Personal Finance

Team Building – 7 Steps to Success

“We are going to build a team”. Replace the word “team” with the word “house” – or any other noun that can be built and will take more than just a few minutes – and most sensible people will want to adopt a structured approach.
Plans will be drawn up and approved. People will receive copies of the plan and efforts will be made to ensure everyone understands it. Progress will be monitored against the plan. Lessons will be learned along the way that will be used to improve the next phase. Anything less will lead at best to mediocrity and underachievement.
So why is team building so often treated in an ad hoc manner? You wouldn’t take bricks and mortar out, show them a good time and expect them to rearrange themselves into something better just because they had a nice break. So why expect a group of people to do any better?
The only answer to that question with any merit is that bricks can’t think and people can. Which sounds like management by abdication. Or perhaps management by trusting to luck. It certainly doesn’t sound like a structured approach.
So if taking people off for some fun is not team building – what is it?
Traditional away day options are team bonding exercises – and that is different. Take a group quad-biking, paint-balling etc and it will help bond the participants through a shared experience. You can even justify its use of some of the training budget if you like by claiming it has helped them develop as a team. Just don’t believe it – or you’ll be disappointed to discover that while the group is closer it is no more effective.
No – if you want to build a team rather than just bond the individuals closer, you need a structured process. You need to decide before you start what improvements you want and can realistically expect the team to achieve. Next you can decide how long it will take to achieve those results.
Often, fun remains a key objective for such a session. If it is the only one – or is only combined with a desire to get the team to become closer – organising a team bonding session is an ideal solution. If, however, your expectations are set higher than that – then you need something more structured.
So what are the key characteristics of a genuine team building session? I suggest the following 7 steps will lead to success:
1) Have definite session and longer-term goals and know how the session goals lead to the longer term ones.
2) Use an engaging and varied base activity that involves each participant in something that he or she enjoys doing.
3) Use an activity that achieves that engagement while having genuine parallels to the workplace and has relevance with the session goals.
4) Select an activity that requires the same kind of skill sets and team approaches that are needed at work – albeit one that is removed from the work itself.
5) Consider using an independent (internal or external) facilitator – to allow all levels to join in as equals and to avoid it feeling like a “sermon from above”.
6) Debrief using a predefined process that highlights the workplace parallels and allows the participants to extract their own learning rather than be preached to.
7) Use a proven mechanism to transfer the learning back to the workplace, ideally integrated within the debriefing process itself.
If none of these seem important, you are probably looking at a pure fun bonding session. Whether that is a trip to the nearest (or furthest!) bar or something that offers the group an experience that all of its members will enjoy doesn’t matter too much.
But if any of them do seem important, then I’d suggest that they all are. If one or more are missing then your team building session will be compromised. And that’s a word that sits well alongside mediocrity and underachievement.
Copyright 2005 Sandstone Limited

Alan is Managing Director of Sandstone, a leading UK team building company. He enjoys creating innovative activities that combine fun with genuine team development. In his spare time, he does voluntary work for the RNIB.

http://www.sandstone.co.uk

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Your Ticket To Financial Freedom

Now days it is nearly impossible today for the average family to thrive on a single income. However, the skyrocketing cost of child care makes it difficult for both parents to work. Fortunately, the internet has made making money online a suitable income option without the need for commuting or day care.
Making money online means much more than entering contests and sweepstakes; it is not uncommon to see a professional create a home business in computer programming, accounting, medical billing, and many other fields. Making money online has never been easier! All that is required is a computer, a reliable internet connection, and an idea.
Often times, the most challenging task involved in making money online is coming up with the perfect idea. We’re not all computer programmers, web developers, or content writers. However, we all have some talent or skill that others will pay for. Making money online is as simple as figuring out what you do well and deciding how to leverage that talent into an opportunity.
For example, a friend of mine had little computer experience, but was interested in making money online. I suggested that she think about what she enjoyed doing and using that as the basis for her home business. She said that her greatest skill was the creation of unique homemade jewelry items. She hired another home business professional (a web designer) to build a website for her and she is now making money online selling her jewelry creations.
Making money online by starting a home business is not the daunting task that many budding entrepreneurs assume. If you carefully consider your skills and talents and figure out how to leverage those abilities on the internet, you’ll be making money online in no time!
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

