Financial Independence IS Possible - Part I

By Dr. Iris Fanning

Steps to YOUR Financial Freedom.

1. Realize Financial Independence Can be Achieved! There is a difference between a wish and a plan. Many people spend time worrying and wondering about their financial future. Yet only about 5% of Americans reach financial independence even though we are the richest people on the planet. So, is it time for you to KNOW and BECOME financially independent? If so, then it's also time to THINK, PLAN & ACT your way to financial independence.

2. FOCUS on Being Financially Independent.

Invest $1,000 - ? annually in your own skills training in order to double your income.

Shift your ideas about money. If you believe that money is bad or rich people are greedy it's time for a change. Financial abundance is joyful, fulfilling and fun.

Make substantial changes in your spending habits. Cut your expenses by 25-40%. Cutting expenses is a step in FREEDOM! When you cut expenses you: move toward your dreams; aren't chained to a "bad" job or relationship; fund your ideas and plans of being financially independent.

Ken & I have experienced two major periods where we drastically cut expenses. Reducing our savings/investments wasn't an option. Both of these experiences have the end result of greater opportunity, fun, fulfillment and joy! The first time we cut expenses was when our son was accepted to a private mid & high school. The tuition was steep. We paid for it all ourselves without accumulating debt. Second, Ken was laid off and decided to develop his own business. We cut expenses so he could launch a now successful business.

Here are just a few of the things that you can do:

* Keep your cars. Make sure you keep vehicles looking & driving like new. Friends who ride with us comment that our cars must be about 3-4 years old. Our cars are now 13 & 15 years old. That's the kind of care we give our vehicles. (Have you read the Millionaire Next Door? Some of your least ostentatious neighbors are wealthy and living their dreams!)
* Highlight or color your hair at home. Highlighting or coloring your hair at home can save about $140 a month or $1740 annually. Home color is about $10/month or $120/year.
* Teach your children the difference between filling an empty heart through things and nourishing WHO they are through their own creativity and contribution. Children/teens are becoming increasingly isolated by "things" given to them from their parents i.e.: a TV or computer in their room; a cell phone or text messaging especially with unlimited use; a car; or designer clothing. Cut expenses and spend more time nurturing your children/teens involvement, relationships, creativity, and the joy of being who they are!
* Eat out only 1-2 times per week. Eating meals at home is great for connecting with your family, is higher in nutrition and saves money!
* Stop the Starbucks. I was spending $3.84 X 5 days a week on my Venti Decaf Mocha. That was $921 a year. Also that beverage has 480 calories! So, I'm saving 115,200 calories a year!
* Muffle the Mouse. We now have 24/7 access to shopping. It can be fun and expensive. Either place a budget for online spending or avoid surfing the online stores.

Your turn. What can you do starting TODAY to cut your expenses by 25-40%? Write it down now. <

3. EDUCATE YOURSELF ABOUT THE FINANCIAL ARENA.

Ignorance is not an excuse. If you want to be financially independent, you can't say "I'm just not good at/interested in the finances.

There are several enjoyable paths to take to increase Financial Intelligence. Here are just a few.
* There are many good, simple books on: how money works, compounding interest, taxes and investments.
* Many financial advisors offer free classes. Check your newspaper and business section for offerings. Be careful to pick classes that are pressure free. If it sounds to good to be true, it is.
* Get savvy and real about your own finances. List the following: Assets, Liabilities, Income, Expenses and Savings.
* Start associating with people who you like and do have money and learn from them.
* Focus on what you WANT in the financial arena. become courageous, knowledgeable and action oriented.
* Drop the fear/worry habit around money. Know that you are an adult and capable of taking care of yourself and being abundant in your life.

Your action steps for this week include: 1) Commit to one thing that will increase your knowledge i.e. a book, seminar, tape series.; 2) Look at your current finances with your assets, liabilities, income, expenses and savings; 3) Choose 1-3 ways to cut your expenses; 4) Take 3-5 minutes a day to envision what you WANT in terms of finances. Really envision your life, lifestyle, values, needs and FEELINGS of having more than enough. Write down what you discover in this exercise.

Get ready to learn even more In Part II!

Copyright 2007, Iris Fanning. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way and give author name credit.

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Credit Bureau Basics

By Mansi Aggarwal

Credibility counts. And no one knows it better then the credit bureaus. These are the places where you can get a rating to certify your creditworthiness. And of course they charge you for it. The approach is simple enough. They keep an eye on the credit transaction that a person enters into and then its repayment. The banks and credit card companies use this information before striking a business with an individual. Credit bureaus are not watchdogs.

