Angela Watkins Thomas asked:




Ellie Kay is knows as America’s Family Financial Expert I am sharing a Book Review I did in 2005 of “The Debt Diet.

Who would have thought way back when the author and her husband were struggling to pay down their $40K-debt that one day, their “problem” would be turned around to help save the lives of one million strangers in a far away land.

Ellie Kay is a bestselling award winning author, national radio commentator, and regular media guest as well as gifted speaker. She is a graduate of Colorado Christian University with a degree in the management of human resources.

The author is the founder of Shop, Save and Share Seminars, and speaks to live audiences of 6,000 people or more. She is also a frequent consultant and spokesperson for corporations and organizations.

Whether you need to lose a few pounds of debt, or a truckload, the good news is that you can read this book.

See what money attitudes you can discover from the famous people in the following money/wealth quotes:

Said of money: “I don’t necessarily like it, but it quiets my nerves.” __ Joe Lewis

When asked, “How much is enough money?” the billionaire didn’t hesitate and replied, “Always just al little more.” __ J. Paul Getty

Happiness is not based on money, and the best proof is our family. __ Christian Onasis

I’d like to live as a poor man with lots of money. __ Pablo Picasso

A wealthy man is one who earns $100 more a year than his wife’s sister’s husband. __ H. L. Mencken

If all my debts were paid today, would I be happy?

You could create millionare kids with as little as $3K a year invested for five years.

The Fiscally Fit Millionare’s chart shows what investing $3,000 a year will do based on 10% interest compounded monthly.

The author has helped families learn to cut their food budgets in half.

But as odd as it sounds, conflicts over money are not always about money, according to Jack Otter, with Smart Money Magazine.

Many large churches offer financial counseling for free or on a sliding scale based upon your income and situation.

Seek to understand before being understood: This is taken straight out of Stephen Covey’s book “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.” There’s a reason why Covey sold a gazillion copies of this book. In the emotionally arena of money and matrimony, it’s important to agree that you will try to understand what your spouse is saying before seeking to be understood.

This book shares about health insurance sites as well.

Scholarships: Millions of dollars of scholarship money goes unclaimed every year. This is free-lunch money that parents or prospective students who are willing to do some detective work may find more quickly than they think.

Surf your way to College Savings nifty Internet tools that can get you started on your adventure of saving for college.

Remember to stop by the food pantry or help someone in need with all the free stuff we earned from our savvy saving strategies.

Lois

Nicole Anderson asked:




Proof that the problem of unclaimed money is a national problem is evident from the fact that the Maine Unclaimed Property Division owes 122 million dollars to more than 500,000 people spread all over the nation. The money is waiting to be claimed by its rightful owners.

To be more specific, a staggering 578,000 people are owed unclaimed money by the State of Maine. There are some unclaimed funds checks that range from $50 to $100. However, some claims exceed even ten thousand dollars. Now, that is a lot of money.

Do not ignore unclaimed money in Maine. The single largest claim is worth $222,000 plus stock. What if this was owed to you?

Unclaimed money can come into existence from the most ordinary transactions. It may result due to the fact that an individual had deposited money in a savings or checking account and then had forgotten about the same. It could result from inheritances that the inheritor is not aware of. Bonds, stocks, dividends- all can result in unclaimed money. If you have abandoned your money and if it has remained so for three years or more, your money must have become unclaimed money.

That $10.4 million of Maine’s unclaimed funds was repaid last year is touted as a major achievement. However, the truth is that $25 million got added as new unclaimed money last year. The net gain was of -$15 million in the last year.

The residents of this nation must find out whether they are owed Maine unclaimed funds or not.

A simple search, based on your name, is sufficient to determine whether lost fund is owed to you or not. The same can be done for your family and your friends as well. Some of the unclaimed funds databases covers the state databases as well as the federal databases. Do find out whether your friends or family members are owed money or not. Simply searching for your money will not do.

To claim funds, documentary evidence is required. You will have to submit the proof of identification. You may have to submit proof of ownership of funds as well. The states unclaimed assets division sees inflow of unclaimed cash throughout the year. Hence, you must check at least three to four times in a year for Maine unclaimed funds.

Do not restrict your search to unclaimed funds from Maine alone. You may be owed money from another state or from the federal base. Considering the fact that $35 billion is owed to millions in the nation today, you could still be owed unclaimed cash.

You or your immediate family members may be owed unclaimed money. Use the money wisely and enjoy the unexpected income.

