Money Release: Making, Saving, Investing and Debt Management » tips

Personal Finance Tips #7: Educate Yourself

Victorino — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:08:58 +0000

Knowledge is power! That is why if you want to strengthen your personal finance, you need to gain knowledge. Our seventh personal finance tip is to educate ourselves. Education doesn’t only mean you need to go to a school or a university to acquire it. It also includes education outside from schools. Education can also be our personal asset that cannot be robbed from us by any theft – though it can be shared and make yourself useful to the community. Knowledge or wisdom can be acquired from listening, reading, experiencing or from reflecting one’s self. It serves as our light in every direction we are heading. It also makes our market value increase. When you are an employee, you are considerably more valuable if you got a master’s degree or a prestigious certification than if you are not.

As we can be our best assets, we need to improve ourselves. We need to increase our market values. But how can we do that? We can do that by increasing our knowledge and education – formal or informal depending on our necessity. If you are an employee, it is just advisable that you get higher education (master’s degree, certification, etc.,) to aid your promotion. If you are an entrepreneur, you can also get higher education like MBA or the like, attend trainings and seminars or just conduct your own research to develop your business.

The fruits of education are these: if you are an employee, you can get a higher salary and if you’re an entrepreneur, you can bring your business into progress. Moreover, if you don’t have the both (business and employment), you can gain the capability to have one of them or both if you become educated. Knowledge also brings skills. Skills can give us opportunities to earn money and solve financial problems.

Education helps us reinforce our finances. It can also boost our earning capacity, orient us the discipline to control our spending, and teach us how to save and invest our money. Sometimes our financial world is dark and uncertain. But because of knowledge, we have light and calculations that give us almost precision. Therefore, education cannot be ignored. It should be prioritized just like how we prioritize our selves. There are many books that can be read. There are many reliable articles on the Internet where you can get the wisdom to manage your finances. We should not stop from learning. We should not stop and claim that we are already wise. We should be like that if we don’t want to be called fools. Remember that foolishness can lead anyone to shame.

Wise people are humble. They also live in modesty. These attributes keep them away from excessive expenses and unwanted debts. Apparently, foolish people are boastful and live in extravagance. Consequently, they lose most of their money and they fall into the trap of debt. By having wisdom and knowledge, we can have the information and cautions we need to plan strategically. We can set effective procedures that will help us achieve our financial goals. Finally, we can learn the principles and behaviors that will fortify our personal finances.

Personal Finance Tips #6: Forget the Money

Victorino — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:42:10 +0000

The title of this article may sound absurd. How can we become financially stable if we forget or ignore money? But what most of us don’t know is that too much attention on money can bring us financial disasters, and even a whole life problem. Many people have loved money more than anything else. They even sacrifice their real treasures and assets for money. They have forsaken their loved ones and even God for the love of money. Other people give up their integrity, honesty and good name just to not lose money. Aren’t they aware that the love of money is the root of all evil? And evil can lead us to destruction – even financial destruction?

Now, why I am saying that one practical personal finance tip is to forget about money? I’m telling this, because I want everyone to focus on becoming great instead of concentrating on money. The Bible even said, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things be will added to you. This means let’s seek first for greatness rather than things which do not last forever. Becoming great is a combination of being humble and one who serves God and His people. But how can greatness (humility and service) can help us stabilize our personal finances? Simply, if you become great, you will bear greatness.

By becoming great, we can avoid financial troubles – even long-term and permanent troubles. In earning money for example, when you work great in your business (serving your customers well, treating your employees the right way, and becoming responsible to the government), you will be assured that your financial condition and operation will have a bright future. Just imagine if you will just concentrate on money. For example, if you deceive your customers to have bigger profits, give unjust compensation to your employees just to cut your cost, and practice tax evasion just to save more money – what will happen? Do you think you will prosper? But of course you can be financially successful. But that will only be temporary. You customers will not return to you, your employees may leave you, and the IRS may impose tax penalties on you. The consequence will be a great financial tragedy for you and your business.

