Earn Extra Money Online

The most effective way to change your financial situation is earning an extra income.  A short term part time job can provide the means to pay off debt or help you get control of your financial situation.  Unfortunately,  In this economy finding a second job may not be as easy as it once was.  This means that we must be creative in creating extra sources of income.  One way of making extra income is on the internet.

There are several ways to make money online.  Ebay has become a very popular way for more many people to earn an extra online income.  One method I personally like is PTC (pay to click) or GPT (get paid to) sites.  You won't get rich working these sites, but you can earn an extra monthly income doing them.  There are three in particular I like and I earn ten to fifteen dollars each a month on them.  That is an extra thirty to forty five dollars per month for just a few minutes a night.  That doesn't sound like that much, but that money applied to debt can help reduce the amount of money owed and if you are debt free, it is an extra source of savings.  There are many of these kinds of sites available, some are scams and some are legitimate.  One key is to look for low payouts, sites with a forum, and do not send them money unless you are sure they are reputable.  

Another great source of extra income is survey sites.  These sites allow you to take consumer surveys and pay you for each one you complete.  I make about twenty dollars a month on one particular site.  As with the sites mentioned above, never send money to these sites.  there are some good sites available, but there are also many scams.

I make an extra six hundred dollars a year on the internet income sites.  Again, I don't get rich but it is a source of revenue that takes very little time to earn.  On the side bar of my blog there are links to the sites that actually have paid me.  These sites may be worth your looking at also.

Budget Tip: Don't Forget the Roth IRA When Planning for College

There are several good investment tools for saving for college.  Several of these plans have some definite tax advantages.   Many states offer tax deductions for 529 plans and the investment earnings for 529 plans and Coverdale accounts are tax free.  The Coverdale account can even be used to pay for private elementary and high school.  In the mix of savings plans available for college many people overlook one of the most obvious savings tools, the Roth IRA.

Most people only think of the Roth IRA as a retirement account, and that is its primary function.  Sadly, many families have to choose between college savings and retirement savings.  The advantage to the Roth IRA is that it allows for both, and in some scenarios can save parents money.  Since the Roth IRA is paid for with after tax dollars, the principle (amount out of pocket invested) can be withdrawn at any time for college with no penalty.  There are two benefits to using a Roth IRA for college savings.

• It allows a taxpayer to save above the amount allowed by other college plans and still take advantage of tax free earnings.  An individual can save up to $4,000.00 a year in a Roth IRA and not pay taxes on any earnings.

• It bypasses withdrawal penalties of college savings plans if the student earns sufficient scholarships to cover their college expenses.

If you use a plan like the 529 plans and your child does not need that money because of scholarships you have three options.  You can pass that money to a sibling or, if there is no sibling, use the money yourself to go back to school.  If neither of these options is available, you can withdraw the money with a 15% interest penalty.  With the amount of Interest earned over an eighteen year span that could be a lot of money.  If the savings is in a Roth IRA, that money can now be designated as retirement savings and nothing needs to be done because it is already in a tax advantaged retirement account.  If your child needs some of all of your principle for college, the interest earned can help you get caught up on retirement savings once your child's college expenses are paid for.

While not intended as a primary college savings vehicle, consider a Roth IRA as one of the tools you can use to save for your child college education.  Take full advantage of the benefit that the Roth can offer for your child, as well as the possible future benefits it may hold for you as well.

Quick Tip for Savings: Never Spend a Single

How many people have an old jar that they empty their change into at the end of the day. Change, you know. That jingling stuff that ends up in your pocket or the bottom of your purse after you break a one. Judging by the nearly fifteen dollars of it I have picked up off the ground at the gas pumps this year, some people have ceased to consider it money. The change jar is a time tested method to accumulate savings, but let me give my spin to this technique. Instead of saving the change from each one you break, try saving the change from each five that you break.

