Top Financial Habits Of Wealthy People – Part One

It’s a good idea to keep a close eye on your finances no matter where you are in life. Even if you don’t have a large sum of money to worry about, you can still begin using these financial habits of wealthy people to help you stay on track and reach your financial goals.

Everyone should sit down and write a monthly budget if you haven’t done so already. Each month, you should write down your minimum projected monthly income and spend every dollar on paper – include every bill, need and entertainment expense. Put any extra money toward saving six month’s living expenses if you don’t already have that much in savings. Then, spend every extra dollar to pay off any debt you may have until it is gone.

It’s also important to automate any payments that will allow you to do so. This includes not only outgoing bills, but also incoming cash. If possible, you should set up a direct deposit of your paycheck. This will help you avoid having to make weekly trips to the bank and the temptation to withdraw cash. You can even set up an automated savings draft that will either automatically transfer money from your checking to your savings or from your checking into a stock purchase plan. Many employers will even let you split your paycheck among different locations and types of accounts. Not only will the automation of incoming and outgoing payments allow you to save time and remove the need to remember to pay things on time, but it will also cut back on postage costs, which can easily reach more than $500 a year for the average sized family.

Banking Online With ING Direct

Online banks like ING Direct do business several ways: over the phone, online and by mail. One advantage of using an online bank is that, without the enormous overhead that stems from the operational costs that many regular banks experience, online banks can pass additional savings along to customers.

ING Direct offers a great, user- friendly paperless checking account called Electric Orange that also offers a good interest rate. In addition, you will have no minimums, no fees and an easy application process.

If security is your main concern, you can rest assured knowing that ING Direct is backed by the global financial institution ING and is a member of the FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) which means that bank deposits are insured up to $100,000.

ING Direct is the name of ING’s online bank and is headquartered out of Wilmington, Delaware. Your Orange account with ING Direct can even be linked directly to your regular checking account so you can move money back and forth at a moment’s notice and without a fee in 2-3 business days for each transaction.

Finally, ING Direct offers Automatic Savings Plans so you can systematically deposit money into your account without even having to think about it (at no charge of course). You can even open a Orange Retirement Account as a Roth or Traditional IRA if you need a place to save for retirement.

If you are interested in learning more about the great opportunities for convenience and savings that are offered by ING Direct, visit www.ingdirect.com and read more!

How To Ship Holiday Presents - FREE!

In order to encourage shoppers to avoid the holiday throngs and to do more holiday shopping online, many retailers are planning to offer free shipping this holiday season. While this may sound like great news (and in most cases it is) you need to pay close attention to the fine print before you send your payment.

For example, many retailers will advertise free shipping, but also have a minimum purchase requirement or require you to purchase a specific item in order to receive free shipping.

In order to make the most of the free shipping offers out there, you need to make sure you know the details before completing a purchase. Many of these purchases will have free shipping, but will be mailed by the slowest, cheapest shipping method, so be sure to allow plenty of time to receive your items.

Also, shop at as few retailers as you can in order to keep shipping costs to a minimum. And avoid falling prey to the offers to buy something extra to get free shipping - this will blow your holiday budget quicker than you can say “Happy Holidays”. In addition, don’t buy people large items like Tvs or furniture online - they will definitely cost too much to ship! Finally, if you are going to have to mail the item to friends or family anyway, have the retailer ship it directly to them (many will even allow you to choose when the item will arrive at its destination) in order to avoid paying for shipping twice.

 

How To Protect Yourself When Shopping Online

If you’re one of the millions of people who have decided to do most of your holiday shopping online, you need to think about how to protect yourself from identity theft in the process.

Luckily, federal law prohibits credit cards from forcing you to pay more than $50 on a fraudulent charge to your card. Also, many credit card companies raise the bar even higher by offering ‘zero liability’ policies when it comes to identity theft.

Some credit cards offer even more protection by allowing you to adopt an alias when making online purchases. This allows you to replace your real credit card number with a fake one generated for each purchase or each retailer. This allows you to shop online without ever using your real credit card number, which will prevent you from having to close your account entirely if someone hacks it. Bank of America, Citibank and Discover all offer alias programs.

Visa and MasterCard both offer a similar security program, which allows users to set up a special PIN for Internet shopping that you are prompted to enter whenever you make an online purchase.

Many merchants will allow online shoppers to use an electronic payment system like EBay’s, Pay-pal’s or Google’s checkout. This allows you to control the amount of money deposited into the electronic payment system and prevents hackers from getting at the bulk of your savings.

Finally, make sure your computer is set up with the latest anti-theft and anti-virus software.

How To Save $100 In Only One Week

Are you sick and tired of trying to get your budget under control? This task can seem insurmountable to anyone, but is especially daunting to those of us with high interest credit card debt. Here are some specific things you can start doing right now to help relieve financial stress.

First, think about buying generic brands at the grocery store (or any store for that matter) instead of name brand items. In most cases, the generic version is just as good or better than the name brand variety, and in every case it will be much easier on your wallet.

Second, eat breakfast and drink coffee every morning at home instead of stopping on your way to work. As you know, coffee house coffee is extremely expensive compared to coffee brewed at home, and it’s usually more fattening too! Even if you stop at a gas station, the breakfast fare - both solid and liquid that you choose will almost undoubtedly me more expensive and less healthy than items you make at home.

Finally, skip going to bars or restaurants on the weekend and invite friends and family over to your house instead to watch football or just to hang out. If you’re single, you can make it co-ed and spice things up by letting everyone bring a friend. Not only will it save money by allowing you to skip the inflated prices charged for food and drink by restaurants and bars, but it will give everyone a better environment in which to meet and mingle.

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