The public library still exists

Over the weekend I spent some time at Kierland for dinner with my wife.  The hot season is over here in AZ and after dinner we decided to go into Barnes and Noble.  As we were walking through the enormous bookstore I was shocked at how many people were in there buying books.  I also noticed the healthy prices on some of the books. I started thinking that people must spend hundreds in the bookstore every year to only read part of the book and then pass it on to a friend or donate.  More people need to save money by not buying new books but taking advantage of a local library where you can check out the newest releases and best sellers for up to three weeks.  This is an easy way to save some serious cash throughout the year.  Give it a try and let me know how it works.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and every kid along with many adults want to celebrate it.  I was reading on Kiplinger and saw that people this year will spend over $5 billion just on costumes this year. That is a crazy amount of money.  I thought of a few ways to possibly save on decorations and costumes. 

• -Set a budget for how much you can afford to spend

• -Go to the local $1 store and buy stuff to decorate the house

• -Go to second hand stores such as Savers. They tend to get a lot of discounted holiday costumes

• - Buy Candy when it is on sale

• - If you throw a party have everyone coming bring something to share so the whole cost doesn’t fall on you.

• -After Halloween everything goes on sale up to 90% off so stock up for next year. 

Have fun on Halloween!

Monster & Red Bull does not make you a Rock Star

Leave the energy drinks on the shelf at grocery stores.  Seems like everywhere we look someone has an energy drink in hand.  Most of those people pay $2 a can and I know many people who drink one everyday.  But I want to be more on the conservative side and say that the average person who is on the energy drink wagon will drink roughly a couple hundred cans a year. I doubt that many of them are buying in bulk. So 200 cans at $2 a drink is over $400 a year.  Even if you are buying them in bulk and drink one everyday that is over $350 for the whole year just for some sugar water and a fancy name.

Pay yourself first

There is an easier way to save money out there. It’s called automatic bank transfers. If you decide to save $100 every two weeks, have your bank automatically transfer that money into your savings account. Since it is automatic, you won’t need to remember to transfer the money. Plus, you can set it up to transfer any amount as often as you like. The second benefit of automatically transferring money is that if you don’t see it you won’t spend it. It puts the money where it is supposed to go- into savings, not your wallet. Automatic transfers make it so you cannot forget to move money into savings and they don’t give you the opportunity to spend that money.

A must Invest

The Roth IRA was established in 1998 and offers a variety ways to invest.
A Roth IRA’s main advantage is its tax structure.  You may add only contributions to earned income that has been taxed already. Also keep in mind this is not tax deductible. 2007 limits are $4,000  and it increases in 2008 to $5,000.  If you are married both partners are able to add the maximum amount that is allowed for the year.

Great article on why we all need a Roth IRA: http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/starting/archive/2006/st0309.htm