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The no-pants guide to spending, saving, and thriving in the real world.

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Sunday Roundup

Misc

Bugatti Veyron
Image via Wikipedia

I just realized that I screwed up on Friday’s post and accidentally scheduled it for July 31 instead of July 1.   Sorry about that.

I am pretty excited about tomorrow’s post.   I’m going to…well, that should wait for tomorrow.   It’ll be fun, though.

Best Posts

It’s a basic economic principle:  If you want to sell less of something, charge more for it.   That works for labor costs, too.  Raising the minimum wage, especially when there is a recession, will only cause less employment.

This is a neat business idea.   Sometimes, a small business wants a mailing address that isn’t the owner’s home address.

Foreign CDs seem tempting.  You can make a decent return in India.   Just make sure it’s a legit bank, instead of the “Cayman Island” banks that exist just to collect wire transfers from the US.

In a high-tax, high-regulation environment, the underground economy will thrive, every time.   Working for cash and no paperwork can be tempting.

Here’s a sample email to help you buy a car.

Carnivals I’ve Rocked and Guest Posts I’ve Rolled

Shattering Taboos was included in the Carnival of Personal Finance.

Thank you! If I missed anyone, please let me know.   I’ve been slacking off on carnival submissions lately.

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

Have a great week!

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How have you improved your situation today?

Finance

Every day, in some small way, it’s important to do something to improve your situation.  Whether it’s paying down debt, researching inexpensive alternatives to your existing expenses, or something as simple as hugging your spouse or playing games with your kids.

Educate

I was once told that every day, you either get smarter, or you get dumber.  Don’t do the latter.   Never pass up an opportunity to educate yourself.    Make the day good for you.

  • Read a book.  There are hundreds of personal finance books available.  Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover is a great place to start.
  • Read a blog.  Once again, lack of choice is not a problem here.  There are thousands of choices.  My favorites are in my sidebar, to the left.
  • Find a mentor.  Failing that, get a PF-Buddy. Find someone you can call when you need the moral support to make an appropriate or difficult financial decision.
  • Take a class.  Whether it’s a personal finance class, or some other way of improving yourself, do it.  Many cities offer affordable community education classes. Ad Hoc college courses are another option.

Elucidate

It’s incredibly important to understand your situation.  If you don’t know where you are, how can you control where you’re going?

  • Examine your finances.   I heartily recommend Quicken to track your finances, but Mint is a great place to see where your money has gone.
  • Know your debt.  It’s important to know your debt. Own it.  Know your fees and your rates.  Know every cent you owe.  Get a spreadsheet or a notebook and write it all down. Keep it updated.   Mint is great for this.  I update my debt-sheet monthly.
  • Know your spending.   This is another plug for Mint.   There’s no better way to see where your money has gone in the past.  I use Quicken for the present and future, Mint for the past and snapshots.
  • Find your waste. Do you have the cheapest plans that meet your needs for television, internet, phone service?  Do you have AAA and roadside assistance through your insurance company?
  • Talk to your spouse.  Discuss your finances. Make sure everyone is on the same page and there are no surprises or hidden bills.  Plan together.
  • Eliminate problems early.  If you see a problem, eliminate it before it gets out of control.  The earlier you identify a problem, the easier it is to eliminate.
  • Family meeting.  Get the family together so everyone can participate, even the children.   Young eyes sometimes have a clarity that a lifetime of habits has clouded. If your kids understand the concept of money, they are old enough to participate and even help.   Brainstorming means that no idea is a bad idea.  It may not be implemented, but everything is worth hearing.

Eradicate

What’s left? Eliminate baggage.  Kill your bills.  If you’re paying for something you don’t want or need, get rid of it!

  • Unnecessary items.  Do you have an extra cell phone or an insured motorcycle in the garage?  Time to cancel.
  • Unused items. Do you really use the movie package in your cable bill?  Are you saving money with Netflix, or would Redbox be a better option?
  • Forgotten bills.  Did you sign up for an identity protection scheme or an appliance repair plan for an appliance that no longer exists?  Cancel!
  • Fees.  What fees are you paying?  Do you have an annual fee for your credit card or minimum balance fees at your bank?  Find new institutions.  Loyalty to your bank may be costing you money.