They are just observers who want to know if a borrower is respecting the borrowed monies. They have to keep a track of how borrowed money is used. Trans Union, Equifax etc. are some of USAs credit bureaus. They are governed under an act and also under a mandate to revive a persons reputation if he can get a hiatus of at least seven years after one bad credit. But if one goes bankrupt then the time for him to prove his creditworthiness is an extra three years.

The average American lives under some kind of debt all the time. The number of bills that flows in through the letter-slit of every home at the beginning of every month shows this. The piling up of bills can leave any one dumbfound. A proper management of the bills has to be understood in order to clear them. The to-do-list approach is one such way to get tem off your shoulder. Pen them down in order of last day of payment. The bills for services that sustain a person have to be paid in priority. The gas, telephone bills are some such debts. Tax too finds itself on a higher podium then the others. No bill is les important however; some are more important then other. So the ones that are not, can be kept at a secondary priority. It varies from a person to person in deciding, which is which.

A monthly budget has always been a good tactic to handle overspending. At the beginning of the month expenditure list must be made. This works as a guideline throughout the month and also a corrective parameter. A budget is not a very complex document. The sources of income and expenditure have to be listed and then it has to be calculated which exceeds which and by how much?

Its always better to be in the good books of the credit bureaus. And for doing so it becomes important what the secret eyes are watching. A model proposed by Fair Isaac & Company is used to figure out the credit rating. It includes data about outstanding debts of a person, since when is the person running on credit, what types of credit dies he takes and what kinds of accounts thus he operate with. Apart from these there are many more but the rating program keeps these into top priority.

Many people do not have a clear picture of what a credit bureau does. A CB is never biased against the minorities, which is a big misconception that it is. These are absolutely secret services and they never disclose the information about a person about any other one. So now if you want to get your money credibility right, get in to the good lists of the credit raters.

Mansi aggarwal writes about. credit bureau basics. Learn more at http://www.creditbureaubiz.com

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By Sacha Tarkovsky

If you want to make money fast you need to take responsibility and understand that no one else can do it for you. If you do, you can make money fast and we have outlined one way below where you can start with a small amount of money and have the opportunity to build serious long term wealth.

Why you can only rely on yourself

If you want to make money fast, youre on your own and need to take responsibility for your actions your profits or your losses are down to you.

No one else is going to make you rich.

How to make money fast

There are many ways you could invent something unique, marry someone rich, inherit money or win the lottery.

Now for most people the above is not going to happen! Lets look at an area that will give you the opportunity to make money fast.

A great way to make money is to trade global financial markets using leverage If you have never traded before thats not a problem, everything about trading can be specifically learned.

The great thing about trading financial markets is leverage.

This gives you greater profit potential as a broker will give you more money to trade than you deposit.

For example, most brokers if you deposited $3,000 would let you trade $30,000.

The above of course gives you greater profit potential but also greater risk.

So when you trade you need a method that will help you cut losses and run profits.

There are some great methods you can learn and in an hour or so a day you can seek big profits.

Becoming a financial trader offers you the opportunity to seek big profits and all you need is a willingness to learn a computer, an internet connection and you can run this business part time.

There are many people with no previous experience that have gone on to become millionaires using leverage and a system to trade and you could to.

All you need is a willingness to learn, confidence in your method and to apply it with rigid discipline Do this and the rewards could be immense and with the use of leverage you could be on your way to making money fast and building long term wealth.

MORE FREE BETTER TRADING INFO

On all aspects of becoming a profitable trader including info about trading legend W D Gann who made a 50 million fortune trading go to our website for an exclusive http://www.net-planet.org/index.html

Financial Results of Mexican Illegal Alien Boycott Are In

By Lance Winslow

The big boycott of the illegal aliens and all the legal Mexicans in the country who either support them in spirit or have family members that are not yet legal and are harboring these criminals now has results. The financial results from retailers in the United States of America are now in for the Mayday Communist Holiday boycott, rally, demonstration and protest and they have been tallied up. Well it is time for a Reality Check People; A different Perspective...

"On May 1st, as a result of the Mexican boycott, national retailers reported 4.2% lower sales for the day, with a 67.8% reduction in shoplifting."

What this shows the casual observer is that the boycott shows how little these illegal aliens contribute to the over all community and it also shows that the Hispanic Community and their buying power is not as much as they hype it to be. And these people need to stop blowing smoke up everyone's rear end about how we cannot function as a nation without illegal aliens, because it is simply BS.

Come legally or do not come at all. They wanted to show us all how much they mean to our GDP and how we cannot live without them. What they really ended up proving is that it is just a lot of hot air and it is time for America to stand up and enforce the laws on our books. Oh yah and throw out of office any politician who gets in the way, consider all this in 2006.

