I’m sure you have a lot of getaways planned for spring and summer buy you know how airfare takes a big chunk out of your travel budget, right?
Finding ways to save on accommodation, food and activities is easy but what’s challenging is to find cheap air tickets.
So in order to help you feed the wanderlust in you without making a big damage on your bank account, here’s a list of helpful hacks to fly for less. (more…)
If you’re on a budget, grocery shopping is one of the chores that you need to master and be smart about. It’s a significant expense in every household that eats up a big chunk from your monthly budget.
If the idea of grocery shopping already excites you, congratulations because you are now officially a responsible adult. But don’t let the excitement get to you or you’ll end up overspending at the grocery store! I, myself, am guilty of that. Thanks, to unnecessary purchases that aren’t even on my grocery list, I always end up getting the surprise of my life at the checkout counter. (more…)
Spring is here and for most of you, it’s that time of the year when you begin planning for your upcoming spring break and summer getaways! But planning isn’t just about choosing where to go. The most important part of it is setting up a budget to make sure that you will be able to afford the trip and avoid going broke after.
To guide you, here are the things that you need to consider when creating a budget for your vacation. (more…)
Traveling to a holiday destination or on a business trip can be a delightful and exciting experience.
However, every trip starts with planning chores and precautions many are loath to do. Without proper planning, holidays easily degenerate into expensive nightmares. This doesn’t have to be so, if you:
This is the most important part of a trip. Most people prefer exotic locations for their holidays, which inadvertently mean they have no clue about the place. It is therefore makes sense to do as much research as possible. Check with friends and family who have visited that location for tips and advice. You can also check online sites where visitors post their experiences and recommendations.
These are some of the things you need to consider about your destination beforehand.
This will determine what you need in terms of clothing, transportation etc. This will save you unexpected shopping costs when you get there. For example, if you are going someplace where temperature variations are larger than you are accustomed to, plan to dress in layers.
This is important and may dictate what food or drinks are available. You may have to make other plans if you have special dietary requirements.
Holiday destinations especially those far from cities can charge high prices for simple necessitates like sunglasses. And really ridiculous prices for such “luxuries” as a bottle of water or an umbrella.
Your glossy travel brochure may fail to mention that those historic sites are only accessible by taxi, or twice a week. This will result in costly travel expenses or cancellations. Call ahead to avoid costly hassles.
Many visitors get stranded when travel schedules, especially those involving public transportation, go wrong. Do not make very tight schedules, to avoid missing a connecting flight, or the last shuttle to the secluded resort.
A spur of the moment adventurous trip may sound like a romantic idea (and can even be a bargain), but be prepared for late booking fees, reservation wait lists, unconfirmed bookings, and sky high rates for “impulse” excursions. Usually, you will save a lot of money by booking well in advance. This applies to hotels, airlines, concert tickets or boat cruises. Early booking gives you choice discounts, package specials and free offers. This also avails enough time for you to research and plan every little detail of your trip.
Those ancient sites or pristine sandy beaches can be crowded and expensive in high season. Most businesses have to cash in during the brief holiday weeks, and will therefore charge a premium. This includes everything from airlines to the local ice cream vendor. You can save significant amounts in hotel, transport, tours, and food charges by traveling off-season.
Cross border payments are a veritable gold mine for banks, credit card companies and other payment processors. Your holiday can be much more expensive when you get hit by extortionist exchange rates, check clearing fees, money transfer charges, overdraw penalties and roaming surcharges. Credit cards are the best for making payments abroad, but be sure to use those that support multiple currencies and charge low fees. Avoid using your bank account at all costs. Paying in cash may also attract penalties in certain places, such as for train or bus tickets.
If you are not leaving you own country, this may not be a concern. But if you are traveling to another country, you may come back to find your cell phone bill with several hundred dollars in “roaming fees” even if you didn’t make or get any calls! This is because the “smartphone” nearly everyone carries these days may automatically pick up email from any carrier it finds — which comes with hefty data charges. To avoid this, contact your cell phone provider to see what fees you may encounter at your destination. If you are planning early enough, you may be able to get a foreign SIM. You might have to “unlock” your phone first, but most carriers will let you do that if you tell them you will be traveling to another country.
