Saving for Serenity

Where has all the money gone?

Given the less-than-admirable current financial state, it’s especially important to look at ways to save your hard-earned money. Here’s 5 quick and easy ways to help you save more money right away:

1. Buy Grocery in Bulk

Reports outline savings of as much as 10%-15% when purchasing groceries in bulk. Online grocers such as Grocery Gateway are becoming increasingly popular and often offer significant savings for purchasing in bulk. Besides, who doesn’t want five packs of deliciously nutritious Pop Tarts in their cupboard?

2. Put 30% of Your Paycheck in a Savings Account

It’s really easy to indulge on payday – regulate that urge by putting away 30% of your paycheck in a high-interest savings account. You’ll thank yourself later when that money accumulates toward the purchase of that brand new 5- speed manual BMW. Or that brand new 5-speed mountain bike. Whatever floats your boat.

3. Reduce Phone Extras

“This message is directed to a voicemail service that has not yet been set up by this customer. Thank you, goodbye.” Seriously, if you’re not going to use your voicemail service, cancel it! You wouldn’t pay extra for a delicious piece of chocolate cake after dinner and NOT eat it, right ? (I sure wouldn’t) The same applies to phone extras outside of voicemail – call forwarding, caller ID, long distance calling, etc.

4. Take Advantage of Bank Programs

The Canadian bank marketplace offers a multitude of money-saving options. Scotiabank’s Bank the Rest program can save you over $500 dollars a year just from purchasing lunch 3 times a month or more.

5. Track Your Spending

It may come as a surprise, but knowing exactly where your money is being spent most will definitely help you look to what expenses you can cut out or reduce monthly to save money. Sites like spending profile offer a free, useful online portfolio designed to help track your monthly expenses.

Take advantage of these 5 important ways to save money and I assure you’ll see results instantly. It worked for me – I’m now the proud owner of a brand new, shiny 5-speed mountain bike.

I found this really cool video i thought everyone would like:

Thoughts? Anyone else have good ideas?

Image Source = QuiteLucid

Are you in the market to buy an expensive item like a new television? Or, maybe you are interested in going on vacation? Perhaps you need to make some much needed home improvements. You probably would look to satisfy
paying for any type of luxury purchase with a credit card. Some people even look to utilize the equity from their homes by taking out a second mortgage when paying for high-ticket items. As an alternative to acquiring high-interest
credit card debt or applying for a home equity loan, you can receive the money you are looking for by means of an unsecured personal loan.

Home Equity Loans vs. Unsecured Personal Loans
Although there are some great tax advantages associated with home equity loans, there are some excellent benefits to utilizing personal loans for your financing needs:

Immediately have accessibility to your money; usually within a few hours from when your application is remitted. Because of the entire closing process, it can literally take weeks for you to receive the financing from a second mortgage.

- Significantly lower borrowing amounts needed. With a
personal loan you can borrow as little as $100 but with a second mortgage you
may be required to borrow $30,000 or more.

- Less stringent credit requirements. Bad credit is OK with
personal loans whereas good credit is going to be required with a second
mortgage.

- Typically no closing costs associated with personal
loans.

- Unsecured loan programs are not only for homeowners.

Credit Cards vs. Personal Loans

Use a personal loan to eliminate your debt! With a personal loan, you can
consolidate all of your high-interest credit cards into one, simple to handle
payment. No longer will you have the stress of having to pay several credit card bills every month. You will also likely be reducing the amount of your monthly debt obligation since personal loan interest rates are usually lower than rates associated with credit cards

Apply For a Personal Loan From the Comfort of Your Home

Another amazing advantage of personal loans is that you are able to complete the entire process without ever leaving your home. Simply submit the online
application and have a loan officer contact you via email or phone to finalize
your request. The only additional requirements may be to fax some paperwork to verify income, residency and/or banking.

Overall, if you are looking to borrow $25,000 or less, unsecured loans are a better option than home equity loans or credit cards. There are many online unsecured loan providers out there. However, Choice Personal Loans is one of the premier online providers of good and bad credit personal loans. Choice has been providing affordable unsecured consumer financing to all fifty states since 1999; offering financing for every purpose including loans for computers, home improvements, car repairs….whatever your needs are! You can borrow as little as $100 to as much as $25,000. They even provide no credit check loans for up to $1500. Choice takes pride in being not just a lender but a provider of helpful information that will help educate consumers about everything related to financing and credit.

