Hard work is overrated. The hardest workers are usually the lowest earners. Work smarter not harder. Delegate your menial tasks and concentrate on thinking and creating.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Work Smarter Not Harder
Ditch Cable TV
If you hardly ever watch cable TV you don’t have to stay tied down to a cable or satellite service, you can even ditch the Tivo. There’s a great new way to catch your favorite shows or movies for free. Hulu.com is a site were you can watch any episode you might of missed or just feel like watching again. You can rent movies from time to time, watch the local news and late night talk shows, hit up the movie theater and your entertainment needs are all set.
-Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Use Absence To Increase Respect And Honor
Increased circulation of a product decreases it’s value (over saturation). It’s key to recognize that the more one is seen the less valued they may become. Create your value through scarcity.
-Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Tricks For Raising Credit
In these tough economy times a good credit score is the key in being able to open the doors of the purchasing world. The following are some tips on how one can increase their credit score.
- Make sure you are paying your credit card bills on time and ofcourse more than the minimum.
- Remember you must use your credit in order to build it. You can’t just sit on a credit card and expect to increase your FICO score on it’s own.
- Aim in getting a major credit card, gas card and store credit isn’t as effective on building credit. Instead try Visa, MasterCard, or American Express.
- Don’t let any billing disputes go to collections. Handle all past due payments promptly
- Spread your credit, don’t use just one card for all your expenses. Your fico score will benefit if you maintain the use of your card below 30% of your total available balance.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
So You Wanna Buy A House
Since the start of the financial crisis buying a house is harder than it’s ever been. The days of no-documentation or low documentation are hard to come by. However, it is a great time to invest into real estate if you have all the right pieces to this real estate puzzle.
Before you even begin to consider buying a house there are some reality checks one must come across. First thing you want to make sure is that your credit score is in order. Since the banks seem to be quite stingy nowadays, if you want to be considered for a home loan you need a credit score of atleast 720 or higher. Also be ready to provide bank statements and pay stubs along with tax returns, which must all back up the total income you make. Finally you need to look at what kind of down payment you will be able to make towards your purchase. It used to be the norm to qualify for a zero down type of loan, however,that’s no longer the case. Be prepared to pay up front 10- 20% of your total loan. There still remains some federal loan programs but these can be hard to qualify for. If you do have enough for your down payment be prepared to show where that money came from. And lastly, banks will want to see that you have enough money in your reserves just incase you happen to fall into a financial set back. It used to be a good rule of thumb to have atleast up to 3 months of money reserves, but now just to be on the safe banks want to see that you have atleast 3-6 months of reserves. If you find yourself fufulling all of these requirements then your well on your way to owning a home.
-Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Dress For Success
You are what you wear. Like it or not, books are judged by their cover. Instead of being idealistic lets be realistic. First impressions are the most important ones. Take the time to look your best and others will notice. You never know when a big opportunity might head your way, so be ready for it and dress to impress.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Securing Job Security
Make yourself invaluable at work. Even if you are in a dispensible position, make yourself indispensible by doing the little things at your workplace that fellow co-workers don’t do. Friendships are important, networking with the company bigwigs will count as well. But the way to make an impact is to learn the business inside and out and do tasks that are regularly not assigned to you. This way, when downsizing time comes, they’re likely to consolidate positions so multi-taskers will win big here.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Quick Money Saving Tip: Paying Bills Online
The average household in America receives about 15 bills per month. The price of stamps keeps increasing and will soon be 50 cents a stamp. If you mail a payment for each one that’s $90 per year just in stamps alone. Now calculate the expense of envelopes, checks, ink and your valuable time and you could be at a hundred bucks a year average. Then there are the occasional times when your check is lost in the mail and you end up having to pay late fees.
What you can do is save your valuable time and your valuable money by signing up with an account at each of your bills to have them automatically deduct your charges from your bank account. By doing that, you can access your bill details online in your account and also make payments from there. If your cable, phone, electricity provider or other service doesn’t allow you to do this, you can make payments via your bank online too. All major banks have a free online bill pay service where you can make one-time payments or scheduled recurring payments. Another advantage of automatic billing is that you’ll never forget to pay another bill again, so goodbye late fees.
It’s also recommended to stop paper bills. They always send you a bunch of paperwork every month and most of the time you end up throwing the bills away since they’re of no use to you. This way you’ll not only save some extra cash but you’ll help the environment as well.
