Posts from — November 2006

This is part 2 of the series ‘Budgets for Dummies.’ Part 1 can be found here.

Many people feel that budgets are restricting. The truth is that they are only restricting if you are predisposed to think that they are restricting. However, if you’re willing to put your rose colored glasses down, I can show you how budgets actually free you you spend your money. It leads to better money management and less financial stress.

So how does this actually work? How does a budget allow me to spend my money more freely? Think about this, how often have you wanted to go on vacation, but felt guilty about putting it on a credit card? Ever wanted to go to that exclusive restaurant, but felt like it was to much money? How about wanting a new car? [Read more →]

This is part 1 of the series ‘Budgets For Dummies.’

Suppose you only got paid once per year. You no longer get a check every other Friday. You get one check for $40,000 on January 1 and won’t get another one until the following year. What would you do? Would you go take a big vacation, buy a new new car, a new boat? How would you know how much you could spend on food or entertainment? What if you spent too much and ran out of money in September? The only way that you could survive is on a [tag]budget[/tag]. The word budget scares a lot of people. “I don’t want to live on a budget, it’s too restricting!” or “I don’t need a budget to tell me how to spend my money!”

I want to show you why you need a budget and how it frees your spending instead of restricting it. After that we’ll look at how simple it is to create and maintain a solid budget. [Read more →]

As the cost of college soars, parents and students are going deeper and deeper into debt to receive that coveted degree. Students are graduating with loans that are double and triple the income that they will bring in their first few years out of college. With the average public university costing in the neighborhood of $11,000 per year and private universities sitting around $30,000 per year (Harvard estimates $47,011 per year for their students), it’s easy to see why so many people graduate with a huge amount of debt. On top of that tuition is rising at 6%-10% annually. That means that if you spend 4 years there you are looking at an education that can cost anywhere from $50,000 to $220,000, not to mention those who go longer than 4 years.

Money Magazine has posted an article called “Take Control Of College Debt.” In it they offer several viable strategies to avoiding and reducing college debt. However I think there is a little more to look at. Consider this:

[Read more →]