Motivation

Five Reasons You DO Need a Credit Card

By Kevin M

I’ve written much on the subject of credit cards—mostly that they aren’t your friend, but more like having an enemy living in your own camp. I’m not backpedaling on any of it; credit cards have been the enabler that has led many to financial ruin. But are there times when you’re better off having a credit card?

Absolutely. Even a zealot like me is prepared to admit to that.

There are at least five reasons why having a credit card is a “must”—just as long as you don’t overdo it by running up your balance and applying for- and loading up on- more cards. (No, credit card rewards isn’t one of them—I’ve never bought that argument.) Used responsibly, there are situations in which a good credit card is well worth having.
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Are “Stealth” Expenses Killing Your Budget?

By Kevin M

Do you ever find yourself wondering—perhaps when you look at your paycheck or even your W2–I make a good living, why don’t I have more money saved up?

You might look at your income and your regular expenses and think that you should be saving more, but somehow it all seems to just disappear, almost as if there are termites gnawing away at both your wallet and your checking account. And perhaps there are a few termites infesting your finances. Call them “stealth expenses”—stealth because we usually underestimate them—if we even notice them–expenses because that’s just what they are.

We all have fixed expenses that we know only too well—house payments, car payments, student loan and credit card payments. There are also day-to-day survival expenses, like groceries and gas. We’re very familiar with all of these, but it’s those others, the variables, that slowly suck the life out of a budget. Those are the stealth expenses, the ones that aren’t always so easy to measure or even to prepare for.

”Where does all my money go?”

Get the RIGHT Loan for Your Needs

Guest Post by Jodie McDonnell

Many people across the United Kingdom fall victim to financial strife, often due to factors that are out of their control. A loan—when taken out for the right reasons—can help individuals who are in need of money for obtaining a mortgage, car loan, or other loan among other things.

Even more important is getting the right loan, a loan that will solve your problem and not make your financial situation worse. In order to do that, you need to approach borrowing with the proper attitude and a few tools that will help you to get the best deal to work within your circumstances.

Many times the reason people get into credit difficulty happens at the very time a loan is taken. The person could have been borrowing more than he could afford to repay, or doing so with stiff repayment terms he could never meet. You’ll only have one opportunity to prevent that from happening, and that’s when you are applying for the loan. It is therefore critical that you get this right at the very beginning when it counts most, and that means getting the very best loan you can.
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How Frugality Becomes Counterproductive

By Kevin M

One year ago—just about to the day—I took my first stab at this topic in Why Earning More Money is More Important than Frugality. It was one of the most popular posts I’ve done in the two years that I’ve had this site up and running. It seemed for a while that I’d covered the topic as thoroughly as I could imagine, but the subject has hit the blogosphere with a vengeance in the past couple of weeks stimulating additional thinking.

That doesn’t mean I’ve changed my original thoughts on frugality—quite the opposite. I’m now even more convinced that I was heading in the right direction on the first go round. My comment on Len Penzo’s 100 Words On: Why Frugality Has Its Limits made me realize that the subject is even more important than I imagined and that it’s time to take it on with some fresh ideas.

The Fallacy of Multitasking

By Kevin M

Last week in The Power of Saying NO we covered how to free up your time and energy for more productive activities by making more frequent use of the word “no”. By saying “no” to the constant requests for help, participation, interaction and other forms of engagement others will draw us into, we can keep ourselves focused on our main goals.

Today I want to cover another common time and energy drain–multitasking. This has to be one of the most over worked phrases in the English language, and perhaps the most draining of all activities. What it mostly implies is that in order to be efficient, we need to spread ourselves wide and thin to do the jobs of several people.

It’s easy to see why multitasking is popular with employers—the more jobs they can get fewer people to do, the less staff they need. That translates to lower payroll and, in theory at least, a healthier bottom line.

But here’s what multitasking does to the individual and, by extension, to the organization:

Creates an environment of perpetual interruption
Makes personal and organizational goals harder to reach
Dilutes (or even erases at the extreme) primary job functions
Generates needless stress
Eliminates specialization, or the efficient matching of jobs with personal talent
Creates confusion—if everyone does every job in the organization, who should be doing which job and when?
Transfers responsibility for all functions to the highest performers, who become bogged down covering every job rather than the one they were hired to do.

