One of the major mistakes most couples make in getting married is taking the plunge before they have much experience of living as individuals in the real world. If you know someone who is getting married or thinking about marriage, have them read this checklist. It might help their marriage become better than they hoped for or prevent it becoming a nightmare. » Read more: A marriage checklist
Posts Tagged ‘Money’
A marriage checklist
February 28th, 2010
True cost of driving to work
January 31st, 2010One of the exercises in my Personal Marketing class is to calculate the cost of driving to work. I have decided to share this information with all my readers.
First let’s define some automotive expenses related to driving to work (Gas, Oil, Tires, Insurance, Vehicle Replacement, Vehicle Registration, Monthly Parking, Tolls, and Driving Time) » Read more: True cost of driving to work
New year’s resolution – don’t charge Christmas
December 26th, 2009This is a public service announcement. Christmas is coming next year on December 25th. If you start saving now, you won’t have to put anything on credit cards. It’s quite simple really. If you know how much you spent this year and you plan to spend the same amount next year, you can calculate exactly how much you need to save each month.
Example Scenario Part 1:
If you have a family of 6 people and you plan to spend $50 on each person that would be $300 for next Christmas.
Christmas Budget = $300 = (6 people x $50 per person)
To figure out how much to save each month you would divide $300 by the remaining months. I have created this little table here to help demonstrate how much you would need to save if you started in a particular month. So, if you are reading this post in February, you have 10 months to save. You would need to save $30 per month for 10 months to reach your goal of $300 by Christmas. If you read this in June, you would have only 6 months left to save, so you would have to save $50 each month for 6 months to reach your goal of $300 by Christmas.
| Month | Months | Save |
|---|---|---|
| Dec | 12 | $25.00 |
| Jan | 11 | $27.28 |
| Feb | 10 | $30.00 |
| Mar | 9 | $33.34 |
| Apr | 8 | $37.50 |
| May | 7 | $42.86 |
| Jun | 6 | $50.00 |
| Jul | 5 | $60.00 |
| Aug | 4 | $75.00 |
| Sep | 3 | $100.00 |
| Oct | 2 | $150.00 |
| Nov | 1 | $300.00 |
| Dec | 0 | Christmas |
What about Black Friday?
If you want to have the money by Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. You’ll have to step up the pace a little.
| Month | Months | Save |
|---|---|---|
| Dec | 11 | $27.28 |
| Jan | 10 | $30.00 |
| Feb | 9 | $33.34 |
| Mar | 8 | $37.50 |
| Apr | 7 | $42.86 |
| May | 6 | $50.00 |
| Jun | 5 | $60.00 |
| Jul | 4 | $75.00 |
| Aug | 3 | $100.00 |
| Sep | 2 | $150.00 |
| Oct | 1 | $300.00 |
| Nov | 0 | Black Friday |
Example Scenario Spending:
If you made it to your planned shopping date and you reached your planned Christmas Budget, then you’re going to have a Merrier Christmas, because you won’t have the January Credit Card blues.
Now for the final part, take your budget and divide it between envelopes for each person. Then when you go shopping, as you buy items for that person, you take it out of their envelope. Once, the money’s gone, you’re done shopping for them. It doesn’t get any easier than that.
New Year Resolution:
If you make any resolutions this year. Promise yourself to save up for Christmas and avoid charging Christmas. You’ll be much happier if you save up for it.
USB flash drives are getting really affordable
November 27th, 2009
8GB Sandisk Cruzer
The other day, I received an email requesting me to download some files for a special presentation. I figured there would be no problem. I could copy the files to my trusty 128MB flash drive and be done with it. Unfortunately, the combined sizes of the 2 videos reached 163MB. Needless to say, my poor flash drive was not up to the task. It stopped halfway through the file transfer. I had to find another solution. Did I mention this happened on Black Friday? » Read more: USB flash drives are getting really affordable
Christmas Shopping starting early this year
November 22nd, 2009Something is in the air. All of the sudden everybody is out shopping. What is this phenomenon? It’s not even Christmas yet. It’s not even the day after Thanksgiving day (Black Friday) yet. Black Friday is typically one of the biggest shopping days of the year. So, why is everybody out shopping the week before? » Read more: Christmas Shopping starting early this year
$100 Blu-Ray Christmas update
November 17th, 2009In August 2009 I mentioned that Blu-Ray players were starting to drop in price to under $100. Already there have been a few instances of this happening since Father’s Day 2009. The question is will there be any for this Christmas? » Read more: $100 Blu-Ray Christmas update
Blu-ray Disc Player for Christmas, around $100
August 20th, 2009This might just be the year to buy a $100 Blu-ray Disc player for Christmas. In one of my previous blogs, I commented that Christmas is coming to be ready.
DVD Format Wars
During the Blu-ray / HD DVD wars. I jumped on the HD DVD bandwagon because the price of the player was a whole lot cheaper than Blu-ray. I thought there would be room enough for both of them. However, that was not the case. Not too long after my purchase a winner was declared in 2008. It was Sony this time. It was a little painful to swallow for a while, picking the wrong technology. Ultimately, I still won as, I saw many popular videos in HD DVD format go on sale for rediculously low prices.
