How To Save 500 Or More Each Month

After getting laid off I had to wade through all the frugal tips like "reuse twist ties" and "turn off the lights when you leave a room" to find the ones that really delivered. Sure you can save a few pennies by turning off the lights around the house, but I needed to make bigger money-saving moves. I didn't need to save a few pennies, I needed to save many hundreds of dollars each month. That is what this challenge is all about: taking 21 days to make some drastic, but realistic, changes in order to save at least $500 each month. If you are anything like I was, you probably have more bills and payments due each month than you have money coming in. You have undoubtedly read other money-saving tips in the past, but just felt like none of them would yield much result. You also probably don't have the time to read through a bunch of fluff, but just want to get to the point! If this sounds like you, then you are who this book was written for! And while this challenge is not intended to solve all your financial problems, it will definitely help you save money! The book is broken out into 21 short chapters, each with a realistic money-saving suggestion that will help your reach your $500/m goal. To succeed with the challenge you will need to take the chapters day-by-day and not just fly through the whole book in one sitting. Those who read a chapter a day and take action each day will be rewarded with much better success.

William J. Bernstein promises to lay out an investment strategy that any seven year old could understand and will take just 15 minutes of work per year. He also promises it will beat 90% of finance professionals in the long run, but still make you a millionaire over time. Bernstein is addressing young Americans just embarking on their working careers. Bernstein advocates saving 15% of one's salary starting no later than age 25 into tax-sheltered savings plans (IRA or 401(k) in the U.S., RRSPs or Registered Pension Plans in Canada), and divvying up the money into just three mutual funds: a U.S. total stock market index fund, an international stock market index fund and a U.S. total bond market index fund. For millennials, saving 15% of salary is the financial equivalent of dying, which is why Bernstein titles his document 'IF you can.'

A simple guide to a smarter strategy for the individual investor A Wealth of Common Sense sheds a refreshing light on investing, and shows you how a simplicity-based framework can lead to better investment decisions. The financial market is a complex system, but that doesn't mean it requires a complex strategy; in fact, this false premise is the driving force behind many investors' market "mistakes." Information is important, but understanding and perspective are the keys to better decision-making. This book describes the proper way to view the markets and your portfolio, and show you the simple strategies that make investing more profitable, less confusing, and less time-consuming. Without the burden of short-term performance benchmarks, individual investors have the advantage of focusing on the long view, and the freedom to construct the kind of portfolio that will serve their investment goals best. This book proves how complex strategies essentially waste these advantages, and provides an alternative game plan for those ready to simplify. Complexity is often used as a mechanism for talking investors into unnecessary purchases, when all most need is a deeper understanding of conventional options. This book explains which issues you actually should pay attention to, and which ones are simply used for an illusion of intelligence and control. Keep up with—or beat—professional money managers Exploit stock market volatility to your utmost advantage Learn where advisors and consultants fit into smart strategy Build a portfolio that makes sense for your particular situation You don't have to outsmart the market if you can simply outperform it. Cut through the confusion and noise and focus on what actually matters. A Wealth of Common Sense clears the air, and gives you the insight you need to become a smarter, more successful investor.

“The newbie investor will not find a better guide to personal finance.” —Burton Malkiel, author of A RANDOM WALK DOWN WALL STREET TV analysts and money managers would have you believe your finances are enormously complicated, and if you don’t follow their guidance, you’ll end up in the poorhouse. They’re wrong. When University of Chicago professor Harold Pollack interviewed Helaine Olen, an award-winning financial journalist and the author of the bestselling Pound Foolish, he made an off­hand suggestion: everything you need to know about managing your money could fit on an index card. To prove his point, he grabbed a 4" x 6" card, scribbled down a list of rules, and posted a picture of the card online. The post went viral. Now, Pollack teams up with Olen to explain why the ten simple rules of the index card outperform more complicated financial strategies. Inside is an easy-to-follow action plan that works in good times and bad, giving you the tools, knowledge, and confidence to seize control of your financial life.

Straightforward, reliable financial guidance is contained in this one-of-a-kind reference. This handbook clearly explains the concepts you need to invest, borrow, or lend intelligently with reduced risk and greater understanding. Here are the ready answers to virtually all of your questions about interest, yields, and returns, whether you are an investor trying to decide which kind of bond to invest in, a business manager evaluating alternative prospective capital investment opportunities using discounted cash flow techniques such as the internal rate of return (IRR), a senior citizen pondering increasing his or her cash flow by taking out a "reverse" mortgage, a borrower who is unsure whether refinancing is a good idea, and an individual who simply wants to make financial decisions that pay off. This valuable handbook provides you with the analytical tools essential to making decisions about buying, selling, or holding stocks, bonds, and real estate. Or if you are lending or borrowing money, you will find the information necessary to compare different forms of investment proposals by using the IRR or net present value as simple, accurate yardsticks. In the Handbook, you will find answers to such other vital questions as: . Why does the Fed's annual percentage rate understate the true cost of most loans? How can you make tax shelters work for you? Why don't you have to reinvest at all to achieve the IRR or yield-to-maturity at purchase? What are the big dangers of investing in callable or zero coupon bonds? Which kind of bond is most desirable: discount, par, or premium? What is the most you can withdraw monthly from your retirement savings and still have the income last for yourexpected life span? How can you construct a loan amortization schedule? Is it advisable to accelerate paying off your mortgage or other loan? What is modified duration, and how can it help control a portfolio's risk level? The Handbook is written in a no-nonsense style that makes its subject accessible to a broad spectrum of readers. In addition, you will find numerous graphs that will help solve even the most complex money puzzles in moments. If you are among the investors, borrowers, portfolio managers, bankers, accountants, and business professionals who must grapple with financial decision making in an uncertain business climate, you will find this one-stop guide to be your invaluable financial coach, ever at your aide with dependable and practical information presented in a lucid, easily understood manner. With this handbook, you'll make informed, advantageous money decisions.

A guide to achieving financial stability and prosperity encourages new ways to think about and manage money, discussing such topics as balancing a budget, planning for entertainment, and getting out of debt.

The inspirational story of how Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus invented microcredit, founded the Grameen Bank, and transformed the fortunes of millions of poor people around the world. Muhammad Yunus was a professor of economics in Bangladesh, who realized that the most impoverished members of his community were systematically neglected by the banking system -- no one would loan them any money. Yunus conceived of a new form of banking -- microcredit -- that would offer very small loans to the poorest people without collateral, and teach them how to manage and use their loans to create successful small businesses. He founded Grameen Bank based on the belief that credit is a basic human right, not the privilege of a fortunate few, and it now provides $24 billion of micro-loans to more than nine million families. Ninety-seven percent of its clients are women, and repayment rates are over 90 percent. Outside of Bangladesh, micro-lending programs inspired by Grameen have blossomed, and serve hundreds of millions of people around the world. The definitive history of micro-credit direct from the man that conceived of it, Banker to the Poor is the moving story of someone who dreamed of changing the world -- and did.