Debt consolidation Denver solutions have been becoming popular by the day amongst the fellow residents. These solutions can provide an ideal mix of debt management advice and best in class financial consultation to those who are burdened under piling debt concerns. Debt consolidation Denver solutions can be accessed in a typical brick and mortar or across the web. Online debt consolidation Denver solutions have witnessed unprecedented growth in a shorter pan of time. The increasing reliability on credit has triggered the need amongst the debtor base to look out for structured debt consolidation solutions on the go. Much appreciated aspects about a structured debt consolidation Denver solution is that it helps a debtor in managing his or her finances smartly on the go. Based on their risk profile, disposable income and savings they can easily channelize their investments and make a monthly EMI payment to offset debt. Such an arrangement can be provided by a typical debt consolidation Denver solution or through debt refinancing solutions on the go. With a structured settlement plan in place it becomes a lot easier for a debtor to manage his or her finances in a smarter manner.

Various debt consolidation and registered agencies can be sought out for in Denver while on is trying to gain from the debt consolidation Denver solutions on the go. The need of the hour is to assess ones risks and act in the manner accordingly. Unchecked debt can eat up liquidity and is slated to lead to financial concerns amongst one and all. One can easily get a professional help from debt consolidation Denver solutions in a smarter manner and power through their finances. The financial advisors would ideally key in the financial parameters pertaining to a profile of an individual before suggesting debt consolidation Denver quotes. Various service providers should essentially be sought out for while one is trying to consider debt consolidation in Denver. They can gain endlessly from the fluctuations in the interest rates, payment terms and other parameters in just about no time at all. As a result, debtors can easily get to maximize their profits in a neater manner. It is highly recommended to engage in a professional debt management and help agency in order to manage the debt consolidation end to end on the go. These solutions have been able to provide scalable benefits to one and all in shorter span of time on the go.

Guest Post provided by: Sarah

Debt is the easiest thing we can find ourselves in, and to many people it can sneak up on them.

To help push yourself out of debt, there are a few things you can do. The aim of this series is to help make your life easier with a few tips.

By making these small adjustments in your life, you will be able to see big differences in your spending.

Shop around before making your purchase

Always take the extra time to shop around; you may think you are getting the best deal available, however the majority of the time you are not. You can trim a good bit of money off certain expenses if you take the time to shop around. Give it a try, you will be surprised with the results.

Check the weekly flyers to find great deals on groceries, electronics and much more. The money you end up saving you can put into your savings account. This will help you reach your savings goals in a shorter amount of time you may have thought possible.

Next time I will discuss the importance it is to Live within your means, and the effects it can have on your savings if you do so.

It is never easy to stay out of debt; you will constantly be fighting to stay out of debt, however nothing is impossible once you put your mind to it.

As many of us know already, when it comes to saving money, certain people are much better than the task than others. You will always find individuals who have a greater understanding of the need to save money, and how to efficiently implement strategies to ensure their savings are constantly growing.

There are several reasons as to why people fail to save. This series will focus on these reasons and what you may be able to do to avoid making these mistakes.

Not starting Early in Life

An issue that many people have when it comes to saving is not starting early enough. As each day passes without saving money, it is a lost opportunity to increase you savings. By starting early you will be increasing the number of years you have to contribute to your savings as well as the opportunity to benefit from earned interest or growth in investments.

When you start early on in life, you are not required to start saving in huge amounts. You can take it slow and steady, making small contributions at first, and as you get into a better position financially you can make larger contributions.

For those who may be starting late in life in creating their savings, you will be required to follow a stricter regiment.

You will have to save more frequently, if you want your savings to grow. There really is no remedy for those who have started saving late, however you can stop looking at what could have been done and do what you can to create your savings.

There are plenty of reasons why you may not have started to save earlier on in your life, despite what it is, remember it is never too late to start saving.

image source:Thomas Hawk

In Part 1 of this series I gave a basic overview of why to negotiate when making purchases, how to negotiate and reasons why people don’t.  In this post I will share some tips on more advanced negotiation techniques and some real-life applications for negotiation and sales skills.

