How do you define your finances?

Driving to New Mexico, I looked over at my friend and said those miraculous words, "So... How are your finances?"

Had somebody asked me that today I would have started rambling about my savings account, what I'm paying for school, my recent scholarship, my debt I've paid off. Finances to me means, accordingly, everything money.

Finances to my friend meant what she has available and what she owes on her credit card.

Which is true, those are finances. Her response allowed me to take a glimpse into her world on a monetary level. My finances are definitely a positive thing. I'm enthusiastic when I tell people what I've achieved this year. I don't just pay off debt, I knock out debt *punch punch*. I don't just save money, I boost my savings. I didn't just get a scholarship, I was truly blessed!

Is it that much different from saying what you owe and how much you have left in your checking account?

I'm going to give a boisterous, HELL YEAH to that question.

If you spend your entire day being positive about everything you've accomplished and keeping an open mind to any troubles that come your way, you'll fare much better.

If you spend your entire day fretting over negativity and retract when things become challenging, you'll wish you never climbed out of bed.

So why should talking about your finances be any different? My friend didn't give me details, but from her viewpoint I could tell that she wasn't financially where she wanted to be. And instead of reminding me that she just recently paid off her Tempur-Pedic mattress or that she's begun saving for her summer vacation abroad after she graduates, she focused on what she hasn't accomplished yet.

Changing how you look at your finances, understanding that you've made some progress along with any setbacks and just being nice to yourself could help you boost yourself in the right direction.

One bite at a time...

Homeword's Family Financial Survival Guide

HomeWord's Family Financial Survival Guide

Unemployment is up . . . home prices are down . . . and no one is really quite sure where the Stock Market is going to land from one day to the next. In these challenging economic times, it’s easy to be worried about your family’s financial health. “HomeWord’s Family Financial Survival Guide” gives you practical tools that are biblical, practical and recession-proof.

For this special audio presentation, Dr. Jim Burns welcomes noted financial experts Dave Ramsey (author of the book, The Total Money Makeover), Ron Blue (author of Master Your Money), Howard Dayton (Founder of Crown Financial Ministries), Wall Street Journal business reporter Francine Huff, and Ellie Kay –“America’s Family Financial Expert.”
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HomeWord's Family Financial Survival Guide




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Salaries...

I'm currently enrolled at the El Paso Community College. I will have graduated with my degree in Electrical Engineering in the Spring of 2010 and hopefully start at the University of Texas at El Paso that summer or fall. I've got a general understanding of what I will be making once I finish my bachelors degree courses, but I'm wondering if I should then continue on my education to a Master's degree. Of course I would like to be settled into a company that generally appreciates the contributions that I make to the company before I go back to school again.

So my ultimate goal today is to get a general idea of the payscale difference between an undergraduate with a Bachelors degree and a graduate with a master's degree. Luckily I know that there are a great deal of helpful websites out there that can provide this information for me. The main driving goal in this experiment is to determine my savings budget for each scenario. I'm concerned that I should start saving for retirement, but I can't anticipate my savings contributions based on the salary I am currently making. Planning for your future involves research and goal setting, so this is something that I feel will provide a good gauge for me to begin my goal planning.

Payscale.com: Provides a helpful graphing utility to see the various levels of certification, experience and industries and compare the information. Here is one of the graphs:

Median Salary by Years Experience - Degree: Electrical Engineer (United States)

Compare your salary: Get a free Salary Report

This particular graph is by years of experience. I hope to have the opportunity to obtain some experience while I am still in school, but on the chance that doesn't play out for me, its nice to know what individuals that lack experience are making and the goals for which I would like to set for myself while I'm employed.

Engineersalary.com: Had an indepth view of the different routes that one could take and the payscale difference. Salaries in 2007 for new grads: B.S.E.E. received starting offers averaging $57,830; M.S.E.E. grads averaged $69,180; and new Ph.D.'s averaged $86,440. Advanced degrees are in the high demand by both Fortune 500s and start-ups. This information will definitely come in handy when I am deciding what direction I want to take my professional and educational futures.

While this last website was specific for my degree plan, you can find the payscale for your field of interest online easily enough. Payscale.com is not limited to just engineering. The more you know, the more you can plan for.

And its never to early to be thinking about retirement!

How to Get out of Debt... Say what?!

1. Stop increasing your debt. If you have any credit cards that are maxed out, cut them in half. If you have more than one remaining credit card, cut them up. When you finish, you should have no more than one credit card. Also cut up any "convenience" cards, such as gas cards, department store cards, etc. You will use your one credit card ONLY to buy "must haves" (see below) until you can get your spending fully under control.

