Why Should I Make a Budget?

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Calculating The Household Budget

You say you know where your money goes and you don’t need it all written down to keep up with it? I challenge you! Keep track of every penny you spend for one month and I do mean every penny.
You will be shocked at what the itty-bitty expenses add up to. Take the total you spent on just one unnecessary item for the month, multiply it by 12 for months in a year and multiply the result by 5 to represent 5 years.
That is how much you could have saved AND drawn interest on in just five years. That is all the reason that you need to create a budget.
If we can get control of the small expenses that really don’t matter to the overall scheme of our lives, we can enjoy financial success.
The little things really do count. Cutting what you spend on lunch from five dollars a day to three dollars a day on every work day in a five day work week saves $10 a week… $40 a month… $480 a year… $2400 in five years….plus interest.
See what I mean… it really IS the little things and you still eat lunch everyday AND that was only one place to save money in your daily living without doing without one thing you really need. There are a lot of places to cut expenses if you look for them.
Set some specific long term and short-term goals. There are no wrong answers here. If it’s important to you, then it’s important period.
If you want to be able to make a down payment on a house, start a college fund for your kids, buy a sports car, take a vacation to Aruba… anything… then that is your goal and your reason to get a handle on your financial situation now.

Rebates – Reward or Rip Off?

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Rebates have become increasingly popular in the last few years on a lot of items and certainly on electronic items and computers. Rebates of $20, $50 or $100 are not uncommon.

I’ve even seen items advertised as “free after rebate”. Do these rebates come under the heading of “too good to be true”? Some of them do and there are “catches” to watch out for but if you are careful, rebates can help you get some fabulous deals.

The way a rebate works is that you pay the listed price for an item then mail in a form and the bar code to the manufacturer and they send you a refund thus reducing the price of what you paid for the item except with a time delay of several weeks.

Rule #1. Rebates from reputable companies are usually just fine.

You can be pretty sure you will get the promised rebate from Best Buy, Amazon or Dell but you should probably not count on getting one from a company you’ve never heard of. If you really want the product and are OK with paying the price listed then buy it but don’t count on actually getting the refund.

Rule #2. Check rebate expiration dates.

Many times products will stay on the shelf of a retailer after the date for sending in the rebate offer has expired so check that date carefully.

Rule #3. Be sure you have all the forms required to file for the rebate before you leave the store.

Rebates will almost always require a form to be filled out, a receipt for the purchase and a bar code.

Rule #4. Back up your rebate claim.

Make copies of everything you send in to get your rebate including the bar code. Stuff gets lost in the mail all the time and if the rebate is for $50 it’s worth the trouble to back up your claim.

Are Travel Agents Obsolete?

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I am currently in the process of booking my families summer vacation.  I feel that I am very hands on when it comes to finding the best deals, especially in the summertime when deals are few and far between.  The amount of travel websites on the innerwebs can seem overwhelming.  These travel web sites have been very successful at facilitating travelers to book their own airline and hotel reservations online.  So with this huge push from the internet to take over the travel industry, one has to ask, “Are travel agents obsolete?”

If you have browsed some of these travel sites, you have observed that they are amazing in the diversity of travel options that they make available.  And it is impossible to deny that many thousands of people have taken advantage of these services.  Then, there is the business traveler.  The business traveler has needs that are somewhat different than the typical airline passenger.

There are some very specific services that a living and breathing travel agent can provide that simply cannot be replicated by an automated web site like Kayak or Hotwire.   Some of those services that a seasoned business traveler would be hard pressed to live without include…

  1. Focus You as a business traveler are not arranging this trip for entertainment.  You have specific business objectives in mind.  So if you must take time away from preparation for your business task to worry about travel itineraries, hotel and rental car reservations and the like, that is time that you are not being productive for your business.  If you can call a talented travel agent who knows your travel profile well and delegate those arrangements to that agent, they do their job in finding just the right accommodations for you and you are freed to do what you do best, focus on your business and the upcoming business trip.
  2. Economy It is difficult to find that balance between finding the accommodations that fit the demanding schedule of a businessperson on the road and is respectful of the companies travel budget as well.   If you use an automated online travel service, you may have to sacrifice convenience, schedule or location for economy.  A good travel agent will work hard to get you the right itinerary while getting as close the corporate travel cost restrictions as possible.  And they will do it without taking up a lot of your time.
  3. Back up. You don’t need help if your trip goes completely as planned.  But if you encounter problems on the road, you can find yourself in need or rescheduling flights and finding new accommodations to work around canceled flights, weather issues or other unexpected interruptions to your plans.  These travel disasters are not mindful of your tight deadlines to meet your business goals.  But if you have a travel agent who is dedicated to providing you service, he or she can find those alternative routes and resources to do all they can to get you to your destination so you can conduct your business on time.
  4. That personal touch. You may have travel preferences that you want to achieve with each trip you take.   A travel agent has your profile and your travel history so they can do what they can to accommodate your preferences.  But moreover, if you have specific special needs such as a diet limitation or a need for accommodation due to a disability, it will be a travel agent that sees to it that your needs are provided for and you are well taken care of on the road.