Unused or unnecessary bills are nothing but unhappiness generators. They don’t provide value so trim the waste and get rid of what you don’t need.

 

Cheap Drugs – How I Saved $25 in 3 Minutes

Finance

Drugs are bad, mmmkay?
Image by cackhanded via Flickr

Today, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a couple of prescriptions.  I always get the generics, because they are less than half the price of the name-brands, while still being chemically identical. That’s not what I’m talking about, although it did save me about $75 today.

When the pharmacist rang up my medications, the total came up to $35.   That just wasn’t right.

Many chain pharmacies have gone to a cheap pricing model for generic drugs.  That usually means $4-6 per monthly prescription.  Cub Foods doesn’t have that.

So I asked for the price match.

Cub Foods matches prices on generics with whatever large pharmacy is nearby.  In this case, they matched Target’s prices, bringing the price from $35 to $10.   Instant $25 savings. I just had to wait for them to look up my prescriptions in their match-book.

Pharmacies with cheap generics:

K-Mart offers a 3 month supply for $15.

Target and Wal-Mart both have a 30-day supply for $4.

Publix offers a 14-day prescription for some antibiotics for free.  That’s insane! It’s also a heckuva way to get people in the door.  “Why don’t you shop for half an hour while I fill your scrip?”

If your pharmacy is anywhere near any of these stores, call and ask if they’ll match the price for generic drugs.

A few tips:

Before you go get your cheap drugs, call ahead and make sure what you need is on the cheap list.   Don’t assume.

You won’t be able to use your insurance to buy the cheap generics.   The overhead in insurance processing would mean that the pharmacies would be operating at a loss for each prescription.  You can’t make that up in volume.    Between our copays and deductibles, it’s far cheaper to just pay the generic price without involving the insurance company.

Don’t be afraid of generics.  It’s not like Nike.  Generics are chemically identical to the name brands. There are two differences: the price and the letter stamped on the side of the pill.

The stores offering cheap drugs are generally bigger stores hoping to use the drugs as a loss leader.    Places like Walgreens or CVS make up to 70% of their profits from the pharmacy.  They can’t stay open treating that as a loss leader.

How do you save money on prescriptions?

Selling Your Car

Finance

English: Jalopy car in Joshua Tree National Pa...

English: Jalopy car in Joshua Tree National Park in Hidden Valley Campground (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When it’s time to replace your car, most people focus on the new car, instead of the old, but that is ignoring real money.  Your old car–unless it has disintegrated–still has value.  Sometimes, it’s just time to ask yourself, “When should I sell my car?”

When you’re looking to sell your car (like with We Will Buy Your Car), you generally have several options:

  1. Tow & crush. If your car has been wrecked, doesn’t run, or is just old and beat up, you may be stuck with calling a junkyard and accepting $50 for them to pick up your car and crush it for scrap.
  2. Trade it in. This is probably the least hassle, but–other than #1–doesn’t pay well.  Dealerships are willing to pay something under what they will get at a wholesale auction, which is quite a bit less than the blue book value.
  3. Sell it yourself. Now you’re thinking, “He’s going to buy my car! Oh, bother.”  It can be a pain, but it’s also the best way to get a decent price for your wheels.

When you sell your car, there are a few things to keep in mind, much like when you sell something on Craigslist.

  • Don’t be alone. There are bad people in the world, but they don’t like witnesses.  Bad things are much less likely to happen if you have company.
  • Know your price. Specifically, know three price: your dream price, the price that would make you happy, and the absolute lowest price you are willing to accept.  Make sure you figure these numbers out ahead of time.  Know what you are comfortable with before it comes time to close the deal.
  • Check IDs. The buyer is going to want to test-drive your car.  That’s fine, but you want to make sure you know who is driving off in your car.  “Officer, Sumdood took my car.  He was wearing jeans.”  That won’t get your car back.
  • Clean it up. Get the car detailed before you show it to a potential buyer.   A sparkling-clean car will almost always bring in a few hundred extra dollars.  It’s well worth the expense.

Following this plan should make the sale go as smoothly as possible and bring you the most possible money.

Readers, what have you done to dispose of an old car?

This is a sponsored post written to provide some insight into the world of used car retail.

