Benefits of Saving Online

Online savings accounts are popular with many people because of the simple fact that they give customers a little more control over their finances. When you open an online savings account everything is done online. By logging into your online account you will be able to manage every aspect of your savings. Many of these online banks have a computer system that allows you to give them permission to grab your computer’s IP address; this means that every time you log on to the website from your personal computer it will recognize that it is the computer that you registered with them. This is something that most regular banks do not have on their websites and it adds another level of security to your account.

Another benefit that many online banks offer is free bill pay as well. Many regular banks sometimes charge a monthly fee for bill pay, as it is sometimes considered to be an extra service. With online bill pay you can set up payments and not have to worry about being charged a monthly fee for it. Furthermore, perhaps the biggest benefit of having an online savings is the amount of interest you can earn on your money. This is definitely the most attractive benefit of having a savings account online. As opposed to regular banks, online banks do not have to pay for the upkeep of buildings and property expenses; this allows them to offer interest rates on savings accounts significantly higher than those at regular banks. For example, banks such as Wells Fargo and Bank of America offer only.05% APY, whereas online accounts can offer up to 8 times as much or more. For example the online savings bank Ally offers a 1.00% APY return on the amount you have in a savings account with them. This may not seem like much, but when you compare it to a.05% APY, where would you rather have your money?

Just like regular banks online banks are FDIC insured up to $250,000. In some cases, for example if you have more money that you want to save, you can even set up a special savings account with your online bank and be protected up to as much as $1 Million or more with some online banks. Online accounts can be very beneficial for the person who wants to save a little more. If you plan on opening an online savings, you can rest assured that it is just as safe as a regular bank.

by Arturo Garza

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities regarding the 2010 budgets, 48 states have addressed shortfalls in their proposed budgets, which total $192 billion dollars or 29% of state budgets – the largest monetary gap ever on record. At the rate that this country is going, this amount may be dwarfed.

With a deficit of this magnitude, states are looking for ways to generate revenue to help the budget deficit; states are looking at Unclaimed Property Divisions to help loosen the noose that is steadily strangling them.

The main reason unclaimed property funds is looking like a relevant solution to help lessen the deficit is because only about 1/3 of the money unclaimed actually finds its way to the rightful owners despite the fact that each state claims that it takes aggressive steps or efforts in locating the owners.

There are dozens of Agencies and Organizations that those funds could be in. The Unclaimed Property Division of that agency then holds these assets in trust for their rightful owners until it can locate them and return their property. The Unclaimed Property Division usually will send out a letter to try to locate the individual(s), many times, unsuccessfully. There are many states where they are not required by law to let the individual(s) know that monies are available to them.

While the unclaimed property funds are sitting in the state coffers, the states are tapping into those funds and using them. They do not want that money to be found because after a statutory period, many states keep or escheat those funds and then can do or use those funds however they please.

The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA), declare that state treasurers and other agencies have a total of at least $32.877 billion that is currently being safeguarded for 117 million accounts. Many states have already put into effect laws that allow them to take unused gift card money even if it has no expiration date. In New York alone, the amount they collected was $9.6 million for the year 2008 (Please see my other article on Gift Cards: They do expire). It is only a matter of time before states have passed additional laws that give them the authority to take these funds.

by Jeffrey Richman

For example, one good way to save money is by cutting out cable television. This is actually getting more and more popular, as different alternatives come out every year. One example is getting a subscription to Netflix. This allows you to get regular DVDs in the mail, as well as stream unlimited movies online! You can even stream them to your TV if you have an Xbox360, Nintendo Wii, or a number of other devices. You can also use Hulu, or a piece of software that allows you to watch TV over the internet. Depending on what type of cable TV plan you have right now, these can help you save anywhere from $30 to $100 a month.

Another great way to save money on utilities is investing in energy efficient devices. For example, use compact fluorescent lamps instead of the older style bulbs. These will generally last for years, and can save you $50 or more per light bulb! Use Energy Star appliances to save on water, electricity and natural gas consumed. Install low-flow shower heads.

Another way to save money on utilities is to just plan their usage. Don’t just let the water run while brushing your teeth. Have shades drawn in the summer to block out the sun, and keep them open in the winter so the sun can heat up your house. Turn the air conditioning down to 78 degrees or higher in the summer, and in the winter don’t heat up the house to be warmer than 68 degrees.

Although these may seem like very minor ways to save money, they can save most families hundreds or thousands of dollars a year.

Do you do your own yard work or house cleaning, or do you have someone else come in and do it for you? While it does make sense for some families to have someone else do this, a great way to save money is to do it yourself. In fact, the only time when you should not be doing this yourself is if you work very long hours and earn more money than you have to pay someone to do it for you. For example, if you make $30 an hour and it costs a neighbor $10 an hour to mow the yard, it makes a lot of sense to have him do it for you.

You think you might have anything around the house that you don’t need anymore? Be honest with yourself. Most American families have thousands if not tens of thousands worth of “stuff” that they never use. Books, movies, old cars, clothes, workout equipment, toys, and just about anything else you can think of can be sold for some extra cash. In fact, this is probably the very easiest way to make a quick buck anytime you need it. Just rummage through your old stuff, find what you don’t want or need anymore, and sell it!

Do you or your children do a lot of extracurricular activities on the side? I understand that these are nice, but face it- they cost a lot of money. You’re paying for gas to get to the activity. You pay for equipment, clothes, or instruments. You usually pay for the instructor’s time, or just being able to be in the program. There is an opportunity cost of not being able to work and earn more money.