It may be less expensive to rent a cell phone while you are there.
The modern traveler has a host of resources online which can make traveling much easier to plan. Services such as Turkey Visas have also gone online, making most travel requirements accessible at a click of a button.
Use all these resources to ensure your trip turns out to be a memorable one — in a good way.
Do you know of any jobs that require you to have a college degree for them to even consider you? Ummm, yup, pretty much all of them. College is incredibly important these days. If you want to get ahead (or at the very least keep up with everyone else), it is almost a certainty that you should not only attend college, but that you should receive a Bachelor’s degree as well.
Many people understand that college is important, but the next question is, “How can I possibly afford it?” Tuition costs are skyrocketing and the job market is seemingly paying less and less. You need to figure out how to get your degree for a deal and I’m going to teach you how to do it.
Scholarships
One of the best ways to reduce your college costs is to get a scholarship. If you are a minority, then you have a better chance than anyone to get awarded a scholarship. Check with the major scholarship sites, but also check the scholarships that are tied to particular institutions.
If you are not a minority or if you’re just having trouble finding scholarships that pertain to you, then your best be might be study up and take that ACT (or SAT, depending on where you live) again. If you can score high on these tests, then scholarships will simply start to fall into your lap.
Head to a Community College
If there is a community college that’s nearby, you can save a ton of money by continuing to live at home and earning your associates degree there. The costs per semester are often thousands of dollars less and when you subtract what you would have paid for room and board, you are coming out way ahead.
Finish Out Your Degree at the Local State College
Private institutions are simply too expensive these days. And, if your degree is in something other than engineering, business, or medical, then the expense probably just isn’t worth it. Instead of shelling out $40,000+ per year, cut those costs down to $20,000 or less by attending your Division II state college. You will receive a fantastic education still, but it will not break the bank.
Find a Job at the Institution
There are many colleges that have work study programs that allow you to earn some money working on campus. This might be in the form of secretarial duties, maintenance, or an RA (resident assistant). Whatever the case may be, if you are able to earn money without leaving campus, life is pretty sweet. This way, you don’t really need a car, you’re not wasting time driving to and from work, and you’re earning some pretty easy money!
Do Your Homework
In the end, it all comes down to “doing your homework” sort of speak. There are many colleges to choose from these days. Be sure to do your due diligence and choose the most cost effective school with the best reputation for your desired field. Once you decide which school is best for you, then you can decide how to get the best deal on your education.
Usually, when you get a “free” credit report, you have to enter a credit card. Then, if you forget to cancel your “service” you get billed after the “free” month.
However, there is a credit reporting service that doesn’t do that. It is really free. They are hoping that you like the service enough to continue to use it – and they appear to have lots of happy “customers.”
One minor glitch, however — it isn’t really your “offical” FICO score. They arrive at their figure a different way, and it’s an estimate. However, it’s pretty close, and their score will tell you things like whether your real FICO score is going to be in the ballpark for qualifying for a decent rate on a mortgage. And unlike a real credit check, it won’t affect your credit rating at all (they do what is called a “soft inquiry”).
As an added bonus (it’s all free, mind you), you can use their “what if” simulator to see how much impact certain transactions might have on your real FICO score.
The downside? Well, they get your email address, and you get on an email list (surely you anticipate this sort of thing these days!). Then, when you use their site, you get shown ads. But one really neat thing about that is that the default response is always “no.” Of course, you can use a “throwaway” email address to sign up, but I think the site is useful enough to tolerate the ads.
I even checked the box inviting them to send “special offers.” After all, one of the things I’m trying to learn is how to sell stuff on the Internet, and I get to study all of their best copywriting — also for free. Oh, and my credit score was excellent, as expected. Mrs. Bfthrou does a great job of keeping us on the “straight and narrow.”
The site is called Credit Karma. Try it out!
One of the best things you can do for yourself, if you have any sort of side gigs, blogging for money – any type of self-employment income, is to formalize the relationship of your work, by choosing your entity type. As an individual, you can easily file a Schedule C, using your regular 1099 income, deducting the direct expenses, and being done with it.