2. Record your spending. The idea of writing down what you spend is a concept most people find annoying at best and useless at worst. However, this is actually your key to getting out of debt. You're in debt because you spent money you didn't have. If you're like many people, your debt didn't come from one single huge purchase; it was trickles of spending amassed over time. Avoiding more debt starts with knowing what you are spending your money on. Each day for one month (at least), write down every penny you spend, no matter how small.

3. Categorize your spending. Categorize your monthly expenses into logical groups of "Must have," "Should have," and "Like to have." "Must haves" are things that will cause harm if you don't buy them, such as food, rent, medicine, pet food, etc. "Should haves" are things that you need, but can do without for a little while, e.g., new clothes for work, gym membership, etc. "Like to haves" are things that you don't need, but enhance your life, e.g., magazine subscriptions, newspaper, cable tv, weekly coffee with friends, IM on your phone, etc. By doing this, you'll have a good idea of what you spend your money on, and you'll be able to figure out where you might need to cut back on spending. You don't want to eliminate all of the "should haves" and the "like to haves," but take a look at those first. One of your expenses will be paying off your debt. You will want to always pay more than the minimum required, otherwise it will take a really long time to eliminate your debt. For example, a single credit card with just a $1,000 balance and 19% interest will take about FIVE YEARS to pay off by making only the minimum payment of $26. Paying the minimum, you will spend $1556.40, with the Total Interest Paid: $556.40! Paying only the minimum payment will equate to giving them 55% more than you actually borrowed.

4. Make a budget based on your spending record. Write down the amount you spent in each category of spending last month as you budget for spending for the next month. Don't sweat if you feel like the amount is too much. For now, just write it down. If you spent $250 on clothes last month, write it down. If you spent $200 on gas for your car last month, write it down.

5. Figure out your debt paydown fund amount. Looking at your new budget, you're going to be able to see areas where you might be able to cut back. You might also see categories where you need to increase spending. In doing this step, no one is suggesting that you come up with budget amounts that are unlivable. Think about going on a diet--if you try to restrict your calories excessively, what's the first thing you want to do? Krispy Kreme here you come, right? The key here is to be realistic. Are you paying money for a gym membership you never use, despite your best intentions? What about the $4 a day, every day, morning coffee you get before work, or your 5-cans-of-Diet-Coke-a-day habit? Chances are, your budget has some fat that can be trimmed. At the end of this exercise, you should have come up with a figure, a number of dollars that can be put toward debt paydown.Make a note of this figure. Day-to-day, if you don't want to keep taking note of all your expenditures, just write down what you spend in the categories you are trying to cut back. This will give you a very clear idea of how well you are doing, and, if you know you're going to go over your budgeted amount, it may help you decide to hold back on a purchase, . If your still unable to find money in your budget, you may be able to find it in your paycheck. Statistics show that the average employee pays over 30% in taxes. Meaning that if your salary is $50k per year, your take home pay is only $35k. There are millions of employees who have filed their w4 forms incorrectly which means that their job is taking out more money than they should. If you are interested in determining your witholdings visit this website http://www.kiplinger.com/tools/withholding/. You should review your filings with an CPA to determine your exemptions. Chances are, you can refile your w4 form and increase your paycheck almost instantly. However if all else fails, and you still can't qualify for a more exemptions than start a home base business to take advantage of the write offs. You must work them to make a potential profit but the tax write offs alone are worth it. There are a lot of businesses out there that you can plug into, but there is one that may be more helpful because their services revolve around getting you out of debt as quickly as possible using your same money, credit restoration, unlimited access to CPAs and Financial Planners, and building wealth, because while you are getting out of debt you should be building wealth.

6. Figure out how much you owe, to whom, and on what terms. Debt can often feel overwhelming because you really don't have a clear idea of how much in debt you really are. Gather your bills, and make a simple list or spreadsheet of all the debts you have. Write down all the pertinent facts, including name of the creditor, your total balance, your minimum monthly payment, and your interest rate.

