Tips for Saving Money

It became a habit on this blog that whenever I contribute to the blog community of authors and writers I give the “save money for investment” advice. Let’s face it, if you make a million bucks a year and spend 2 millions your not rich, but you’re in debt. It’s not all about how much money you make, it’s also about how much money you put to work for you to make you money without your interference.

So I decided to write an article just about saving tips that anyone can implement on day to day activities. Any money you can put aside for investment is going to make a difference in your financial future. So let’s get to it.

1. Don’t Buy Lunch.

In your lunch hour it’s less stressful to take your lunch bag with you to work than standing in the line to buy a meal from the nearby coffee shop or restaurant. You just take it out of your bag, warm it up and start eating. The whole process could take you a few minutes and you have the rest of the lunch hour for yourself. You can relax, play a game, chat with your wife on the phone or facebook, or even take a nap.

This habit can save you on average $5 a day. In a typical month that’s $5 x 22 = $110. Invest that money in stocks or precious metals if you will, or even spend it on a vacation at the end of the year!

2. Divorce Vending Machines:

A can of soft drink costs on average $1 from the vending machine. Have you been to a whole sale store like Sam’s Club before? You can get that same drink for pennies if you buy it in a box! The same for chocolate bars and potato chips.

And don’t get me started with water bottles. Get a filter from Walmart for like $20 bucks and refill a glass bottle of water. It’s healthier for your body, greener if you happen to care about mother Earth, and will save you a bundle.

3. Chase Away the Flier Boy:

Do you get excited every time you hear a bout a sale in the nearby grocery store? Don’t. Buy everything in bulk and forget about those fliers you get in the mail. First of all, grocery stores reduce items when they are about to expire, or if they have had them for a long time and they want to liquidate them. Sometimes it’s a marketing approach by some manufacturers, but most of the time it’s a liquidation attempt.

But it doesn’t stop here. The main reason these stores are giving special offers on some items is to drag you to the store. If you do your math right you’ll want to buy everything in one trip to save on gas, which reminds me with number 4 below. This means that you’ll have to do all of your grocery shopping with them and forget about the bulk buying process described above for the soft drinks, and I hope you got the signal that it’s what you’re supposed to do with all items.

Buy in bulk. This is how to save money and get all what you want at the same time.

4. Save on Gas:

Ok this is going to sound pitchy but believe me it’s not. There are companies that install a water splitter on most cars. These water splitters cost around $300 and their job is to split water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms (not molecules). This atomic hydrogen-oxygen mixture helps gasoline combustion inside the engine chambers.

Now bear up with me until I explain where am I going with this. In normal cases the gasoline combustion is not complete. The result is carbon monoxide (neuro-toxin and a pollutant) and less energy to run your vehicle. By installing the water splitter in your vehicle you are helping gasoline reach a near-complete burning, which means more energy to run your car and less pollution.

Usually the producing companies promise as much as 50% saving on gas. Honestly, I’d never seen anyone who saved more than 10% with this device, which is still not bad. 10% less gas over one year is something significant. Don’t you think?

5. Go VoIP:

If you are reading this at home then you already have an Internet line. If it is a high speed Internet line then it makes sense to get rid of the land phone line and switch to a VoIP one. Do you Skype? I do. I have a separate phone number on skype for my business with an unlimited long distance plan to North America and it costs me less than a $100/YEAR!. And don’t worry about the quality, I don’t see any difference. On the contrary, sometimes the voice quality on Skype over performs my home land line.

Now let’s do the math: A phone number + unlimited long distance to North America (if this is where you live:-)) costs $100/year (actually it’s less than that, but let’s round it up for the simplification). And it comes with some cool features like voice mail and caller ID.

A typical phone line without a long distance plan costs more than $30/month. That’s $30 x 12 = $360 basic line.

We are saving at least $160/year on the phone services and getting extra cool stuff just by switching to Skype!

>>> Click here to get your unique SkypeIn number

I hope these tips will help you save some money in 2011. If you need more tips come back later and I am sure I’ll remember some more cool stuff to share with you on this website.

If you have money saving tips of your own please use the form below to share it with the DOS Club community.

Work at Home Scams: Protect Yourself

A group of scam artists developed a proven scheme to prey on senior citizens, moms, disabled people, and those who want to get rich quick. The last I received some of those letters in the mail was like 5 years ago, now the Internet is taking over as a medium to spread their poison.

The work at home scams are usually easy to identify if you apply some common sense and be realistic. Some of the key indicators of a scam are listed below.

1. Claims of insider information, like those ads about “Google” insiders and how to get rich with Google. Even Google is suing those behind such ads.

2. Overstated claims of a product effectiveness. Like a cancer cure in an MLM-type company. If such a cure is discovered it won’t go MLM. The main stream media will give it special attention and a Noble prize might be awarded to the discoverer.

3. Exaggerated claims of income. I know people making hundreds of thousands every single month working from home, but those are only 4 or 5 people and they have been building a business model over a decade or so. Any promises of such income overnight or within days or weeks are obviously too good to be true.

