Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Free Shipping Day - 12/18/08

For those who have not completed their shopping and wish to finalize some things online, tomorrow will be a free shipping day. You can check out FreeShippingDay.com for participating online retailers. With over 200 participating merchants, you should be able to find something for everyone on your list.

Merry Christmas and spend wisely!

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Online Christmas Shopping

Shopping online has obvious conveniences during this time of year as long as you get started early enough for your packages to arrive before Christmas. Recently, I have made several purchases on Amazon.com, which sells or has teamed up with other online retailers to sell almost anything you can imagine.

Shipping costs are the difficult thing to overcome with online shopping, but Amazon.com grants free shipping to customers spending at least $25 on eligible items. I could easily find everything on my family's Christmas list at Amazon.com, but have run into the problem of consolidating the shipping to save some money. Amazon.com should consider using a multiple shopping cart approach. That would allow both my wife and I to purchase gifts for each other without creating multiple accounts. We could also then take everything that was added to all the shopping carts and purchase them all together. I'm sure this could save us some money compared to me buying a few things, then her buying a few things and receiving multiple shipments as a result.

Maybe if some software or web developer out there has the expertise is coding this type of feature into online stores, they should consider creating it and selling it. I'm sure I'm not the only online consumer that runs into this issue so there must be some type of demand for it.

Merry Christmas to all and shop wisely!

Monday, December 15, 2008

The Right Credit Card Mentality

Credits cards can hurt or help your financial situation, depending on how you use them. You must have the right credit card mentality to not end up on the losing side with your credit card company.

Credits cards should not be used when you do not have sufficient funds to pay off the full balance at the end of the month. Otherwise, you will be hit with huge interest fees, which you would never agree to if you were purchasing a home, car, or other large-ticket item through a financing arrangement.

The key with interest is to have it working in your favor, not against you. You should be earning interest, not paying it. This requires avoiding debt, which should be done with the only exceptions being for a new home or maybe a car. Interest never sleeps or takes vacation like you do.

Then why have a credit card? Credit card companies are constantly giving incentives to sign up with them. These can at times be very useful in gaining bonus airline miles or other types of reward points that will give you discounts on almost anything you could be shopping for. But please be careful if you are signing up for a new credit card simply for the sign-on bonus. Your credit score and rating can be affected by the number of open credit lines you have at any given time. The more credit cards you have, the more open credit lines are open in your name. This has the potential to hurt your credit when lenders realize that you have more existing lines of credit than you could afford if they were all being used. That said, it doesn't hurt to take advantage of great offers and then not even use that card or even cancel the card altogether (check the agreement upon signing up in case there is a time requirement to keep the sign-on incentive).

The bottom line is to pay off your credit card and use it as a convenient way to pay for your shopping needs. Earn the rewards and don't pay any interest. I don't even carry any cash anymore since I can use my credit card to pay for almost anything. I have also never paid a cent of interest.

Happy shopping during this Christmas season!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Money Saving Tip: Phone Service

Today it is hard to find someone who does not own a cell phone. I admit I was slow in joining and got my first cell phone in 2005. Home phone services are also getting more sophisticated with plenty of features. I have met several people who have scrapped their home phone altogether since both husband and wife (and sometimes kids) have their own cell phone. This is obviously a great way to cut $20-$40 per month from your expenses depending on how much your home phone bill is. I, personally, cant' get myself to get rid of my home phone - primarily for potential emergency situations when the power is out and cell phone towers are overloaded or not functioning. We've seen this happen during many catastrophes in the past. I also ensure to keep at least one phone in the house that is not cordless. This ensures that at least one phone will work even when the power is out.

Even keeping home phone service, you can still trim some costs each month. You can pay for the basic line, which is usually only about $10/month and use your cell service for all your long distance. If you are used to caller ID at home, you can sign up for call forwarding (usually cheaper than caller ID) and have all your calls forwarded to your cell phone.

Many people subscribe to Internet service and/or TV cable with their phone service. Most providers will bundle these at a lower rate so you should also look into what packages are available and what promotions you can utilize. Revisiting your service plan at the end of a promotional period also typically results in more savings.

Establish a Living Trust

If you are married and especially if you have kids, consider establishing a living trust. You are the trustee as long as you are alive and your spouse becomes the trustee if you pass away. If both you and your spouse pass away at the same time (perhaps in an unfortunate accident), you designate who the trustee will be. The whole purpose of this is to avoid having all your assets go through probate upon your death. The trust is the owner of the assets and they can then be given out to your designated beneficiaries upon your death. Probate is a long and costly process that should be avoided when possible.

You will probably want to pay a lawyer to get everything set up for you and he or she can also assist with the transfer of any real property (real estate) into the trust. It is then up to you to move all of your bank and investment accounts into the name of the trust. This might seem like a hassle, or even strange, to have checks written with the name of your trust on them rather than your name, but it will be worth it.

Debt crippling your style?

The recent credit crisis has shown us now more than ever that staying free from unnecessary debt is important for your financial freedom. Surrounded by foreclosures where I live in California and hearing about more every day in other states around the nation, strengthens my opinion that a debt-free life is a splendid goal. That may seem extreme, but it can be done. I understand that the majority of the population needs to enter into debt to purchase a home and maybe even a car. One should be smart in finding the right price as well as the right interest rate. Additional debt can typically be avoided. It is not necessary to take out a home equity loan just have a more extravagant lifestyle. Living by the principle of spend less than you earn will allow you to save up over time to allow for those extras in life.