How To Get Out Of Debt: Write About It

Last month, Somu wrote on this blog about making money with your writing skills. It seems that a lot of people have the same idea. The International Herald Tribune writes about pfbloggers (personal finance bloggers) who wear their financial hearts on their sleeves, revealing all their debts, expenses, and assets. Most give financial advice and earn ad revenue, helping pay down their debt. Others seem not to be making any headway.

If you’re thinking about writing your own pfblog, keep in mind that Technorati’s index suggests that there are over 2200 blogs relating to personal finance.

New Writer at World Wealth View

Brett Bumeter, who writes for me at a couple of other sites including my tech blog TechnoBabble, will be posting here with me shortly.

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Thanks to our sponsors Legal and General, Royal Bank of Scotland, Alliance Leicester, and NatWest.

What’s the most important thing that drives you through the Career Ladder? Is it your Salary? Is it the prospect of future opportunity that leads to what you want in your life? or Is it due to your co-workers. There may be umpteen reasons for you to stick with your day job. But behind all of these is the Happiness factor.

If you are not full happy, you can’t work with your full potential. No matter how much you really love your job, there is a chance that you may not love it all the time.

So, what can you do to make yourself happy? Quit your job. Of course, it may not be as easy as it sounds, if you don’t enjoy what you are doing, start looking at what you really enjoy to do. But before quitting your job, make sure you have really planned for it.

• Reason. Start identifying what you didn’t like in your present job. Chances are that you can rectify that and stay in your job itself. If it is something you can’t get in your present company, try another which offers what you seek.
• Stress. If you don’t enjoy what you do, stress aggregates. The best option is to leave your job, in this case. Life is short and maximize it fully.
• Plan it. Find what are the alternative sources of incomes that you could reap. If you are an IT programmer earning loads of money, then working in a convenient store might not be a best deal. So, plan for things you enjoy and earn some money out of it. You could do something like consulting to outsource your skills.
• Tax deduction. Working from home gets you better tax deductions. Avail them.
• Commuting. This is something you will save if you are not going for work. But if you do consulting, occasionally you need to commute. Prefer public transportation. You might save a penny or two and also make this world a better place by not polluting.
• Set Target. Above all, set target. This will result in planning and sequencing your actions. Without goals, life is simply not satisfying.

Merriam Webster says that “Hobby is a pursuit outside one’s regular occupation for relaxation”. We all need a break from our regular boring working life. Hobby is a great relaxation. Those are the things which we really enjoy doing and it doesn’t seem like a work.

Now, what if I told you that you get to do your hobby and make money along with it. Thanks to Internet, writing interesting stuff which others like, will open up a huge market.

The following are some of the well established techniques for making money.

• Posting in forums: There’s a huge market out there for this job. Forum posting is a really simple thing to do, and you can really enjoy doing it if you know the subject and you are interested in contributing positively by quality posting.
• Content Writing: Can you write quality content based on the topic which your clients offer. Then you can find elance for making some real money. Mostly offered based on the number of words, you can find lot of clients over there. A bit of warning though. You really can’t become a millionaire by taking this job. Usually the offer is low but that’s really a good start for those new to the field.
• CopyWriting: OK. Now that you are comfortable writing based on the chosen topic, how about testing your skills to do how you fair on CopyWriting. It is really an art and you will shine if you can present your Unique Selling Point (USP). You will get real good money in this stream.
• Affiliate Marketing: You have got great exposure in the above areas, and now you need to do it for your own. If you can make money for others by writing, why not write for yourself. Join Commission Junction, pick up the products you like, create a niche website based on your chosen product, compare your product with your competitors and tell your USP and you can win the hearts of millions. There are some super affiliates out there who are minting money using this technique.

If you have not opened an online savings account, and don’t even know where to start, here’s everything you ever wanted to know about online savings accounts - or at least links to the information you want. If you have more questions, please ask via the comments section of this post.

NOTE: For American readers, cheque = check, chequing = checking. Continue reading ‘Online Savings Accounts: 11 Common Questions’

The road to wealth means being able to save money by making do on less than you earn. One of the biggest “necessary” expenses beyond rent is usually food. So here are a few tips to save money on grocery shopping. You’ll be surprised at how incredibly obvious the tips in this article are, but it doesn’t hurt to be reminded.
Continue reading ‘5 Ways To Save Your Money - Foodwise’

Ever find that even though you’re expected to track your expenses monthly, your spending habits are mostly monthly? For example, groceries, gasoline, meals, etc., tend to be spent on a daily/ weekly basis. Only things like rent, insurance, phone bills, credit card bills, etc., tend to be spent on a monthly basis. So it’s a hassle every month to total things up. Maybe this spreadsheet will help.

Well, this isn’t exactly a solution to that problem, but it might help you to at least track your weekly spending habits. What’s more, I’ve added columns for 13-, 26, 52-, and 104-week MAs (Moving Averages) and a graph of these, so that you can see patterns in medium- and long-term spending.
Continue reading ‘Track Your Spending Changes With Free Spreadsheet’

Free Money Finance has excellent advice about getting out of debt and earning 20% on your money: Pay off your credit card debt. With credit card interest rates as high as 26%, sometimes more, for average credit status, you’ll either have lots of debt to pay off or a lot of money saved. Which do you want?

Stupid question? You’d think so, but some people seem to choose debt. Can’t pay your balance? Then get tough on yourself and learn to spend only what you can afford. Give yourself motivation. Sure, use a credit card for convenience, but pay it off each month. Really. You can go on about the rate, and how little your savings/ chequing accounts pay, or you can shut up and do something about it. Tough love works when slacking off doesn’t.
Continue reading ‘Getting Out Of Credit Card Debt’

Intel, the largest maker of processor chips for computers, announced that they’re slashing 1000 managers to compete with market. Recently, Dell, one of Intel’s largest customers, announced that they were switching their server computers to use Intel’s competitor AMD’s chips. Intel shares (NYSE: INTC) dropped on that news.
Continue reading ‘Stocks To Watch - Intel Corporation’

So, how easy is it for you to spend an extra $100 bucks a month? Now, how easy is it for you to save an extra $100 bucks a month? Probably a lot of harder, if you’re like me. Yesterday, I talked about where to find $100 a month to save and eventually invest, and I’m trying to reinforce that here. Well, if $100 is too much for you, maybe you could try for $50. Or you could look at things long-term and see what $100/m could become through savings and investment, and find motivation in that result.

It’s generally easy to spend $100 on stuff you don’t need, especially when you spend it in dribbles and drabbles. But if you go pick up a few books on people who became millionaires, it becomes evident that they knew how to save, and that they were unlikely to spend much of their disposable income. Or if they did, they did it for a specific purpose, usually to further their savings.
Continue reading ‘Money and Savings - Easy Come, Easy Go’

Articles like this one often come off seeming stupid to people who know how to save, or insincere to those who are having a tough time getting by financially. Personally, I like reading such articles as a reminder of what I already know but may have temporarily forgotten. Saving does take a great deal of discipline that no longer seems to be taught to people, if credit card debt is any indicator. So little reminders are very helpful every once in a while.

I’m not going to look down on you and say that it’s easy to find $100 a month to save somewhere. I’ve lived in both frames of mind: saver and spender. But the easiest way to motivate yourself, if you are saving- challenged, is to decide why you want to save, what you are going to do with it.
Continue reading ‘Finding $100 A Month To Invest’