If, however, you want a better tax environment, you might want to create a more formal business structure to receive your income and protect your assets.
There are several entities you can use to help do this; some are more effective than others. The main types are:
Depending on your state of residence, and the state where you choose to establish your entity (they don’t necessarily have to be the same), some of these entities may or may not actually be available to you. There are a number of websites that can help you do a proper job of choosing your entity type and they can also help you form it. While they are not going to do this for free, these companies can save the money you spend a dozen times over by helping you avoid some common traps that as an inexperienced person, you might not realize are there. Keep in mind that there will be state registration fees as well, so this is not a process to be undertaken lightly.
Sole proprietorships and partnerships are the simplest of the types, and they are the least protective. That is: you pay taxes on your share of the income, and you are personally liable for the entire amount of any business debt and claims.
Limited partnerships are expensive to obtain and maintain; I wouldn’t recommend this to the budding entrepreneur. An LLC has a general manager who handles all the details of day-to-day operation; however the limited partners are not liable for business debts or claims.
Corporations and LLC’s do limit the owners’ personal liability for any court judgments or debts created by the business, but they are a bit more complex and difficult to set up. And in fact, the corporation is an independent entity that survives independently of the owner who controls and manages it. The C-Corporation pays tax on its own profits, and the business owners only pay tax on their personal tax returns for money they receive from the corporation (in salaries, bonuses, etc.). The S-Corporation does not pay tax on its profits (at a federal level, though states laws can easily differ), and the income flows directly through to the individual who reports it on his income tax return. The C-Corporation files a separate tax return on a Form 1120, and the S-Corporation (even though it doesn’t pay taxes) reports its income on a Form 1120S.
Today, the President and Treasurer of my corporation, Pro-Count, Inc. observed the corporate formalities. What does that mean? A corporation, being a separate entity with a separate life, must be run by elected officers. The elected officers of my corporation are me (the President) and Mr. BFTROU (Treasurer). We both hold director status, and once a year, the Board of Directors must hold an annual meeting. Since our corporation was formed on approximately this date in 1996, we hold our Board of Directors meeting around this time every year. It’s a good time to plan what we expect for the coming year and make corporate resolutions. So, that’s what we did.
While this year, our meeting was held at Chili’s, we did set a formal goal to have one of our directors’ meetings not too far in the future, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Sounds good to me! For us, cruising’s where it’s at. We also decided that we are going to establish a Section 105 Healthcare Reimbursement Arrangement, so the corporation can pay our medical expenses for us. While this will definitely save us in tax money, it’s not exactly “free” money. Somebody (mostly Mr. BFTROU) has to actually earn the money before it can be spent on health care or anything else. We just hope that there’s enough to pay the healthcare costs AND actually, you know, have some left over for us to buy groceries.
After this meeting, we will draft a document detailing the minutes of the meeting, just as someone would with any formal meeting, we will both sign it, and we will have observed the corporate formalities. This is very important because the IRS takes this sort of thing very seriously. If you are going to obtain the tax advantages of having a corporate entity, they want to see that you aren’t doing it just in name, but in actuality behaving as a business. If, in fact, you don’t observe these formalities, the IRS can perform an act called “piercing the corporate veil” which will change all that corporate protection into personal liability for every aspect of your business. That is not an appealing thought.
Due to the vagaries of Mr. BFTROU’s employment, we have always needed a corporation to maintain organization. So, as President and Boss Lady of the corp, I am happy to make sure we Observe the Corporate Formalities every year at this time.
If you should decide to use a Corporation or LLC to “contain” your business activities, be sure you observe the corporate formalities too.
When is the best time for paying credit card bills?
If you’re anything like me, you have a credit card or two that you use mainly to amass “reward” points. One of mine gives me points to use anywhere (I normally just have the “points” translated to dollars sent back to my bank account, and the other gives me points to use on Amazon. (I LOVE Amazon, but that’s another story.)
