Posts Tagged ‘Discipline’

Balance Transfer Tips Maximizing The Benefits of Transfers

Saturday, September 4th, 2010

While transferring your balance from a high interest credit card to one with a low interest rate is easy, there are certain things that should be taken into consideration. The first thing you want to do is look at your current credit standing. If you have a good credit history, you should have no problem getting a card that has a 0% interest rate. Once you get this card, you can transfer over your balance from the high interest credit card to your new card that has a 0% interest rate.

By doing this you can save hundreds or thousands of dollars each year. When you decide to conduct a balance transfer, it is also important to determine how much you want to transfer. If you have a balance that exceeds $10,000, it is unlikely that you will be able to move over the entire amount to one card. Many credit card companies will give you a limit on how much you can transfer. Even if this is the case, moving over as much as you can will allow you to immediately begin saving money.

Some people become discouraged when they realize they can’t transfer over the entire amount, but this is not the right attitude to have. Paying off a large credit card balance won’t happen in one day, and it is important to take your time and use discipline. Another thing you will want to consider is the fee that may be charged if you transfer funds. A typical fee will be 3% of the total amount transferred, and this could be a large amount depending on the amount you want to transfer. Some banks have solved this problem by placing a limit on how much they charge in order to transfer a balance.

While transferring your balances can be a smart move, the best way to avoid debt is to stay disciplined and avoid putting more money on the card. It is important for consumers to realize that they, not the credit cards, are the problem. Properly managing your personal finances is the best key to avoiding debt. Many wait until they are in excessive amounts of debt before they try to do something to correct the problem.

They come up with ingenious ways to pay off their debts, but fail to realize the underlying cause of the problem. Consumers have to realize that credit cards are tools that can help or harm them. While they are convenient to use, not using them properly can lead to severe problems.

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The Threshold between Wealth Creation & Destruction

Saturday, July 24th, 2010

Wealth is simply the accumulation of money, and it can only be created by the amount of money that is received and never spent. If you want to build wealth, then anytime you receive money: dont spend all of it. Sure it is a very simple concept, but it is very difficult to continually achieve. Luckily there are readily available allies to help you: find some compelling reasons to start saving, build it into a habit, watch the results of your efforts build, and set some financial milestones to reward yourself.

Setting aside a percentage of any money that you receive is the best method to follow through and build the habit of saving money. There are a few misers among us who find saving easy to do, but most people want to spend far more than is earned; let alone have the discipline of spending less than what they earn. So it starts as an uphill mental and emotional battle that gets easier by following through with the habit, and seeing the results of your effort. Spending less than what you earn every week, every month, every year, is the only way to amass money.

How much money should you set aside to build up savings? It should be a percentage so that you automatically move it into a separate savings account anytime you receive income, without exception. It is my experience that the range of 3% to 10% is the most successful starting percentage for people who continue saving over long periods of time. Saving only 3% is so small that it is nearly painless to even the lowest income earners (this is actually where I began years ago). Selecting a percentage under 3% accumulates to such a tiny amount of savings that I havent heard of anyone sticking with it. And starting out by setting aside over 10% is too painful for even high income earners to withstand, because they are so accustomed to spending on every whim. As you repeatedly save a set percentage rate, it will become more habitual, automatic and expected. Then youll be ready to increase your percentage rate. And the higher the savings rate, your growing pile of money will create more motivation to continue to save. This summer, I spoke with a successful saver who lives very well on only 30% of his income. Because he saved diligently to continually buy rental homes, after a couple decades he earns over a million a year in rental income by Ashville, North Carolina.

In the fragile first years of saving money, it can take only a single wrong financial move to wipe out everything that youve saved so far. And the most common wrong move doesnt look like it when it is occurring. This draining move can also start insidiously small and build a different habit, the wealth-destruction habit. You know the problem: pay your credit card balance in its entirety, every month, without exception. As an example, if you havent saved money for a vacation before you depart, and then charge it all to your credit card, there is a giant probability that you wont pay it off for a very long time. The credit card companies know this and they are extracting interest dollars from you instead of earning interest yourself. Youve shifted to the dark side of wealth destruction where it is more common for your credit card balance to grow than shrink.

Lets get back to building your wealth. Once you start setting aside the savings percentage that youve decided and opened a dedicated savings account, you need to closely review your account statements for motivation. Reviewing the progress that youve made so far youll see how you are moving toward financial goals can be self-reinforcing. And another motivator is rewarding yourself by spending some money on yourself when youve reached certain milestones. For example, you could start with a goal of accruing $500, and reward yourself with something meaningful; and then each time you double your amount of savings you get another reward. My advice is to at least begin with a savings percentage, even as small as my 3%, and allow this simple concept be of great financial benefit to you.