Vincent Murphy can help you to find the best home based business ideas andopportunities so you can work at home visit: www.HomeGrail.com

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Education Savings Plans – Planning for Your Child?s Post Secondary Education

Post secondary education is very expensive in North America and unless you are fairly wealthy will be a worry for most parents. Obviously, not all kids go onto University or College but if they do and you haven’t planned for it you could find yourself with a large financial burden. This would probably happen just when most families are looking at finally having some financial security
A Registered Education Savings Plan – RESP – is vital for your financial health if you have kids who you feel may want to go into post secondary education. An RESP is government sponsored (Registered with Canada Customs and Revenue Agency) and is allowed to grow tax free. Money paid from the plan at maturity may be taxed as income for the student.
The plans are administered by private companies/persons (Promoter) who will collect contributions and invest them accordingly. Up to $4,000 per beneficiary (student) can be contributed per calendar year, with a lifetime limit of $42,000 without any tax implications. Each student may have more than one plan but the limit is strictly per student.
The most important aspect of the RESP’s is that the Government will add 20% to the first $2,000 per calendar year ($400) up to and including the year of the students 17th birthday. This is called the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG) and any amounts paid in are not included in the annual limit for tax purposes.
The maximum a student can receive from CESG is $7200 over the lifetime of the plan. Any amount of CESG not claimed each year will accumulate as up to $800 can be paid if not previously claimed. If the RESP is not eventually used for educational purposes any CESG payments will have to be repaid to the government.
To apply, the student must be resident in Canada and have a Social Insurance Number (SIN) which must be provided to the promoter at the plan inception. Also, the individual making the contributions will be required to provide their SIN.
Types of RESP Plans
There are 3 main types of Plan:
Non-Family – There can be only one beneficiary but anyone (grandparents/godparents etc.) can make the contributions whenever they want for however much they want to pay.
Family – There can be one or more beneficiary’s as long as they are blood relatives or adopted by the person/s making the contributions. There are no restrictions on when and how much is paid in (apart from the tax implications of over subscribing).
Group – These plans are normally offered by foundations who set how much is paid in and when. Each age group will have a particular plan and all members will take a share. There are some fairly complicated rules attached and should be thoroughly researched with the plan providers before committing.
RESP Termination
At termination/maturity, there are several options:
1. The intended student does not go into post secondary education. The contributions are returned tax free to the person who made them. The CESG is repaid to the government. Any income generated by the plan will be subject to taxation.
2. The student enrolls in a qualified program at a post secondary educational institution and completes the full program. Initially, $5000 can be paid from the plan, then after 13 weeks there is no limit to the amount paid as long as the student remains in the program. These payments are called Educational Assistance Payments (EAP’s). The student cannot be receiving EI (employment Insurance) or the program must not be part of the students employment (an apprenticeship for example).
3. The proceeds can be transferred to another RESP.
4. The proceeds can be paid to a designated educational institution.
More, detailed information can be found at http://www.onestopimmigration-canada.com/RESP.html

The author immigrated to Canada in 2003 and has constructed a free information website
http://www.onestopimmigration-canada.com about Canadian Immigration and life in Canada based on his family’s experiences.