I know there are other, fancier credit cards that give you wonderful points that can be redeemed for frequent flier miles and other exciting things, but I prefer to stay with the basics, because it’s more important to me to keep up with exactly how much I owe (and when) than it is to count on some nebulous flight I might take in the future. (That could change if I ever had a job that required travel.)
I used to definitely be a proponent of paying credit card bills once a month, on the due date, and not one minute sooner. My mother instilled into my brain when I was a child that paying credit card bills – or, actually any bill before the due date, was a terrible idea because I would be passing up the interest I could earn from keeping that money in my bank account until the last possible moment, and what if I ever needed that money for something else, anyway? Well, so much for the interest, as there hasn’t been any for years! But you know how we tend to stick stubbornly to the ways we learned many years ago!
So, for months (since I got my latest card) I struggled with the question “exactly how much money do I have and how much do I owe a few weeks in the future, anyway?) Note to any future chess opponent: I hereby give the check, the mate, and whatever other spoils of the game are available to you without even pulling out the board, because I am the world’s worst at visualizing future moves and their effect on the overall picture – that translates to “I can’t figure out whether I am going to have enough money at the end of the month to pay this bill!”
In addition, my newest card – the one that gives me the “best” points – has a reasonably low credit limit, since I haven’t had it long. Although I am certain the limit will be raised, the low limit becomes critical when I am waiting for the due date to pay in full, but my balance is high and I need to buy something else (I say “need” here advisedly because all these purchases are normal living expenses – I am not talking about buying jewels and furs here). Yes, I could just pay cash, but I want those points! The next thing I discovered was that on a recent credit check, I got dinged for having a card that was near its limit. Oops….and the final piece of the puzzle is that I am 100% committed to not paying the bank one red cent in interest.
So, finally it occurred to me: give up, lady! Do it the right way, and you won’t have to worry about this at all! So, this is how I decided to handle the problem: I keep track of my credit card charges in the best checkbook/money management program I have ever used: Moneydance.** So at the end of every week, I look at all the charges for the week, and make sure they are legitimate. Then, I do a very simple thing. I am committed to paying credit card bills by the week, and I do just that. Every week, without fail, I pay the entire bill.
If you follow this simple method, soon you will see several benefits accrue: you will never have to worry about whether you have enough money left at the end of the month to cover all those charges, you will get lots of the rewards you wanted when you chose your card, and you will never have to pay the bank a dime in interest. In addition, unless your weekly expenses are really high, you won’t come near your limit, even if it’s a bit low, and you will show a steady, stable history of payment. And – did I mention: you won’t pay any interest! Win-win all around! Well, maybe it’s not so much a win for the bank – but I presume that’s okay with you – right?
Now I understand that everyone might not be in a position to just “pay off the bill.” Some people have large amounts of credit card debt and if you are one of those, this post is not aimed at you – at least, not yet. There are dozens of bloggers, including me, that are willing and eager to help you figure out a way to get out from under THAT problem, and when you do – and you will, come back to this post and see about instituting this little method to stay out of that debt which you worked so hard to pay off. When that happens, let me know and I’ll celebrate with you!
**http://moneydance.com – this is not an affiliate link, but I love it that much! Moneydance works for Mac and PC (and with my data files kept in Dropbox, I can access the program from any computer that holds the program, which is all of them that I use.) I can use the Mac to interface with it today, and the PC later on today. The hardest thing I have to remember is to close the program on one computer before opening it on the other, and Moneydance even handles that gracefully – I just don’t like to have to mess with figuring out which file I want to keep.
It’s Here! Our very first book – and one we are so excited about, too. Written by my friend, Y. Patrick Mazor, (and edited by me), this book will open your eyes about what you never knew about mortgages – especially the one that counts – YOUR Mortgage – You Can Save Thousands by Realizing It’s YOUR Money! The book is available on Amazon.com, (affiliate), and we are proud to announce that this is only the first in what we hope to be a series of helpful and informative ebooks hosted by HowToHackAnything.com. Already, there are several more ebooks in the planning!
