Hot Topic of the Month - April 2009

This is the final topic for the financial series and it is on Giving Back. It is about charity and the good you can do by supporting various charities. It just feels good to help others. Try it sometime!

Doing these hard economic times you may feel that you are just making it but even a dollar here or there can mean so much to someone who is less fortunate than you. When many give just one dollar it can add up to millions!

As you pay off your debt and start earning interest and dividends on the money you are saving and investing please remember to give. Even the U.S. government supports the idea of giving back by allowing us to reduce our taxes by donations to charitable organizations. I will post additional information on what is allowed to be taken as a charitable donation on your taxes from the IRS website. Check it out in the comments to this post. You can get to it by scrolling down to the bottom of this post (the same on all posts) and clicking on comments.

Finally, even though this post is about giving back financially don't forget you can give in other ways by helping someone or organization with your time and efforts. By donating items that other can use. By sharing what you have. By spreading the word of the good works of an organization.

Hot Topic of the Month - March 2009

So far this year we have covered the topics of Setting and Realizing Goals in January and in February we learned about Getting Out of Debt. We also addressed different ways to handle your debt problem and creating a monthly budget to help you become finanically free.

The topic for this month is about Saving. Now that you are using your monthly budget and have paid down your debt, if not paid it off, then saving is your next step and deciding what to do with your savings.

You may ask why I did not start saving before the goals and debt topics and I want to explain why. Say you are paying 15% or more interest monthly on high credit card debt but your monthly savings is only receiving a 4% rate of return are you really coming out ahead? The answer to this will be covered later on this month.

How do you determine how much to save? There are a lot of theories and calculators that you could use but I personally use the 10-10-80 plan. There are many other plans available but this one works for me. Just like I found the one that works for me you will need to find the one that works for you. We will examine my plan and a few more before the end of the month.

While you are waiting on the next insatllment in this series check out ways you are interested in utlizing the money you have or will save. We will be discussing the following....

• Savings Accounts
• 401K and other company deferral options
• IRA - Traditional and Roth
• Stocks, Bonds, and other securities investments
• Real Estate

This month will have a lot of information posted under comments to this post for you to review so check back often!

Hot Topic of the Month - February 2009

Today we start the series on Building Sound Financial Practices and our first goal for the year Getting Out of Debt. In these times it is so important that everyone takes a realistic look at their debt. Recent news shows how bad of shape the economy is in! Lays offs and unemployment are soaring! People are losing a great deal of money in the stock market. People are losing their homes to foreclosure. With all of this going on there is still hope if you start to build sound financial practices that take you through the good and bad times.

Some of the topics that will be addressed this month are...

• Starting and Keeping a Budget
• Making Decisions on How To Handle Debt
• Consolidate vs Bankruptcy

Check back throughout the month to see these and other topics being discussed. Ideas to help you, if you are in debt, will also be provided for you to consider.

In the mean time the first step is to find out exactly how much debt you are in. One way this can be done is by gathering together all your account statements and bills. Remember this to get to a good action plan on how to deal with your debt you need to first know how much debt you are in.

After you gather together all of your information the next step is to put it down in one place. I personally use a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet but it can be a bill book or software package that have this feature or even just a writing pad. The important thing is that in one place you have all your debt written down or inputted.

This is a process that I do every year so I will be going through it with you every step of the way. It will take time and a desire to get out of debt and be financially free but this is one goal that if you realize it will make your life better and less stressful.

Hot Topic of the Month - January 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I decided not to do a December 2008 Hot Topic of the Month because I wanted us to start the 2009 New Year with a new beginning and focus. This year is all about the positive! It's about setting and realizing goals. It's about balancing your life, improving your life, being happy and celebrating you and your accomplishments!

Every New Year people set goals and make resolutions. They even try to work at them as best that they could but why do they fail? The reason why is because most are unrealistic. Or because they take on too many big ones at one time. Also, some do not understand the difference between a goal and a resolution. A resolution is defined as a decision of future action. A goal is defined as an object or end that one strives through action to attain.

Each of the following 11 months we will tackle different goals on the site to help you realize a better you by the end of the year. This will take place in 4 different plans of action as follows...

1. Building Sound Financial Practices

• Getting Out of Debt - February 2009
• Saving - March 2009
• Giving Back Through Charity - April 2009

2. Balancing Your life

• Spiritual - May 2009
• Family - June 2009
• Vacation/Free Time - July 2009

3. Improving Your Life

• With Better Health - August 2009
• With Education - September 2009
• With Your Career - October 2009

4. A Happier You

• Being Happy With Yourself and Your Life - November 2009
• Celebrating The New You! - December 2009

Hopefully by the end of 2009 all of us will have met at least a couple of our goals and will be in a better place mentally, emotionally and financially.

On this site you will find a link to 43 Things. It is a site about goals. I personnally used this site often and I have shared it with my friends and co-workers. Take a look and give it a try.

Throughout this month the site will be updated with information on setting and realizing goals. Information will be added on suggestions of steps to be successful at meeting your goals. In the meantime look over the 11 month schedule for 2009.

Again, Happy New Year!