Tracking My Finances In 2009: 25 February
Welcome to tracking of income and expenses for the month. Please note that I get paid on the last day of the month so my cash flow net effect will usually be negative until the last day of the month.
This does not mean that I am adding to my debt, it just means that the money coming in is less than the money going out because bills are due starting on the first but I don’t get paid until the last day.
Income for the month to date: $99.59
Expenses for the month to date: $2264.46
How I Save Money Visits: 10 Jan 09
Welcome to How I Save Money visits ! Today we visit:
Wealth, Money & Life Network
“Please Check Your System” at Dividends 4 Life . Hackers and spammers are attacking everyone so please check your system periodically to make sure you are safe.
“Lending Club Portfolio Reorganization” at How I Save Money . I tweaked the way I track my Lending Club loans to make it easier on me.
“Keep A Running List Of Everything You Don’t Like About Your House” at Dollar Frugal . Running lists help you to keep track of everything so that if a problem does come up you are ahead of the game.
Suze Orman On the Oprah Show
In case you missed it Suze Orman was on the Oprah show yesterday trying to give people tips on how to have a better financial management plan in 2009.
She gave a few tips that we PF bloggers talk about all the time such as having a plan to pay off your credit card debt. Suze noted that in today’s economy the best way to get rid of credit card debt was to pay the higher interest card first. She gave the following scenario:
line up credit cards in order of highest interest first
pay the minimum on all cards
0% Balance Transfer Offer That I CAN Refuse
Normally I encourage people to take up 0% balance transfer offers and I wish I would get more offers myself. However, I must warn you that just because it says 0% that does not mean it is always the best deal for you.
I just got an offer for a 0% balance transfers from one of my better cards….but after reading it carefully I decided to refuse the offer. Here are the terms:
* 0% until 04/09
* 4% balance transfer fee
Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps: My Take
I have been hearing a LOT of talk about Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps approach but never paid attention to it.
Then today I decided to bite the bullet and go see what all the hype is about.
Basically, Dave lists a series of baby steps that everyone should take in order to become financially independent. These steps are as follows:
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$1,000 to start an Emergency Fund | |
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Pay off all debt using the Debt Snowball | |
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3 to 6 months of expenses in savings |
Three Tools That EVERY Personal Finance Blogger Should Have
Today I wanted to talk about three of the things that every personal finance blogger should have.
I have been reading a number of personal finance blogs only to find out that they do not have some of the really basic things that I think we need if we are talking about personal finance.
1. ING account
2. Budget
3. Rewards Credit Card
In order for you to really make the most of your finances you need to stay on top of things. I use all three of the tips I am talking abut and I must say that they really do make a difference in my financial life.
My Net Worth Updates
I have recently updated my Debt Payoff Chart in the right sidebar, along with my NetWorth Chart.
The Debt Payoff Chart is hosted at the No Credit Needed Network and you can see that I now have about 40% of my debt paid off. I am slightly behind schedule since I wanted to have a lot more paid off by this date…but there were unexpected expenses to deal with.
I am steadily paying down the debt and increasing my net worth by snowflaking little payments here and there and practicing different ways to save money.
Fixing Bad Credit Scores
I recently looked at my credit score and saw that it had gone up due to a few factors. These were mainly items like me not adding to my debt load and paying my bills on time all the time. I know there are a lot of people out there who have a bad credit score and they are always searching for ways to Fix Bad Credit Score so that they can have a better life.
If you have bad credit there are really some steps you need to take to make sure that you get back on track. Here are some of the things to keep in mind when you are trying to restore your good credit rating.
