Category Archives: Savings

Treat Money With Respect Even When It’s Small Change!

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Change

All to often, I see many of my friends and work peers see change on the ground or wherever and ignore it like it’s something disgusting!  I’ll

When I see silver-colored coins on the ground (yeah, I’m too good for pennies), I pick them up.  And then if I’m near a restroom, I go in and wash them and obviously my hands too.  If I’m not near a bathroom, I try to use purell or some other kind of cleanser to cleanup.

So why do I bother?

I’ll be honest, it’s mostly for my kids…  But even if I didn’t have kids, I would still pick up the silver-colored coins (and pennies too if I’m bending over to pick up the silver-colored coins).

I save the coins for my kids because they still get excited (although not as much as they use to), when they get any type of money.

So why save money if you don’t have kids?

  • Crazy, “Anything Goes” wild spending money!
  • To save for vacation trips.
  • Speculative investments (it may take a few years to get enough to invest, unless you go for penny stocks, in which case you are gambling with losing odds).
  • Emergency fund?
  • House and car repair fund.
  • Yearly Christmas or other special occasion fancy restaurant meal.

After saving the money for a period of time, basically use the money for anything that is fun.  Why save money for a something mundane!  If you make it fun money, then it’s doing the extra work of picking it up and saving it after you purchase something using cash.

When to Pick Up Money

When to Pick Up Money

So the question is…  Do you save or pickup change?

-MR

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Keep Your Cool To Save Money

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No tickets please

While driving in town, I saw a man in a minivan with his wife and 2 children waiting for a spot to park in a spot downtown where someone was leaving.  He just sat there patiently waiting, but then the person leaving the spot pulled out oddly, then enabled someone else coming the other way to cut across 2 lanes of traffic and park there first.

The spot stealer was an elderly couple and I don’t think that they stole the spot on purpose.  I really believe they were unaware of the person waiting, and through a fluke of timing and the odd way the person leaving left, they were able to steal the spot.

Now the man waiting for the spot was hot (as I would be too).  So he took off and ran a newly turned red light by squealing his tires around the intersection that was only a few yards away.

Through his anger-invoked folly, he just happened to tear (with tires  squealing) through the intersection turn as a police car happened to be in the opposite lane sitting 2 cars from the light!  I saw the police car and thought “oh crap”, as did the offending driver as he quickly pulled over knowing he was busted before the police car got a chance to move.

I know why the man did it, and I would have done it too if I were as young as he was.  When I turned my car down the street where the man got pulled over, I saw the police man writing the driver a ticket.  I felt bad for him as I could tell he was just a normal guy that got raked over the coals by bad timing and bad luck that day.

I’m pretty sure the police officer gave the man 2 tickets, one for driving through a red light, and another for reckless driving.  I’m sure it’s going to cost him well over $200 dollars.  Hopefully what he learned from his bad day is to keep his cool, because it can be costly, both financially and physically, especially with 2 small children in the car.

The kicker is that I would have done the same thing if the same events happened to me five years ago.

Have you learned to control your emotions in such scenarios?  I did, but it took me a long time to do so.

-MR

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The Importance of an Emergency Fund

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EmergencyFund

The Importance of an Emergency Fund

I believe in the saying that we should always plan for the worst and hope for the best, and when you relate this to your finances it means having an emergency fund. An emergency fund is exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a source of funds where you can go to seek help in the event of an emergency.

Always expect the unexpected

You should always expect the unexpected when it comes to day to day life, as we never know what could be just around the corner. You should think of a financial emergency as either a sudden loss of income, e.g. loosing your job or an unexpected expense that’s unavoidable e.g. a burst water pipe at home.

If you don’t have an emergency fund

If you don’t have an emergency fund in the event of a financial crisis, then you may have to borrow money. Borrowing more money in this type of situation will only worsen your financial state; this is why having an emergency fund is so important.

How much should I put aside?

Emergency funds are often a hot topic of debate, but I believe that you should keep around 3 months worth of your personal expenses in your fund; this will depend on your own financial situation and how you much feel you will be able to comfortably save. The more money you add to your emergency fund the better as you should prepare for the worst. If you follow this method then all minor problems should be covered.

Make your fund work for you

Before you start your emergency fund you should ensure that you will be saving your money in the right place. Make your fund work for you by adding all your money into a high interest savings account. In the US a LSA or Lifetime Savers Account is one of the best ways to save. If you are UK based like me (this is a guest post, MoneyReasons is from the US), then the UK equivalent is the ISA rates account. Do your research and choose the best savings account in your local area. Make sure that you keep your emergency fund in an account that you can access quickly, so that you can withdraw money in urgent situations.

Get into the saving habit

When you start your emergency fund, it’s important to get into a saving habit so that you get used to it on a weekly or monthly basis. It will be difficult to start saving, especially if your aim is to save around 3 months of personal expenses, but start small and you will soon get used to it.

Set up some automatic payments

The easiest way to get in to the saving habit is to set up small automatic payments. Once you have opened up your savings account, set up a transfer of funds at set intervals from your normal bank account. Treat the amount you transfer as just another expense and you will soon forget about it. Once you are comfortable with the amount you are transferring, increase the amount slightly, repeat this process until you are happy with the amount you are saving.

Set up an emergency fund, and don’t let yourself get caught out by your own financial situation.

Guest post written by Andreas @ moneysupermarket.com

How I Got A Deck Table And Chairs For 25 Percent of The Cost

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Last year, at the end of summer, I bought my wife bought a $200 or $250 table and chairs set for our deck for at total of $50.00

How did she do this? 

Well, she bought the set at the end of the season, and it was the display model.  We usually don’t buy such sets, but for the price it seemed like too good of  a deal to pass up.

So what’s the catch? 

A few of the non-critical screws were missing, and the plastic end feet for the table are missing.  So for the time being, we used felt feet for the table.  this won’t last long, but it will prevent our deck from getting too scratched up.  Eventually I’ll buy some screws and plastic feet that will work with the table.

Both my wife and I enjoy getting bargains on the things we buy.   An example would be the WII pokemon game that we bought my son for his birthday.  He wanted this (at the time) expensive pokemon game, but I just didn’t have the heart to buy a $50.00 game that I knew he wouldn’t play for long.  So instead, I fired up my old friend Mr. eBay and searched for the game.  Surprisingly, all of the new games were still $50.00…  So I found a slightly used one for $12.00.    Which ironically would be about 25% of the in store price of $50.00

While I spent full price for for my son’s DS, I bought a slightly used on from my buddy at work for $50.00.   You might be wondering why I bought a used nintendo DS for my daughter.?.  Well, it’s electronic and I heard that the nintendo DSi was coming out soon at that time.  Technology typically only have a lifespan of perhaps 4 or 5 years, before it becomes obsolute.

I find tha tI have a hard time paying a premiun price from what I think it’s worth.  I’m usually the last to buy technology, because I know that the price repidly drops each year the purchase is prolonged!  This is why we still have CRTs instead of flat screens.

The key is to look for bargains during off seasons times so that you can get the best deal, or buy the product slightly used!

-MR