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Entries in Finances (21)

Monday

Jul042016

Heroes at Home - Fighting for Financial Freedom

Today, we have a special guest blogger, Ellie Kay, who is the founder of Heroes at Home, a 501(c)(3) dedicated to helping military families and all Americans find financial freedom.

"How would you like to live debt free?" Ellie asks. "Even as we celebrate Independence Day and the men and women who keep our nation stay free, we also can become financially free."

I (Dawn) believe there are many kinds of freedom we can experience as members of the family of God. Financial freedom is one kind of freedom that can affect your family, career and even how you give to ministy! God wants you to be a wise, intentional and cheerful giver (Proverbs 21:20a; 2 Corinthians 9:7), and one way to do that is to operate out of financial freedom!

Ellie continues . . .

In my work helping service members with financial readiness, there are tips that apply to everyone.

1. Credit Credibility

No matter what your financial picture is, it’s critical for every person to improve her own FICO (Fair Isaac Credit Scores). These scores determine not only the APR you pay on a home or car loan, but they also impact auto insurance premiums, whether you’ll get the promotion or the job (many employers check FICOS), whether you pay a security deposit for utilities, and much more.

You can go to Credit.com to check your score and they’ll even give you specific ways to improve each area of your credit score.

You can improve your FICO in three easy steps:

Pay early – Set up automatic payments online so you will never be late.
Pay More - Add $5 to $10 more than the minimum balance that is due; this indicates you are paying down debt.
Pay Proportionally – Also known as credit utilization—make sure you don’t have more than 30% of the available credit charged on any one card at any time. For example, a card with a $5000 limit should never have more than $1500 charged.

2. Savings Savvy

It only takes 15 minutes to save hundreds of dollars! Once you save money in one area, use those funds to pay down consumer debt or to build up a savings account.

Auto Insurance – Once a year, compare policies by getting a variety of quotes. Take the cheaper price back to your existing provider and tell them you will switch companies unless they can match the price. (Be sure to check out quotes from USAA.com if you are military and qualify to be a member.)
RetailMeNot – If you have a smart phone, download the RetailMeNot app or bookmark it on your computer. This is a code site that offers 400,000 coupon codes at any given time. Just enter the store’s name and you’ll see all the codes to get the better prices. Use this on entertainment, travel, electronics and any kind of online shopping or in the mall.
CouponMom.com – I was one of the original extreme couponers and it’s served me well all these years. If you go to this site, she’s done all the work for you and will tell you what is on sale in your neighborhood, what codes are available, what coupons are out for the item and which stores double coupons. I calculated that over the course of twenty years, I saved our family over 160K!

3. Debt Deal Dilemma

With a slow economy comes an influx of those who want to "help" prepare you for the worse by consolidating your debt. However, most “for profit” debt-counseling companies charge a hefty fee for their services, which is usually tacked onto your debt load.

Instead, go to the National Consumer Credit Counseling Service at www.nfcc.org and use their free services.

4. Budget Baby

If you don't have a budget—as part of your lifestyle—then yesterday was the day to start! Set one up with online budgeting tools, found at mint.

The problem for a lot of families is not having a budget, it’s sticking to a budget.

Set up a “budget date” once a month with your spouse to revisit how the plan is working.

This kind of regular accountability works as well in finances as it does in Weight Watchers. When you know there will be someone asking you why you bought that purple mohair sweater for $198, you’re less likely to give into the impulse to go off budget.

Can you celebrate your "Financial Freedom" today? If not, which of Ellie's tips might help you claim your independence?

A special JULY 4^th note:

During this time of the year, be sure to thank those heroes at Heroes at Home ... thank them for their service. [For more information on where Ellie Kay’s Heroes at Home is visiting next, explore their website at HeroesAtHome.org.]