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8 Money Myths

8 Myths About Money
I grew up on a farm in Nebraska. My family had always worked hard for their money, and as a result, I always equated working hard with making money, with no idea that my beliefs could not have been further from truth. As I educated myself on human behavior and financial strategies, I learned that it’s actually the people who make their money work hard for them, rather than the people who work hard for their money, who end up with more of it. Since creating my millionaire-making program, I’ve learned that I was not alone. There are many people who shared this same myth.
Much like our views about many things — people, relationships, food, and health to name a few — our beliefs came from our parents, our teachers, and other adults in our lives. And it goes back even further, beyond them, back to the circumstances through which they lived, or what they learned from their parents, what their parents learned from their parents, and so on. These beliefs are ingrained, and because they’re usually subconscious, the cycles are continuous — until someone breaks them. You can break the cycle. Beliefs about money are many and varied, but in my research, I’ve discovered that there are a few that predominate.
Money is scarce. Several of us have parents or grandparents who lived through the Great Depression, an era that rooted an entire generation in a scarcity mindset. These people passed onto their children the idea that money was in short supply and that when it did surface, spending had to be limited and saving was imperative. If any of the following ever crossed your mind—“A penny saved is a penny earned,” “Don’t dip into savings,” or “We can’t afford it” — then you have this perspective and rainy days loom ominously. Money doesn’t grow on trees. These threats create a fearful relationship with money.
Money is evil, dirty, or bad. Several of us have parents or grandparents who believe that the road to bad places is lined with green. They’ve only ever seen the drawbacks of the rat race, the downside of the money chase, and the audacity and indulgence of those with too much money. Some even believe that wealthy people are bad people. Novels and films often highlight the idea that it’s the crooked ones who make the money. The meek shall inherit the earth. Such prophecies create a hands-off relationship with money.
Money comes monthly. The most common way to make a living is to be employed, either with a company or as a skilled professional, with a weekly wage or an annual salary. Historically, this provided the safe, sure thing required by heads of households. Yet, that level of risk was usually balanced with an equal level of reward — low and low. For most, even those who do very well, working for a company or as a skilled professional is a constrained opportunity. Except for the outrageous exceptions, the average CEO of the average company making six figures a year will still experience only a small increase in salary during his or her lifetime. Slow and steady wins the race. Such fables create a cautious relationship to money.
Money is not for me. Some people feel that they don’t deserve to be wealthy or that there is only so much of the millionaire pie to go around. Creating wealth and financial freedom is available to everyone. It is our right to be wealthy, and my hope is that people take their space and know they deserve it. By making money, you are not taking it from someone else; this isn’t Bonnie and Clyde Go to the Bank. By making money, you create a greater capacity to contribute, and it’s your duty to do this. Better them than me. Such adages create a defeated relationship to money.
Money is a man thing. There was a time that men made and managed the household money. That time was not so long ago, and some of you may have grown up with such conditioning. Though there are gender tendencies, for example, men tend to carry more money in their pocket than women and are more likely to invest than women, the reasons behind this are not genetic; they are realities falsely fabricated from years of conditioning. Women and men need to understand that money knows no gender. One of my programs that really resonates with up and coming wealth builders is “Wealth Diva: A Man Is Not a Plan.” This is a must-do seminar for every man and woman, and the daughters and sons they love. Let him bring home the bacon. Such perceptions create an apathetic relationship to money.
Money is good medicine. For some people, retail therapy goes a long way; there’s no difficulty a new blouse can’t cure. At the moment, we live in a culture of consumerism, and many of us use money to fill the unsatisfying holes in our lives. Some people grew up with a sense of entitlement about money, assuming their parents or a trust fund would always pay for everything, and in the process, they became careless about what they had. This is a vicious and unproductive cycle. The new car gets old, the closet fills up with clothes, and the toys pile up in the playroom. This is notto say there aren’t wonderful things to buy and spend our money on; after all, money should be fun. But as with overeating, too much spending on the wrong things can get any of us feeling sluggish and sad. Shop till you drop. Such bombarding messages create a disrespectful or nonchalant relationship to money.
Money is always a menace. For too many of us, money was always a problem. Bills were a hassle, keeping up with the Joneses was exhausting, entrepreneurs were considered nuts, and one’s station in life was, well, stationary. And getting rich would be worse. Money can be such a burden, not to mention all that paperwork and responsibility. These views of money create a perspective that money is actually a problem, not a solution. It’s hard enough just to survive, let alone thrive. Such pessimism creates a negative relationship to money.
Money talk is taboo. Many of us have been brought up to believe that conversations about money are in bad taste. Money and financial success, and failures, are considered personal subjects that shouldn’t be discussed and certainly shouldn’t be taught. Few of us asked our parents how much money they made, and even now, there are people who don’t know their spouse’s salaries. The results have unintended consequences and have created a world where very few people are having real conversations about money and finances, the very conversations they need to learn and succeed. These things are not discussed in polite society, dear. Such a scolding creates an ignorant relationship to money.
In each of these examples, it’s clear that unless your parents made a conscious choice to think and act differently, they conditioned you to have the same mindset as them. If you make a decision to break this cycle, you will have the opportunity to teach your children to have more productive beliefs about, and a more profitable relationship to,money. As you come to understand the beliefs you hold, you will work to change them. Through the action steps in this process, and with the help of mentors and respected friends, you will change your behavior. By sharing your desire for new beliefs and asking your mentors and respected friends to help you spot the subconscious limitations you may be putting on yourself, you will teach your brain to follow your behavior. Begin now by restating your beliefs. For example, if you’ve discovered that you hold any of the above examples as beliefs, you will
1. Change “money is scarce” to “money is abundant” and support a courageous relationship to money.
2. Change “money is evil, dirty, or bad” to “money is good and acceptable” and create a hands-on relationship to money.
3. Change “money comes monthly” to “money comes from a range of sources” and create an opportunistic relationship to money.
4. Change “money is not for me” to “who better than me for money to come to” and create an empowered relationship to money.
5. Change “money is a man thing” to “I can and will know about and understand money,” and create a thoughtful relationship to money.
6. Change “money is good medicine” to “money is a tool to help make my life better” and create a respectful and concerned relationship to money.
7. Change “money is a menace” to “money is a solution” and create a positive relationship to money.
8. Change “money talk is taboo” to “money talk is vital” and create a knowledgeable relationship to money.
You can see how much better it is to be courageous, hands-on, opportunistic, empowered, thoughtful, respectful and concerned, positive, and knowledgeable than to be fearful, hands-off, cautious, defeated, apathetic, disrespectful and nonchalant, negative, and ignorant. The choice is yours and it looks like you’re well on your way. You’ve already taken a huge step by deciding to actually take the first step. By making the decision to start right now, you have created the opportunity to raise your financial consciousness and change your life.
Copyright © 2006 Loral Langmeier from the book The Millionaire Maker McGraw-Hill; December 2005;$24.95US/$00.00CAN; 0071466150
Loral Langemeier is a master coach, financial strategist, and team-made multimillionaire who reaches thousands of individuals each year. She is the founder of Live Out Loud, a coaching and seminar company that teaches her trademarked program Wealth Cycles.
Article Source: http://www.articledashboard.com

