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Category Archives: Personal Finance

A New Baby in 2013 – Think About Your Finances For Max Success

March 11th, 2013

We’re probably going to step on some toes today. You see, a new baby changes absolutely everything. Many people will say that it’s virtually impossible to plan for a new baby. However, we take a look at the matter from a different angle. While it’s true that you cannot plan for everything, the reality is that there are some things that you can think about long before you go to the hospital to greet your newborn child.

The truth is that you have to make sure that you are going to think about everything that you really want your child to have over time. Yes, that means that you have to think about the uncertain future. Yes, that means that you have to figure out how you’re going to make ends meet. Yes, you’re going to have to figure out how to be the best parent possible to a small life that’s going to depend on you completely… whew! That sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it?

That’s the point. We have to be serious about the process of raising small humans that grow into adults who will share the burden of the world with us. We want to raise productive individuals, and that boils down to a matter of environment. Do you want to put your child into a private school? This might cost a lot of money where you live. On the other hand, if you’re thinking about moving to an area with better public schools, you should realize that you’re going to pay a lot more in terms of property taxes.

Finances

Writing out your goals will help you keep an eye on them.

Naturally, we have to also address debt. Debt is something that you need to think about as well. You don’t want to feel like you’re having to face everything head on, but you do need to be aware of how much debt you’re carrying. Unless you’re going to be getting a house when the baby is born, you have some more time to pay off debts than other people do. When you’re trying to shop quickly for a home, you need to make sure that your debt is truly taken care of the right way. It’s going to be up to you to figure this out. You don’t have to have all of the answers, but you do need to be aware of what you’re honestly doing with your time.

Keeping a good budget to lower debt is very important. Sure, it means that you might not be able to go out with your friends, but you have to make sure that you have a lot of the baby supplies ahead of time. This attitude and approach will let you actually shop for a new carseat that’s top of the line compared to having to scramble for a cheap one at the last minute.

Now then, you might need some help with your first baby. Don’t be afraid to reach out to friends who have children and see what used items they can give you. Low income families should also look at the assistance programs in the area. You have to make sure that you are truly looking at every aspect of raising a child over time.

Thankfully, you’re not alone at all in this venture! A new baby attracts the attention of everyone. Everyone will band together to support you. What you need more than financial advice is to have emotional advice as well. The subject of children and money is very hard. Some people say, “Why bother?”

The truth is that you will find that just as you looked to your parents for information on everything, your kids will look up to you as well. They want to know that you’re doing everything in your power to lead them down the right path. They want to trust you, and you want to give them good information.

If you take nothing else from this guide, realize that it’s definitely worth your time to teach your children sound financial advice. You do that by leading the way yourself. If you can’t get your spending under control, how can you expect your children to be able to do so when they are adults? If you live on credit cards, you can pretty much expect your children to feel that this is okay.

You have a lot of big choices ahead, but don’t worry. You may make some mistakes along the way, but they are rarely fatal mistakes. Just correct course as you go, and keep an open mind. Good luck!

Give Yourself Time To Get Out Of Debt!

February 14th, 2013

I get a lot of great messages and emails and comments from everyone, and even when I post on personal finance forums everyone is very supportive. So I wanted to cover something that’s really important to me right now. I think everyone will gain something out of this post, and I’m sorry if it comes out a bit long.

The top thing that I want to say to people starting out on this journey — the same journey that I started out on years ago — is that there’s nothing wrong with giving yourself a lot of time to get out of debt. In fact, I think this is some of the best advice that you will ever get. We live in an instant gratification culture. This can be a blessing and a curse, but it ends up costing us in a lot of different ways. You see, you might love getting things quickly. It’s fun to know that you can stick something into a microwave and come out o the other side with cooked food. But what about when you are honestly trying to get out of debt? The microwave approach doesn’t really work so well.


Yet this is the dominant approach that many people take. They think that they’re going to stick their debts in a microwave, turn on the timer, and they will come out with their debts cooked down to a manageable size. It really doesn’t work that way.

