General Finance » Household

Savings: Money Tips III

Nagel — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:32:11 +0000

This piece is a continuation of our series on how to save more money.

Try to live on a smaller percent of your income, even if you do not have to
Try to avoid using your credit card for all purchases, paying with cash hurst a lot more
Don’t pay ATM fees, go to the grocery and use it as a debit card to purchase goods and withdrawl cash
Go fishing, umm tasty!?
Camp out instead of hotels?! Questionable, but if you have no one to impress it might work

Home Selling Capital Gains

Nagel — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 13:38:16 +0000

The current housing market is awful, and might not get better any time soon. If you are selling your home you are probably concerned about what price you will get for your home, and you are racking your brain in order secure a good price.

I am not trying to sell my home, but one day I probably will be. In order to save as much on the capital gains when my home is sold, we save all records of costs for home improvements. By doing this we can deduct all the money we put into our home off the capital gain amount in order to keep more of the money we will receive once the home is sold and the mortgage is paid off.

What ideas do you have?

Gifted Stock Portfolio Report: Conoco Phillips (COP)

Nagel — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 12:08:33 +0000

Stock Portfolio Report

Recently, my wife was gifted Conoco Phillips (COP). I began tracking the stock in April before the transfer of the gifted stock. Since then it is up around 15%. The actual transfer came about in early May and since then COP has increased around 12%. This is the good news.

The bad news was the because the stock was gifted it was automatically put into an account with Mellon Investor Services. I do not have a problem with Mellon, but I have never dealt with them before. The letter my wife received stating the gifted stock transfer occurred was short and vague. My wife signed up for online access to her account and that has not offered any answers. We have sent an email proposing some specific questions and their support team did not directly answer those questions. Therefore, it has been a bumpy start to the financial relationship. Now my wife will need to call their 800# and get the answers we need so we better understand our new account with Mellon.

IRA Account Transfer

Nagel — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:27:00 +0000

In the last several weeks and months my stock portfolio has had some major and minor changes. Last week a transferred all my family’s IRAs into Roth IRAs. You might wonder why I did this. I thinkn the current tax rate for income are very low, mainly because of the Bush Administration’s tax cuts. Because of the current and future financial mess the country is in, I do not think tax rates will be this low again in my lifetime. Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security are a mess; defense spending is ridiculously high, we are borrowing more and more money to fund these prgrams along with the costly War on Terror. I do not think the economy will grow to the point where it will just pay for itself on the current tax rate and programs we have.

Paying the taxes out of the traditional IRAs and rollover IRAs will be a short-term loss in the value of our retirement portfolio. However, in the long-run this will be a huge gain for us because all the retirement money we have now will not incure any tax consequences once we remove it for our retirement.

Many might disagree with this strategy, but that is my story and I am sticking with it.

Savings: Money Tips II

Nagel — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 12:09:01 +0000

We have started a discussion on methods of saving money. Below are some saving money tips.

Bring your lunch to work
Cut or color your hair less often
Look for rebates to your favorite stores
Buy used cars
High interest yield accounts
Eat healthy and exercise

Add your own money savings tips to the discussion.

Savings Money Tips

Nagel — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:02:33 +0000

Let’s face it, Americans have a big problem saving money. The saving rate in the U.S. has recently become negative for the first time in recorded history. So we need some help. Periodically, I will list some examples of potential methods to use to save money.

Save Money Tips

Load up on necessities at the dollar store
Load on on non-perishable often-used items when they are on sale
Buy generic if you can
Try low cost entertainment alternatives such as: walks, tennis, go to the park, etc.
Eat out less often

These are just a few of the many to come.

How to Get a Better Job

Nagel — Mon, 28 May 2007 12:10:14 +0000

Everyone knows somebody who does not like their job and wants a better job; it might even be you. But how do you go about getting that better job that you love? It is not as difficult as you might think.

It takes . . .

Motivation
Typically, that great job you love is not just come to you without you looking for it.

Time to Determine What You Want to Do
Consider what that dream job is
Brainstorm about things you already like to do

Preparation

Prepare your resume
Use online job sites
Get the word out: Network

Passion
Your passion will keep you going in order to ultimately find that job

A great resource is: Dan Miller’s 48 Days to the Work You Love
It is a great podcast to learn how to find that job you love.

Why Save Money?

Nagel — Fri, 25 May 2007 12:45:48 +0000

Why save money? Seems like a simple straight-forward question, but you can have a long discussion on the benefits of saving versus not saving money. My wife and I make a genuine effort to save as much money each month as we possibly can. We want to have an emergency fund, a hefty retirement account balance and be able to travel.

Here are some reason why you should save money.

Saving money can . . .

Give you an emergency fund when times are not so good
Give you a sense of accomplishment
Help you reach life goals
Allow you to splurg on something you always wanted without the worry
Make your future brighter
Help you family’s future be brighter
Mean retireing early
Working less, not more
Free you from wanting to keep up with the Jones’s
Help you sleep at night
Keep the bill collectors away
Help give you a positive attitude

Why save money? These are just a few reasons why.

What are your reasons?

Salary Negotiation Strategies

Nagel — Thu, 24 May 2007 11:58:04 +0000

Top Salary Negotiation Strategies

Don’t broach salary first and hold off from the subject as long as possible. This gives you more power in the salary negotiation process because you have sold the potential employer on yourself so they will be more apt to give more money for your services.

Salary.com: Find out how much your job position is worth

Find out how much the benefits they are offering are worth

Many say they will negotiate, but many chicken out when it is time. So are you really going to negotiate or not.

Is with any negotiation, ask for a higher salary; they will counter-offer. Then try to explain why you are worth that.

The offer is low, and it is a corporate situation where they cannot negotiate try for a signing bonus, higher performance bonuses, or a shorter time frame for a performance review and raise.

Negotiate base salary first, and then move on to the other parts of the job.

You can negotiate non-money issues such as moving expenses, paid vacation, personal days, professional training, etc.

Remind the potential employer consistently of what you bring to the table.

Don’t try to get companies into a bidding war.

Negotiations are not a no-sum situation. You and the employer can come out happy with the results.

Do not make demands and never be confrontational.

If you really need or want the job, you need to be more flexible because walking away is not a possibility.

If you agree, the negotiations are over.

Get the offer in writing.

Increase Gas Prices?

Nagel — Wed, 23 May 2007 11:15:21 +0000

I am sure you have noticed the jump in gas prices the past several weeks; how could you miss it? Should gas prices increase like this? Oil prices per barrell has increased, but it does not necessarily reflect how high gas prices are. Here is some gas prices over the past several years.

Historical Gas Prices: National Averages
$1.49 May 15, 2000
$1.71 May 14, 2001
$1.38 May 13, 2002
$1.49 May 12, 2003
$2.01 May 17, 2004
$2.16 May 16, 2005
$2.94 May 15, 2006
$3.10 May 14, 2007