Extra Income

With a bad economy, everyone is talking about saving money. Cut back on expenses. Spend less. Save more. But not enough people are talking about increasing income. There are a few ways that you can increase income.

1. Get a 2nd job. Maybe work 2 or 3 nights per week at some store. Even if it only brings in a few hundred per week, that's still a nice addition to the monthly income. Or if you are in the kind of field that does freelance work (like a web designer) then try that. Put out ads on Craigslist or Guru.com.

2. Invest. The market is down. So investing money right now will pay off big later on. Unfortunately, it won't pay off at all right now... so this isn't a good option for most people.

3. Sell stuff. Your house is full of items you don't use anymore (books, clothes, movies) and they can all be sold online. Craigslist, Amazon.com, eBay are just a few of the sites you can use. By spending a little time, you can bring in a lot of money each month.

Here is a link to an article about selling things on eBay. It's a blog I read, devoted to saving money and increasing income. The post doesn't have anything special that you wouldn't already see as common sense, but it's still nice to see it laid out so well.

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/earn-money-on-ebay/

some blogs about money

Here are some blogs that I read about money management for normal people:

I Will Teach You to be Rich

Finance for a Freelance life

I've paid for this twice already

These blogs also have links to other places. Start educating yourselves, people!

Get your shit in order!

We all know that the economy is in the crapper. We blame Wall Street. We blame mortgage companies. We blame the banks. But have you noticed who doesn't get blamed very often?

Us. People. Consumers.

It constantly amazes me when people don't know how to manage their finances. They have a vague picture about money coming in and going out. They know they have some retirement account out there. The use credit cards whenever they want, and pay them off slowly.

Basically, WE are the reason that things suck. So instead of crying to the government for help, start getting your shit in order!

Start spending less money than you earn!
Start paying off your debt!
Start making smart investments!

I'm going to pick on my little sister for a minute.

She just graduated from college. She has expenses (loans, credit cards, phone, insurance, etc) and she has a job. But she has no big picture.

So I spent a day helping her to make a spreadsheet of all her expenses in a month. Part of that plan was to make a forecast estimator for her credit cards. Based on the average payments she was making, and the current APR, how long would it take her to pay them off and how much money would she pay in interest.

By the end of this she was pretty depressed. But at least now she knows the truth. At least now she can make a plan to get her finances in order. At least now she can be an adult.

So I implore you all. Do the following things:

1. Start reading money management blogs. I'll post some in the comments later on.

2. Start tracking your income and bills each month. You don't need to go as far as writing down every purchase but at least estimate living expenses.

3. Make a plan to pay off your credit cards. Repeat after me "It is not ok to have credit card debt"

4. Start saving money. If you lost your job today, how long before you were a hobo living on the street?

Here's a tool to help you. Sign up for a free account at mint.com. It's a site that links to all your bank accounts, credit cards, etc. It then tracks purchases and helps you make budgets. The site is free because they advertise stuff to you. They see what ways you could save money by switching to an online savings account, or a low APR credit card... and they get a commission if you do it. If you don't feel safe giving up all your online account information then look for other sites that do the same thing. There are a lot out there.

Remember: Knowing is half the battle.

Being a good little sheep...

So the analysts say that we're in a recession. And the government seems to agree because they gave me this stimulus money today.

I'll be interested to see how this affects the economy over the next 3 months because I'll bet that a lot of people will either save this money or use it to reduce debt.

But not me.

Even though I don't have much savings, and I certainly have my share of debt, I'm thinking that I'd like to be a good little sheep and spend this money on something.

But what?

Here are some ideas:

1. IPOD IPOD IPOD! My last ipod died and I've been borrowing a paltry 30GB from my sister lately. I could totally buy something better.

2. I have a vegas trip coming up. $600 could be a great investment at the poker tables.

3. A new suit. I know that's lame but I only have one old mis-matched suit from college so I could probably use something for job interviews, weddings, and funerals.

I can't think of anything else.

If you were going to blow $600 on something unnecessary what would it be? Give me some ideas.

Wall Street Wannabe

I have another post coming which I've already titled "The Summer of George" but I don't have time to write it today... plus it's not summer and I'm not George... so I need to work on some details there...

in the mean time let's jump past that post and talk about getting in the game.

For the past 2 years I've sat on the sidelines and watched stocks, but never bought any. I've had quite a few times where I said "I should buy this stock right now" and it goes way up. Well, I got tired of sitting on the sidelines. I've finally opened an Ameritrade Account.

I haven't put much in it yet because my main purpose is to use this as a learning tool. I don't want to put more money in than what I'm prepared to lose (just like gambling).

So - anybody got some hot stock tips out there?