Instead, you’re going to have to develop the discipline that comes from truly focusing on the things that matter to you. You are going to have to dig in deep and try to figure out where you can honestly go with your finances. You don’t want to just give up and figure that there’s nothing else that can be honestly done. You are just going to need to ensure that you can keep a steady eye on everything that ultimately matters to you.

Coming out with a solid plan can be hard, but who says that you have to work through it alone? There are now organizations that will be more than happy to give you some confidential debt counseling. Some people have a hard time opening up to their friends. I know I was in that category — the idea of my friends knowing exactly who I owed and when was utterly exhausting. I didn’t want to tell anyone. I wanted to just hide my face for life!

You get to a point where you know what you need to do. Sometimes it means that you aren’t going to be able to live the same lifestyle as your friends. I used to see a lot of my friends from university go out and get really nice cars. Did that mean they could afford them? No, not at all — it simply meant that they had a nice car and I did not.

There’s nothing wrong with admitting that you cannot afford certain things. However, many people feel that if you are telling them that they cannot afford something, you’re essentially saying that something is wrong with them. That’s not what I am trying to tell you at all.

All I’m saying is that you need to be kind to yourself. It’s going to be tempting to blame yourself and get angry. Responsibility really isn’t blame — it’s just realizing that you have to take different steps to solve the problem.

Good luck out there, and don’t forget to comment to me if you have any questions or concerns! ~Ellie

Are You Financially Prepared to Have a Baby

December 26th, 2012

A baby truly does change everything, but that doesn’t mean that you have to give up on what plans you have in life. A lot of people look at how to prepare for a baby. In many ways, you really don’t get to prepare for a baby. You kind of have to just take everything the way it comes, hope for the best, and know that even if you feel that you’re not ready, you’re still in great company. Many parents, my parents included, didn’t feel ready to have a baby. So I’ll go into some of the things that I had to think about as I was preparing to be ready financially to have a baby.

The first thing I did was look at my budget. In the past, I had been turning to one day payday loans because they could be paid out to me quickly and I knew my paychecks would cover the fees and everything else. Things were tight back then and I just couldn’t wait to payday to take care of all of the things that felt like emergencies. Sometimes I just wanted to be able to catch a certain sale. No matter what your reason for getting these loans really is, you have to honestly make sure that you’re able to get the things that really matter to you. The more planning that you can do into getting what you’re looking for done quickly, the less likely it is that you will have to turn to any type of financial booster at all. It’s going to be up to you though so make sure that you keep your eyes peeled for the best information possible.


What I’ve learned is that when it comes to a baby, you also want to look at the long term needs. Are you going to pay for your child’s education? What about sending them off to interesting camps? You want to have enough money in your budget to take care of these things without getting bogged down or starting to feel lost and hopeless. There’s no reason to feel hopeless at all. It is quite possible to get everything that you need without stressing out about anything in life.

You want to remember that children grow over time. There’s nothing that says that you have to have everything set up right away. Even if you don’t have enough money to buy everything that they need right at the beginning, you might be surprised at how many mums actually give you things. My friends all offered to give me the things that they couldn’t use anymore. Children grow up fast, and when you are ready to move on, you’ll be able to trade for even more things to help your children grow up just right.

Read up on how to keep your children from getting sick as much, and make sure that you invest in not only health insurance but also life insurance. Life insurance is something that’s hard to discuss, but it could really save your family if something happened to you or your spouse.

Are you ready to step into the wide world of raising a child? You might feel like there’s just not way to prepare, even if you saved all of the money in the world. It’s okay to feel scared — if this is something that you really want to do, you will be just fine at all. Check it out today!

Talking To Your Child About Money in a Troubled Economy

December 20th, 2012

I don’t have children yet. There, I said it — I don’t have children yet, but I’m about to talk to you about children. I am a proud auntie and find that my nieces and nephews benefit from my advice, so I hope that you won’t write me off either.