Knowledge is All

When negotiating you want the sales advisor to know that you are a well-informed person.  One approach to negotiating is just to go in with a very low offer.  This doesn’t require any knowledge of the profit that the company you are dealing with is trying to make.  The problem with this is that the sales advisor then knows that you are negotiating from a position of little knowledge.  They will be more confident in their “but that’s less than we paid for it” argument and will hold out for a higher price.  The security of their negotiation position is based on holding all the cards.  You need to have the information to make them feel less secure, but how do you get that information?

In this case the internet can be your friend.  Searches such as “how much should x cost” or “what is the profit margin on y” reveal a surprising amount of information.  Consult industry standard publications e.g. the many price guides that exist for  cars.  One other tactic is to contact the companies in the supply chain below the company you are dealing with directly and get them to give you a quote.  I did this when I was investigating the price of replacement windows for my home.  I contacted a window manufacturer that only deals with the builders to find out how much they charged.  I had to pretend to be a builder to do this (you may or may not be comfortable with this deceit) but it gave me an accurate figure to use in my negotiation.

Using Your Information – Make a Good Opening Bid

Negotiation is an art not a science so there are no right or wrong figure to use.  One tactic that I have found quite useful is to make the opening bid the cost price to the company.  When I get turned down I use this as a way of revealing my knowledge of the cost by saying something like, “I know this is approximately what you paid for it so I’m willing to consider a higher amount.  I know you have to make some profit, so what is your best offer?”.

Calling in the Manager/Supervisor

If you are getting nowhere negotiating with the sales advisor then ask to be seen by their manager.  Why is this a good idea?  It works for two reasons:  Firstly, no one likes to have to call their manager into a work situation.  It feels like weakness and the person you are negotiating with will give as much ground as they can to avoid it.  Secondly managers often do have the authority to give larger discounts than their sales force.  If you do get to see the manager then they may be able to give you what you want.

Using Manipulative Language

This is a favourite of people working in sales.  Rather than ask a question that can (and often would be) answered with a straight “no” they ask a question with two possible positive alternatives.  For example when I was working in sales I was taught to say “Would you like to arrange a meeting this week or would next week be more convenient with you?” instead of “Could we arrange a meeting?”.  It is much harder to disagree with the first question.  In our negotiating situation we can use the same language so for example when buying a car say “would you rather give me the fitted mats for free or £500 off the price?”.

Cognitive dissonance is another example of manipulation.  It sounds complicated but it is a very simple theory.  When a sales advisor says things like “I like you and I really want to business with you” they are trying to set up a conflict in your mind between your aversion to paying a high price and the fact that this person likes you.  They hope that you will resolve this conflict by paying the high price.  Jut turn this tactic right back on them by being friendly and introducing your offers with the same thing, e.g. “I really want to do this deal with you Brad, but xxx is all I can offer”.

Be Aware of Sales Periods

Most sales organisations run on a calendar month sales cycle.  Sales advisors are only as good as their last month.  During the final days of a month you might find that sales advisors are more willing to drop their prices to make their monthly figures look good.

Conclusion

Negotiation skills can save you a lot of money on big purchases.  But the application of this and related sales skills do not end here.  Negotiation skills can be applied to your career, your relationships (although hopefully not in an aggressive way) and many other parts of your life.  I would suggest that everyone should read a basic sales book like Selling For Dummies.  Even if you don’t use the sales techniques yourself at least you will be able to recognize when someone is using them on you!

Neil Campbell is a writer who specializes in providing debt and money advice through his blog DebtAdvice4Free.com

Getting out of debt is one of the most difficult tasks a person can face in their life, however the true challenge begins when you are out of debt.

Staying out of debt is a difficult task to accomplish because it is a never-ending process, unless you come across a source of money where you no longer have to worry about money.

There are various forms of debt; the debt I feel is the worst to carry is credit card debt. The reason for this is because you can easily control your spending on your credit card, you determine whether you make the purchase or not and as such control whether you go down the path of debt.

For me there are still reasonable debt to carry, such as a mortgage, which most people do get in order to purcahse a home.

When you are getting out of debt, you require a plan. The plan is generally a budget you create to control your expenses.

If you continue to follow that budget, and even improve on it, you will not only be able to save more money than before but you will be able to stay out of debt in the process.

Remember, staying out of debt is probably one of the hardest tasks you will undertake, however once you set you rmind ot it there is nothing you cannot accomplish.