How about if you are not a businessman? Let us say you’re an employee. The virtue of greatness still applies. If you concentrate in doing great to your job, performing well and having the best results, there will be a huge chance that you will be promoted and will receive incentives and bonuses. Thus, helping your financial capability to be strengthened. Moreover, if you will not boast and will stay humble, you will be exalted and win bunch of good friends. These true friends that will be yours will help you in any aspects of your life, including the financial aspect of your life.

If you wish to get out of debt, greatness also applies effectively. Often, people, because they don’t want their money (even their last money) to leave them, they don’t pay their debts responsively. A responsible person does his promises, including his promises to pay his dues. That’s why if you want to really extinguish your liabilities, you should do great in doing your vows. You should not just focus on keeping that money in your hands, but you should concentrate in preserving your word of honor, as well as your credit score, which are beneficial to both of you and your creditor.

Therefore, concentrate on becoming great in everything you do. Sometimes or even most of the times, you must forget that money. Be great and be righteous, and money will not leave you – even if you will not focus on it. Don’t hold your money too tight, so that it may flow freely, and return to you voluntarily – giving you the freedom you have first given to it.

Personal Finance Tips #5: Be Diligent

Victorino — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 08:08:28 +0000

When it comes to delivering wisdom to my readers, especially on money and finance, I often refer to the Bible. I believe that the Holy Scriptures, which already existed thousands of year ago, are filled with powerful wisdom that if practiced by us, will make our lives better. Its passages can also guide us to better financial living and better management of our money, as well as our debts. Now, in my fifth personal finance tips series, I am introducing diligence as an important virtue that will help us achieve our financial success and freedom. I’m telling this because diligence, according to the Bible can bring us the wealth that will stabilize our financial condition.

”Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.” – Proverbs 10:4 (NIV)

Diligence is important as an action is important to accomplish every task or plan. Intelligence is good. Yes it is good because we need to be wise in making our financial planning and in designing our steps and procedures in managing our personal finances. However, this wit is inadequate without putting them into actions. Using our brain is good, but without using our hands, it can never be better. Even if we have the confidence in our hearts to succeed in our financial life, it will only come short if we will not walk the talk. Remember that faith without deed is dead.

Our financial program is composed of a good plan, nice goal and a series of effective steps to achieve that financial goal. In this program, the steps are very important – and we can only walk all the steps if we are constantly diligent. We need to do what we think. We need to realize what we feel. We need to work for the things we want to achieve. The debts we want to extinguished must be paid by our earnings. These earnings should be the fruits of our consistent labor. If we only think of repaying the money we owed, but never work for the money we will be using to pay off those debts, we will just find ourselves still slaves by lenders.

In saving money, our actions play a very important role. It is our hands that hold, make and or spend our money. In order that we can save money, we should increase our income by working more. We also need to control our hands not to spend excessively.

In investing money, especially when we invest it to our business, diligence is our key to success and prosperity. If you will refer to your financial statements (balance sheets or statement of financial position and statements of income), you will find in your balance sheet that equity increases when your income increases. If your equity increases, your asset may also increase, and your liability may be decreased. Take note that the statement of income, which is also known as the statement of performance and results of operation, reflect a company or an individual’s performance and results. This just means that the success of a business or financial activity indeed lies on our performance and results – which are the manifestation of our works and our diligence.

Personal Finance Tips #4: Value and Importance

Victorino — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:24:42 +0000

Here is another personal finance tip I want to share to all my readers. In an objective to attain financial stability, we need to take a good look to our personal finances. We need to stand firmly for the achievement of our financial goals. We just not need to plan, set goals and do the steps to achieve those goals. We need to give those things a great importance. We must value what we think, what we feel, and what we do to our personal finance. Every task we made and every goal we target, we must think and feel how much they are important to us. We must put an essence to all things we do. This essence exists when we put value to those things.