Jesse

Earlvin Harris asked:




You may believe that your financial health is easy to understand in the context of personal finance. But assessing the health of your money is not simple. Your overall financial health is comprised of many elements, from learning how to live within a budget, to building good credit, controlling debt and excess spending, developing short and long-term financial goals, and learning to invest.

Early financial planning and assessment is a key principle to success just like going to the family doctor for an annual visit is important for maintaining excellent physical health. Regularly assessing your financial health is a wise step that can help to prevent financial “illness” down the road. Making a commitment and improving your financial health is relatively easy with the right guidance. But first you must first know your diagnosis. What is the condition of your money.

The first indication of good financial health is that revenues and income are in balance with liabilities and expenses. Though you want to tip the scale in favor of having more cash on hand from revenues and income. How do you grow more cash on hand? It’s rather simple really. Just spend less than you earn, which is the #1 principle and indicator of excellent financial health.

As simple as “spend less than you make” sound, most people do just the opposite. Why? I suggest due to poor cash flow management, lack of cash flow management training, lack of conscious effort to efficiently manage cash flow or a combination of all. Poor cash flow management is the #1 indicator of ill health financially.

Poor cash flow management is amongst the most common causes of debt; with individuals either consciously spending money with the full knowledge that they are in debt or spend money when not realizing that they were in debt. Whether it’s making purchases they really can’t afford or borrowing loans they can’t repay, poor money management is an epidemic throughout the United States. With financial institutions toppling all around us, the woes of poor money management is more in the face of this generation than ever before.

The journey to financial health is just that, a journey. The biggest threat to your financial health is not a recession; it’s your brain. It’s all about the choices you make. If your money’s health is in good shape, congratulations. But what is “good shape” to you? Being comfortable where you are? Then maybe I should reword the statement. I will say, if you are comfortable with your money’s health, congratulations. If you are uncomfortable, take action!

Jennifer

Morgan Hamilton asked:




While most experts would agree that giving credit cards to teens may not be the greatest idea in the world there most definitely is a viable solution in the form of prepaid cards for teens. Debit cards offer many advantages including having the ability to set spending limits while teaching youngsters how to manage their finances responsibly.

Let us first establish the difference between credit cards and prepaid cards. Credit cards, as their name implies, offers consumers a line of credit that they can tap into. The cardholder is basically borrowing from the credit card issuer agreeing to pay them back within the billing cycle or to at least make minimum monthly payments including interest until the debt is paid off.

Conversely, prepaid cards do not offer credit at all. You are actually tapping into your own money that has been deposited by you. You are allowed to access whatever funds that are available up to the amount deposited, but nothing more. Additional funds can be added at any time. There are no credit checks necessary to be approved for prepaid cards.

There are synonymous terms that people commonly refer prepaid cards for teens as including preloaded cards and debit cards for teens. These terms are usually used interchangeably to describe the same thing. Some prepaid teen cards also have parental controls that allow parents to monitor the spending activity of their children. They can also make deposits to the card as well.

Now that we have established the differences between credit cards and debit cards, let’s take a look at the similarities. Debit cards basically perform the same as credit cards as far as being able to make purchases are concerned. They can be used to buy things online, place orders over the phone and of course, purchase things in stores, restaurants, movie theaters, etc., etc.

Probably the most sought after function that teens and parents are looking for in prepaid cards is the ability for the teams to access cash through an ATM. These cards can make it very easy and convenient for the teens to do just that. It is extremely easy to add additional money to the account which makes this card ideal in case of emergencies.

There are fees involved with using prepaid cards for teens. Some cards charge an annual membership fee, while others will charge a monthly fee. There can also be nominal withdrawal fees and fees for monthly statements if you choose to have one sent to you. There are however, no inactivity fees.

Be sure that you carefully read the terms and conditions set forth by the issuer of prepaid cards for teens so you fully understand the fees, terms of service and the way it works. They do differ depending upon the issuer. Prepaid cards for teens are an excellent way to teach financial responsibility to teenagers without having to worry about going into debt or paying interest rates.

Dolores

Martin Hayne asked:




Money Management – what’s that? If this is your response to the title of this article, then either STOP trading forex until you have learnt about it or, if you are new, do not start yet! The chances are, if you trade without any Money Management rules, you will lose your capital investment faster than the time it takes to read this article!

Forex is a leveraged product, and if you over-leverage yourself, the truth is you could be staring at a ‘blown account’ in no time at all….

Therefore, it should go without saying that disciplined Money Management is an important key to not just succeeding, but surviving in Forex trading. Sadly, the temptation of riches can wreak havoc with even the most disciplined people out there! In fact, the determination to succeed and be wealthy may just be the one thing that causes a person to relax their own Money Management rules… ‘Speed up the path to the intended destination’ will be the justification in their mind!

