As a school kid when I’d talk about money frugality, my friends would tease me saying I was stingy. But now the recession has taught even the greatest spendthrifts amongst us to be very prudent with our money. No more is it fashionable to spend big bucks for a lavish lifestyle. In fact, these days, you’re looked upon as a fool if you do that! Everybody is talking about money saving ideas. That gives hopeless misers a chance to be proud of their ways! Isn’t it ? Here are some easy time-tested ways that have been around for quite some days now. They are simple, short and effective. If you were to go by Financial Literacy survey 2009 of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, about 45 % of people spend lesser than what they used to in the previous year. It seems when conditions [...]

 

The holidays are coming and you might have planned to travel to your favorite travel destinations. Tesco Personal finance has advised people to watch out their travel expenditure when going on a holiday. According to their spokesperson you need to consider your dining expenditures. Most people consider travel costs. But you’ve got to be mindful about the costs that you might have to face when you are in the city. You’ll have to spend on your accommodation, food and shopping. According to Tesco officials, "If families really want to holiday on a shoestring then they need to do their research to really make their money go further". In the past three years, a third of the population had gone on a last minute holiday. These last minute holidays don’t let you plan well for the holiday. [...]

 

Hiring independent contractors seems to be a new trend in the recession recovery business era. Being an entrepreneur, if you want to cut down on human resources costs this seems to be one of the best available solutions for you because it comes with a lot of tax benefits and other overheads that you might have to bear on hiring regular employees. But personally I feel that your hiring decision should be based on your unique requirements, which is dependent on a dynamic interplay between different factors. You might save up on the payroll and tax expenditures on your independent contractor. You don’t even have to give them the health care coverage that you are obliged to for employees. The advantage is that you can adjust the size of your workforce according to your requirements but make [...]

 

My teenaged son is in college and now it seems he’ll be getting credit cards in college. Like most parents I’m apprehensive of how he’s going to use it. As you know many of the college students seem to be in huge credit debts and some are misusing them too. According to a student credit card debt survey done by Nellie Mae in 2007, graduate students averaged an incredible $ 8,216 on credit. Gail Cunningham, VP business relations, consumer Credit Counseling Service, Greater Dallas, "Graduate students are apparently doing what the rest of the nation is doing: using credit cards to sustain their lifestyle. “ This was the reason most college dropout incidents in that year took place because of credit card debts. Usually you might expect poor academics or anti-social orientation to make students [...]

 

Children need to be financially literate. This is what the government and educational institutions are trying to convince parents and children about. In recent times, many surveys have been conducted regarding the issue. The Jumpstart Coalition Survey for Personal Financial Literacy for children came up with a disappointing report that high school students answered only less than half questions correctly on bank accounts and credit cards! Not only school children but young adults also seem to be desperately lacking in money management skills and financial literacy. Earlier, money was quite an easily available resource. But not anymore! The recent recession has made it imperative for every American to spend his/her money wisely and it should start from the lowest levels of society – the children. As [...]

 

I’m sure when a company succeeds most of us are more than eager to know their success mantras. But the winners are no fools! Why will they tell you their success formula? In a world of cut throat competition they’ll definitely want to stay on top. Their ‘mean’ minds will also want them to secretly desire that they are the sole survivors in their market and all their contemporaries perish. Such is this world my friend! But then all are not like that. Automotive industry financial services biggie, GSFS Group’s Director of Training and Consulting, Bart Carpenter, who’s going to be one of the leading moderators of the F& I Conference Industry Roundtable titled “Achieving High Performance in Your Finance Industry”, shares some gems of high performance that any company can follow [...]

 

India is a fascinating country with the highest diversity in ethnicity, religious views, lifestyles and economic class. India can be called the spice of the world. America on the other hand is the superpower that is reining the world largely in economical, political areas. Since the recent recession that has badly hit the United States, the world is looking towards Asia as the upcoming greener pastures.   Today the US has some of the best Indian brains serving for it. Indian Nobel laureate Dr. Amartya Sen, an economist and Professor of Economics at Harvard University is one of them. Mint Blog has chosen to compare   the two on a huge range of dimensions that can be broadly classified into the economic, people, environment, military, and offbeat categories. Here I shall discuss the economic [...]

 

We love our pets very much and want to give them the best we can. But maintaining pets and that too with a civilized lifestyle can be a challenge for many. The other day I, when browsing the internet, came across an online pet care store. I was baffled by the range of pet care products. Pet shampoos, conditioners, soaps, garments, jewelry, furniture … Personally, maintaining my lifestyle as a human being does not necessitate the usage of so many products. I was even more surprised to find pet spas, beauty parlors, and grooming centers. All these are very expensive. In days gone by we would just buy pet food but now our civilized pets seem to want more than simply good food. Apart from these items of luxury, essential pet care has become quite expensive and this is an expenditure that you [...]

 

Regardless of their culture, nationality, ethnic origin etc. women have traditionally been homemakers and men the money-earners of the family. Other than the knowledge of some basic money saving techniques while running the household, women were not really savvy of the complex financial world around them. But now, with the changing socio- cultural scenario of women having to take up the role of bread-winners of the family and divorces being at an all-time high, a woman needs to set up herself as an independent financial entity and for that she needs to equip herself with more financial knowledge than mere domestic budgeting skills. According to Ginita Wall, co-author of ‘It's More Than Your Money - It's Your Life!’, "A lot of women believe that wealth is a four-letter word. They are [...]

 

You might be already aware of scores of ways in which you should budget your spending. You might have gone to financial experts visited money management websites or taken courses on financial literacy etc. But did anybody give you a step by step direction on what you should do and what you shouldn’t to manage your money efficiently? Most often, unless you personally took the trouble for acquiring in-depth knowledge, you are given broad and generalized outlines. These don’t necessarily relate to your unique life situation. Moreover, you are not very precise about your plans. This is the reason for many of us there is a slip between the sip and the cup. Here’s some advice with a difference. You are not asked to do this and do that for controlling your expenses. More than the implementation [...]