Category: Money

Almost everyone in this world loves to travel. Nothing beats the thrill of venturing into the unknown. A quick search online will make you see all those scenic photos of countries that easily sparks this desire to pack your bags and fly to the nearest destination. Unfortunately, though, traveling also happens to be one of the most expensive pleasures there is. This is not something everyone can easily afford.

But, the good news is that you can travel cheap as long as you know what to do. If one of your biggest dreams is to travel the world, there are several tips that will help you do exactly just that without breaking the bank.

Carpool

Carpool refers to several people travelling in the same vehicle. For example, you can try to look for someone who is travelling in the same direction as you then split all the expenses in half. The best thing about carpooling is that more people joining the trip means you will also be paying less for your travel.

Swap Homes

Home swapping is quickly becoming a popular trend that you can find the method to travel cheap on some websites. As you know, most of your travel expenses will go to your accommodations. But, if you choose to swap home with fellow travelers, you will be able to get rid of these expenses, making your trip so much cheaper than before. This also has many added perks such as proper bathrooms, a fully equipped kitchen, and all the other things you will never find even in the cheapest hotels.

Hitchhike

If you want to travel the world cheap, you can always go for the old-fashioned way of hitchhiking. What you will basically do here is that you will try to stop people on the road then travel with them to the same direction they are headed to. This is one of the best ways to meet new local people. On top of that, this is completely free although there are some hitchhikers who offer cash in exchange for this favor.

Use Budget Airlines

Several airlines started to offer their passengers with extremely low ticket rates several years ago. While these budget airlines may not provide added comfort, remember that your main goal is to travel cheap and see the big world out there, not fly in a first class airplane.

Be a Cruise Ship Crew Member

This particular method is not just great to travel cheap for at the same time, you can also earn money during the process. You can enjoy visiting different countries, see wonderful destinations, and have a steady flow of cash coming in. Obviously, there are several downsides here. You need to work so you might have a limited time to go sightseeing. But, the good news is that crew members can get a few days off once the ship reaches its port of destination. This is the perfect time for you to explore the place.

You see, you can travel cheap and discover the world around you. Try any of these methods and have the best travel experience ever!

 

 

Saving a million dollars may seem impossible for many. But, it is possible if you will follow some strategies like the following:

• Try to Live Below Your Means

You can save money in 2 ways. It’s either you can spend less money or make more. In many cases, it is much easier to lessen your spending and live more frugally. It means buying a modest home, scaling back on expensive vacations, buying practical car, using coupons, and making a budget so you could easily track your spending.

• Save Money As Soon As Possible

If you start saving as early as possible, the lesser amount of cash you will need to put aside every month. For instance, once you start saving about $405 and you are only 25 years old, you will get a yearly return of 7% and you’ll be a millionaire once you are 65 years old.

• Make Saving a Part of Your Life

Determine the amount of cash you like to save every month and have that withdrawn automatically from your paycheck. If you will be stuck on where you should place the money, begin with 401k or some employer-based retirement plan. If you have this cash taken out instantly, it will prevent you from spending that. Others find it a beneficial thing to do, especially when starting with the income’s percentage instead of the actual amount of money. If you are struggling to start, you may begin with two to three percent of your income. Then, add extra percent every year. The whole point is to start.

• Always Choose Your Investment Wisely

Saving accounts as well as certificates of deposit are a good place to begin. However, if you want to grow your own wealth, you must invest in stocks. While there’s absolutely a risk involved, you must choose a portfolio that would provide you a shot at a realistic gain, but also be comfortable sticking with during a major market setback. It’s done through taking risk tolerance test.

When it comes to choosing an investment for your portfolio, it’s recommended to focus mostly on diversified low cost ETFs or index funds. The reason behind it is that lesser the return you give to the fees, you’ll be able to add more on your savings.

• Pay All Your Debts

If you have a credit card with a huge balance, you will struggle paying on its interest rates. If you are used to paying everything through your credit card, better discipline yourself and never consider this a habit. So, if you have money and you can pay your debt, do not delay it and pay immediately. Although you need to put aside some savings for a year or for several months, it’s worth it since you can put your monthly payment to your retirement instead. Make sure to understand every payment and how it works for you. This will provide you financial freedom and will surely help you save a million dollars before you retire.

 

Knowing how you can avoid debt or financial trouble before it happens has become more critical than ever.  Unfortunately, many people are unwilling to take the necessary steps. For sure, you have heard those rumors of a crucial economic crisis looming over the horizon. It doesn’t matter if this happens at a national or personal level because it is always great to do something to soften its effect in your life or avoid it altogether.

Take a look at some effect ways to avoid debt or financial trouble in the future:

Develop a Budget

As the adage goes, failing to plan is planning to fail. Budgeting is one form of future planning. Some people have this wrong misconception that they can go about with their daily lives even with no budget. But, most of the time, those who don’t follow a budget are the ones who find themselves in a financial trouble.