Many people, although they have a good financial plan and procedures to achieve their financial goals, still fail. One mail reason is… they don’t perform their very best. They take those plans and steps slightly, and sometimes they take them for granted. This happen because they don’t stand on the things they have laid.

All plans must have a goal. This goal must be an important goal for someone not to take it insignificantly. Hence, in every plan and goal we make, we must always ask ourselves – why are we doing this plan? Why do we want to achieve those goals? How important it is to achieve them? By assuring that a plan and its goal are very important to our lives, we can also assure that we will do our best to execute that plan and achieve its goal.

In setting up our emergency fund, we should also put some value on this fund. Because if we won’t, we might just lose it. This must also apply to all the funds and allowances we build. We must hold them tight, protect them, and nurture them – as if they are very important to us. We can also think of some important things to become the reasons why we are doing these financial activities. These things can be the most important people in our lives. They can be our love ones, our children particularly. The educational fund you are building up can be very important to you, because you love your children. The emergency fund you keep can also be very significant to you because you don’t want your family to face financial troubles in the future.

One major personal financial goal you can desire can be your release from debts. This goal must also become very important to you. This means, you need to become serious in eliminating those amounts you owed. You need to pay them on time. This also means you need to do your best effort to find and earn money to repay those debts.

By putting pure value on everything we do, we can set ourselves on fire and attain success on those things. Remember that what we don’t hold firmly – can fall from our hands. Thus, we must stand on every plan we create, in every steps we make, and in every goal we want to achieve. We must place a great importance on them. We can do that by linking them to important things in our lives, like our love for our family and other loved ones.

Personal Finance Tips #3: Be Honest

Victorino — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 04:56:06 +0000

Honesty is known to be the best policy. However, only few people practice it. Seemingly because being honest may give you some instant troubles. People tend to depart from honesty to escape some of life’s immediate troubles. What they don’t know is they are just pushing their selves into bigger problems which are even long-term rather than temporal. Persons who are fun of hiding in the darkness instead of in the light are the people who always fall into the trap of financial troubles, as well as in the claws of debts. They are the ones who usually don’t achieve financial freedom and the ones who often become slaves of lenders. Honesty, though difficult and requires a lot of patience and self-control, is an effective virtue that can help us achieve our financial liberty and get us out of debt.

So how is your personal finance doing? Do you have many debts and don’t have financial stability? If yes, what do you think is the problem? Have you been an honest person all these years? Maybe you have obtained a loan you know you can never pay? Or you have not done your vows or promises to pay your debts, resulting this to double your debts because of interests and penalties?

A simple piece of dishonesty can bring a person lot of financial troubles. People who can hardly say “no” or refuse or resist a thing that should be resisted often slide into a whole financial mess. I remember one person who didn’t have enough money in his pocket or in his bank account. He was encouraged to have a grand birthday party by his friends. Because the man cannot be true to his self, he did not say no to them and he gave his vow to realize that party. Consequently, he resorted to creditors and owed money he could never afford to payback. Eventually, the party happened and the increase in his liabilities also occurred. With that story, we can tell that should he became honest to people and unto himself, he should have escaped lots of debts.

Dishonesty is also common in paying taxes. Many people, who wish to save their money, don’t pay the right taxes. They resort to tax evasion which is a great practice of lying. These people gain temporary financial relief because they don’t pay bigger current taxes. However, as the IRS conducts audits, these people are caught with more penalties. That means more expenses which result to additional financial burden.

To strengthen our personal finances, we should also strengthen our attitudes and behaviors. This includes strengthening our virtue of honesty. As we all know, the truth will set us free. The truth and the light can give us financial freedom and stop us from becoming slaves of our creditors. Honesty is difficult to practice, but if practiced constantly, will truly help us in gaining our financial stability. Therefore, let us embrace in our everyday conducts that honesty is still the best policy – even in our financial policies.