Ellie Kay is the best-selling author of fifteen books including Lean Body, Fat Wallet, and Heroes at Home. She is a Toastmaster Accredited Speaker as well as a popular international speaker and media veteran who has given over1,200 media interviews including appearances on ABC, CNBC, CNN and Fox News. As a popular columnist, she writes for six national magazines and has been a Subject Matter Expert for the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Washington Post. Currently, Ellie provides financial education to military members through her “Heroes at Home Financial Event” sponsored for USAA. Ellie is married to LTC Bob Kay and they have seven children.

Graphic adapted, courtesy of Morguefile.

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Monday, July 4, 2016 at 9:00AM

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Thursday

May122016

Upgrade Your Finances: The Family Road Trip

Dawn Wilson

Ellie Kay is known as “America’s Family Financial Expert” ® and in this Financial UPGRADE gives us some timely information on taking the family on a road trip this year.

"I remember my dad stuffing all of us kids in the back of a VW bug and traveling from Texas to Indiana, making about 600 miles per day," Ellie says. "It was a daring adventure!"

I (Dawn) traveled a lot too, in a military family; and I can attest that Ellie's financial tips are all helpful and wise!

Ellie continues . . .

That traveling tradition continued with my own military family as we took time in the summer to carve our own road trip.

Here are some ideas that will make your family trip a lot more fun and affordable.

1. Begin With Prayer

My husband, Bob, and I liked to begin our family vacation planning process with prayer.

James 1:5 says that if any of us lack wisdom, we can ask God. Well, we asked Him early and often and He answered! We feel that He gave us additional insight as to what would be best for our family and our budget.

Then, before each day’s drive, Bob had the whole Suburban full of kids bow their heads and he prayed for safety, for unity and for a spirit of fun.

2. Healthy Eats and Treats

One of the greatest expenses while traveling is for food on the road. Not only does it get pricey, but these purchases can also take a toll on health by eating fast food on the road.

When we traveled, we packed a lunch for the first day on the road and stopped at roadside parks. It’s easy to plan these stops by locating parks through the Roadtrippers app.

To save money on snacks, pack some healthy options in individual bags for each family member – such as carrots, grapes, cherries, pretzels or trail mix. Bring along extra snack-size baggies so you can split other treats you buy on the road – such as fresh popcorn, fruit or beef jerky from a roadside store.

3. Busy Hands and Happy Hearts

One of our main challenges as a family was keeping the kids occupied, and this is the number one concern I hear from parents.

Older children can use a tablet or game to stay busy, and everyone enjoys movies on the way. But even these options can lead to inevitable boredom as kids start to get restless. I think this is where creativity comes into play.

When we had a long trip (or a military move), I shopped ahead of time for small games, books, activity puzzles, little toys and other trinkets I knew they would like. Then I’d wrap these “surprises” in gift paper and put each child’s name on it. At the top of every hour, we would give them their individual present. You can also go to Travelforkids to find other alternatives.

4. A Place to Stay

There are creative ways to save money on a place to stay on the family road trip. You can go to vrbo.com to find vacation rentals by owners.

Suite hotels that offer extra rooms are also an option such as the ones found at hotels.com, orbitz.com or cheaphotels.com.

Another option is to try a family camp. Google “YMCA family camps” to find one that meets your needs. You can enjoy a cabin, horseback riding, canoeing, and other great family activities for 40% off the cost of a conventional resort area.

5. Food and Entertainment

Be sure you make use of Yelp to find the best restaurant at the best prices and bonuses such as free appetizers or desserts.

I also recommend entertainment.com where you enter the zip code of where you will be traveling in order to preview their entertainment books for that destination. Be sure you download the app RetailMeNot to find codes on everything you’ll need on your vacation, whether you are shopping for souvenirs in a store or eating at a restaurant.

At restaurant.com you enter the zip code to get gift certificates for half price and while you’re there, see if they have any sales. I recently bought $25 gift certificates at that site for only $4 when I applied a coupon code.

6. Save on Gas

AAA’s Fuel Cost Calculator helps plot the most efficient route. Just enter the year, make and model of your car and it will compute what you’ll spend on gas.

Get the GasBuddy app and find the cheapest price for gas along the way.

