- Getting ready to go build a rain gauge at home depot with the kids. #
- RT @hughdeburgh: "Having children makes you no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist." ~ Michael Levine #
- RT @wisebread: Wow! Major food recall that touches so many pantry items. Check your cupboards NOW! http://bit.ly/c5wJh6 #
- Baby just said "coffin" for the first time. #feelingaddams #
- @TheLeanTimes I have an awesome recipe for pizza dough…at home. We make it once per week. I'll share later. in reply to TheLeanTimes #
- RT @bargainr: 9 minute, well-reasoned video on why we should repeal marijuana prohibition by Judge Jim Gray http://bit.ly/cKNYkQ plz watch #
- RT @jdroth: Brilliant post from Trent at The Simple Dollar: http://bit.ly/c6BWMs — All about dreams and why we don't pursue them. #
- Pizza dough: add garlic powder and Ital. Seasoning http://tweetphoto.com/13861829 #
- @TheLeanTimes: Pizza dough: add lots of garlic powder and Ital. Seasoning to this: http://tweetphoto.com/13861829 #
- RT @flexo: "Genesis. Exorcist. Leviathan. Deu… The Right Thing…" #
- @TheLeanTimes Once, for at least 3 hours. Knead it hard and use more garlic powder tha you think you need. 🙂 in reply to TheLeanTimes #
- Google is now hosting Popular Science archives. http://su.pr/1bMs77 #
- RT @wisebread 6 Slick Tools to Save Money on Car Repairs http://bit.ly/cUbjZG #
- @BudgetsAreSexy I filed federal last week, haven't bothered filing state, yet. Guess which one is paying me and which one wants more money. in reply to BudgetsAreSexy #
- RT @ChristianPF is giving away a Lifetime Membership to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University! RT to enter to win… http://su.pr/2lEXIT #
- RT @MoneyCrashers: 4 Reasons To Choose Community College Out Of High School. http://ow.ly/16MoNX #
- RT @hughdeburgh:"When it comes to a happy marriage,sex is cornerstone content.Its what separates spouses from friends." SimpleMarriage.net #
- RT @tferriss: So true. "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." – Abraham Lincoln #
- RT @hughdeburgh: "The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them." ~ Frank A. Clark #
Automatic Everything
In an effort to simplify my finances, I’ve automated every bill I have. For years, I resisted, fearing a lack of control over my money. A few months ago, I re-examined the bill paying options on my bank’s website and changed my mind. This is one thing that USBank has done right.
The first thing I did was set a budget. Without a budget, it’s not possible to let your money take care of itself. I did this months before I decided to automate.
All of the bills that offer a budget plan–a plan that averages your payments to avoid fluctuation–went on the plan. It means I do overpay some months, but it also means I get to underpay some months. Most important, I always know what will be due. These bills were scheduled in the bank’s online bill paying system as is, along with the rest of the bills that do not fluctuate.
All of the bills that do fluctuate went in to the bill paying system at their highest level. For example, I don’t pay for text messaging on my cell phone. Some months, I send and receive text messages. I pay my cell phone bill assuming that there will be a few messages. This is slowly building a credit on my account. If I don’t use all of the credit, I will get to skip a month of payments sometime next year.
I keep track of all of this using Quicken. Every one of these bill is in the calendar. They are all scheduled to be entered into the register on the first of the month, to post of the actual day of payment. This lets me see, at a glance, my cash flow for the entire month.
But wait! What about the non-monthly payments, you ask? They are also in Quicken, broken into monthly line items. There’s a “Set aside for property taxes” item, a “Set aside for web host” item, and a few other items.
My time to maintain this has been reduced to comparing the bills to the bill-paying system every other week. At the same time, I consolidate all of the “set asides” so I don’t have 10 property tax entries when one will do.
I know this is an inefficient method of saving money, but my goal isn’t to save money, it’s automating money and removing one layer of stress from my life. It has transformed bill-paying from an hour or two per week to 20 minutes, twice per month and very little stress.
March 30 Day Project
For March, my 30 Day Project is to do 100 sit-ups in a single set.
Based on the results of my February project, I will be doing 5 sets, morning and night, as follows:
Set 1: Half of my maximum amount.
Sets 2-4: 3/4 of my max.
Set 5: Do sit-ups until my abs start to cramp, thus setting my max for the next session.
This month, I only have one project.
Financial Spread Betting
Spread betting is a method of trading that has a high potential for both loss and gain. The nature of spread betting is highly speculative. Through it, traders can potentially make money when the market is going up or down, depending on the bet that they place.
Traders only make money when they correctly predict the direction the market is going in. If a trader feels that the market will be going down, then he or she would bet against the market. If the trader feels that the market will be going up, then he or she would bet with the direction of the market. Gains in income come from the spreads – the difference in price between the bet and the direction the market takes.
