Savings

Five Steps to Falling for a Work at Home Scam

14/05/2012
By
work_at_home

There was a time when only the most important of managers were given the privilege of working from home.  They got a company leased line, and enjoyed conference calls via the wonders of, at the time, sophisticated IP telephony.  Today, even the most average of broadband connections can support remote working, and almost everyone has a laptop, netbook, or desktop PC that they can use for IP telephony and document sharing. The ubiquity of high speed connections and effective communication tools means that there are more and more work at home jobs out there.  Unfortunately, this means that there are a lot more scams out there too.  It’s easy to fall for a work at home scam.  All you have to do is spend a few minutes on a work at home board or a classifieds site, and you’ll have lots of work at home scam opportunities put in...

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Saving Money In Retirement

11/05/2012
By
Saving Money In Retirement

A lot of bad news has been coming for current and future pensioners, increasing Britons’ anxiety about how we will fund our retirement. Between falling annuity rates, “granny tax” grabs, and the news we will have to work longer and longer before we can get a state pension, many might have a gloomy feeling about retiring. However, while nothing beats regular life-long savings as a way to make sure you can retire comfortably, there are other things you can do to maximise your pension income from the state and make your state pension last a little longer. The first thing to do is to make sure you are getting all that you are owed when it comes to retirement benefits. Each year there are millions of pounds left unclaimed that pensioners across the UK had the right to get, but didn’t claim. For example, you might be able to...

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Five tips for sticking to a budget

08/05/2012
By
planning_budget

There are many things that eat up our money on a daily basis – phone bills, car insurance renewals and calling out the plumber when the boiler goes bust. Unexpected expenses, twinned with daily spending can sometimes lead to a state of panic and a feeling that there’s no other way out but to borrow from the bank – or your mum. However, if you create a budget and document your spends, you can be prepared for life’s unexpected hurdles. Here are five tips to keep you motivated to stay on the savings wagon. Focus on savings Recognise how much of your income you can save each month and have it debited into your savings account on pay-day. This way, there will be little to no temptation to spend as it won’t be in the account you use regularly for long. Even if the amount you save differs each...

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Home Tips for Reducing and Re-using

05/05/2012
By
Households

Increasing numbers of households are practicing recycling, but fewer of those households are practicing the other tenets of the environmentalist “Reduce, Re-Use, and Recycle” mantra. Given that the recycling process has its own environmental costs, the “reduce and re-use” aspects actually have the greater environmental impact. From the point of view of an individual household, reducing and re-using items will have its economic benefits as well as environmental. Here are a few tips to try. Re-Using Cleaning Items Here’s a statistic for you: a microfiber cleaning cloth can do the work of sixty rolls of paper towels before it needs to be replaced. Microfiber is gentle enough that it can be used on nearly everything, even including eyeglasses. It’s absorbent for wet spills, adheres to dust for effective dusting, doesn’t streak glass, and costs less than a dollar. A household can invest upfront in a good number of microfiber cloths, and save money for years on the...

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Making the Most of Your Income

30/04/2012
By
managing _your_finances

When managing your finances it is important to look at income and expenses alike. Often times we are burdened by the enormity of our expenses and can become saddened when we watch the expenses grow while our income remains the same. Although increasing your income is easier said than done, it is possible. All you need is a little diligence and creativity. Turn Your Hobby into a Business If you are someone who has a hobby as a crafter, there is no reason why you can’t make a little extra money. You do not need to go into mass production of what you create, but you do need to ramp up the quantity. Start by making a few extra items and showing them off to your friends, family, coworkers, church members, parents of your children’s friends, and anyone else you come in contact with. You do not need to...

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How to Save Money when Going Out

29/04/2012
By
save_money

The economic recession has come with its set of hardships and lessons that will stay with us for a while now. Those who lost their jobs realized the importance of savings. So whether it is your proactive nature or tough financial situation that is forcing you to spend wisely, the following tips will prove to be helpful. Coupons Gone are the days when coupon cutting was considered cheap. So cut coupons from newspapers and hunt for them online too. The rise of major coupon selling websites such as GroupOn, Living Social and Retail Me Not have made people even more aware of the phenomenon and given them easy access to lower priced options. The trick to use coupons in a beneficial way is to plan ahead. Yes, today coupons are available for almost every product and service category so note down your needs in advance and search for coupons....

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Life-long Friends Start in College

27/04/2012
By
meet_new_people

When you go to college, you will probably not know anyone. You will have a roommate but you want to meet new people so that you can have someone to hang out with during the weekends or even have a study buddy. Meeting new people may seem scary at first but there are many ways to do it! When you go on campus, you will have the opportunity to break out of your shell. Want to know how to make new friends? It’s really easy! Meet New People When you go to college as a freshman, there are many ways for you to meet new people. Colleges offer on campus events for students to socialize with other new students. If you want to meet some new people, head out to one of these events. Highlighter parties are a great way for you to have a great time and make...

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Why being a financial pessimist sometimes helps you in making the right decision

26/04/2012
By
financial_pessimist

No one is going to encourage you to become an out and out pessimist because negative Nellies are not pleasant to be around. However, there can be advantages to pessimism when it comes to handling finances. Pessimists tend to have more money than optimists. A pessimist is one who perceives a half-filled glass as being half empty, whereas an optimist perceives it as half-full. That may be a rather sophomoric way of describing a pessimist but you can get the gist from this example. A pessimist tends to have buyer’s remorse before he purchases something, rather than after the fact like most of us, and as a result doesn’t buy it at all, which saves him money. A pessimist possesses a negative streak a mile wide. He is full of doom and gloom and is certain the sky is falling, which isn’t a very pleasant way to go about...

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Further Damage To US Pension Funds

25/04/2012
By
pension_funds

While relatively few countries’ pension funds have escaped unscathed from the current financial crisis the US seems to have taken the biggest hit over the last couple of years. It’s not a huge surprise, given that pension plans in the US make up more than 60% of global pension assets. The ongoing financial crisis has left corporate pension funds hugely underfunded and many workers are seriously reconsidering their retirement plans, some more drastically than others. A number of people have already stopped paying in to their IRS pension plans, while a not insignificant minority have completely shelved their retirement plans and are exploring other options. Those who have opted out entirely have had to rethink not only their lifestyle after retirement but their retirement age as well. Making matters worse is the job market, with high unemployment levels plunging thousands of people in to deeper financial difficulty and slowly...

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The Tax Efficient Way To Save For Your Children.

24/04/2012
By
juniorisa

All children could benefit from the lump sum that a Junior ISA (a savings account launched just last November) with help from their parents in future. Only children who were born before 1 September, 2002 or after 2 January 2011 are able to qualify for this scheme, as anyone born between these dates was able to get a Child Trust Fund (CTF) instead. CTFs were axed under the initial round of government spending cuts after Gordon Brown left office, leaving millions of children without the option of saving. Parents and savings experts alike are lobbying the government for a change in policies that would allow CTF babies into the generally higher-paying Junior ISA market, but lawmakers have thus far not rallied to the cause. Specifics The main difference between the Junior ISA and CTF is that the latter came with a government voucher to kick start savings, while the...

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