For more information, please visit www.liveoutloud.com.

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5 Tips For Saving Money In 2006

Not as many people make New Year’s resolutions as they used to. According to Stephen Sapiro of goalfree.com, only 45% of people will make a resolution this year. That’s down from a high of 88% in past years. However, of those who do make New Year’s resolutions, 34% will be financial ones. And one of the best financial resolutions you can make is to save more money.
Here are five suggestions to save money in 2006…
First of all, start saving money now. The U.S. Department of Commerce reported a negative national personal savings rate in October — its lowest level in decades. If money is really tight, you can start off with saving as little as 1% of your gross income. But you want to get it up to 10% as soon as you can.
Have money automatically deducted from you paycheck for savings. Take a look at your paycheck now. There is already money automatically deducted for Social Security and federal and maybe state income taxes. So the government is making sure it gets its share. Money set aside for your own financial well being should be treated the same way. For example, if your employer offers a 401(k) retirement plan sign up for it. You won’t spend money that you don’t see.
20% of your savings should be allocated to an emergency fund. And that money can only be used for true emergencies. Traditional financial planning says that you should have three to six months living expenses set aside for emergencies — those “unexpected” things that happen like a loss of a job, or unplanned medical expenses, or major repairs.

20% of savings should be allocated for “emotional spending.” Emotional spending is defined as spending for things we want, but don’t necessarily need — vacations, a new TV, down payment on a second home, and all the “stuff” we like to accumulate. An emotional spending account is important because that’s what makes saving money fun.
60% of saving should be for long-term investments. This is the money that should go into investment accounts like 40(k) plans and/or Roth IRAs. If you want to be financially free you must become an investor.

If you increase your savings for 2006, you will automatically improve your financial life. And that right there will put you ahead of most people. According to In2M Corporation’s financial fitness survey, 73% of Americans say they are in the same or worse financial condition compared with last year. That doesn’t have to be you.
(C) Larry Holmes

Larry Holmes invites you to visit http://www.Money-Management-Wisdom.com/.
You will learn how to become debt-free, save and invest money, cut taxes, manage risk, and achieve financial freedom in a much shorter time than you dreamed possible.