It doesn’t have to be too complicated to make a budget. In fact, it just takes several minutes of your time. Determine where you money goes and make sure that you keep track of every single penny leaving your wallet. If you have a loan, pay this debt off first before you spend on optional or unnecessary things.

Also, remember that planning doesn’t just end in budgeting. You have to stick to this and discipline yourself. Avoid becoming a slave to impulse buying.

Savings First Before Expenses

Whenever you spend on something, your pocket loses cash. This can decrease your wealth. Putting your money on unnecessary things may also mean that you ended up using your precious resources for useless things.

However, this doesn’t mean that it is bad to enjoy the fruits of your hard work and buy things you love. The point here is that there are times when you need to make small sacrifices for now so you can reap better future rewards. And this is exactly what your savings are for.

The best and simplest way to avoid debt or financial trouble is to save penny a day. Try to increase the savings every month little by little. This may sound small initially but remember that great leaps start from small steps. Consistency is the secret here. Just continue to save and soon, you will see how this will help you establish your financial security.

Earn Extra Money on the Side

Aside from reducing your expenses, it is also important to increase your cash flow. Working means you are trading your precious time for money. This is why it would be great if you can look for a passive source of income. Determine a need, come up with something valuable to meet this demand then sell this to people who need your products or services.

Avoid putting all your eggs in just one basket. See to that you got a safety net you can land on if ever your main source of income is cut off. Work hard and work smart at the same time.

 

 

Once used properly, debts can be a tool that may grow your business and boost your quality of life. However, once used incorrectly, it may become a weight on your shoulders, which can hold you back as you try to expand and grow.

The key to use debt properly is through knowing the difference between bad and good debt. Debts are a positive tool if it is being used for fueling growth. It is basically an unnecessary burden when it is used to purchase unnecessary and frivolous items. Distinguishing between bad and good debt can make a huge difference in your success.

• Expanding or Growing a Business

If you have business ideas that enable you to expand your income capabilities significantly, you might suffer an opportunity cost through not borrowing. Borrowing money, which can result to hefty ROI is sensible relative to avoiding debts as well as losing out on money-making opportunities. For instance, businesses could borrow money for financing growth initiatives, which can result to greater profits and sales, which is something they’d miss out on without accessing loans.

• To Widen Budgets Monthly

Loans like money advances and payday loans are by some individuals to help them tide over the bills before payday. Because of financial crisis, cash crunch has become real for most people. The usage of payday loans has increased as the key way to help others sort out several payments while they’re waiting for their pay to come through. Depending on the loans each month isn’t a great idea and money advances and payday loans must be used only in short-term when pressing financial needs come up.

• Buying a Home

One of the reasons why people borrow money is for their home mortgage. Mortgage loans with reasonable interest rate have some advantages. For one thing, a lot of people cannot pay cash for homes so borrowing is the option to be a homeowner. Once you buy a home, the cash you pay on debts contribute to equity buildup.

• To Consolidate Loans

You might some loans in the past and you’re having a hard time managing those loans. There are times that it is advantageous to take out new loans to pay off all other loans. This way, you have only one payment and lender. This could save you as well as your bookkeeping staff serious time each month.

• Building Credit and Discipline

Entrepreneurs recommend that taking on debts is one of the strategies to develop disciplines with the use of debts. Parents of young adults or teens might use student credit cards or secured cards to teach their children about debts like how payments monthly work. Moreover, you have to use credit to build your credit history.

Why It’s Important to Borrow Money for the Right Reasons?

Avoid and try borrowing money from family and friends for short-term requirements like going shopping and buying presents. It is essential to get into the habit to save your money for such occasions so once they come around, you can buy what you like instantly. Borrowing money with right reasons in mind include not borrowing from family and friends for short-term requirements. You could feel stressed and worried about money and it might cause you to contact your family and friends. You must only do this if it’s a total and complete emergency.

 

It is as easy as 1-2-3 to set your New Year’s resolutions but the hard part is sticking to all of them. In fact, only 8% of people who make resolutions achieve them.

How do you set your New Year’s resolutions and ensure that they will last for the rest of the year? Well, the real secret here is simple – you have to set realistic goals. To help you out, here are some useful tips on how to set New Year resolutions and achieve them to the best way you can.

Don’t Make a Lengthy List of Resolutions

Many people make the common mistake of having too many resolutions. You have to avoid this and instead, you have to pick just a single realistic goal. Making too many resolutions means you will have to spread yourself thinly and it becomes less likely for you to achieve any resolutions you made. Being extremely ambitious will just make you end up disappointed.

Small steps are the key here. You have to create small and tangible steps to lead you to a bigger and more overarching goal. For instance if one of your New Year’s resolutions is to finish a half-marathon, come up with short achievable plans of running short distances until you can complete the full length. Again, set small yet realistic goals.

Give Yourself a Pat on Your Back

Prepare some rewards for yourself as you go along the way. You can stay more motivated if you praise your achievements at every milestone throughout the journey instead of waiting for the reward until the finish line. Try to reward yourself with a new pair of kicks once you have completed the 6 miles, for instances.