Is that any way run your department? Is that any way to run your business or your career? The goal of every manager, business owner, and employee needs to be to make their primary function the primary function!

The Power of Saying NO

By Kevin M

Have you ever noticed that truly successful people have little trouble saying “no”? They may do it politely, but they do it and do it often. And they’re on to something.

“No” is a control word, a word that has real power. When we use it, we’re in control. When we don’t, we’re open to the control of others.

By saying “no”, we guard our time, our efforts and even our money. When we say “yes”, or even “maybe”, it can mean open season on all three. If you’re a “yes-junkie”—a person who feels compelled to say “yes” to nearly any request for help from nearly anyone—you might be your own worst enemy.

If we’re going to get anywhere in life we need to focus on what it is that we do best. Life is multi-faceted, but we all have two or three things that are especially important, and that’s where being able to say “no” is critical. It’s the little word that when spoken emphatically gives us the space we need to do what we do best.

Learning to say no—and meaning it—frees you up to move on to the next order of business, to that thing that moves you forward in your life. Is it any wonder that successful people master this concept?

Is Money Your Obstacle – Or Your Opportunity?

By Kevin M

Money Reasons did a review on a book called How Rich People Think. I commented on the post, and it got me to thinking about some issues that may go deeper than rich versus non-rich. As much as we might want to think of rich and non-rich as a state of being, there are components to each that make them happen—a mechanical process perhaps.

Much of that seems to come down to how we think about money. Money is the conventional dividing line between rich and poor, but it seems that our attitude toward it—whether we see money as an obstacle or as an opportunity —seems to have a huge impact on where we go with it.

So how exactly do we define obstacle and opportunity mindsets as it relates to money? Rather than attempting a deep analysis, we might be better to focus on examples of each type of thinking. In this way, we can not only see our own thinking, but we might also see how it either holds us back or pushes us forward.

How to Make Money by Spending Money

“You have to spend money to make money” is a popular business adage but the wisdom of this advice can be applied to your personal finances as well.

Spending money in business is all about assessing risks, taking chances which will grow your brand, and looking for opportunities. These are all attitudes you should take toward your personal finances in order to make your money work even harder, and to have the skills and knowledge to make the best investments.

Successfully making money by spending it will mean following these four tips to ensure you choose the right spending options which will make you money.

Work/Life Balance: Lessons from the Sea

By Jacob Mojiwat

Being at sea for long periods of time can be isolating. You cannot access the Internet or reach your friends and family at a moments notice, but there is something wonderful about being out in a world that is just you, your crew, your boat, and the elements. I find that many of the principles I live by are ideas that I formed while I was out on these adventures, away from civilization.

Here are the main ideas that I’ve been contemplating lately, and find to be truly relevant in day-to-day life:

Sometimes you have to swim against the current if you want to get to where you are going

There are so many times in life when it feels as though everything is going wrong. They say bad luck comes in threes, but all too often it comes in a tidal wave, or at least a swiftly flowing current that feels as though it will wash us away. It is hard to swim against that current. It would be so much easier, and more peaceful, to drift along with it.

This is a guest post by RP who is a regular writer for various finance related communities. She holds a degree in Marketing and Finance and is currently working in a reputed bank as a relationship manager. She writes articles on debt consolidation, debt settlement, frugality, savings, economies of states etc.

It can be quite a complex situation that you face when your relatives ask you about your financial situation. If your finances aren’t in the best of shape, you may be embarrassed to answer their questions. Financial discussions of any type can put us—or even the people we’re talking too—in an embarrassing situation. You can find ways to channel the discussion into something that can save some embarrassment to all parties involved.

Much of our willingness to discuss finances with the people who are closest to us may depend on the state of our financial affairs—whether we’re struggling with money, or if we’re doing well.

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Pages

Motivation

Five Reasons You DO Need a Credit Card

Are “Stealth” Expenses Killing Your Budget?

”Where does all my money go?”

Get the RIGHT Loan for Your Needs

How Frugality Becomes Counterproductive

The Fallacy of Multitasking

The Power of Saying NO

Is Money Your Obstacle – Or Your Opportunity?

How to Make Money by Spending Money

Work/Life Balance: Lessons from the Sea

Sometimes you have to swim against the current if you want to get to where you are going

Should you tell your friends and family about your finances?

Financial Management