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Tips For Easily Saving Substantial Amounts of Money In Many Ways

Some people think of low-quality products and piles of coupons when they are asked to consider saving money. For some, a major obstacle to saving money is that they have never seriously tried it, and assume that their life can only be enjoyable if they spend heavily on groceries, electronics, gifts, and other items.
Groceries are a major expense which can be substantially reduced without using coupons. Most products produced by generic, store, or less-expensive brands are just as good as others. Many people agree that a few generic items such as root beer and Cheerios-like cereals usually aren’t as good-tasting, but these are exceptions. If you don’t believe this, try buying most of your groceries from these brands just once before making assumptions. Although it is generally less expensive over time to buy larger containers of an item, some grocery stores actually charge more per ounce/unit/etc. for larger containers, so you should be careful of this. Another way to save money on some of your groceries, along with some electronics and other items, is to visit discount stores such as Family Dollar and Dollar Tree. Contrary to some peoples’ belief, the items in these stores aren’t all expired and are often produced by well-known brands. Recently a morning news program found that the same groceries purchased at discount stores cost about half as much as they did at a regular grocery store. Even amongst different regular grocery stores, it is common to see a $0.30 price difference on a number of items, so it is a good idea to try shopping at different stores and comparing them. It is also worth trying less expensive types of food. While others may have told you (perhaps based on experiences from long ago) that microwaveable dinners or certain types of canned foods aren’t good, you may find them enjoyable.
There are a number of ways to save money on non-grocery items as well, including buying products made by less-known brand names and using internet auction websites. Many electronics, books, and cameras are much less expensive at auction websites despite the shipping costs. Although some smaller brand names are of low quality, we have found some to be as good or better than major brands. Electro Brand products are usually of very good quality, for example, and we found that a GPX alarm clock functioned reliably much longer than a more expensive Emerson. Some types of electronics can be also be bought at low prices from discount stores such as Big Lots, and even Rite Aid. An equivalent calculator is likely to cost $7 at a grocery store or $2-3 at a discount store, and large padded envelopes usually cost $0.30-$0.45 more at department and office supply stores. The saying “you get what you pay for” is still true in some ways, but much less than it was in the past.
Efforts to save money needn’t end with shopping. Various small changes in behavior can add up to significant savings throughout the year, such as turning off electronics when leaving the room for more than a few minutes (lights, television, radio, etc.), subscribing to magazines or newspapers instead of buying them individually, and walking to nearby destinations. However, be careful not to lose money by trying to save it – if you try to dry your clothing in cold weather without using an electric dryer and it mildews, it will just cost you more money washing it again, and if you don’t spend money to properly maintain your car or home, more expensive problems could occur.
Saving money isn’t effective if you only take token measures to accomplish it, rather than taking it seriously. Even if you have enough income to afford more expensive products and stores, wouldn’t it be better to have some extra money to buy items you can’t normally afford, donate to charity, or save for later?

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Read This If You Can?t Possibly Save Enough for Retirement

It’s relatively easy to save for retirement when you’re still young. Five thousand
dollars set aside for a new baby grows to an amount that generates over a $100,000
a year in current-day dollars if the money earns 12 percent annually and inflation
runs at 3 percent.
NOTE The data is a little sketchy, but small-company stocks probably deliver
average returns of around 12 to 13 percent over long periods of time. Small-
company stocks are, however, very risky over shorter periods of time.
The flip side of this is that it becomes difficult to save for retirement if you start
thinking (and saving) late in your working years. If you’re 60, haven’t started saving,
and want $25,000 a year in income from your retirement savings at age 65, you
probably need to contribute annually more than you make.
Say you’re in your 50s—or even a bit older. With the kids’ college expenses, or
perhaps a divorce, you don’t have any money saved for retirement. What should you
do? What can you do? This situation, though unfortunate, doesn’t need to be
untenable. There are some things you can do.
Just say no
One tactic is not to retire. After all, you save for retirement so the earnings from
those savings can replace your salary and wages. If you don’t stop working, you
don’t need retirement savings to produce investment income.
Note, too, that “not retiring” doesn’t mean you need to keep the same job. If you’ve
been selling computers your whole life and you’re sick of it, do something else. Get
a job teaching at the community college. (Maybe you’ll get summers off.) Join the
Peace Corps and go to South America. Get a job in a daycare center and help shape
the future.
Give yourself breathing room
A second tactic is to postpone retirement a few extra years, which, of course, also
reduces the number of years you’re retired. Rather than working to age 62 or 65,
for example, working until age 67 or 69—a few more years of contributions and
compound interest income—will make a surprising difference, and you’ll boost
substantially the money you receive from defined-benefit retirement plans. If you’re
paying a mortgage, maybe you can pay that off in those few extra years, too.
Redefine your sense of affluence
A third and more unconventional tactic is to decide that less is more and tune into
the art and philosophy of frugality. A good book on this subject is Your Money or
Your Life by Joe Dominquez and Vicki Robin (Viking Penguin, 1992). And if you
decide to live on less while you’re still working, you’ll end up saving a lot more over
the remaining years you work.