I know it, because I personally fell foul of just that! So certain that the trade I was going to put on could go in only one direction, I calculated that if I increased my trade size for this particular trade, I could then go on and move up legitimately to a larger trade size for all future trades (by legitimately, I mean according to my Money Management rules)……. Brilliant! I’m sure this is the type of risk these successful guys take every now and again… After all, you have to take bigger risks sometimes if you want to ‘make it’! Well, I’m pretty sure I don’t have to tell you what happened next…!!

So,… here I was, now in a position where I now had to decrease the size of my future trades, to account for the huge hit I had just taken on that one trade. And not only that, to make matters worse, I exited the trade early because I did not want to take the ‘full hit’ of it reaching my pre-determined Stop Loss!

Yep! You’ve probably got the next bit too! The trade didn’t make it to my intended Stop Loss, and actually would have been a successful trade if I had followed the rules of my strategy! I had just gone down the ladder several rungs in a ‘calculated’ attempt to move myself up a few rungs. It would now take several weeks of SUCCESSFUL trading to get back to the trade size I had been taking that day…

So, the first thing I did that day to cause such a hole in my account was throw away my Money Management rules. However, that wasn’t all that followed! Through just that one act, I lost all sense of discipline, and also didn’t follow my trade strategy. By exiting early, I hadn’t given the trade a chance to succeed according to my entry and exit rules for that trade. Now, had I adhered to my money management rules, and applied my normal trade size, I would not have been concerned by the trade potentially hitting my Stop Loss, and therefore would have remained in the trade, and been in a position to record a successful outcome, and not a rather large losing one!

I tell this story not for entertainment value, but to share a lesson on how disciplined you have to be at all times in Forex Trading. My discipline here had succumbed to the emotions of greed and fear, and I paid dearly for it. What I’m telling you here is,… if you allow just one area of your trading to ‘relax’ against your predetermined Trading Rules, no matter how valid you think your reasons are, there is a very high probability you will pay the price. You will likely ‘need’ to break other rules too.

I would ask you to think about this….Your Trading Plan will have been created while in an environment of calm and rational thinking, based on information, knowledge and facts. When you are trading Forex, the environment is neither calm nor rational, and the only thing that can keep you trading calmly and rationally, is to be disciplined enough to follow the rules of your Trading Plan – and in that, Money Management will be clearly defined.

Your adherence to your Money Management rules, and the power of compounding will help move the odds of reaching your trading goals in your favour …

Remember that..

Kenneth

Joseph Kenny asked:




Foremost among the reasons that lead to marital discord are financial issues. Most couples are unable to or find it extremely difficult to broach the topic openly and honestly. Although the reasons may be different for each couple, being disorganized and unable to communicate are common.

In order to avoid serious consequences it is necessary to for couples to implement the art of budgeting and money management. Couples should avoid conflict over purchases made by each other and learn to respect each other’s opinions.

The initial step is to sit down and discuss the income and expenditure. If there is a lack of communication, which is the case most of the time, this discussion could end in a heated argument. It is important to decide on a strategy before hand, to prevent an ugly situation. For example, get up and drink a glass of water, take a few deep breaths and go for a short walk and then resume the dialogue or invite a friend to be a part of the discussion.

Make a list of all the bills that are pending and the amounts, highlighting the dates on which they need to be paid. Compare this with the joint income and in case of inadequate funds, try to find ways to reduce expenditure or increase income.

Document all facts and figures so that they are easily available to your partner. Make a separate file for documents and papers related to insurance payments, credit card statements, car installments, monthly mortgage, utility bills and expenses. Remove them from the file only when they are paid. Decide on a common place accessible to both, to keep checkbooks, receipts and all relevant financial information. If there have been withdrawals from the joint account, each partner should let the other know the reason.

Such discussions should be scheduled regularly. Financial planning should be an essential part of the discussions. Financial issues become stressful if not handled with care. Make a plan to ensure that both of you take turns to maintain checkbooks, file taxes and track investments. This will allow each partner to be aware of the financial details. Discuss and create a budget to suit both of you.

Try to visualize finances for the next five or ten years. Large amounts of money are required for buying a house or a new car. The different ways in which you could save for these purchases should be discussed openly.

When you set your goals, devise a strategy to achieve them. The plans would mainly comprise of eliminating debt and setting up a savings plan. One excellent way would be to save a certain percentage of the monthly income in a tax deferred account. You can also save and invest in securities and bonds.