Wait, lets not go to extremes here. No, lets. I like to observe people. Observation is one of the key learning skills. One thing that I have observed, especially from men, is that when we break a five at the store the ones that we receive in change go into our pocket not back into our wallet. Women tend to treat their ones in a similar manner. I observed a man at Wal-Mart several months ago pay for a coke at the counter with a five and ,on cue ,when he was handed his change it went into his pocket. That same man was in the check-out line at the Dollar Tree next door a few minutes later and instead of pulling out the change (which would have more than covered his purchase) he pulled out another five. I laughed, and then I realized I did the same thing. Once money leaves my wallet and goes into my pocket, it is forgotten.

From that day on, when I break a five I intentionally put the change in my pocket and forget it. My pockets are emptied into my change jar every afternoon. My expectation is to pay for Christmas in full with my spare change. I must admit, I did not come up with this idea. I met a man in Florida who has done this with his wife for years. In one three year period of time he saved enough to by a beautiful, slightly used, bass tracker bass boat for cash.

If you are one of those people who have stopped spending cash, opting instead for debit cards, there are a lot of banks that offer cards that round every purchase to the nearest dollar and deposit the change directly into a savings account. That is "change" you can believe in.

Common Sense Tips for Saving Money

There are many ways that we can save money in our household budget. How big can this be? Well, if you work a forty hour week and you are able to save forty dollars a week you have just given yourself the equivalent of a one dollar an hour raise. That is $2080.00 dollars a year. Here are some quick and easy ways to save money.

Clip Coupons

This is a oldy but a goody, and with the Internet a new avenue for finding coupons that you can use is at your fingertips. Don't forget the good old Sunday newspaper. If you don't get the Sunday paper, or if there is a coupon for something you buy every week, ask friends and family for their unused coupons. Use websites like coupon.com to print on-line coupons. I printed a two dollar off two boxes coupon for a particular brand of cereal. At four dollars a box, I wouldn't buy one, let alone two. When I got to the store I was pleasantly surprised to find that a type of this cereal which I liked was marked down to $1.79 per box on a closeout special. The store honored my coupon so I effectively bought each box for seventy nine cents.

I also use U-Promise coupons. You must register your grocery store loyalty card. If you e-clip a coupon an activate it, U-Promise will put that money into a savings fund for your child's college.

Create A Menu Before You Shop

Plan your weekly meals before you shop for grocery items. That way you no exactly what to buy and can save money by mot indulging in impulse buying or "maybe I can use that this week" decisions. Planning you menu around your weekly coupons is an even easier way to save money.

Cook a Little Extra and Create a Leftover Meal

Don't throw away leftovers. Leftovers make great bag lunches, are great for pot-luck dinner nights, or as heat and eat snacks. I invested in a vacuum sealer, and have more than recouped my money by taking leftovers with me to work. We seal individual servings and when we have accumulated enough of them in our freezer, we have a pot-luck dinner night where everybody makes their own menu with what is available. You can find vacuum sealers now on ebay for very low prices. My brother even found my $99.00 model at a thrift store for $5.00. Needless to say, his leftovers are even more cost effective than mine are. Vacuum sealers are also great if you or someone in your family hunt, fish,or grow a vegetable garden.

Get a Freezer

This is another item that you may be able to buy used. Having a freezer allows you to buy meat in bulk and gives you a place to store extras from your garden, fish,game, and even the leftovers.

These are just a few ways that you can save money. I will post future blogs with more tips. Until then, happy savings.

Create a Monthly Budget

 A monthly home budget is a guideline that allows you to anticipate you monthly expenses by spending your income on paper before the month begins. A good home budget is essential for any successful personal finance plan and is the first step in getting control over your money instead of letting your money control you. A home budget is easy to set up by using last months income and expenses as a starting point. If you are a worker that gets paid on commission or with tips (a variable income employee) it might be necessary to average several months of income before nailing down your budget. After that, the process is basically the same.

A Monthly Spending Journal

It is helpful when setting up a budget to keep a journal of expenses for several months. This will allow you to see trends in your spending and allow you to have an idea of how much money to allocate to the different categories of your budget. Simply keep a small steno pad with you and each time you spend money record it. The size of the transaction does not matter. You want to see where each dollar in a given month is spent. The results will often times shock you.

