when the slightest change occurs, you will not be prepared to adapt. Financial flexibility is more important then keeping up with the Jones’.” – via Yin vs. Yang
12. Stop competing. Forget about the Jones’ altogether. – “If getting rich makes us happy, then why don’t countries as a whole get happier as they grow wealthier? They discovered that as a country gets wealthier there’s no overall increase in happiness. Why? We continually compare our wealth against that of others. We are competitive and envious. Add to that the fact that Western countries encourage people to strive for more and more, and you have a formula that spins many into depression.” – via Color Your Life Happy
13. Get out of the “easy street” mentality. – “I think there is too much emphasis on the quick fix or the easy option in today’s society. For example taking diet pills to lose weight instead of the “hard option” - exercising and eating well…. money is sometimes being used as a substitute for hard work. Do you think there is an increasing expectation that you can get want you want by throwing money around instead of working hard and “earning” it? – via Forever Change
14. Avoid impulse buying. Buy things you truly need. – “Don’t you just love the excitement you feel after coming home with a new TV? Driving home in a new car? Opening the box on a new pair of shoes? I sure do. But, from watching the behavior of myself and my friends I’ve found that the new quickly becomes just another item. The excitement of novelty passes quickly.” – via Think Simple Now
15. Time is money. Properly manage your time. – “The fewer tasks you have, the less you have to do to organize them. Focus only on those tasks that give you the absolute most return on your time investment, and you will become more productive and have less to do. You will need only the simplest tools and system, and you will be much less stressed. I think that’s a winning combination. Focus always on simplifying, reducing, eliminating. And keep your focus on what’s important. Everything else is easy.” – via LifeDev
16. Find ways to give without spending. – “Want a quick, easy and (almost) free way to be guaranteed that you’ll make someone’s day special? Send them a letter. Why not set aside some time this weekend to sit down and write to a few people? If you don’t enjoy writing, try buying some nice postcards of your home town. If you’ve got an artistic streak, why not design your own note cards? You don’t have to write a long letter for it to be effective. It’s the thought that counts and the personal touch that makes it special.” –via Dumb Little Man
17. Don’t let greed and deceit get the best of you. – “According to Stephen R. Covey, if you reach an admirable end through the wrong means it will ultimately turn to dust in your hands. This is due to unintended consequences that are not seen or evident at first. The example he gives in The 8th Habit is: The parent who yells at their kids to clean their rooms will accomplish the end of having a clean room. But this very means has the potential to negatively affect relationships, and it is unlikely the room will stay clean when the parent leaves town for a few days. Now, to return to the topic of wealth, I think it is possible to see much of the world’s current financial problems as stemming from people who wrongly believe the ends justify the means. My advice? It is fine to aspire to wealth, but don’t lose sight of the means to accomplishing it.” – via The Change Blog
18. Never ever pay retail. – “You can easily save hundreds of dollars a year on clothing purchases by waiting for sales or shopping at discount retailers like Marshalls. Better yet, avoid name brand clothing all together.” – via Marc and Angel Hack Life 
Posted in Generate income, Inspirational, Personal debt, education | 4 Comments »
Friday, November 7th, 2008 |
Jesse Jackson, Colin Powell, my mother and countless others around the world had the same sense of accomplishment, pride and overall acceptance at 10pm CST once it was official that Barrack Obama was named the 44th president of the United States.
Obamas victory was a victory for America. Not because of the majority vote but because of it’s significance. His winning the election signifies the country is moving well past the hate filled days of slavery, white pride and power. It instead lays the foundation for us to stick together and to know that we can and will prevail in the face of adversity.
My only regret of it all is that my grandfather didn’t make it 3 extra months in order to celebrate in the moment. I can imagine him now, tearing up and snotting with his tissue in hand while showing admiration for something he thought he’d never see in his lifetime.
America, we have a chance to do something special here. Barack preaches personal responsibility for all. Some think he’s their savior for their financial woes while forgetting that it was their bad spending and debt habits that got them there in the first place.
THAT’S RIGHT! It’s time for YOU and ME to become personally responsible for our actions. By doing so, first we must educate ourselves. We must know that prime mortgages are a precursor to failure. We must know that, “keeping up with the Jones” will have us as stressed as them.
So before looking for a handout with foreclosure help or jobless claim help, think about what got you there in the first place. It wasn’t Obama, IT WAS YOU!
Prime lending? You have to educate yourself instead of getting caught in the NOW moment.
Jobless? (again) You have to educate yourself instead of looking for someone to magically pick you out of a lineup in order to secure employment.
Of course there’s circumstances that go beyond this article where things aren’t so pronounced but then again, maybe they are. Maybe if we’d take personal responsibility those unpronounced things may not happen to us also.
Posted in Inspirational, education, goals, purchases | 1 Comment »