Bellevue WA certified public accountant
Stephen L. Nelson CPA has written more than 150 books. His bestselling book is
Quicken for Dummies, which sold more than 1,000,000 copies. His books have sold
more than 4,000,000 copies in English and have been translated into more than a
dozen other languages.

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Free Money for Your Retirement?

It can be more than a little discouraging to start making retirement planning
calculations. You’ll usually find that to achieve the annual retirement income you
want, you need to be saving a lot more than is practical.
Suppose, for example, that you use a program like Quicken or Microsoft Money to
determine that your retirement savings should equal to $5,200 a year—which is the
same as $450 a month. (This savings amount will produce roughly $15,000 a year
of retirement income if you save for 20 years, increase your savings with inflation,
and earn 9 percent.)
Okay. That’s great information to have. But practically speaking, where do you find
this money? Well. first you want to get the free money that’s available.
The first source of free retirement money
While $450 a month seems like a lot of money, you may be able to come up with
this figure more readily than you might think. Say, for example, that you work for an
employer who’s generous enough to match your 401(k) contributions by 50 percent.
In other words, for every dollar you contribute, your employer contributes $.50.
In this case, you need to come up with $300 a month to have $450 a month added
to your retirement savings. To make this calculation, you divide the monthly savings
amount, $450, by 1 + the employer’s matching percentage, 50%. The formula
$450/(1+50%) equals $300.
The second source of free retirement money
Also suppose that you pay federal and state income taxes of 33 percent and that
you can deduct your 401(k) contributions from your income. In this case, the actual
monthly out-of-pocket amount you need to come up with equals $200, not $450.
To make this calculation, you multiply your share of the needed monthly savings,
$300 in this example, by 1minus the 33% marginal tax rate, which equals 67%
In this case, the actual amount you need to come up with on a monthly basis equals
$200 because $300 times 67% equals (roughly) $200.
Sometimes, most of your retirement savings money can come from others
Admittedly, $200 a month is still a lot of money. But it’s also a lot less than the
$450-per-month savings you need to add to your retirement savings. In fact, most
of the money in this example you need to save comes from other sources!
The preceding calculations argue for two tactics when saving for retirement. First, if
an employer offers to match your contributions to something like a 401(k) plan, it
will almost always make sense to accept the offer—unless your employer is trying to
force you to make an investment that is not appropriate for you.
TIP If you do want to contribute $300 a month to a 401(k) plan and need to reduce
your income taxes withheld by $100 a month to do so, talk to your employer’s
payroll department for instructions. You may need to file a new W-4 statement and
increase the number of personal exemptions claimed.
Second, any time you get a tax deduction for contributing money to your retirement
savings, it’s almost certainly too good a deal to pass up. As described in the
preceding example, you can use the income tax savings because of the deduction to
boost your savings so they provide for the desired level of retirement income.

Bellevue WA certified public accountant &
writer Stephen L. Nelson CPA has written more than 150 books. His bestselling
book is Qu Determining How Much Life Insurance You Needicken for Dummies, which
sold more than 1,000,000 copies. His books have sold more than 4,000,000 copies in
English and have been translated into more than a dozen other languages.

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Merry Christmas Mr. Scrooge!