Tips on How to Get the Best Loans

Jay — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 16:42:44 +0000

Nowadays getting the best sources of loans can be difficult because of the current economic situation worldwide. Many financial institutions have put restrictions on granting loans mainly due to repayment or forgiveness issues. Loans in general refer to the major financial commitment that will last for years. It is usually in forms of cash or check. It may involve houses, cars, education, or other necessities that people need to survive in this world. In most cases, people would often go for loans because of the expensive amount of the necessities they are about to buy. Loans will help them acquire these necessities and pay the loans in installment or terms basis.

Loans also help many people during their financial hard times. It may come in different forms such as car loans, mortgages, or personal loans. There had been many options or sources of loans from the most basic ones to the most complex ones. Here are some tips that can help you get the best loans. From these tips, you can select the best one that will suit your individual financial needs.

1. Acquire mortgages or loans from credit unions, which is similar to a bank in some ways but somehow different in other ways. One of their similarities is that they are both lending companies and offer the same options for financing. The major difference of the two is that a credit union is run and operated by its members while the bank is managed by company officials and CEO. A credit union may have plenty of favorable factors that are not evident with any regular lending institutions such as banks. These favorable factors include more overall options, more extended finance terms, and better interest rates. Before deciding to go to a lending institution like bank, check first if you can qualify loaning from credit unions.

2. In getting the best loans, always keep your options open for possibilities. Many people today restrict their selections of loan sources. They often accept or secure loan from one or two specific banks only. In getting the best loans, it is important not to have defined notions on what you will accept or not.

3. Using the Internet is the best tool in searching for loan availment. From there, find the perfect loan sources and study their options. Most of the lending institutions today offer different methods on their websites. The websites are opportunities for many loan seekers out there.

4. Always look for the best deal of loan in terms of money rates and interests, flexible schemes, and considerable terms and conditions. As you search for the best loan deal, check for the name of the lending institutions if it is legal. It is important that it will not ask you for any obligatory fees.

5. When you have searched for the best deal of loans for your debts, compare the rates and interests. Check if it is adjustable or fixed. If the rates or interests are adjustable, know the possible risks that go with it such as associated fees or costs. Once you have compared the equal footing, make a good decision for your best source of loans.

Personal Finance Tips #2: Buy the Big First

Victorino — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 01:09:06 +0000

Money was invested to facilitate trading of goods and services. In other words, it was introduced to make buying easier. Every amount of money has its own equivalent item. The more money you have the more you can buy. It gives you the power to purchase and the power to acquire things that you may need or you may want. Getting money is almost everyone’s objective. When you get it, another objective is tried to attain – to have the best buy. Attaining the best buying and shopping decisions are vital in managing money. That’s why, it is very important that we try our best to make sure that we spend our money in the most righteous ways.

If we are to gain personal financial success, we should carefully study and analyze what to buy first. It is the big things or the small ones? As an investor, I will consider buying first the big things that will generate benefits in the future rather than small things that can be escaped without affecting our lives significantly. Of course this is assuming that we have the amount of money that will enable us to have the choice whether to acquire the large stuff or the tiny ones. So what’s the big deal in prioritizing the big ones? Here are some of the logic and principles:

1. Small expenditures may silently destroy your budget without leaving a trace.

2. Capital expenditures gives you long-term and bigger future benefits.

3. Most of your goals, objective or dreams are the huge things you want to buy and possess.

4. You can live for a month or more without buying those small items. Examples are your regular purchase of goods like hamburgers, soft drinks, cigarettes, beers, extra dresses; and your regular buying of services like traveling, dining in a fine restaurant and going to cabarets.

5. Acquiring the big stuff level up your status in life; while buying the common things you usually buy is a boring activity.

Remember that a successful personal finance planning has its own strong objective. That objective makes a person ready to do sacrifices to achieve it. These sacrifices are done to give way to bigger and better outcomes. Hence, if you have the money, consider to ignore acquiring things that you can live without. Instead, consider the best buy that will make your financial life stable. Buy the big first.