Financial mismanagement is generally a key factor in wrecking a happy marriage. In order to keep finances on the right track, proper communication is essential. Regular discussions and mutual decisions on the family budget and savings are sure ways to maintain the harmony among couples.

Tyrone

Laurel R. Lindsay asked:




Your life can suddenly turn into a rat race. However, you have already found the art of allocating your time among all the things that you have to manage on a day to day basis. You are able to manage your career, provide the needs of your family, attend to home repairs and deliver on a lot of other things which are expected of you. How about your finances? When was the last time you had evaluated and assessed your financial position?

It is important for you to learn the basics of financial management. You have to develop a keen understanding of the ways by which you can effectively handle your finances. This means that you must learn about net worth, cash flow, debt, credit scores, insurance and cash reserves.

Assess your Cash Flow

Using a spreadsheet or other financial management software, prepare a list of all sources of income and their respective amounts. Create another column where you will put the list of all your expenses. Include in this column your retirement contributions and automatic savings. Compare the two columns. The difference must always be on the positive range. If you are getting a negative amount, then this means that you are spending beyond your means. You have to get rid of the excess fat in your finances by reducing your expenses. You also have to look for ways by which you can increase the amount on the income column.

Assess Your Net Worth

Your net worth is a measure of your personal wealth. This gives you the “macro” view of financial health condition. There are 3 ways by which you can improve your net worth. You can increase your assets, reduce your debts and you can do both options simultaneously. Your net worth can be derived by subtracting your liabilities from your assets. You can use your net worth to determine whether you are meeting your financial goals or not.

Check Your Cash Reserves

The state of your liquidity is also a good measure of your financial health. Your cash reserve should be enough to cover your financial requirements under a worst case scenario. It is not enough that you have an existing credit line. A sufficient cash reserve is essential especially if your cash flow is limited or almost zilch.

For instance, you must have sufficient cash reserve in the event that you get separated from your present job. The amount must be enough to cover your expenses until you receive your employment insurance.

Check Your Credit Score

Develop the habit of regularly checking your credit score and credit report. You have to make sure that all the information that are reflected in your credit report are accurate and with basis. Make sure that errors are immediately rectified as this can seriously impact on your credit standing.

Check Your Insurance Portfolio

Your insurance is probably the most neglected item in your personal finance portfolio. You must be able to understand the importance of having the appropriate insurance policy that will protect your family from financial ruin in the event that something happens to you. It is important that your family can survive if your source of income is suddenly cut off as a result of disability or death.

Thelma

Connor R Sullivan asked:




There are many times during a lifetime when having a certain amount of savings can be very important when it comes to making a large purchase. For example, when you finally decide to purchase a new car or your child is going off to college, or maybe you are looking for a new home as a first time homebuyer. Any of these things and many more are all very important and require some backup savings in almost all cases. By utilizing something such as Santa Rosa financial services or Santa Rosa investment management, you and your family can plan accordingly for all of your future expenses as well as everything that you must do to be prepared for unexpected expenses as well.

Often times, people forget about random events that could occur such as unexpected medical expenses, a more expensive college education, or even damage to a home or car. The best way to be prepared for this sort of situation is to always have some sort of savings in the bank that is put away for those very things. Instead of trying to scramble what funds you do have together, it is much easier to simply be able to pull it from a sitting amount.

Because it can be hard to keep some sort of savings amount, it can be a very good idea to hire someone who does it as a career. A financial planner can not only help you and teach you how to save money, but he or she can also help you break down your spending and budgeting tactics and work to help you create new ones. With a new budgeting plan, one can decrease expenses in several areas and put that money away in a simple savings account. A savings account show that one has fiscal responsibility and can help your fiscal credit history.

A savings plan is not something that is only necessary to have for emergencies. In fact, the same general idea is used when people are trying to plan for their retirement. The whole point of a retirement is to not have to go to work every day and to be able to live on what you have saved. As you can imagine, keeping the same lifestyle without working can be very hard to do without enough money. So, normally, retirement accounts are usually very full over time. Many employers offer special retirement savings techniques that simply come out of your paycheck before you even see it.

With everything there is to buy lately, it may seem like saving money is an impossible task. In all reality though, it is quite simple and there is very little that one has to do in order to save a lot over time. The most important thing to remember is that one must make rules and leave saved money untouched unless it is for strict emergencies. Though this can be hard to do, it is well worth it at the end of the day

Leslie

Gemma L Jenks asked:




Children’s minds are like sponges, they continually learn from every single experience, from what they see and what they hear from both successes and mistakes. As they grow up, how they choose to live their life will be influenced directly by how money is used around and with them. Teaching kids money management in a fun and positive way is imperative to ensuring that your child grows up with a healthy and positive relationship with money.

