Review of Quizzle.com

By reading other financial blogs I have just completed my information on quizzle.com
This website gives you a fairly detailed financial picture after entering some basic information.

This website is great! You enter your address, your income and expenses, and questions regarding your credit history and the website provides you with your experian credit score, budget tips, and a financial score, ALL FOR FREE!

I highly recommend trying out this website. It took about 5 minutes to provide all the information. The free credit report and score was really helpful, and you could easily see how your budget holds up.

Balanced money formula

Over the past few months I have not been as ridiculously analytical as I have been when it comes to my budget. I pretty much know that I will spend about $300 on food and $100 on gas each month. What I have been doing which I feel works well is to automatically put the amount of money I want to save immediately in my savings account, and then simply live on the rest.

This is a simple formula and I have been enjoying it. I also feel that I am putting more priorities in my spending this way, just like the book "your money or your life" states.

As for a proper money formula, I recommend Elizabeth Warren's balanced money formula. 50% of your income should go to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings. Some expenses can be considered wants or needs (Do I really need to spend $300 on groceries? I could get by just fine on $200). Other expenses could be considered needs or savings (Is paying the minimum on your credit card all savings, all needs, or a bit of both). However, I feel that if someone can save 20% of the money they make that will give them plenty of options in the future.

9 Methods to Improving your finances in 2009!

2008 was a miserable year for money. The stock market tumbled, unemployment soared, the housing market continued to crumble, and retirement savings shriveled away. Whew! Here’s hoping 2009 will be better!

But hope can only do so much. Hope cannot bring change. Action brings change.

If one of your goals for 2009 is to take control of your money (instead of letting it keep control of you), this crash course in financial basics can help guide the way. Here are nine simple but effective actions you can take to build a better financial future.

Method #1: Track every penny you spend
The authors of Your Money or Your Life admonish readers to “keep track of every cent that comes into or goes out of your life.”

[This is] the best way to become conscious of how money actually comes and goes in your life as opposed to how you think it comes and goes…This is the step that somehow makes the biggest impact.

It doesn’t matter how you track your spending — the most important thing is to do it.

You can use a cash notebook.
You can use an online tool like Wesabe, Mint, or Quicken Online.
You can use a piece of software like Quicken or Microsoft Money.

Whichever method you choose, stick with it. Make it a habit. Don’t fudge the numbers. Record your transactions as soon as possible. Most of all, don’t judge yourself. Tracking your spending is an exercise in data collection; it’s not the appropriate time to change your habits.

Method #2: Develop a budget
After you’ve tracked your spending for a few weeks (or months), use the data you’ve collected to develop a budget. According to The Millionaire Next Door, budgeting is one thing that sets the wealthy apart from the rest of us — 55% of millionaires keep a budget.

Many people — myself included — fail to budget for a variety of reasons: it’s boring, we don’t think we need it, or we don’t know how. But this simple act can provide a roadmap for your money.

There are a variety of budgeting methods you can choose, from Andrew Tobias’ three-step budget to the 60% budget. My recent favorite (and a favorite of GRS readers) is Elizabeth Warren’s balanced money formula: 50% to Needs, 20% to Savings, and everything else to Wants. Simple but effective.

Tip! Spend less than you earn. This is the fundamental money skill. It’s common sense, yet many people never learn to do it. Only by spending less than you earn can you hope to build wealth. This is easier to do if you track your spending and develop a budget, but those steps aren’t completely necessary. Even if you do nothing else in this list, spending less than you earn can put you ahead of your peers.

Method #3: Optimize your accounts
Over the last couple of years, I’ve finally begun to optimize my accounts. If you haven’t already done so, consider the following:

Open an online high-yield savings account. Even in this era of low interest rates, it’s still possible to earn about 3% on your savings. Internet favorite ING Direct currently offers a 2.50% APY and FNBO Direct offers a 2.80% APY.

Method #4: Start an Emergency Fund!
For years I lived paycheck-to-paycheck. I spent everything I earned. This worked well until something went wrong. Suddenly I’d find myself without money to pay for a car repair, or facing an expensive doctor’s bill.

After you’ve optimized your accounts, make it a priority to save for emergencies. In The Total Money Makeover, Dave Ramsey explains why he believes an emergency fund should come before anything else:

Since I hate debt so much, people often ask why we don’t start with the debt. I used to do that when I first started teaching and counseling, but I discovered that people would stop their whole Total Money Makeover because of an emergency — they felt guilty that they had to stop debt-reducing to survive.