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Simpler Solutions For Managing Your Money

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Lets face it, coming up with smart and simple ways of saving money takes thinking that is a bit more creative.

Use some of these shortcuts to managing your finances. They are guaranteed to save you time and money.

Trick your mind into saving

Cant always come up with where your money goes? There is a simple solution: Trick your own mind into spending less and saving more.

If you are up for a challenge, allocate yourself a weekly allowance. Put a set amount of allowance into an envelope and determine that this will be all you will be allowed to spend for any given week. Next, divide your allowance to take care of your expenses. When you get down to the last $20, thats the amount you put into your emergency fund. When the money is gone, there will be no more until next week.

Each payday, allocate a percentage to go into a secret fund used only for emergencies. When its crunch time, you will know its there.

Establish one dresser drawer just to toss single dollar bills. This way when the pizza man arrives, you will have the singles handy and wont need to break the larger dollar amounts. This discipline forces your mind to think larger amounts and to save larger amounts. You get into the habit of spending only the singles. This works!

To control your credit card debt, carry just one card and pay it off each month. If you are tempted to over spend, the credit card goes into the safe where you only stash your emergency fund. When crunch day comes you have a credit card you can use that will always be in good standing.

Jot down expenses in a notebook and tally them at the end of each week to see if you are over or under your budget estimates. Build in more than you need so that you will always have a cushion in case of a cash emergency. Tracking your spending takes some work but if you take careful notes, you will always be able to see one or two areas where youre leaking cash. You can then come up with an extra $20 or more per week in savings. Thats $1,000 a year in real money for an emergency fund.

More tricks to add to your own savings routine: Have your paycheck automatically deposited directly to savings rather than to your checking account. You will transfer money to pay your bills, but youll think twice about withdrawing additional cash.

Make ONLY one ATM withdrawal each week. Subtract your credit card purchases immediately from your checking account so youre not surprised once the bill arrives.

When you pay off a loan, add the amount to payments youre already making to the next lender on your list. You can also send the money to a saving or investment account earmarked for a house, a vacation or a new car and this money will be made available in case of a money emergency.

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The Definition Of Asset Management

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Many of you have probably heard the term “asset management” Before, but you may not have an idea of what it really is. Asset management is a broad term. It can be defined as a process that guides the gaining of assets, along with their use and disposal in order to make the most of the assets and their potential throughout the life of the assets. While doing this, it also manages and maintains any costs and risks associated with the assets. It is not something you can buy, but rather a discipline you must follow in order to maintain your assets.

Asset Management can be used for a variety of things. Most use asset management to keep track of their cash or “liquid assets.” Banking institutions are considered a form of asset management (savings accounts, CD’s, mutual funds, money market accounts, etc.) along with investments. Another example of assets: businesses often have a product to sell. These products are considered assets. The right asset management system can be utilized to make the product more readily available, easier to produce, cheaper to ship to customers, etc.

Asset Management Resource:
Tracking and insuring the product is also a way of asset managagemant. The product is an asset to the business and essential for its survival and for financial stability. So, maintaining and managing this product is of the up most importance.

There is another type of asset that many people do not think of when they think of the term “asset management.” This asset has to do with public and shared assets such as: the building and maintaining of streets, highways, water treatment facilities, sewage, electricity, natural gas, clean air, etc. All of these are assets that everyone on this earth needs. Usually, your city or local government uses asset management to maintain the cost of these assets.

They also use it to produce some of these assets more effectively and in a more cost efficient manner. Natural resources such as: water, electricity, and natural gas are managed so that they can be renewed constantly and thus available inexpensively.

Asset Management Resource:

There are many different means of asset management. It often depends on what type of asset is involved. There are companies and software products available to assist in asset management. Whatever method you choose, there are many similar things that your asset manager system should entail:

1. Optimize asset use and manage all maintenance efforts involved by
making assets as accurate, reliable, and efficient as possible.

2. Reducing the demand for new assets and thus save money by using demand management techniques and maintaining current assets.

3. Uses a form of asset tracking: knowing where the asset is at all times, how much the asset is worth, and how much the asset cost you to begin with. It should also incorporate this throughout the entire life of the asset.

4. Always tries to achieve greater value for money through evaluating the asset options: the cost of maintaining, producing, the use of it, etc.

5. Always provides a report on the value of the assets, along with any costs involved in maintaining the assets.

Hopefully you now have a better understanding of the many forms of asset management. There are so many different things that can be defined as assets, thus there are so many different means of asset management. Now that you understand it a bit, you can decide what your assets are and how you can maintain them better in order for them to be more advantageous for you!

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