Categorize Your Spending

The best way to categorize your spending is by using a budget form. There are several websites that will allow you to download a budget template for free. I have found them in word documents as well as excel files and they work great. One word of warning, don't allocate money to a category just because the category is there.  A generic budget form is designed to accommodate multiple users with a wide range of spending habits. Use only those that apply to you. For instance, it would be silly to allocate money to daycare if you are a single person with no children. Categories will be separated by the main spending category and possibly several sub-categories. For instance your housing category may look like this.

HOUSING

• Mortgage ________

• Insurance ________

• Utilities

Electric _______

Water/sewer _______

Gas ______

You get the idea?

Budget Guidelines

A budget guideline is a suggested percentage of your income that should be allocated to each category. The budget guideline I use looks like this

Percentage of Income	Expense Description
Gross income 10% God/church Net Spendable Income(net income minus 10% of gross)
35%	Housing
10%	Utilities
18%	Transportation
10%	Food
2%	Clothing / Attire
5%	Misc. (eg Phone, Internet)
5%	Medical Expenses
5%	Other Debt
6%	Savings
4%	Entertainment

In my guideline ten percent of my income is allocated for tithe to my local church. Since I am Christian, I make this a priority in my life. I understand that each person that reads this may not feel the same way, but I do encourage giving because it puts money into its proper perspective. There are wonderful charities that do good work if you do not have a particular religious conviction. Note, this guideline is set up for tithing on gross income. To determine net spendable income subtract the tithe from the net income and the remaining amount is net spendable income. These guidelines can be adjusted for your own personal needs. If you only spend 20% of NSI on housing, the remaining 15% can be added to another category, preferably savings.

Now You Are Ready!

That is basically all that is involved in creating a home budget. Now you are ready to begin the process of taking control of your finances. This is a trial and error process so let me encourage you, if at first you make some mistakes, don't get discouraged. I teach this stuff all the time and I still make mistakes.  The key is consistency and dedication.  

Begin Simple

The best place to begin in getting control of your personal finances is to start small and begin simple.  We all have heard about people who make millions overnight, but almost none of us have met one of these people.  The truth is, a lot of what we find on the internet is hype or just plain lies.  The best place anyone can start in building or repairing their personal finances is to begin with those little things we all control and mastering those things instead of letting them master us.

We must decide.  Does our financial situation control us, or do we control it.  There are several simple things that we can do to begin with, and this BLOG is devoted to those, and many more, simple every day things that will make our lives better.

1. Live on a Budget

2. Look for deals and use coupons.

3. Find creative ways to build savings.

4. Do as many things as possible ourselves.

5. Regain the power of being self sufficient.

Let me tell you about myself before we begin this journey.  I am 38 years old.  Up until 2009 I had everything a person could ask for.  I had a wife, a beautiful little boy, we had good jobs, a nice house, a rental property, and nice cars.  I was doing far better than my parents were doing when they were at that stage in their lives.  Then my world fell apart.  My wife decided she didn't want to be married to me and refused to work on reconciling our marriage.  I walked away with only a rental property which I had to live in and a fifteen year old truck and absolutely no savings.  I literally found myself at 38 and starting over with nothing.  Each method I talk about in this blog are the things I did to begin to regain control of my finances and my life.  Was it easy?  Absolutely not.  Not then and even sometimes not now, but it is doable.

The power to change begins with a thought and then with action.  I am working on changing every day of my life.  Sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail, but my thought remains constant; mastering the situation instead of the situation mastering me.  Where does the simple financial concepts that I offer come from.  Grandma's wisdom, the Bible, successful techniques used by everyday people, trial and error, or the wisdom of those who know more than I. The most simple place to start is admitting that there are those that know more than I do and learning.  Knowledge is power and I hope that you can find little gems of knowledge and wisdom here that can help you reshape your life and destiny.