We also use the Waze app to find real time road conditions, the most efficient route, and the best gas prices along the way. On more than one occasion, it has saved us 30-45 minutes by avoiding a crash or slow down.

7. Prayer of Thanks

Begin and end your family road trip with prayer, thanking God for his protection, wisdom and safety.

Some of the best family memories you may ever have can be found on the road if you purpose in your hearts to make them with the ones you love.

What kind of a family road trip will you have this year?

Graphic of picnic table, courtesy of Morguefile.

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Thursday, May 12, 2016 at 8:30AM

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Tuesday

Jan052016

A Fresh Start for Your Finances

Dawn Wilson

Do your finances need a fresh start in the New Year? Ellie Kay, known as “America’s Family Financial Expert”®, is sharing a timely Financial UPGRADE today.

“After the holidays, most Americans face some pretty hefty credit card bills in January,” Ellie says. “In fact, it will take until May of this year to pay off the new credit card debt from the holidays and this doesn’t even include what debt may have already been on the card.”

Been there, done that, and I (Dawn) have “financial scars” to prove it! I had to learn some wisdom from the Bible and practice good stewardship. (*See end of this post.)

Ellie continues . . .

It may seem like a game to juggle debt, but it’s one that you can win if you are determined to get a fresh start. Through the power of prayer and a desire to follow God’s wisdom in your finances, you can get the fresh start you desire.

As a child, I loved Monopoly®. I pretended all the play money was real—and mine! Sometimes we view real money as if it were play money.

When faced with the hard facts about their finances, many families go through five different stages—similar to the stages of grief: shock, denial, depression, anger and acceptance. Your fresh start is just on the other side of this journey.

1. Shock

Shock depends on what you believed in the beginning. For example, if a family already knew their total consumer debt load (credit cards, car payments, furniture loans, etc.) was around 40K, they would only be mildly shocked at how 40K in debt looks on paper. But another couple may think they are only a couple of years away from being debt free and they discover they are twenty years away. That kind of a severe shock can take time to absorb.

Use shock as a starting point to make better decisions. There are excellent budgeting and debt repayment tools at my website. I absolutely love the free Mint app.

2. Denial

Denial is not a river in Egypt. It is the most common stage in financial recovery. Continual denial makes people more likely to succumb to scams such as email phishing schemes or “Payroll Loans.” Once you face denial, you can overcome it.

Several red flags of financial denial include:

Paying late fees
Missing Payments
Balancing or staggering bills, or
A perpetual lack of cash.

Oftentimes, this stage will find you stuck—you are unable to reduce your debt, or if you do, you are soon back into debt again. There’s hope when you begin to follow God’s principles of good stewardship.

3. Depression

A series of money problems that press in can bring on financial depression characterized by:

Lack of concentration,
Insomnia,
Guilt, or
Hopelessness.

Consumer Credit Counseling Services is a non-profit organization specializing in debt reduction and financial education. A counselor can get credit card interest rates lowered, payments deferred, and help develop a plan to emerge from the debt depression cycle.

4. Anger

The anger stage is sometimes scary. Anger can be manifested through a wide range of emotions at a high intensity level. It can be as mild as being a grump or as severe as significant arguments.

At this point, some people even get mad at God and blame Him.

When the number one issue cited in divorce today is “finances,” it’s easy to see how couples in this stage end up in the “debtor’s prison” of divorce court.

Refuse to put your anger on someone else. Talk with someone—professionals, your pastor or church counselor. It helps diffuse feelings.

5. Acceptance

You’ll know you’ve reached this final stage, acceptance, when at least some of these elements are evident:

Change – You discover what you need to change and you’re willing to make changes.
Responsibility – You’ve stopped blaming someone or something else and have accepted responsibility for what you and your spouse did to contribute to your current financial status.
Accountability – Besides mutual accountability, couples agree to make themselves accountable to another couple or financial counselor.
Hotspots –You’ve identified hotspots where you’ve fallen short financially, and you purpose to avoid them through prayer and God’s help.
Patience – You have hope. You are more tolerant of your own mistakes and have decided to learn from them.