Write Them Down

One of the best ways to stick to your goals is through writing them down, either on pieces of paper you can pin on the wall or in a journal. See to it that you post your notes in visible places to serve as your daily reminders. Write down each goal you have, the tiny steps you take to attain them, as well as the rewards you will get.

Share Your Goals with Family and Friends

You will become more accountable to others aside from yourself if you share your New Year’s resolutions with your family or friends. You can stay on track and remain motivated if you ask them to check in on the progress you make every now and then.

Plan How to Deal with Missteps

Progress is never something you can do in a straight line. Setbacks will be scattered along the way and obstacles will stop you from achieving your resolutions. However, the very best thing you can do is to come up with an action plan if you end up veering off the track. Also, make sure you don’t stop just because of those setbacks.

If you ever miss a day of running for your training plan for the half-marathon, you can add a mile to your next run instead. This helps you achieve your small milestones and avoid missing other scheduled runs in the future.

 

Hiring the best credit repair company offers many advantages. All you need is choose a reliable company to help you solve issues with your credit report.

Here are the top benefits of hiring the best credit repair company.

Save Your Precious Time

It will definitely take so much of your time if you will try to work on your credit report. Since this is a very slow and lengthy process, it can get quite boring. For each item that is incorrectly added to your credit reports, it will take time to question every single one of them.

However, if you choose to work with the best credit repair agency, the time required to do the necessary repair will be the time of the company, not yours. They may need to talk to collection agencies, credit companies, your original creditors, and the credit bureaus.

When you pay these professionals to help you repair your credit score, it is a great way to free yourself from the need to gather all the critical information, draft the important letters, get the credit reports, and so much more.

Entrusting these responsibilities to the hands of a credit repair service will let you free up most of your time so you can use it for yourself in doing other important tasks. It saves you from worrying about such things.

The Best Credit Repair Company Knows the Laws

The moment you hire a credit repair company, you can be sure that these people are knowledgeable about the credit laws, all the more reason to work with them. Your creditors or the credit bureaus will never be able to manipulate these people. They are well-versed with the existing laws as well as the laws that are still pending to be passed. It lets you get exactly what you need and deserve.

Credit Repair Companies Work Hand

It is not a secret that trying to improve your credit score will take up so much money and time. Everyone needs enough time to spend for themselves or spend some quality time with their loved ones and families. It definitely requires a lot to gather the data and collect the necessary information. You even need to exert a lot of physical energy and even emotional energy at times.

But, when you hire the best credit repair company, you are giving yourself a chance to free yourself from having to working for long hours and all the hard work. The credit repair company will handle everything on your behalf and deal with your conflicts.

If you have some concerns with your credit report that you want to repair at the soonest time possible for whatever reason, hiring the best credit repair company is the wisest decision you can ever make. These companies are made up of experienced professionals and experts who will work for you in order for you to see the much needed improvements in your current credit score. Why do such a difficult task on your own when you can simply let the experts do the job?

 

In terms of credit cards, you like the one that will suit you and the needs of your business. A lot of credit cards provide kinds of rewards to give their customers incentives when applying for their card, to encourage them to use cards in various categories that would earn them reward points, and for being good customers. If your company or you have business travel expenditures, looking for a credit card that would offer best travelling benefits can be a wise investment.

What You Should Know about Travel Credit Cards

These credit cards can reduce the travel cost once you use them for daily purchases and earn reward points or bonus for your spending. You may also get rewarded in points, miles, cash, and some means each you use and spend your card. In terms of time planning for your next trip, you might be surprised on how much savings you could get on the travel expense once you cash in your rewards.

Travel credit cards will differ with the kinds of perks they provide to their customers. The kind of card you get must depend on the kind of spending you do, how much traveling you often do, the kind of rewards the card offers, and so on. With the available credit cards, it does not suit you to apply for one that is not going to give you something back and it definitely will not benefit you to get cards that do not offer some travel benefits if your company or you need one that would help you minimize your travel cost.

Before applying for any particular credit card, you would want to find which cards provide the best perks for your travel spending. Below are some of the best credit cards for travel:

• American Express’ Starwood Preferred Guest Business Card

It is different on Starwood Preferred Guest card, which provides few different benefits.

• American Express’ Starwood Preferred Guest

American Express is a famous credit card used, particularly in the world of businesses. It does provide travel rewards to the customers and Starwood Preferred Guest card is one of their travel credit cards.

• Venture Card by Capital One

Lots of people rely on Capital One in terms of their credit. They know that Capital One provides travel benefits as card holders and it might provide them what they require in travel cards. Venture Card of Capital One is a good travel credit card.

• Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard of Barclaycard

This travel credit card is one of the choices of people travelling because of their benefits and perks. Barclaycard has outstanding benefits for people who travel and have to get most the most out of their hard earned money.

• Sapphire Preferred Card of Chase Manhattan

Chase Manhattan basically owns Citi card and one of the recognized names in financial world. Their cards are the best if you are looking for a travel credit card. You can consider their Sapphire Preferred Card if you want.