No competition
After the war was over, there wasn’t any healthy competition driving the prices toward affordability. It seemed like the prices hovered in the $200-$400 range. You had two choices, an expensive game console or an expensive stand-alone Blu-ray player. Both were way overpriced. Since the format wars were over I have refused to purchase a Blu-ray player because of price alone. I knew there was no reason why they couldn’t be more affordable. All they had to do, was remove a few expensive options and provide us with a bare-bones model that can play Blu-ray discs.
A miracle happened
I don’t know exactly when it happend, but I heard rumors that Blu-ray players have started selling below $100. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard this. I had to verify this myself. So, I looked up some major retailers in my area (Fry’s, K-Mart, Target, Sears, Best Buy) At the time of this article I found a refurbished Blu-ray Disc player for $99 and another within $10. Pretty close for my book.
- K-Mart & Sears - Magnavox Blu-ray Disc player, refurbished $99
- BestBuy – Insignia Blu-ray Disc player $119
I hope this trend continues. I’ve seen several Blu-ray Disc players start to drop below the $200 barrier. I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen around Thanksgiving. This should get real interesting. I’m still not planning to brave the crowds on Black Friday. But, with all the money we’ll be saving, maybe we’ll pay someone to buy it for us 
Christmas is still coming. Now that Blu-ray Disc players are getting closer to the $100 price-point, we’ll be able to find a deal this year..
I enjoyed the latest Harry Potter movie
August 15th, 2009Five Bucks
My wife and I went to the movies today to see “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.” We went to the Kerasotes Showplace Theatres. Our tickets were only $5. Kerasotes has a special deal called the “Five Buck Club“ The only requirement to join is to give them an email address and a mailing address. Once you provide them with this information, they will send a membership card in the mail and you will get a emails regarding feature films that are coming within a few days of the movie’s release. You will also get a periodic email notifying you of movies that have gone to the “Five Buck Club” These are films that no matter when they’re being shown, if you can produce a Five Buck Club membership card and $5 you will receive a ticket of admittance. So, if you have two people and two membership cards and $10 a couple can go to the movies for not too much money.
Kerasotes Theatre
The theatre has stadium seating with very comfortable high back rocking seats. It seems to me that every row is placed in such a way that you can view the screen from anywhere in the theatre. No worries about tall people sitting in front of you. The elevation between rows is pretty generous. They use digital video technology for all of their theatres. Every time I visit the theatres the experience has been great. Once a movie is no longer the feature film it moves from the primary theatre to one of the smaller ones. This is when the “Five Buck Club” kicks in. The members gain access to these movies for only $5.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Don’t worry, there aren’t any spoilers in this article. I just wanted to say a few words about expectations and disappointment. When you shell out $10 per person for a movie, not to mention popcorn, etc. You might have more expectations than if you only spent $5 per person. Maybe they expect too much from a sequel, I don’t know. Some people I know said it wasn’t worth the price they paid to watch the movie. They gave some reasons I’m not going to share because I don’t want to ruin the movie for you. I will say that maybe part of their disappointment came from spending too much for the movie.
Why I wasn’t disappointed
I usually wait until a movie has gone to DVD and then rent and watch it using Netflix. However, every once in a while there are films that I think should be seen on the big screen. Especially if they have lots of action scenes. I think all the Harry Potter movies should be seen on the big screen. If I had to pay more than $5, I probably wouldn’t have seen it. I would have waited for the movie to be released on DVD like I usually do. But because of the “Five Buck Club” I can afford to watch more films like Harry Potter on the big screen. So, I was just happy to get out and enjoy the theatre and see the characters develop on the big screen.
BTW: I plan to purchase this film sometime after it’s released on DVD.
Till next time, see the movie and Judge for yourself.
Financial traction in today’s economy
June 5th, 2009Several years ago, I read a book called “Financial Peace” by Dave Ramsey. At the time I was looking for a practical way to manage my finances. I was deep in debt and was looking for a solution. I had read other books on finances, but most of them preached the same thing:
- Control cashflow
- Eliminate debt
- Build savings
- Build wealth
The main issue I had with most of these financial books was their lack of a practical plan. I needed a practical example to get me started on the road to financial recovery. Dave’s book had a few extra bits of information that really helped me out.
There were four things that really made the difference. First, was the “Envelope System.” Talk about cashflow. Nothing helps you get the picture like seeing actual cash flowing through your fingers. You start to get the idea that cash is flowing away from you. Second, was the “Spending Plan.” Nobody likes the B-word, “Budget.” The great thing about this plan is that you decide what you’re going to spend your money on. You make conscious decisions on how the money is spent. Third, was the “Emergency Fund.” Once you have one, you can stop using your Credit card as an emergency fund. This keeps you from getting further into debt. Fourth, was the “Debt Snowball.” A quick way to work through paying off your debts.
These tools when used together can really boost your financial traction in today’s economy.
Dave has written several books. Another book I recommend is, “The Total MoneyMakeover,” which gives even more practical examples to follow. To see what he says about finances in today’s economy check out his website Dave Ramsey.
Till next time, have positive cashflow