 

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You’re not alone: Help with Bankruptcy & Debt

Finance

Debt managementFrequently regarded as an indication of personal failure, bankruptcy is still today widely considered a highly sensitive topic. Many will even feel uneasy speaking about their debt problems with close relatives and friends. If you, too, are facing serious debt issues and are in need of help, rest assured you are not the only one afraid of sliding into bankruptcy. In fact, thousands of households in the UK are threateningly close to insolvency and most are experiencing the exact same feelings of shame and despair. This perfectly understandable reaction has, meanwhile, unfortunately overshadowed the fact that there are hands-on practical steps especially designed to help you resolve your debt situation.

There is a good reason why addressing the issue of bankruptcy has an urgent ring to it. Recent statistics indicate a steady rise of individual company insolvencies in the UK, particularly since the 1990s. According to the British Insolvency Service, the rate of bankruptcy on an individual level has risen from a total of 24,441 in 1997 to staggering 106,645 in 2007 in England and Wales. Alarmingly, the peak doesn’t seem to have been reached yet. As  respected online-service ‘This is Money’ reports, ‘record numbers of people were declared insolvent in England and Wales’ in 2010, further noting that ‘an all-time high of 135,089 people were declared insolvent in 2010—0.7% up on the total for 2009.’ As you can gather from these numbers, you are certainly not alone with your debt problems: Around 140,000 adults are facing bankruptcy as a direct consequence of mishandling their debt issues, which translates to 385 new cases per day. It has already been pointed out that ‘the number of victims will be enough to fill both the London 2012 Olympic stadium and the Emirates Stadium.’

So, if you’re facing bankruptcy, there’s no need to feel ashamed. By taking an active stance and addressing your debt issues, you may even be able to avert insolvency altogether. With years of experience and several distinctions to our credit, the Debt Advisory Line have established themselves as leading experts in the field of debt management. We’ve already helped thousands of individuals and households who thought bankruptcy was their only option. Settling debt issues is our forte – and you shouldn’t settle with anything less.

This post brought to you by Debt Advisory Line.

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Carnival Roundup

Misc

I spent this week in my home town with my family: my parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, kids, uncles, aunts, and some cousins from Tennessee that I don’t see often.

In the evenings, after the kids were put to bed, we played Cards Against Humanity: A Party Game For Horrible People.

If you are a horrible, dirty-minded person, with a sense of humor that would make your grandmother blush–and you have friends to match–get this game.   Then play it where you can’t wake up the neighbors.   Seriously, it’s more fun than a super soaker filled with cat pee.

Live Real, Now was included in the following carnivals recently:

Yakezie Carnival hosted by Write and Get Paid

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by I Am 1 Percent

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #39 hosted by My University Money

Carnival of Retirement #26 hosted by Write and Get Paid

Totally Money Carnival #72  hosted by MammaSaver

Festival of Frugality #342  hosted by Help Me to Save

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Simple Finance Blog

Carnival of Financial Camaraderie #38 hosted by My University Money

Yakezie Carnival – Summer Vacation Edition hosted by One Cent at a Time

Carnival of Retirement #24 hosted by Making Sense of Cents

Yakezie Carnival – Arachnophobia Edition hosted by See Debt Run

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Broke Professionals

Totally Money Carnival #70 hosted by Young Adult Finances

Yakezie Carnival – Sushi Edition  hosted by Free Ticket to Japan

Festival of Frugality #340 hosted by See Debt Run

Carnival of Money Pros hosted by Financial Product Reviews

Yakezie Carnival – Birthday Edition hosted by 20’s Finances

Festival of Frugality #339   hosted by The Frugal Toad (My post was chosen as an editor’s pick!)

Thanks for including my posts.

Get More Out of Live Real, Now

There are so many ways you can read and interact with this site.

You can subscribe by RSS and get the posts in your favorite news reader.  I prefer Google Reader.

You can subscribe by email and get, not only the posts delivered to your inbox, but occasional giveaways and tidbits not available elsewhere.

You can ‘Like’ LRN on Facebook.   Facebook gets more use than Google.  It can’t hurt to see what you want where you want.

You can follow LRN on Twitter.   This comes with some nearly-instant interaction.

You can send me an email, telling me what you liked, what you didn’t like, or what you’d like to see more(or less) of.   I promise to reply to any email that isn’t purely spam.

Have a great weekend!