Traders place their bets in terms of points. Each point has a set monetary value assigned to it. The money that the trader makes depends on how many points that the trader loses or gains. Traders can place stop orders to protect themselves. A stop order is a simple computer command that tells the trading system to cancel the transaction when there is a certain gain or loss in the market. This is how traders protect themselves from potentially wild market swings – executing a stop order saves the trader.
Gains from spread betting are tax-free in the UK and can be done through many online sites. It can be an especially lucrative form of investment for UK traders.
The risks of spread betting are often too large for many who don’t have much of an appetite for risk. The most frustrating part of this business is being unable to predict the market. You can potentially stay in a position where you are losing a lot of money if you aren’t careful. This is tempting when you are convinced that there are gains to be realized from the position you are trading in. If you find that this is the case, then you should evaluate why you bought the position in the first place. A penny saved is a penny earned, and this is certainly true in the investment world.
The best way to begin is by visiting website operated by Cantor Index and setting up a
spread betting demo account until you get better at timing the market. You won’t be tempted to make silly mistakes that many other traders make and having a demo account will give you the confidence to trade with real money.
While risky, with time and practice you will get better at spread betting. Once you learn how to time the market, and you gain practice, your luck with trading will be better. This is one of the best ways to mitigate the risks involved – getting better at the game. You will lose money in the market, but the objective of being a trader is to make more than you lose.
This is a sponsored guest post provided by Chris, working in partnership with Cantor Index.
Back to Cash
It appears that I can’t be trusted with a credit card.
At least, not a credit card that gets used for our regular shopping.
Over the past few months, our spending has slipped past our budget by more than I like. The problem appears to be that it’s really easy to toss “just one more thing” in the cart when there’s no hard limit on how much is available to spend at the register.
If you do that a few time, it’s easy to find yourself $1000 over budget.
Ouch.
If it weren’t for my side hustles, we’d have been growing our debt recently.
As of the beginning of this month, our credit card has once again been relegated to automatic bills, the gas station and online purchases.
No more groceries, no more scrapbooking stuff, and no more restaurants.
I would have done this sooner, but we were so far over budget that I didn’t have the cash to yank out all at once to cover our month’s expenses. We ended last month at a good place, so I went for the clean break and withdrew all of our day-to-day spending on the first. When I got home, it went straight into envelopes so we know what we’ve got to spend this month.
Bye-bye, credit cards!
Best of Money Carnival #68
Today, it is my privilege to host the 68th Best of Money Carnival. I’ve hosted a few carnivals over the last 10 months, but winnowing the choices from 60 to 10 is quite possibly the most difficult I’ve had to do. There were lots of excellent posts this week. Next time, I’ll have to make my job easier by soliciting bribes. I am always on the lookout for a new income stream.
Without further ado, here is the best of the best:
10. Mike Piper presents Do You Have an Investment Backup Plan? posted at Oblivious Investor. What would you do if your investment portfolio suddenly tanks?
9. Tim Chen presents Calm Down, the Poor Are Not Paying for the Rewards of the Rich posted at NerdWallet Blog – Credit Card Watch. I always get a little bit irritated when people accuse the “rich” of only being rich at the expense of the poor. After all, the richest 20% of the U.S. includes household incomes of just $90,000. If you think that’s a lot, remember that $25,000 still puts you in the richest 10% wordwide.
8. FMF presents How to Pick a Great Mutual Fund posted at Free Money Finance. What’s more important, cost or performance?
7. Madison DuPaix presents Marriage Tax Penalty Returns in 2011 posted at My Dollar Plan. This is another example of the flaws in the “tax the rich” policies. When we lose the “tax cuts on the rich”, almost everyone will pay more taxes.
6. Silicon Valley Blogger presents How College Students Can Save Money posted at The Digerati Life. If I knew then what I know now….
5. Kristina presents A DINK Sandwich posted at DINKS Finance. Life gets easier when you can find a simple yet reliable set of rules to cover most situations.
4. freefrombroke presents It’s Still A Good Idea To Buy A House In This Economy posted at Free From Broke. I was lucky enough to buy my house shortly before the bubble grew. If we would have waited, I’d still be renting.
3. PT presents Credit Card Default: 7 Things You Should Know posted at PT Money. If you are working your way into debt, it’s good to know the what’s in store for you.
2. Joe Plemon presents Three New Car Purchases to Steer Away From posted at Personal Finance By The Book. I’m a few months away from my last car payment. Ever. These are more reasons to avoid a new car.
And finally, the best of the best of the best, sir:
1. Craig Ford presents Make Money Blogging | A Guide for Beginners on How to Make Money Online posted at Money Help For Christians. As I was compiling this list, I kept getting distracted here. I’d reread a section, follow the links, and find I had lost an hour. Read this post.
If you want to be included in the next Best of Money Carnival, don’t forget to submit your best post and follow the guidelines. Next week, it will be hosted by Green Panda Treehouse.