Here at Kids Money Packs, we believe that children best learn by doing and we’d like to share with you some simple tricks to use when teaching kids money management skills.

The first step

From a young age, don’t kid yourself here, it’s true!, kids learn that money can get them ’stuff’, whether that be the latest must-have toy that you practically killed the other parents for in Toys-R-Us on Christmas Eve to McDonalds for dinner. The simple lesson of earning, saving and then buying items is one of the best ways in effectively teaching kids money management. It also ensures that you can start talking to your child about money. A lot of adults our age say that money was never discussed in the home as a child and certainly not with them, as if it was a swear word.

Reinforcing the message

Try to consciously provide as many opportunities and experiences as you can to include your child in the family discussions. In time this will become natural and all the time you are teaching kids money management techniques. Oh and if you can’t afford something, explain to your child why, try to make it in an upbeat and matter of fact way, don’t just say ‘No!’, they will understand I promise.

I know that teaching kids money management sounds daunting and you might not feel that you are in a position to do so, but believe me, as long as the positive message is there, no matter how much (or little) money you are talking about it will all help to shape your child’s future.

Some Activity Ideas

I thought it would be useful for me to provide you with some ideas and activities that you can start right now with your kids – teaching kids money management in a fun and engaging way!
Hold a family meeting to talk about money goals, perhaps start with what they want to be when they grow up? Perhaps you are looking to purchase something like a new laptop or t.v., have them go on the internet with you and look at comparison websites to show how you can save money on the same items and learn about quality. Perhaps you can ‘reward’ them with a little bit of the savings, e.g. if they ’saved you’

Sebastian Sim asked:




In this article, I will be focusing on the importance of Money Management in Forex trading. Successful Forex traders have a larger edge and better money management than unsuccessful Forex traders.

After observing hundreds of amateur Forex traders, I began to discover that their failures can be explained almost exclusively by their poor money management practices.

When trading, the importance of Money Management is underestimated by a lot of Forex traders. It is of much more importance than entry and exit decisions (=timing decisions) will ever be. Very few indicators are better than a coin toss, and if they are, the edge is eaten up by slippage and commission.

Money Management in Forex trading is also called asset allocation, position sizing, portfolio heat, portfolio allocation, cash flow management, trade management, capital management and position management, size management, bet size selection, lot size selection, or even risk control, equity control, and damage control.

Money Management is managing the position size while Risk Management is about managing losses and open profits (unrealized trading returns). Actually I don’t like the term ‘Money Management’ in Forex trading as it also has a very general meaning (it’s also used to describe the “process” of saving, those “learn valuable skills” pages talking about piggy banks and how to teach kids about pay checks).

But ‘Money Management’ tells a Forex trader that he should concentrate his research on how to optimize capital usage and to view his/her portfolio as a whole.

Actually there are (at least) 2 steps to implement proper Money Management:

1) Position sizing is the determination of what (fixed or non-fixed) fraction of a portfolio’s total (or again fixed or non-fixed fraction) equity to risk on each trade expressed in Dollar-, Euro-, Yen-, or Swiss Franc-denominated currency values.

2) Position sizing, on the other hand, is the calculation of how many contracts I should hold in my position once a trade entry is signaled, which basically is a function of the Big Point Value (the number of dollars that a 1-point price move represents) and a rounding algorithm as the number of contracts/stocks can’t be traded in fractions and must be cut down to a whole integer.

Let me show you a clearer picture of money management. Suppose you and I bet $0.20 on a coin flip: Heads, you win, Tails, you lose. Suppose you have $10 of risk capital and I have $1. Even though I have less money, I have little to fear, because it would take a string of 5 losses to wipe me out, unless two brokers get between us and drain our capital by commissions and slippage.

The odds will dramatically change if you and I raise our bet to $0.50. If I have only $1, then I can only afford to lose 2 times. If you have $10, you can afford to lose 20 times.

Many amateur Forex traders take wild risks with a poor money management system. When they lose on their trade, they increases their lot size or position, hope that they can recover their losses made previously and make some profits. This action has caused their capital to be more exposed to risks. This lesson won’t automatically build wealth, but will bring a wealth of experience and knowledge, which will prove invaluable to you if both understood and applied properly. It will steer the course for your success in the global financial marketplace.

If you are too lazy to dig deep to both find and understand this lesson, I would advise to either refrain from trading.

Alexander