The Personal Financier

It is essential that you try and come out of debts if your debts are continually rising. This is important as after debt reduction not only your financial life but also your family and social life, improves. One of the most important ways in which you can proceed towards debt reduction is by planning a budget that helps you identify your problem areas where you are spending too much and also will help you stay motivated about debt repayment.

A few things that you have to consider when making a budget are as follows.

1. What time frame you will be considering?

You must first decide the time frame that you will be using for your budget. The time frame that you consider can be monthly or yearly or even quarterly. It is best for you to use the monthly budget. This is because mostly all your bills come once a month and thus using a monthly budget will be most beneficial for you.

2. What is you total income?

One of the first things that you will need to consider when making your budget is how much money you earn. You are to determine exactly how much money do you have incoming. This should include not only your monthly income but also the income that you make from other sources such as investments or additional jobs.

3. What is the amount that you spend?

Now you must calculate how much money you spend. It is important to note that there are some expenses that are fixed. Such expenses do not change over the months. These include expenses such as food bills, rent, etc. Some other expenses are variable expenses that change every month. You must understand that these expenses must be recorded precisely to get the total expenditure. Thus, it is essential that you include all major and minor expense in the budget that you make.

4. What is the surplus?

After you have found out your total income and your total expenses you are to find out how much is the surplus. To get this amount you are to subtract your total expenditure from your total income. The amount that is left behind is the total that you have in order to pay off your debts as well as to save for your future. This is the amount that you are to allocate to paying off your different debts. In case this amount is a negative figure, then you must consider ways in which you can reduce your expenses and increase your income so that you can opt for speedy debt reduction.

These are a few questions that need to be considered when formulating a budget.

by Martha Jackson.

Guest post written by Martha Jackson.

This is not that debts are grown-up things. You can include the whole family in your debt solutions. Just try to tell your kids and family about the debt problems you’re facing so that they can help you with the financial problems. You can also go for debt consolidation process to get rid of your credit card and other unsecured debts.

How can you take help of your kids in your debt payment?

If you give some responsibility to your children, they’ll be able to follow that very well. Try to explain to them about the financial and other monetary problems so that they can understand your problems and can help you. Try not to barge on them with the adverse things that make them feel they’re poor. Just tell them the general problems that the country is facing which in turn have made everyone financially strained a bit. Take a look at the ways your kids can help you manage your debts well:

1. Creating a budget

After you tell them about the budget creation and other financial things, you can ask them to make a note of their spending and savings. That way, they can manage to have a good savings plan and can also monitor the money they’re spending. If they can save most of their allowance of a month, you can rest assured that the next month won’t be that strained. You can also help create a small budget for them so that they can act as a grown-up and try to have responsibilities.

2. Debt payments

This is not only your forte but even your kids and family’s too. You can ask them to contribute part of their money to pay off your debts. If you try to treat your kids as responsible individuals, you can get out of debts fast. Your children can help you pay off your debts with the help of their allowances or you can also sell off certain unused items you have in your storeroom. This garage sale can implement good habits in your kids and they’ll be able to learn the importance of money. Even in small percentages, your kids can help you pay off your debts through do it yourself debt consolidation process.

3. Savings and a frugal life

This is also a huge milestone in your financial matters. You can also teach your kids about frugality and how to manage that. For festive season, you can ask your kids to make their own gifts so that they can save their allowance money and you can pay off your debts. Apart from festive seasons, you can also teach your kids about different things you can make at home to save the supermarket money. That way, you can have a good payment history and can also save for the future.

The 3 ways that are given above can help you pay off your debts faster. Try to involve your family so that you can get out of the vicious cycle of debts united and not separate.

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Author’s Bio: M.J loves to write financial articles and she is a contributory writer associated with the Debt Consolidation Care Community and has written several articles on debt consolidation, debt settlement, bill consolidation and get out of debt for various financial websites. She holds her expertise in the Debt industry and has made significant contribution through her various articles.

A short tale on leg space, social status and the irony of human nature

Pressing up against the window trying to create some space between himself and the man sitting next to him, Joe Aspiring kept wondering how great it would be getting around by taxi. The redundant meeting he had just left only served to increase his frustration. Never ending travels by bus were one of his less desired pastimes. One more year of internship and my status will change, he kept encouraging himself.

The luxury of taxis on the company’s expense did cheer him up, for a while. It was a refreshing change sitting back on black leather, enjoying the leg space. Looking at the windows of the adjacent bus he took some pleasure in the fact he had moved up in life.

Read more…

As always I try to bring in my roundup the more interesting articles and posts I’ve encountered over the past week or two.

From leading magazines:

• The Lure of Store Credit Cards, and the Hook @ NY Times – A fitting article for the holiday season.
• Page-turners @ The Economist – The best books of 2009

Carnival of Personal Finance #234 – Weirdest Toy Crazes Edition was hosted by Suburban Dollar. My post on The Dangers of Excess Frugality – Budgeting and Balanced Living was chosen as Editor’s Pick! Recognition always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling. Here are some of my favorite posts from the carnival:

• 4 Japanese Personal Finance Gripes @ Foreigner’s Finances – My first acquaintance with this blog and it’s a good one. The blog broadens our financial horizons, a very stimulating concept.
• 5 Little-Known Websites That Will Save You Time and Money When Booking Airfare Online @ Get Rich Slowly – One of those focused niche posts that bring real added value if you’re looking to save on airfare. Highly Recommended.

More from fellow personal financier bloggers:

• How To Be A Skeptical Empiricist In One Easy Lesson @ Amateur Asset Allocator – Great post. I enjoy applied philosophy and have written quite about it myself (See philosophy under my categories for more).
• How To Invest Online Using The Peter Lynch Strategy @ The Digerati Life – Looking into another investing philosophy.
• What Is Your Financial Fear? @ Single Guy Money
• What are your dividend investing goals? @ Dividend Growth Investor