After you’ve saved $1000, then you can attack your debt. Open an online high-yield savings account and add $20 or $50 to your account ever time you get paid.

Method #5: Get out of debt
Are you struggling under a heavy debt load from credit cards or student loans? Make it a priority to unload some of this this burden in 2009.

If you have the mental discipline, you’ll save money by paying down your high-interest debt first. But if you’ve tried that method before and failed, consider using a debt snowball. Pay your debts starting with the smallest balance first. Here’s how:

Order your debts from lowest balance to highest balance.
Designate a certain amount of money to pay toward debts each month.
Pay the minimum payment on all debts except the one with the lowest balance.
Throw every other penny at the debt with the lowest balance.
When that debt is gone, do not alter the monthly amount used to pay debts, but throw all you can at the debt with the next-lowest balance.
The debt snowball can give you awesome psychological payoffs, keeping you motivated to stay in the game. It’s not mathematically ideal, but it worked for me (and for many others besides). However you choose to get out of debt, stick with it. Don’t give up.

Tip! The perfect is the enemy of the good. When you spend so much time looking for the “best” choice that you never actually do anything, you’re sabotaging yourself. And an ideal solution that you don’t follow through with is worse than a good solution that you’ll actually use. Choose a good option and act.

Method #6: Fund your retirement
The current economy gives a lot of people the jitters. But if history is any indication, now is a great time to be buying stocks for your retirement. Take advantage of any employer-matched opportunities, such as a 401(k). Also consider starting a Roth IRA.

If you’re young, you probably don’t think you need to start a retirement account. You’re wrong. No matter how old you are, now is the time to begin saving for retirement. The extraordinary power of compound interest favors the young — and in a big way! In The Automatic Millionaire, David Bach writes:

The single biggest investment mistake you can make [is] not using your [retirement] plan and not maxing it out.

Method #7: Automate your finances
I’m learning the value of automating routine transactions. When you make things automatic, you remove the human element, making it more difficult for you to mess things up.

The classic example is overdraft protection. By tying your checking account to your savings account, you have a safety net if you bounce a check. But there are other ways this can work for you. For example, I’ve set up automatic payments with my auto insurance company. I also make automatic deposits to my online savings account.

One terrific advantage to automation: when pay your bills and do your saving and investing automatically, it’s easy to tell how much you have left over to spend at the end of each month!

Tip! Do what works for you. There are few hard-and-fast rules in the world of personal finance. I can suggest methods that have worked for me (and for others), but only you can determine if these methods are appropriate for your own circumstances.

Method #8: Earn extra money
You can meet a lot of your financial goals by reducing your spending and using the right tools. But nothing supercharges your progress like a boost in income. How can you earn extra money?

- Ask for a raise.
- Switch employers. Not every employer is able or willing to offer raises, even when they’re merited. If you’re in a position where a raise isn’t possible, consider finding a new employer.
- Take a second job. Many people find that the best way to get out of a financial hole is to temporarily take a second job. Nobody wants to work more than 40 hours per week, but sometimes that’s what is needed to get out of debt or to save for a house. Just remind yourself that you’re doing this for a short time.
- Use your hobbies. Yes, it’s possible to have money-making hobbies. You’re not going to get rich playing World of Warcraft, but many people use productive hobbies to earn a little extra income.
- Volunteer for medical research.
- Sell things.
- Another effective way to increase your income is to pursue entrepreneurship. While working on earning extra income, I have been tutoring students. It didn’t generate a lot of income, but it did provide $2,000 a year that I wouldn’t have had otherwise!

Method #9: Educate yourself
Knowledge is power. Personal finance doesn’t have to be a mystery.

Visit your public library. Borrow money books and self-development manuals. Here are four of my favorites:

If you’re in debt and can’t seem to find a way out: How to Get Out of Debt and Live Prosperously.
If you’d like to know more about investing: The Random Walk Guide to Investing
If things are tight and you need to find creative ways to make ends meet: The Complete Tightwad Gazette
If you want a motivational manual to prompt you to pursue your goals: The Magic of Thinking Big

You don’t have to agree with everything in a book to get something out of it. I read a lot of personal finance books — some are good, but many are not. Even the worst books usually have one or two things I can pull from them. Learn how to read a personal finance book so that you can pick and choose those pieces appropriate for your life.