One of the biggest things on everyone’s mind right now is definitely the economy, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I think that art of the reason why we’re in such a mess now is that we never really took time to educate ourselves on finance — we let other people have that information. We decided that other people were going to be able to handle our money better than we could.

Now that dream is gone, and we’re left making sure that we can pick up the pieces and start over. So, where do you really focus your time? You have to make sure that you’re looking into things from the perspective of teaching your children the ins and outs of personal finance.


A troubled economy can cloud the conversation. You don’t want your children to grow up fearing money, or thinking it it’s something that they will never, ever have in their lives. That’s just not the type of lesson that you want to bring to your children at all. It would be a lot smarter to tell them that money is neutral. It’s what we do with money that makes the difference. If we invest in our education, is that a bad thing? No! You want to get the most that you can out of the process of going to school so that you can get a good job.

What about if you are speaking to younger children? Getting them to understand that money has a purpose may be a bit different, but it’s still something that you need to do. When you’re going to the grocery store, let them help you find what costs least. That gets them using the lesson they learned in school to really give you the school on things from a financial standpoint. You can even have them start calculating how much things are separately — 2 pack, 4 pack, 6 pack, etc.

The more you make money sound like an everyday thing, the more it will actually be an everyday thing in the eyes of your children. Keeping the lines of communication open will make it a lot easier to actually handle your finances — there’s no waiting, no idea that you’re not going to be able to take care of the things that matter to you. It’s just a matter of looking at things from the right perspective and pushing forward. Don’t overload your child with information and they will certainly be just fine!

How to Financially Deal With Emergencies – Without Losing It!

July 26th, 2012

Emergencies are something that can be really tough to deal with. I’ve had my fair share of emergencies, so I wanted to talk about how to deal with them financially.

First and foremost, if you have savings — don’t be afraid to use it! Even when I had a savings account I always felt like it would be the end of the world if I actually tapped this account. However, what you really want to get here is that there’s no shame in using the resources that are at your disposal. If you weren’t using your savings wisely that would definitely be one thing but what about when you honestly want to just take care of all of the problems once and for all?

Now, if you don’t have savings you might feel like you have no options. If you’ve already talked to friends and family and they really have nothing else to offer you, then you really need to make sure that you start thinking about payday loans.


There are a lot of people that are very much against payday loans, but we think that there’s nothing wrong at all with getting a good payday loan under your belt. It certainly can’t hurt anything when you look at the consequences of not taking action. A lot of people talk endlessly about fees, but I know when I really needed the money — there was no getting around it. I didn’t have any choice but to dig in deep and get the job done. I couldn’t sit and complain about my problems and or hope that someone would save me from them — I had to take matters into my own hands for good. That’s the way you have to think about it.

I definitely recommend one day payday loans for your convenience, because you will have the best chance at actually taking charge of your financial situation quickly. If you go with other types of payday loans, you’ll have to wait a little longer for them.

I’m a pretty impatient person, so I don’t like to wait very long for emergency cash.

The biggest thing you can do after an emergency is always look back at your emergency plan. I didn’t have one, so after I survived the first financial emergency, I realized that I needed to keep solving them in a systematic and logical manner. No, this is not something that your friends are probably talking about, but it could save your life someday.

Keeping all of this into perspective, it’s equally important to realize that an emergency doesn’t have to be the end of the world for you. Every time I realized that I was taking something too hard, I corrected course and stopped blaming myself for every emergency and problem. I wanted to be a better person, and I eventually became the financially responsible person that has a large and fulfilling life. It’s where I want to be — do you know where you want to be? Figure it out, and you’ll never look at emergencies the same way again!

A Clear Discussion with Your Spouse about Finance Is Eaiser Than You Think

June 20th, 2012

Being married is one of the best things that I’ve ever stepped into. I find that my husband has become truly my best friend with unconditional love for me. Of course, that’s a bit sappy for a personal finance blog. Maybe I should mention all of the times that he’s gotten a one day payday loan for me so we wouldn’t have to ask his parents again for money. Things got rough for a little while but he’s always been at my side, rocking and rolling from one problem to the next.