Invite God into the equation. Through the power found in a relationship with Jesus, we can be more than conquers, even when it comes to our finances. Take it a day at a time and, in the future, you will be on the other side of this problem.

Then it will be your time to help someone else.

What will you do to get your financial fresh start in the New Year?

Ellie Kay has been a regular expert on national television with ABC NEWS NOW’s Money Matters and Good Money shows. Ellie is also a national radio commentator, a frequent media guest on Fox News, and CNBC, a popular international speaker, and the best-selling author of fifteen books including Lean Body, Fat Wallet (Thomas Nelson, 2014).

* A few scriptures to apply wisdom from the Bible regarding finances (Proverbs 15:22; 21:5; 22:7; 27:12); and stewardship (Psalm 24:1a; Matthew 6:21; Luke 12:42-44; Romans 14:12).

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Tuesday, January 5, 2016 at 8:19AM

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Saturday

Jul042015

8 Ways to Celebrate Savings

Dawn Wilson

Ellie Kay, "America's Family Financial Expert" ®, offers some easy, practical money savers in this Financial UPGRADE to help us become better stewards of our financial resources. With financial wisdom, we can share with people in need and support the Kingdom in tangible ways.

"Saving money can be a lot easier than you think," Ellie says, "if you know when and where to use the right websites and apps."

I (Dawn) have appreciated Ellie's budgeting and saving tips in the past, and this post has a few ideas I hadn't thought of before!

Ellie continues . . .

I just returned from Barksdale AFB, where we had the latest Heroes at Home Financial Education event. I absolutely love traveling around the country giving these events to our Heroes and Heroes at Home!

There are several apps we always love to recommend (RetailMeNot, TravelZoo, etc.) because they are so easy to use and save money. But one of the things I love is that we are always learning more and more websites and apps through these military families we encounter.

According to James 1:5, if we lack wisdom, we can ask of God who will give it to us.

So let’s CELEBRATE the savings with a few of our favorite ideas, that can help you become wise in the use of your money.

1. Organize your Inbox: Sign up for emails from your favorite stores and brands because they frequently send out sales, deals, and coupons to get you back into the store! But if you don’t want to get 20-30 emails in your inbox every morning, sign up for Unroll.Me. You are able to unsubscribe from lists through this email that you no longer wish to see.

2. Budgeting: Mint is a great site and app for budgeting that I recommend quite frequently. You are also able to pay your bills and see your credit score. Also check out GoodBudget (formerly EEBA) if you are an envelope system family, and for sharing budgets with members of the same household.

3. Gas: Waze is my favorite GPS app out there. It calculates the best route using both major highways and side streets. But one of my favorite features in this app is that it tells you the gas prices for all gas stations in your area. It will also calculate how far off your route each gas station will be. TripTik (by AAA) calculates mileage based on most economic route. GasBuddy is another great tool for calculating a trip cost, gas price charts, and more.

4. Coupons: RetailMeNot is my recommended coupon app for retail stores. But also check out Coupon Sherpa for in store coupons to make sure you are always getting the best deal. If you are a fan of paper coupons, use SnipSnap to take pictures of the coupon and use your phone when it comes time to redeem.

5. Entertainment Tickets: Goldstar is a great site for finding half-priced tickets for shows and concerts in cities around the world. For Veterans and families, take advantage of Veterans Tickets Foundation, which is a great organization that provides free tickets to family members of troops Killed In Action (K.I.A.), our Military and Veterans to sporting events, concerts, performing arts and family activities.

6. Parking: Never overpay for parking in any city when you use BestParking. You are able to search city and airport parking to find and compare the best rates. This is a great tool for both planning trips, and getting a good price on the go.

7. Airfare: Looking for that special price for that trip coming up? Keep an eye out for the best time to fly at the best price with Hopper or BookingBuddy.com.

8. Other Apps – Travelzoo.com

What are some of your favorite ways to be a better steward of God’s resources? Let me know so I can keep spreading the word!