7. Start paying it off. Take the debt paydown figure of money you trimmed from your budget in step 4, and apply it to debt repayment. It's a good idea to prioritize the debts to which you are going to apply this extra money. Do you have debts that are past due and the creditors are hanging out on your door step demanding your first-born? Do you have debts with exceedingly high interest rates? Consider these top priorities. Let's say you determined in Step 4 that you could comfortably trim an extra $250 from your monthly budget to go toward paying debts, and that from your list of debts in Step 5, you owe $2,000 on a store credit card that has an interest rate of 19.5%, $1,000 on a Visa with an interest rate of 11.5%, and $25,000 in student loans with an interest rate of 5%. You would want to pay the minimum on your low interest rate debts, and apply the bulk of your $250 to the highest interest rate, in this case, your 19.5% store credit card, despite the fact that the actual cost of the student loan interest is highest. Also, consider that if you are already paying a minimum payment of $50 on that high interest card, if you start sending $300 per month (the minimum you are already paying plus your debt paydown figure), once it is paid off, then you will have increased your debt paydown figure. The next creditor can get the amount they are already getting plus the $300. Each debt gets easier to pay off than the last.

8. Wash, rinse, repeat. Just kidding, but you get the idea. This process gets easier. Once you've figured out your spending and what debts you owe, keeping it up gets easier and easier. You'll refine your budget over time, increase the amount of money you can pay yourself (see tip below) and the amount you can put toward debt. Continue to pay off each debt in your priority list. As you pay off convenience cards and high interest credit cards, call those credit card companies and cancel those accounts.

9. Don't give up. Chances are you didn't get into debt in a day, and you won't get out of debt in a day. Quick fixes don't last, but learning how to manage your money can bring great peace into your life, and you can spend your mental energies on more fun things.Also checkout this company had some great feed back about them,

Powerpay

Greetings,

I have an insane amount of debt. Nothing to show for it. I decided in the summer of 2006 that I was going to sell everything I owned, charge up a bunch of credit cards and move to another city. Another country. I went to Thailand. I'll say it once and I'll say it again: I don't regret going, I just regret how I went.

And I'm still trying to get my life back on track. But now I can officially start, and here's my plan that you can follow too.

First, if you're anything like me, you need to know exactly who you owe and how much you owe. If you stop paying on your credit cards, like I did, or if you have floating utility bills, like I do, that you didn't make the last payment on, chances are the company you had those bills with has sold them off to collections agencies. They've probably accrued some amount of late fees, interest or collections fees. The easiest way to get all of this information is to obtain a credit report for all three credit unions. I say all three because some companies report on all three, only two or just one, so you want to be sure you've got all the information you need to start your financial recovery on the right foot.

Second, take a look at all the reports and make sure you can account for each purchase. You'd be surprised how many things sneak onto your credit report. If you search google for the company's name that is handling your debt, or you do an inquiry with the various credit companies, you can find their contact information. If you feel that there has been an error on an entry or entries on your report, dispute it. Even if you're wrong in the end, better to be safe than sorry.

Thirdly, don't feel overwhelmed. You knew you were in debt, this is just giving you a number to tell you how far into it you were. You can use this as a source of motivation to empower you to turn information into action. Visit Powerpay.org to create a detailed list of your debts in an easy to read excel sheet. You can enable a payment calendar that will allow you to see what would happen if you put x amount of money towards each debt. Once one debt is paid off, the alloted money that was going towards that debt is now going towards another and so on and so forth.

Once you've selected what state you live in, created an account and arrived at the main screen, you can then enter in your debts. Include the company name, amount and interest rate. Save and the website will computer how long it would take you to pay off your debt:


This is what it should look like.

Now click on the "Payment Calendar" link above the debt information. This will take you to a second page. Select from a few options at the top, I recommend Highest Interest Rate First or Lowest Balance first.

Select calculate and scroll down to the bottom of the screen to view your projected calendar:

You will notice that when one bill is completely paid off that allotted amount is assigned to another bill until all bills are paid off. In just over a year and a half you can pay off almost $2500 in debt including interest! This website is truly a valuable resource.

And finally, take this information and roll with it. Its not going to be as easy as it was getting yourself into debt in the first place, but it will be worth it. If things get too tough, recalculate your powerpay plan. Its okay to stumble, just don't give up! Stick with it, stick with me and we'll make it together!
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I save, you save is brought to you in part by... me! Krystal! I'm 23 years old and I'm out to save some money. I'm participating in a savings challenge here in El Paso with a great credit union, GECU. If I manage to achieve or exceed my goals for the year 2009, I will win the grand prize of 10,000 dollars! So help me out, by posting tips, links to helpful websites and ideas to help me save money! :)

Money might not by happiness, but not having to stress about money problems will make you a happier person.
Peace, love and a handful of pennies.
Krystal