It has been a real treat working with Patrick to produce this ebook. Having bought several homes in my lifetime and having signed so many papers my head was swimming (such a scary feeling), it’s wonderful to know that there really IS someone out there who not only knows what all those papers are about, but can explain them in words that “real” people can understand.
Not only can Patrick explain your mortgage in layman’s terms, he can show you how to significantly reduce the amount of money you pay for your home, and he shows you where dangers and the big savings are. Here is a list of chapters in YOUR Mortgage.
Whether you are about to buy a house, refinance your current mortgage, or just want to know what you really got yourself into when you sat down to “sign your life away” at your last home purchase, this is a book you can’t be without!
I’m a contrarian – that’s something you will probably always be able to say about me, and something you are likely to notice right off the bat. First, I start out telling you it’s okay to throw away food, and now, well, let’s see what anti-conventional wisdom I am coming up with next. But before I go any further, let me just be very clear on a few things: No matter what you think about taxes, whether they are fair or not, or whether you think you should have to pay them, I do not ever advocate paying anything less than all the tax you owe, but I also don’t think you should pay one penny more. Also, if you don’t like taxes, blame Congress, not the IRS. Congress sets the taxes, and the IRS gets the blame. While sometimes IRS methods are draconian, at least you should know that they act at the direction of Congress.
Now, back to the topic: In the current economic climate, there’s really no great reason NOT to loan money to your government (an interest-free loan, by the way) in the guise of a very large tax refund for yourself at the end of the year.
Yes, I know all the conventional wisdom: If your tax return is larger than about $100, you are doing yourself a very bad service, since that’s money you could have put in the bank and earned interest on! And so of course, you should always make sure your tax refund is as small as possible, and not loan money to the government, especially interst-free.
I disagree. Why? Because, as I mentioned previously, in this current economic climate, you aren’t going to gain much advantage by keeping that extra cash in your paycheck for two reasons:
But, really, don’t take my word for it. Let’s look at some interest rates to see what you actually would earn if you put an extra $1,000 in the bank and saved it for a year. Now realize that this $1,000 (which represents the amount of tax refund you could get in this example, if you are over-withholding your tax) is most likely going to be spread out over the year and divided by all your paychecks. So, if you get paid once per month, that $1,000 will be roughly $84.00 per pay period.
I went to several bank websites to get a feel for interest rates (they are pitiful!!) and the best I could come up with in a “high-yield” bank account that isn’t restricted by location or occupation (like most credit unions are) is 0.84% at Ally Bank with no minimums and no maintenance fees. So, we are going to figure the total interest on a series of payments of $84.00 for 12 periods, compounded monthly. Using these figures, at the end of one year, your total amount saved will be $1,012.60. You will have earned an interest amount of $12.60 for the year. Whoopie Doopie!
And if that weren’t bad enough, you know and I know that the $84.00 is likely going to be gone before it ever hits the savings (unless you’re really smart and have it direct-deposited there, which is not a bad idea). But for many people, $84.00 isn’t really enough to make a big difference in their lives, and it would easily and quickly be absorbed into one night out at a good restaurant, a really hot summer electric bill, or one very minor auto repair. In other words, you would never even notice it.
BUT! If you did like many people do, and deliberately overwithheld your taxes directly out of your paycheck, there is actually some advantage to be gained. <=Click to Tweet! At the end of the tax period, usually as early as the middle to end of January, you can get your money back and it will actually be enough that you can use it for something very necessary or very special. And you would have had all year to decide what that would be!
Remember, though: quickie tax services and refund anticipation loans are not your friend. Having owned a tax service in the past, it really bothered me to see people who needed the money so badly, paying it out in bank fees and loan application charges, simply because they just couldn’t wait any longer to get their money back (there is a reason why my ownership of this type of service is in the past, and this is one of the reasons). Most of these people also could have filed their taxes for free, if someone had just told them that the IRS allows most lower-income people to e-file for free on their website. In addition, many of the tax return software companies allow free e-file for all taxpayers on their websites! You just have to know where to look! This is a topic I’ll cover more in the future.
So save smart by having a little extra (or a lot if you can) withheld every pay period, and have significant money to show for it at the end of the tax year!