People ask me what my secret for having such a great marriage really is. It’s not that there are any magic words or anything like that — we just make sure that we talk about anything and everything that comes up. I don’t try to tell him that his viewpoint is invalid. We also don’t hide finances from each other.

It’s that last part, the finance part that I wanted to cover today. So many of my friends are really afraid to even talk about finances with their spouses, because they’re afraid that the conversation will go badly. Why should it? Money is powerful, and it’s something that needs to be treated with respect. Money doesn’t like when you hide it and not discuss it. Money wants to be appreciated, and if you are constantly saying bad things about money, how does money even know that you appreciate it? It really doesn’t, which means that you’re going to have a very hard time taking care of money the way you need to.


Get on good terms with your spouse before you’re even married. I spoke to my husband at length about my views on money. At the time, I only knew that money wasn’t my friend. I could never keep money. I would save, and then something would happen and I would have to tap my savings account dry. I never got around to getting more out of my savings through my checks at work, because I was so busy trying to take care of everything.

My husband was a saver beyond savers. He would even save the little half used bars of soap and roll them into one big bar after a while. He’s a very frugal man, whereas I was feeling miffed that I wasn’t able to spend like I wanted. He never ignored my feelings.

So, what can you learn from my darling hubby and I? Talk everything out. Make sure that you’re on the same page. If someone wants something the other doesn’t, learn to compromise.

I learned early on in my marriage that I really didn’t need to be right. I just wanted to be happy. For years, I thought that being right would yield happiness, but it really doesn’t. It makes me happier to go without something that my husband thinks is a bad buy than to buy it and argue for the next few weeks about how much I want it.

If you find something that you really feel that you have to have, give yourself a cooling off period to look at whether or not you really want it. Impulse buys are pretty common.

Just as your spouse will probably compromise with you, you should make sure that you’re compromising with them. There’s nothing wrong with letting them have some fun and get away from their stressful times too.

Saving for the future is something that makes being married so much fun — you are on each other’s team, always. Debt doesn’t have to be bad debt either — all debt with purpose tends to be good debt, especially when you can pay it off quickly.

Why not have a good conversation with your spouse? Once you find yourselves on the same page financially, you’ll truly be glad that you did!

Can You Financially Handle Divorce?

June 3rd, 2012

Divorce is something that is pretty painful to talk about, but there comes a point where you really have to deal with it. I won’t go into the morality of it, nor will I tell you that you need to reconsider divorce as it’s not a good thing to do. You just have to figure out what you want to do at every angle, and work from there. If you are leaving a relationship where there are children involved, it’s very important to make sure that you have strong legal counsel backing you at every turn. If you don’t get a good lawyer, you could end up damaging your children’s future without thinking about it. Don’t let anyone tell you that they have your child’s best interests at heart — they often don’t.

Moving on, the biggest thing that you can do in a divorce is have good communication. You want to be honest with each other. If things are just not working, then arguing over property doesn’t seem like a great use of time. Everything should be divided as fairly as possible ahead of time. In fact, most of the high cost of divorce stems from arguing over who gets what, rather than actually being separated. People feel like they need to fight at the last minute to get back things that really don’t matter to them. They want to fight over things because they can’t fix the things that were terribly broken — that’s the hard part, and it’s hard to feel like you really can move on.


You have to stop wonder if you’re financially ready to handle divorce. If you’ve been saving money and holding on to your job, you might get out of things a lot better than what you might expect. Some people feel that it’s pointless to even think about getting out of their marriage, because they really wouldn’t have any resources. The truth is that if your spouse feels like the only reason you’re holding on is because of the money, they’re going to eventually leave. No one wants to feel that way at all.

Are you looking at how you’re going to move on from these problems? What about finding somewhere to live? It can feel like you have to make a lot of these decisions quickly, and you often don’t get a lot of time. So if you can, find someone that has already been through the divorce process. Everyone’s divorce is going to be slightly different, but they should be able to support you where it counts.

Keep your head up — better financial times can be ahead of you! ~Ellie