I’ve never owned a vehicle.

It’s awfully inconvenient to not be able to drive around. My commute takes twice as long via bus than if I were to drive. Going to grocery store is a pain, and I have to align buying toilet paper with the generosity of friends. Going out for dinner with my fiancée can take an extra 2 hours just to factor in the time it takes to walk to the bus stop, wait, take the bus, go to the restaurant, figure out when the next bus comes, bus home, etc. But how much am I willing to pay for the convenience of having a car? Would I pay $8535/year?

How Much Would a Car Cost Me?

First, I would have to buy a car. If I were to finance a car (most likely), I would be paying a large monthly fee. According to Money Central at MSN.com, the average car payment is $479. WikiAnswers puts it between $380 and 460. Finally quoting NADA.com, No Car Credit puts it at $400. That averages out to about $430. Let’s say that I’m a little more frugal than the average consumer, my monthly car payment could be about $350.

Of course, that’s only the beginning of the expenses I would incur with a car. What about gas? I did a little research, and according to Daily Fuel Economy Tip the average new car fuel economy in 2004 was 24MPG. The current average gas price in the states is $2.624/gallon, per ABC News. My daily commute would be 8.9 miles, so a monthly commuting distance of 356 miles. I could easily round that up to 500 miles/month for trips to the grocery store, visiting friends, etc. That’s a monthly cost of about $55, at best.

$817-937 according to RMIIA.org, though it depends widly on which state you live in. I live in BC, Canada, where the average is around $1079 CAN, so similar to the states average. I’m less than 25 and male, so I would be paying an expensive premium, around $150/month.

What else would I be paying for? What about potential repairs? Even if the car was brand new, I ought to be putting away at least $50 a month for eventual repairs, or car replacement. I can’t forget about car maintenance either. Oil changes, tire rotation, winter tires, anti-freeze, windshield wiper fluid, etc. That’s another $40 a month. If I do choose to drive to work, I have to park downtown. At $9-15+/day, that’s at least another $180 a month – just to park.

All told, that’s $8535/year, or $710/month for a vehicle. This can also be expressed as 79% of my housing costs, or 1/3 of my net income!

Perhaps this is just the pessimist in me. I could get a cheaper, older car, so I’d be paying less for car payments and insurance. It could be in perfect condition, and never require anything but minor maintenance. I could continue to bus to work, so I would save on parking. But even if I was saving $500 a month, I could continue to save money commuting by not having a car.

Can You Go Without a Car?

Do you think you can get to work without a car? For a lot of us, the commute to work is the largest use of our vehicle. If we can find a way to get to work without driving, we could save ourselves a lot of money. Your gas use will go down, and your insurance would as well. You’d save wear and tear on your vehicle, and you wouldn’t have to pay for parking. The only thing you give up without a vehicle is a little bit of time, and convenience.

I challenge you to check out your transit options to work. Can you take the bus? Bike? Carpool? Try it for a month. I found that when I borrowed a vehicle, going back to taking the bus was hard, because it was inconvenient. However, after a few weeks, I got used to it – and so can you. Tough it out for a month, and if it is still unbearable, I give you permission to switch back. See how much you can save for that month, and if it isn’t as bad as you thought it would be, consider keeping it up!

Not having a car isn’t for everybody. It is especially hard if you already own a vehicle, as it may seem a waste to have a perfectly good car sitting in your driveway. However, for me, saving $8.5k per year is worth it – at this stage in my life.

Some More Tips to Save Money Driving

• Learn to Drive Smarter

Trent from The Simple Dollar shares his lessons in fuel efficent driving. Are you the kind of driver who’s foot is always either on the gas or the brake? Did you know that coasting is a valuable tool in fuel efficient driving? This, and other tips, are shared from Trent’s experiences with his new Prius.

• Be Proactive

Don’t try to save money by ignoring oil changes, tire rotations, and regularly schedule maintenance. Skimping on this will cost you more in the long run. In addition, prepare in advance for roadside emergencies.

• Combine Trips

Don’t make one trip to the grocery store, one trip to the bank, and one trip to pick up the kids. Combine as many errands as possible into one trip. For the most efficient course, plot it out ahead of time using google maps. You can add as many stops as you need to, and Google will sort out the details for you.

