How to Save Money with Meal Planning

Here are some more articles on how to save money with meal planning:

Quick Ways To Save and Be Frugal With Meals – Make a list. Always keep a list on hand for what you need and what’s on sale. This will also help with your meal planning. Plan your meals around sales. If pork is on sale that week add it to your menu for the week. …

7 ways to save money at the grocery store – Fresh, frozen or dried, fruit makes a satisfying, sweet end to any meal. It will add vitamins, minerals and fiber that aren’t found in cakes or candy. Working some small changes into your grocery shopping habits will not only save money …

Money Saving Tips – A Roundup Post

The recent volatility in the stock market and economy has finally got people asking how they can save money.

Well, I’m not the most frugal person in the world, so I decided to search some of my favorite personal finance blogs to find the best “money saving” tips I could find.

• How-To: Save Money on Heating This Winter – Recently, heating expert Chris Cooper shared some advice for thrifty Winter heating. Check out these ideas for reducing your Winter heating bill with these tips, which may surprise you. Even small adjustments in everyday life and habits …

A Simple Exercise to Reduce Financial Anxiety

A few years ago I learned an exercise that is designed to de-clutter your mind.  While this exercise was really created to be used when you have too many things to do, I found it to be a great stress reliever, and use it anytime I’m worried about something and need to reduce my stress about whatever’s bothering me.

Given the state of the economy and the stock market, I thought it would be a great idea to share this exercise with you to help reduce any stress you may have related to your finances.

To get started… For 15 minutes, write down everything that’s on your mind.  In this case, I want you to focus on writing down everything that’s on your mind about your finances.  It doesn’t matter if you use pen and paper for this exercise, or use a computer (I use a computerized journal).  The purpose is to write down everything that is on your mind about your finances.  Keep writing until you run out of things to write.

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Carnival of Personal Finance – Meltdown Edition

The 172nd edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance (the Meltdown Edition) is posted at DebtKid.

If you’re not sure what a blog carnvial is, it’s where bloggers who write about a similar topic (in this case personal finance) submit their best articles to be compiled together on one website for readers to enjoy.

There were over 50 articles submitted this week.  Here are a few that look interesting to me…

• Money Beagle gets a really interesting insider look at the credit crisis.
• Trent from The Simple dollar goes into depth about the 12 biggest personal finance mistakes people make over and over again (plus their solutions!)

Keeping Your Money Safe

With everything going on in the financial world lately – the Treasury taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and IndyMac Bank, and the government bailout of AIG – it’s no surprise that investors are wondering if their money is safe.

Thankfully, there are safety measures in place for various types of accounts and investments.  Here is a rundown of the different safetynets in place for each type of account or investment you may have:

Banks:  Bank deposits are ensured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).  Basically, the FDIC insures deposits up to $100,000 per owner, per bank.  If you have $100,000 or less in your name at any FDIC-insured bank or savings association, you have nothing to fear.   Since the limit is per owner, that means you could actually have more coverage than you think (for example, if you and your spouse have a joint account with $300,000 at one bank, $200,000 is insured – $100,000 for each “owner”).

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Smart Money Moves to Make In Tough Times

The recent financial news – banks failing, the Treasury taking over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the stock market dropping several hundred points in one day – may have you feeling a bit helpless when it comes to your finances.

While you may not be able to make the market go back up or keep banks from failing, there are steps you can take to make your finances as strong as possible in these tough times:

1.  Fund your emergency fund.  It’s more important than ever to have an emergency fund, in case you lose your job, have unexpected medical expenses, or have a major house repair, so that you don’t have to sell investments (while they’re down), or rack up credit card debt.  The general rule of thumb is to have three to six months of living expenses set aside for emergencies.

2.  Reduce debt.  If you have high interest credit card debt, the greatest return you can get right now is to pay off that debt.  Start by calling your credit card companies and asking for a lower interest rate (if you have a good credit score, you could get your rates down to 8-12%, which is much better than paying 20+ percent).  Then make the minimum payments on all of your credit cards except the highest interest rate card until paid off.

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When the Road to Investing Gets Bumpy

Investing in the stock market is a lot like driving on a long road trip.  At some point, you’re going to run into pot holes and rough patches.  When that happens, you should definitely drive with more caution, but you have to keep on going if you want to reach your destination.

Similarly, if you’re investing for long-term goals such as retirement, you will encounter some market volatility, probably several times along your journey.  While you may be tempted to pull over and wait out the rough times, it will delay or may even prevent you from reaching your goals.

So what should you do when the road to investing gets bumpy?

Buy Low, Sell High:  The whole premise behind investing is to buy low and sell high.  You can’t do that if you pull out of the market or stop investing when the market goes down.  If you’re investing for the long-term, you should be glad when the market is down, because then stocks are “on sale” and you can pick up more shares at a lower price.  Who doesn’t love a good sale?

Diversify: One of the best ways to defend your portfolio against market losses is to have a portfolio that is properly diversified.  If you review the history of the stock market, you’ll see that the best performing assets vary from year to year and that it’s not easy to predict which asset class will perform well in any given year.  Therefore, by having a mix of asset classes, based on your risk tolerance, your goals and your timeframe, you are more likely to meet your goals.  In addition, having a mix of asset classes reduces your risk of loss, since you won’t have all of your eggs in one basket.

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Stay At Home Mom Success Stories on The Dave Ramsey Show

Dave Ramsey is planning to focus one of his upcoming Fox Business shows on Stay-At-Home Moms who are making money working from home.  They’d like for Stay-At-Home Moms to share ideas on how they started their business and how they are generating family income.

This theme show will air on September 1st (Labor Day). To be considered for the show, please send your 200-300 word overview to daveonair@48Days.com and put Stay Home Mom Idea in the subject line. Lara Johnson on Dave’s team will review the entries and contact you if you are selected to be a live call-in guest for the show.  Good luck!

Instead of Saying “I Can’t Afford That”…

…why not ask “how can I afford that”?

While browsing the The Carnival of 20-Somethings Finance, I saw a post called Tori Spelling – Unsung Financial Hero? that caught my attention.

If you like reality shows (me, not so much, but I actually caught part of this episode on one of my ‘unable to sleep’ nights), you may be familiar with Tori and Dean – Home Sweet Hollywood.  On a recent episode, Tori and Dean were looking at new houses to buy, and they were looking at one that was twice their budget.

When Will Things Get Back To Normal?

That’s what clients are asking (or at least thinking) about the current stock market.

Well, I hate to break the news, but this IS normal!  The stock market goes up AND down.  It’s a cycle, made up of periods of expansion and periods of retraction, of good times and not-so-good times.

The market goes up, and periodically it needs to retract.  Right now we are in a retraction.  However, those who adopt a reasonable investment policy, diversify and rebalance their portfolio as needed – these folks have positive long-term investment experiences.

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