Here‘s the season to be jolly …. But make sure you still pay your taxes! Read Mr Scrooge as the Inland Revenue, Hacienda or any other tax authority you care to name!
It’s not all bad news though when it comes to keeping as much of your hard-earned money away from Scrooge’s coffers. Despite the various and continuing attempts to close doors that allow for him to be beaten, there remain options open to beat him!
For example, a lot of folk here are retired and rely heavily on pension and investment income. They probably get taxed on both subject to levels of income and, for their investments, where and how their capital is placed. Despite the EU Directive implemented in the summer of 2005 to apply a ‘withholding’ on certain incomes and also to allow reporting to revenue authorities, there remain windows that can be exploited legitimately to avoid both. That can make a big difference to ordinary folk; a saving of 30% of your income is not to be ignored.
And then there is question as to whether borrowing to buy here, or even to release equity, is viable. When you consider the potential economic benefits of doing so, especially via ‘Interest Only’ mortgages, it is surprising to me that anyone would want to repay a mortgage using capital and interest, if ever! The effects of cheap financing, positive investment returns long term, mitigating Inheritance Tax and so on, make the decision pretty clear cut in my eyes. But then I am bound to say that I hear you say! But numbers seldom lie if you take the time to scrutinise them fully …and the tax man has a habit of doing that! So why not take a leaf out of his book and see if you can beat him at his own game?
Merry Christmas to all of our readers …and especially to Mr Scrooge!

Mark Mountney is a partner in Rose Financial Services, a specialist mortgage brokerage based in the Parque Comercial, Mojacar. He is a fully qualified mortgage and financial adviser in the UK with some 10 years experience in managing his own firm. Mark was also a founder of The Association of Mortgage Advisors, the trade association for mortgage intermediaries with 13,000 members.

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How To Develop A Home Budget

This is probably the most requested topic that I receive, normally after someone gets a large unexpected expense, or they start thinking about retirement and realize that they have saved a woefully inadequate amount of money.
I recommend using a monthly time-frame to look at your cash inflows and outflows, because most bills are monthly and four weeks is a short planning period that most people can manage. The first thing to do is determine your monthly after-tax income. Usually, this is the amount of money from your paycheck that gets deposited into your checking account. If your income is variable, then use an average of the last three months. (Any savings account interest income would be a bonus.) Next, list out your fixed monthly expenses, such as rent, mortgage, car payment, phone, electric bill, etc. All of these numbers can be changed in the long-term, but first you need to determine a baseline budget of where you are right now.
Make sure you include all of your utilities; some are only paid quarterly or annually, like car insurance, the water bill, or an association fee. Take these expenses and calculate what they would be on a monthly basis. For example, if your water bill comes quarterly, divide it by 3. If you have semi-annual car insurance, then divide it by 6.
So now you have your fixed monthly income and your fixed monthly expenses. Deduct one from the other, and you have the variable amount of money that you are free to spend any way you want for the remainder of the month. From this remaining amount of money, start listing out your main categories of variable spending: groceries, entertainment, medical expenses, clothing, dry cleaning, personal care (haircut, nails, etc.), and gifts. Take each of these variable expenses and put an amount next to them that you think represents your average monthly spending for that category.
Make as many subcategories as you need to make an accurate estimate. The more precise it is for your spending habits, the more effective it will be for you. For example, food can be broken down by grocery store/fast food/dining out/work lunch/etc. Then go through the last few months of your checkbook and credit card statement looking for any spending that hasn’t been covered so far that you need to include for your situation. More reference material for this article is available at http://investing.real-solution-center.com.
Now you should have a total number for your monthly income, total monthly fixed expenses, and total monthly variable expenses. The moment of truth is when you deduct the two expenses from your income to see if there is anything left over. Don’t panic if it is a negative number – it is far better to discover this out now, rather than building up credit card debt later. Most people comment somewhere along this process, “Oh, so that is where my money is going. I had no idea I spent so much on that!”
Seeing all the numbers in black & white can help you prioritize (and negotiate with all the other spenders in the family). From this beginning budget, you can start to set monthly targets for spending categories, you can focus on reducing the largest expenses, and find areas where you should start doing some price-comparison shopping. And did I mention that saving a 5-15% of your income should be an additional fixed expense? Yes, you need to pay yourself first!
Having a budget is the critical first tool in managing your money. Wielding this tool allows you to finally start making financial decisions based on the facts instead of fiction. You can plan for expenses instead of being caught by surprise. And most importantly, figure out how to move forward with goals like a big vacation, a new car, or investing.

Francis Kier has an MBA in finance and shares his two decades of experience with investing and personal finance. More of his investing articles are available at http://investing.real-solution-center.com.

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