Finally, if they let you bill the charges to your credit card (without any extra fees) then go for that option instead if your credit card offers you rewards points. Of course it’s recommended you pay off your credit card balance every month so make sure you have enough money in your bank account when it comes time to pay off the household bills charged to your credit card.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Bundle Your Services, Save Some Cash
Consider a package deal for your internet, cable and telephone service. When you bundle your items up you will always get a better deal than getting the services from different providers. Now that AT&T offers cable they have great deals when you get all your services through them. Even Time Warner Cable has good deals when you bundle your services with them.
You don’t need to get every one of their products to get a good deal, just 2 is good enough. Consider eliminating your home phone if you have a cell phone. Home phones require long distance plans while this is already included in your cell phone. Also consider getting high speed internet service, but you don’t need the extra fast speeds. Stick with the cheapest option, it’s most likely all that you need.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Stop Paying Airlines For Extras
Nowadays airlines will nickle and dime you for the simplest of things. By preparing correctly beforehand you can eliminate these extra charges that add up. If you travel once a year the extra fees charged might add up toan extra 50 bucks a trip. It doesn’t sound like a lot on a vacation that might cost thousands, but every little bit helps.
Almost all airlines charge for extra checked bagged so pack lightly. You probably don’t need to bring soap and tooth paste, a tooth brush, towels, shampoo, etc. Wherever you go there’s a good chance there’s a store that sells these items in small quantities. If a checked bag fee is $25 per bag you can pack lightly and simply buy what you need at your destination for a fraction of $25.
Some airlines charge for water and food on the place. You can pack a snack and eat beforehand, then eat at your destination. Unless you’re on a 5+ hour flight there’s no need to eat on the airplane. Regarding paying extra for a pillow or a blanket, think of it this way. When you go on a roadtrip you’re usually driving and uncomfortable at times, so you can surely handle it on a 2 hour flight sitting down.
Finally there are the $2 curbside check-in fees. By checking in online or at a kiosk you can accomplish the same exact thing. It’s a small fee but if you always do the little things it keeps adding up.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Keep It Simple
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. Keep that in mind when designing sites. Sure you can make something bold, italic, different font size, all sorts of colors and add scrolling text everywhere. But one must always remember the principle of KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).
Your customers will buy from you or return back to your site because of your content or product, not because of how flashy you make it. Sure a good design is key, but should never overshadow your product.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Eliminate Credit Cards With Fees
There’s so many credit card options out there to use that if you are paying a monthly or yearly fee for a credit card you’re throwing money down the drain. Now it’s not really recommended to simply cancel a card you’ve had for many years and open up a new one without a fee. However what you can do is call the credit card company and request that they remove the monthly/yearly fees from your account. You can negotiate with them and have them raise your interest rate if they have to. It’s likely that at the time they gave you the card you had a lower credit score than you do now, hence the reason for the monthly fees. The last thing a credit card company wants you to do is to leave them for another company, so they’re willing to negotiate if they think they’re going to lose you.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
If you have a low credit score and cannot negotiate or even obtain a credit card, another option is to get a prepaid credit card. Prepaid debit cards allow you to do the same things as a credit card but without extending credit to you. Some companies even offer payday loans, in case you need some last minute cash. Prepaid credit cards do have fees involved, but are intended for people with bad credit or no access to a regular credit card.
When dealing with loans and credit cards , proper personal finance management should always be the key.
Pay Your Bills Online
Paying your bills online is a great thing to do. Here’s why:
- I don’t waste time anymore with finding bills through a heap of junk mail. If the post office loses the bill, I might forget and not pay it. Writing checks and mailing it in is the old way of doing things. Plus the post office can lose that one too.
- Postage fees. They’re still on the rise and this trend will not end.
- Wasting paper. I stopped receiving all my paper bills. It’s not like I keep them or need them or anything. If I ever do I can just print a copy from my account online.
- Saving the environment. Every little bit helps. Less ink wasted, less paper used.
- Keeping costs down. Imagine if companies stopped having payment centers and payments by phone via a customer service rep and eliminated their accounts receivable department. They’ll either pass the savings onto us or upgrade their services.
- Never forget another payment. Say goodbye to late fees because they’ll automatically deduct the payment from your bank or credit account every month.
- So what are you waiting for, go create an online account with your gas or phone or electricity company and set it up for automatic payments and forget about those extra hassles.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
In These Times, Investing Is NOT Risky
Sounds strange doesn’t it? But investing isn’t risky. Lack of control is risky. If you know where your money is going and have the ability to remove your money and put it somewhere else, that’s not risk, that’s having control.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com
Down Goes The Dollar
Keeping your cash under your mattress isn’t “safe”, it’s stupid. Your money devalues so fast nowadays that if you’re not doing something with it, you’re losing it. Think about how much it used to cost to buy milk, did the price of milk really go up that much? Or was it that the dollar went down that much.
- Edwin, CashTheChecks.com