• More Driving Tips

Still not enough? Here are 34 Ways to Save Money on Car Expenses, and here is an article I wrote about How To Save Money Commuting.

Little disclaimer… I own a car now. Summers just got to hot and winters just got to cold.

Image Source = World of Oddy

I have been focusing on eliminating debt the past week, and hopefully you have read about the following great methods to eliminate your debt, the debt avalanche and debt snowball.

To remind you the debt snowball method involves you paying off your smallest debt first, and subsequently moving onto your higher debts; slowly paying off your debt. You would be required to put in the majority of your money into your smallest debts, while paying the minimum on the rest of your debt.

On the other hand, the debt avalanche method involves your paying off your highest interest debt first, and continuing the pattern by paying off your next highest interest debt. You will have to pay the minimums on any of your other debts while you are paying off your high interest debt.

The question that arises is what method will suit you the most.

For those who wish to face less financial damage from their debts, then the debt avalanche method is probably the best choice. By paying off your high interest debt first, you will not incur as much interest as you would if you were to pay of your lower interest debt.

The debt snowball method is ideal for someone who lacks the confidence to pay off their acquired debt. By starting with your smallest debt, and slowly moving onto your highest you are building the confidence needed to pay off your debt. The debt snowball is made for those who want to see quick results.

Despite what method you may choose, remember that becoming debt free is never easy, but it is attainable once you put in the time and effort.

We all want to save money right? Especially if you can save money by getting exactly what you want at a lower price. The key to achieving this is having a good negotiating technique and employing it whenever you can. Now I’m from a country (England) where we are not renowned for our negotiation skills, a point made amusingly in the following video:

However after a period of unemployment I decided in desperation to try out IT Sales as a career. I was not a very good salesman (something that the owner of the company I worked for would doubtless confirm!), but it did teach me something about negotiation. I was paid based on the amount of profit that I earned for my company, so if I sold something for £900 then the profit on the deal could be doubled by negotiating the purchase price from £850 to £800. Of course when buying things for myself I’m usually not thinking of selling them again, but any money saved is very useful. The one thing that I took away from this job was:

“You can always try and improve a deal”

This is not the same as saying that you always WILL be able to improve it, but if you don’t ask (or investigate) you will definitely never get. My sales job involved a lot of cold calling and hard negotiating. The only way to do it well was to not care what people thought of me. If you are going to get the best deal on things that you buy in all instances then you will have to start to think the same way.

How and When to Negotiate

Negotiation techniques work best for big-ticket items like cars, furniture, home improvements etc. Never take what you are first offered, make a confident counter offer even if it seems ridiculously low. This is the point where most people fail with negotiation – they don’t want to make a counter offer or make it too high. They feel embarrassed about making an offer and think that the person they are dealing with will think they’re cheap. Don’t fall into this trap – it’s your money after all. Bolster your resolve to negotiate by finding out how much money the company will make on a typical sale or how stupid the sales advisor would think you are if you pay full price! The information about the profit that the company makes on a sale will also be useful to counter some of the sales advisor’s arguments.

Once you have made an offer/counter offer you should find that the negotiation process becomes a bit easier (presuming that the sales representative is willing to enter into it). Once you are into the negotiation use the following techniques to help you:

• If the sales advisor is not willing to negotiate then just walk away. This may change their mind, but if it doesn’t you can always consider buying somewhere else. Never be afraid to walk away from a deal, you can always (despite what the sales advisor might say) come back if you can’t find it cheaper anywhere else. Another good tip is to leave your contact details so that if they change their mind they can contact you.
• Use your knowledge of the profit that is being made on the deal to counter the typical argument, “but that’s less than we paid for it”. Tell the sales advisor that you know they normally make on a deal and that your offer still leaves them some profit.
• If the person that you are dealing with says that they don’t have the authority to give you a discount then ask to be seen by their manager.
• If you can’t get the price any lower then you can sometimes have more luck asking for extras to be included for nothing.

All of the above may seem difficult to put into practice,  but try to remember that a good sales advisor will relish the challenge of a skilled negotiator and will settle on a price that benefits you both in the end.

In Part 2 I will cover some more negotiation techniques and some real-life uses for negotiation and sales skills.

Neil Campbell is a writer who specializes in providing debt and money advice through his blog DebtAdvice4Free.com