 

  1. Complications. If your travel itinerary involves making connections with other business partners who are traveling from diverse offices, complex travel schedules and itinerary challenges that just cannot be described to the generic screens of an online travel service, you can explain these complications to your travel agent and they can work with other travel agents working to organize the meeting and see to it that your itinerary meets your requirements.

 

While the online travel services do provide a valuable and affordable alternative to the general traveling public, it is easy to notice their limitations if you are trying to book a trip that is tricky or if you have specific needs that the screens do not anticipate.  That is why working with a human travel agent guarantees that this travel professional will dedicate themselves to the task of making sure your trip works to your specifications and that you get to your destination ready to conduct business and be successful in your achieving your goals.

What are the Five Easiest Ways to Make Money on eBay?

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What are the easiest ways to make money on eBay?  Well what do you consider easy?  It is my belief that there is no easier way to make money on the Internet than by selling items through eBay. What could be simpler, a straight forward 5 step process.

  1. Get something to sell.
  2. Photograph it and write a description.
  3. Upload your listing to eBay.
  4. Collect your money.
  5. Dispatch the item.

What could be simpler than that?  Well a lot!

But I suspect what people are really asking is how can I easily get products to sell. From my experience this is what both newcomers and some experienced eBayers find difficult. So, I want to highlight five very simple ways that you can get products to sell without even leaving your computer. This I hope that will be easy enough for everyone.

  1. What, no photograph?

It is my belief that there is hardly an item listed on eBay or any of the other online auctions that does not benefit from having a photograph or image included in the listing. In fact, most items that are listed without a photograph that sell tend to fetch 20% less than those with. In some categories the figures are even higher. For instance, clothing items offered without a photograph average a 78% lower selling price than those with. So, it would seem to be pretty easy to browse eBay looking for these “photo less” items, buying them and then relisting with a photograph. Money for old rope really.

  1. Finding the poorly listed item.

There are many reasons why someone’s listing fails to attract any worthwhile bids. Bad title, short or poor description, wrong category, poor spelling and so on. You can find these by browsing around the auction site, but I would suggest an easier method.

Select the categories that you are interested in and look down the search feature for items finishing within the next hour. Here is where you will find the bargains that have failed to attract any bids for the reasons we have mentioned.

  1. Unsocial hours

In any book about eBay you will find tips on when is the best time for auctions to finish. The most suggested times for most items are Sunday afternoon and evenings and Wednesday evenings. Some experts suggest that for business related items Monday or Tuesday during office hours are best. If you accept that there are times when you will get increased bids for your items there must also be times when if your auction ends you will not do so well. I would think if you have an auction that finishes between say 5 am and 8 am on a Monday morning you will not have too many people lurking to place last minute bids to push the price up. Again, buy and relist with your auction set to finish at a more sociable time and you could easily make a 20% or more profit for very little effort.

  1. Buy Collections

One of the easiest ways to make money on eBay is to cash in on others laziness. If someone has say a collection of 10 china dogs, it is a fact that if they put all ten in one listing as a collection they will get less than if they had listed each item separately. But it is amazing how many sellers cannot be bothered to do this. I have in the past bought such a collection and made more from one of the items than I had paid for the whole collection.

  1. Other online auctions.

Over 95% of all online auction sales are on eBay. They have the largest number of registered buyers and items listed for sale. For this reason, items offered for sale on eBay get the best prices. So why not search around some of the smaller online auctions, because in many cases items listed with them will not attract such a good price as could be achieved on eBay. Then all you must do is buy from them and relist on eBay.

So, there are 5 easy ideas for you to consider. Why not give some or all of them a try?