Ellie Kay is a regular expert on national television with ABC NEWS NOW’s Money Matters and Good Moneyshows. Ellie is also a national radio commentator, a frequent media guest on Fox News, and CNBC, a popular international speaker, and the best-selling author of fourteen books including her newest release, The Little Book of Big Savings (Waterbrook, 2009).

Graphic adapted, Image courtesy of Feelart at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

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Tuesday

Jan062015

Get Back on Track after Holiday Spending

Dawn Wilson

In this special, much-needed Financial UPGRADE, Ellie Kay—"America’s Family Financial Expert" ®—will help us become better stewards of our resources, helping us get back on track in the New Year.

"The worst decision you can make in regards to your finances," Ellie says, "is to have no plan for financial recovery."

Financial stewardship and use of resources is taught throughout the Bible, encouraging wisdom (Proverbs 21:20), proportionate, unselfish, cheerful giving (Deuteronomy 16:17; Luke 6:38; 2 Corinthians 9:7) and right priorities—putting God and His work first (Malachi 3:10).

Whether we've been careful in our spending or we've "blown it" financially over the holidays, I (Dawn) think Ellie has some wise principles to help us move forward into greater financial freedom.

She continues . . .

Sometimes, a decision that starts as a New Year’s Resolution can end in a dream come true when you let those resolutions become a new way of life.

Our family did this to get out of debt and pay cash for our cars. We wanted to be better stewards of the resources that God gave us and we decided to give our finances an upgrade by doing things wisely.

Here are some common resolutions that can get you back on track in the New Year, even as they did for our own family.

Resolution #1: Pay off Consumer Debt

An excessive amount of consumer debt usually means a lower credit score (FICO), which means higher annual percentage rates (APRs) on existing credit cards. By improving your FICO, you can lower the APRs, thus paying off that debt in a fraction of the time.

It’s not hard to improve your FICO by following three easy steps:

Step 1 - Pay on Time

Not only does a late payment mean high late fees, but part of your score is determined by payment history. Set up automatic payments online with each card to make sure you’re never late again.

Step 2 - Pay in Proportionally

Utilization, which is the ratio of debt to available credit is important. For example, if your card has a limit of $5,000 and you have $2,500 charged, your ratio is 50%. Adjust the balances on your cards to make sure each has no more than a 50% ratio.

Step 3 - Pay it Down!

Pay as little as $5 to $10 more than your minimum credit card payment. It shows up on paper as the consumer trying to “pay down” the debt.

You can also get out of holiday debt sooner if you reduce spending and repurpose those funds.

As soon as you save in one area, immediately channel the money you saved toward your debt load. If you don’t take that saved money and put it toward a credit card or other debt, then it will just get reabsorbed into your spending.

Resolution #2: Pay Cash for Your Cars

The least expensive car you can own is the paid-for car that you currently drive.

By going to my tool section at EllieKay.com and clicking onto the “Automobile Affordibility Calculator” you can see how much to save each month in order to afford to pay cash for a newer car. It is a lot easier than you think.

Once you’ve paid off your current car, don’t trade it in, but keep making payments to yourself in the amount of the former loan. So let’s say you put $350 per month into a car fund and invest it in a fund that makes 5% annually. You would have around $4400 at the end of the year, plus the value of your existing car (let’s estimate $5,000) to put almost $10,000 down on a newer car than you now own.

If you keep saving and keep trading up, then you’ll be able to pay cash for your cars for the rest of your life!

In the first fifteen years of our marriage, on one (military man’s) income, we bought 11 cars this way, paying cash and even donated some of those used cars to charity! When you do things God’s way, He often provides ways for you to be a blessing to others.

What will you do to get on track after Holiday spending?

Ellie Kay is a regular expert on national television with ABC NEWS NOW’s Money Matters and Good Money shows. Ellie is also a national radio commentator, a frequent media guest on Fox News, and CNBC, a popular international speaker, and the best-selling author of fourteen books including her newest release, The Little Book of Big Savings (Waterbrook, 2009).

Graphic adapted, Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

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Tuesday, January 6, 2015 at 8:01AM

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