Final thoughts
Taking control of your finances can be intimidating — there’s so much to do! — but it doesn’t have to be that way. One effective solution is to take a vacation day from work: designate one specific date as your personal “Money Day”. Use this day to finally set up Quicken on your computer, to open a retirement account, and to call around for a better deal on your insurance.

The good news is that you can get out of debt. You can save for retirement. Best wishes for a prosperous new year!

Excellent Budgeting spreadsheet

This is a really good spreadsheet, it takes less than 10 minutes to setup and it tracks where your money goes very easily.

https://www.pearbudget.com/spreadsheet

Envelope Method to Budgeting

Many of us wonder where our money goes in the end of each paycheck, and may of us find more month in the end of the money. One of the ways that I recommend to handle your budgeting is to make a zero based budget. In this budget you first start with your income for the month and then allocate reasonable amounts of money to each major expense.

Here is an example of a zero based budget. The first column is amount of money allocated to each expense, and the second column I subtracted the next expense (for example I started with 3229 in income, subtracted 150 for saving and ended with 3029

Income	3229	3229
Saving (roth)	150	3079
Housing	400	2679
Car Payment	170	2509
Car Insurance	83	2426
Debt	670	1756
Recreation	250	1506
Gas	300	1206
Food	200	1006
Extra Debt	1006	0

An important thing to notice is that I ended with 0. the $1006 I had left over went into additional debt payments, but in this case you should put your most important priority in the last column.

Right now I follow this method to budgeting and I have enough control to make sure I dont go over my limits. However, many of us always go above and then wonder why they have no money left over. I recommend following an envelope method to budgeting in this case. From the example above, you pay your fixed expenses (housing, car, debt) and you take out money for every other expense. In the example above you make 3 envelopes for recreation, gas, and food, and then write down the amount you are starting with. You put the amount of money you wrote in the envelope and you ONLY USE CASH for these expenses.

This is a good way to track where your money is going and should be used for people who are serious about tracking expenses.

Figuring out how much you really get paid per hour

Everyone thats gets paid by the hour is not really earning the income that they think they are. Even those that get a yearly salary make quite a bit less than they think they do. One of the most important questions you should ask yourself when you are working is, if you had an unlimited income, what would you be doing with your time?

Budgeting for my trip

Ill be going to Florida and New York this summer to visit my friends and family. I will continue to record my expenses, and I will be showing both fun and informative video blogs while Im there.

Im wondering how much more I will spend during these 3 weeks, it might not be as bad as I think, but I did spend almost $400 on flights.

Im on a Low Budget

...and its a pretty good solo in the beginning.



Low budget sure keeps me on my toes
I count every penny and I watch where it goes
Were all on our uppers were all going skint
I used to smoke cigars but now I suck polo mints

New Budgeting Method

Im going to try out this new method from Dave Ramsey. For budgeting, take all of your income, and write down realistic numbers for your expenses. I included categories for savings, debt repayments, and blow it money. I then made a separate column which subtracts each number from the income. I made sure that after all of my expenses it adds up to 0. This makes each dollar I make accounted for.

If one of the expense categories is getting close to exceeding the allocated monthly budget, I am still not sure what I will do. I am thinking of significantly lowering this if possible or lowering in another category.

I have an excel sheet setup. If anyone would like it let me know!

Budgeting: Make it Fun!

For people who either have credit card debt or do not have an emergency fund (which is pretty much every 20 something), I think it is NECESSARY to live on a budget. Now, what you are probably thinking is that when you hear the word budget you probably cringe, but it does not have to be that way.

I think it is important to keep your budget simple and fun. For the next month, write down EVERY expense you have (including any savings or automatic savings plans). I would recommend putting your fixed expenses down in the beginning of the month, then simply write down anytime you buy food, eat, or miscellaneous expenses. On my cell phone whenever I buy anything, I simply write down the cost rounded to the nearest dollar than F for food, G for gas, and M for misc. I then add all of these expenses each week.

You can also use your credit card for all of your expenses. Whats good about this is you will get a statement for everything you buy, but what could be troubling is if you cannot pay for everything you bought at the end of the month.

I have made an excel spreadsheet when has categories for fixed and living expenses, and automatically updates so you know exactly how much you spend each month. Leave a comment or email me at lancekaminsky@gmail.com and Ill send you a blank budget for free.

Once you see where you are spending your money you can set realistic goals for how much you can spend on variable expenses like food.