"Lance Winslow" - Online www.WorldThinkTank.net/

Freedom from Financial Troubles with Debt Reduction

By Alex Jonnes

Debts, loans, finances taken from outside, these things give you financial support when you really need it. But had you ever thought that repaying them is also your responsibility. The interest rate which you pay on these debts is the extra amount which your pocket is bearing. Larger the number of debts, more you have to repay. Debt reduction is the name given to a tool for getting your debts in control.

Debt reduction is the reduction of debts either by paying them off or by reducing them in numbers through debt consolidation. Debt reduction can also be termed as the synonym of debt consolidation which means to lessen the number of debts by paying them off or consolidating them into a single debt at a low rate of interest. This brings down your monthly expenditure to a large extent as paying numerous debts at variable interest rates can be a costly affair as compared to paying the same amount of debt at a single but low interest rate.

Financial agencies and consultants are there to help you out in debt reduction. There are lots of professional consultants to advice you. They will analyze your financial status and prepare a debt management plans for you. They will plan your budget while discussing it with you. They will talk to your lenders for making negotiations with them on repayment terms and amount. They will also suggest you to go for debt consolidation loan which is the most effective tool for enhancing your credit score.

Debt reduction agencies provide a service where you are required to pay the total monthly installments at low interest rates to these agencies. They further divide this amount among your lenders according to their share. This gives you freedom from calculating each lenders share separately. These agencies charge certain amount of commission for such services.

The important step for debt reduction is to choose a good agency to hire. This needs some effort from you in visiting different agencies knowing about their services and charges. Beware of frauds and choose the once who are in the profession for a noticeable amount of time.

There are certain things which you need to take care off like:

Dont use too many credit cards, use a debit card instead.

Avoid credit purchases as much as possible.

Plan a budget as per your income and spend accordingly.

Try to save some amount from you income for bad times.

With all such precaution debt reduction can act as a savior for you. It can give you the inner peace you are looking for by getting over with your debts.

Alex Jonnes is associated with Easy Debt Consolidations. He is Masters in Business Administration and writes on various finance related topics. To find Debt management, debt consolidation, low cost debt consolidation loan, bad credit personal loans, http://www.easy-debt-consolidations.co.uk

Free Money for Your Retirement?

By Stephen Nelson

It can be more than a little discouraging to start making retirement planning calculations. Youll 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 yearwhich 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 whos 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 employers 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 its 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 offerunless 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 employers 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, its 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.

Essential Preparations Before Seeking Venture Capital

By Yasheve Miller

The line in the sand has been drawn. Youve vowed to never step foot back into that office alive again after working the same dead end job for ten years. Its time to start that business you know for sure will succeed. All you need is to dedicate those sixty hours a week to your own bottom line. Theres only one roadblock. You have no money and the bank has already denied you for several other loans. All is not lost. Seek the help you need from those venture capital firms or angel investors you have heard so much about at meetings.

A venture capital firm is a collection of investors looking to throw their money into the next great idea that will grant them generous returns. With their money, your restaurant, retail store, or latest invention transforms from a day dream into a reality. Several options of repayment, ownership, and terms are discussed between you and your angel investors on how you will reward them for believing in your idea. First, you have to win their confidence.

The most important part of your business is your business plan. Before you approach a venture capital firm, do your homework. Transfer it from your brain to paper. Your goal is to create a business plan that will motivate investors to write your company name on that blank check. Also, in writing your business plan, you will discover how much you know or dont know about the adventure in which you will embark. Or you may find the concept is not as fabulous as you imagined.

Start with research. Intense study uncovers little known nuances about your new chosen industry and fills holes in your concept. Identify your competitors. Dissect their company products, services and policies. What dont they offer that you can implement into your business concept? Find a niche in the market that will set you apart from others who may be seeking the same clients, customers and investors you want to attract.

Next, examine the industry trends. Analyze the data. Find out when sales and profits are at their lowest. Are you merging into the gift basket business that suffers during the summer, after mothers day? Brainstorm ideas you can include in your plan to overcome those industry wide obstacles.

Use your data to make logical predictions of future industry trends. Can you predict a disaster like the dotcom failure at the end of the twentieth century? Your potential investor friends will want to be shown the money. Show it to them in standard financial and cash flow statements.

Now, come back to the beginning and write a two-page summary of the company. This will serve as the introduction to your business plan. Some experts call it the Executive Summary. I call it the sales pitch.

Your summary will be the first section investors read about your business. If it doesnt sell them, then it becomes the last thing they read about your business.

Take your time, do your research and make sure your business plan sells, sells, sells!

Yasheve Miller is web copywriter and internet marketing specialist whose primary focus us to generate leads and convert prospective customers into sales for his client. http://www.yasheve.com makes small businesses competitive with branding and marketing campaigns tailored to each individual business.