4. Asking you for money before they send you the instructions on how to start earning. 100% of the time this is a scam, especially if you can not get it by hand if you live close to the claimed address of the advertiser.

5. “No experience necessary”. There is no such a thing. No experience means you can’t make any money. No one will trust you on doing anything useful before they make sure you can do it.

6. Paid training. If this is a job you’ll get the training during your work hours, which means YOU will get paid for the training. Compare that with “Sales people wanted …. You pay $500 for the training and if you are successful you’ll be refunded your training fees with your first pay check”.

The list goes on and on, and the scam artists are more active now than ever especially that most people are suffering financially and even the skeptics would give it a try if they can’t find legit jobs to support themselves and their families.

You can read more about work at home scams and how to avoid falling into them at the website of the Better Business Bureau.

Rule #1 to Become a Millionaire: Act Poor

Becoming a millionaire from scratch looks like a huge challenge to most people. Reality is, if you are making an average of $25,000 annual income, you are a life-time millionaire if you keep making that much until you retire. But what happens to this money is that it’s always spent completely, especially with almost everybody just struggling to make ends meet. The increasing prices with no matching increases in salaries it’s not likely to make any progress towards touching that million dollars at one point.

That’s why it is important to understand one fact that’s considered the rule number one to become a millionaire: live cheap, act poor, save.

What happens is that most people in North America eat their lunch in restaurants, change their cars more frequently, go out for dinners to expensive places, buy stuff they don’t really need, spend insanely on gambling, alcohol, smoke, and lottery tickets (which are by the way the most lucrative industries in North America), and end up with huge debts that they can’t pay.

Making your lunch sandwich can save you up to $1300 per year. Going an extra year or two with your car are going to save you at least $1800 per year. Giving up smoking, alcohol, gambling, and lottery tickets can give your finances a huge boost.

What to do with this saved money? Simple, invest it. You don’t need to be a stock market savvy to make an investment. Go to your local bank and ask for a financial adviser to discuss how to invest the money you saved in your 401K or RRSP. If you can save $500 of your monthly salary that might mean a whopping $1000 investment in your retirement, given that your employer usually matches your investment, and both your contribution and your employers are cut from your salary before taxes, which means you might end up giving up $400/month only.

The main cause of the current recession is that people in North America tend to spend even more than they have, and end up sinking in unmanageable debts. When you start thinking about saving more than about the stuff that you want now, even if you don’t need them, you’re on your way to become a millionaire. If you only do the above investment and keep doing it every single month from now on for the next 30 years you can end up with $3-4 millions for your retirement.

===>> Click here to learn about an ancient Jewish code that can make you a millionaire

Financial Tips for Surviving Spouses

Financial Tips for Surviving Spouses

Author: Lisa Nichols

Financial tips for surviving spouses are a necessary part of creating an independent life as a widow. According to research conducted by the Social Security Administration in 2005, the poverty rate for elderly widows has been more than three times higher than that of married women in the same age range for more than 30 years. The research attributes at least some of the widow poverty rate to women who spend their savings on health care for a sick or dying husband. (McGarry, Kathleen and Schoeni, Robert F. (2005, January). Medicare Gaps and Widow Poverty. Perspectives, 66, 58-59.) Learning more about Medicare gaps, spousal benefits and how to establish a solid credit history are important financial tips that can help lead widows down the path to financial independence.

Medicare Gaps Can Make For Tough Times

Widows have to contend with a number of gaps in the Medicare program today. Medicare doesn’t cover chiropractor care, acupuncture treatments, dental care, custodial home care or custodial care in a nursing facility. Additional Medicare gaps include a lack of coverage for preventive care, which isn’t covered by the program. Retirement benefits can help pay for medical expenses, as long as you know where to go to kick-start the benefits process.

Retirement Benefits For Surviving Spouses

There is a great disparity of retirement benefits between the sexes. Eighty percent of men receive retirement benefits, but less than 40 percent of women receive benefits as retired workers. Also, more than 60 percent of women receive retirement benefits only through their spouse. Review all life and health insurance benefits and retirement plan information to make sure that you know where you stand and what type of insurance you have after your spouse has passed away. If your spouse was still employed at the time of death, contact his employer to find out about insurance benefits and wages owed for time worked and paid time off. In the meantime, begin shoring up your individual credit history.

Cleaning Up Your Credit Report

If, like many widows, you have never had a line of credit in your own name or have only been listed on joint credit card accounts, it’s time to make a name for yourself. You can start by applying for your own rewards credit card or low interest credit card . Rewards credit cards provide cash back, frequent flier miles or gift certificates just for using the card for regular purchases. A low interest credit card lets you build your credit history and doesn’t charge you high interest rates for using the card. Applying for either card is an excellent first step in establishing your credit history and more importantly, building your financial independence.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/credit-articles/financial-tips-for-surviving-spouses-440735.html

About the Author

Lisa Nichols is a freelance writer, website content strategist and marketing and PR strategy consultant. Originally from Eugene, Oregon, Lisa is currently based in Covington, Kentucky (also known as greater Cincinnati, Ohio).