Buying your first car and getting your first “gas” credit card are usually the events that propel you into the world of “monthly bills.” Before that you rode your bike and had no clue what a “monthly statement” even looked like.
Of course, you had no clue either what to do with those statements so you tossed them on the table and didn’t worry about them. I’ll bet it didn’t take too long before you realized that you had better get a handle on things and get organized before you got into big trouble.
Just some simple organization will keep you out of trouble like bouncing checks and exceeding credit limits. It will, also, help you to immediately see when you are being charged for things you didn’t buy or letting fraud go by unnoticed.
A hard copy file is easy to set up and stays at your fingertips for easy access. A basic filing cabinet costs about $30.00.
There are a lot of good software programs for keeping financial records and you don’t need an expensive one just for your personal needs. You do need to remember to back up this file.
Open your mail when it comes in. Put your unpaid bills in a designated spot so that when you are ready to pay them, they are all in one place. Set a specific day and time for paying your bills and let nothing deter you from your appointed rounds.
Once every two weeks should be sufficient.Balance your checkbook and do it often.
After every check written is not too often. It will prevent you from bouncing checks which is costly and unnecessary.
Banks charge up to $35.00 for a bounced check and businesses charge up to another $35.00 so that $20.00 check you wrote when you only had $19.95 in your account can cost you $90.00 and a lot of stress.
The very first step is to ask yourself some simple questions.
Do you open your bank statements and bills the minute they come in the mail or throw them aside and do a Scarlet O’Hara, “I’ll worry about that tomorrow”? Without looking at your bank balance, can you say within $10.00 what your balance is right now? Do you know what stocks and/or bonds you are invested in? Can you say with certainty how much you spend on gasoline or entertainment in a month? You do…you don’t…no clue? Yes, you need help and you need to get your financial house in order.
Tip: The Internet can help. There is a mountain of financial information out there on the net and all you have to do is look for it. Use any search engine you like and type in “Personal Financial Help.” Follow those leads until you find programs that can help you get a handle on all things financial. There are a lot of very good ones…some free…some not. Some sites will even help you make a budget you can live with. (My favorite budget site is Mvelopes.) When you have less income than out-go, making more money isn’t always the answer.
The answer is usually managing the income you have better, more efficiently and wiser. Here are three simple rules to follow:(1) Save first. When you get your paycheck, before you spend one penny on anything else set aside a few dollars in a savings account. I call that, “Pay yourself first.”
(2)Budget your necessities. Necessities are food, clothing, shelter and transportation…not necessarily in that order. Shelter includes utilities.(3) Subtract #1 and #2 from your total paycheck. The remainder is all you have left for entertainment. Stick to this plan and your financial house will soon be in order.
We have become a nation of spenders. Most American households have more debt than they can pay on a good day and the loss of a job or a second income can be devastating.
In a recent survey 5% of households said their debt was “a heavy burden” and 4% were behind on at least one debt commitment. 20% of people say that they neglect checking their bank balances because they “are too scared to find out how much money they have”… or maybe that’s “don’t have”.
We have used our credit cards to buy groceries, gasoline for our cars, clothing that was over priced, and entertainment we couldn’t afford. Something must be done if we are to get control over our personal financial situation and there are ways to do just that.
If you find that you just have more debt and more monthly payments than you can meet for whatever reason, there is help in the form of Consumer Credit Counseling Service (CCCS) and websites such as Delray Credit Counseling and Lexington Law. It will take time but you can get out of debt. Staying out of debt is another matter.
You must make a budget. You must know exactly what your checking account balance is at all times. You must never make “spur-of-the-moment” purchases… PLAN all expenditures for clothing, household goods, entertainment, etc.
Take the time and put forth the effort to learn to do things for yourself that you hire others to do for you. This can save you hundreds of dollars a year… maybe thousands.
Invest in some good Personal Financial Management Software for your computer and learn to use it effectively. There are a lot of different programs out there.
Learn to do comparison shopping and use those coupons that come in the Sunday paper. Spend your money with a plan and plan not to spend all of it.Middle income families are the ones who can be hit the hardest if they don’t plan for the impact of long-term care for themselves and their dependents. Higher income families can afford it and lower income families can qualify for government assistance. Middle income families bear the financial burden themselves.
In a recent survey it was found that nearly three-fourths of middle income Americans were concerned about needing long-term care in the future but only one-fourth had actually purchased long-term care insurance. Does that mean that even though we are concerned, we prefer to just stick our heads in the sand and hope for the best?
“Hoping and praying” isn’t a plan considering that one out of every five Americans over the age of 50 will require some level of care in the next year of their lives. The average cost of a nursing home is $55,000. If you are 65 or over and on Medicare, don’t think that Medicare will cover long-term care…it doesn’t. Part B provides for a few days of therapy and rehabilitation…after that it comes out of your pocket.
The reason given in the survey for not having long-term care insurance were that it was too expensive. But is it too expensive?It wouldn’t take long for retirement nest eggs to melt away when paying over $50,000.00 a year for a nursing home or more that $20,000.00 for assisted living facilities. You should ask yourself if you would rather pay several thousand dollars a month for long-term care or a fraction of that to protect your assets with long-term care insurance.
Many times younger people think it is too soon for them to worry about long-term care insurance and older people think it’s too late…neither is accurate.