If your finances are really struggling, don’t sign up for these programs! There are a lot of great ways to do things as a family without having to spend this type of money. To learn music, buy a book, get free lessons online or from a friend. Head to a park or a church intramural league for sports. Take up reading or playing board games with the kids. Instead of going out to the movies and paying $40, get one for $1 at a Redbox nearby and watch one at home!

Being frugal doesn’t mean having a boring life- it just means spending your money better!

by Brandon Lamb

Graduating college, I did not realize that there was such a thing as recession or economic boom. So I was very surprised by the real estate market down turn in 2008. The business cycle is based on human psychology, of the operating mechanisms of fear and greed. No matter how technological we advance as a species, I truly believe humans will continue to make the same mistakes. We learn firsthand through our own experience. Although, maybe that’s just my belief because when I am told what to do, and it differs from the decision I made, I rarely ever change my decision and continue on, to mild disaster. The tricky part about listening to others is they are always sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Nobodies infallible, including yourself.
With the economic downturn, people started having to work harder for less money. I started making less money than the year before. All of a sudden, my free spending was racking up credit card debt. I quickly found my credit cards maxed. I began paying expensive interest that began negative compounding forces. After struggling for quite some time, I realized if you can’t make more money, you can increase the amount of money you “make” effectively, by lowering your monthly expenses. You can either make more money, or work less. Both sound like pretty good options.

So the first thing to do is make a list of all of your FIXED monthly expenses. These are expenses that you can’t change. They are your cost of life, or the cost of doing the business of life. Here is what my list looked like:

Personal Expenses:

$925 Rent

$30 AUM (utilities)

$20 Gas for stove

$120 Car Insurance

$100 Electric/water

$60 GNC Powder

$80 prescriptions

$50 internet

$90 Phone (i have unlimited minutes, texting and data)

$375 car payment

$200 gasoline

$400 Grociers

$150 Eating out

$200 Music Lessons

2.8K a month Fixed

Assuming No auto repairs (I average about 3K a year on maintenance on the BMW)

I have no health insurance (*cough* *cough*)

I realized quickly after analyzing my list, that the best way to reduce my monthly expenses in a big way is sell the BMW, which I did and now drive a Honda Accord. That decision lowered my monthly expenses ~$500 a month between lowered repair cost, end of car payment, lower insurance, and better gas mileage.

As you can see from analyzing my list, my biggest monthly expense is my Rent. If I were creative, I could eliminate my rent completely by managing a building and living there for reduced rent or free. I could reduce my expenses by $40/mo. if I limited my cell phone usage, etc etc.

You have to decide what you are willing to do in order to lower your expenses. You may decide that some of it may not be worth enough to you to do, or would not have a high enough return on investment.

This list of fixed monthly expenses will sum up to the minimum amount of money you need to be making to break even. This is a really good number to know, you should shoot to do better than it each month. Memorize your fixed monthly expense. Remember it like your birthday.

Do you see any problems with the above list? For one there is no business expense list- my real estate business costs me a minimum of $5,000/year – and in the above list there is a very small fun budget for doing something like going to a concert or a movie or a date. Another omission is the annual expenses, like seeing a dentist, or traveling to visit family for the holidays (Plane tickets can be very expensive especially if you are traveling in a group and buying multiple tickets). There is no Toy budget. iPads, smart phones, music, there are all sorts of cool grown up toys to buy – although usually they are quite expensive. My electronic drum set was $1,000.

This was probably way too much talking for the simple activity of writing down your expenses and adding them all up. So let me give you the bottom line:

Make a list of all your expenses and add them up.

by James Colin Campbell

There are actually a number of strategies you can implement, which don’t all involve the lame, normal advice on ways to save money that you’re probably tired of hearing about.

For example, one of the best ways to do it is to go shopping less often. This might sound funny, but it can actually lower your monthly groceries bill by a lot! It’s been proven that the more often we shop, the more we spend. This makes sense, because when we’re in “buying mode” it’s easy to walk into a store looking for 2-3 things and walk out with more than 10!

This goes for anything, by the way. Shoes, clothing, CDs, movies, and just about anything else you can think of. The less you’re looking at stuff in the store to buy, the less you’re going to buy- period!

Another neat tip is to use batch cooking. This will not only save you a LOT of time, but is one of the best ways to save money on groceries. The basic idea is that you cook the same meal several times at once. So let’s say you’re making some kind of chicken dish. Instead of making just enough for dinner tonight, you make enough to last you the next 4-5 nights! From there you can either eat it every day (which would get boring), or you can freeze some of it and reheat it in a few weeks. This helps you save money because you will be planning your meals throughout the month better, and buy less food that will go to waste.

One weird tip you may not have thought of is to keep track of all of your leftovers. Think of how many times over the last year you’ve thrown out leftovers that went bad. Ten times? Twenty? More than thirty? If you’re like most American families, I bet it was at least 50 or 100 food items.

By keeping a leftovers list, you can make sure everything gets eaten before it goes bad. Just keep it somewhere you will easily see it (such as on the fridge door), and check it every day. Although it might be hard to get your kids into this habit, some kids love leftovers and may think this is a good idea.

One very powerful way to save money on food and other stuff from the grocery store is by playing the drugstore game. Basically, there are several major drugstore chains that offer great deals each and every month. In fact, these “great deals” often end up with the drug store paying you in store credit to take their stuff! While this usually means you will be changing the brands you use each month, the fact that you’re saving tons of money will make it all worthwhile.

Does your family eat a lot of beef? If so, consider buying a side of beef! We all know that at the grocery store, a major expense is meat and chicken. One way around that is to just buy your meat and chicken in bulk. Not only can this save you a lot of money, but you will probably get much better quality meat as well.

Another option is to forgo eating meat for a while. You can buy enough canned or fresh veggies to feed a family for one or two dollars! If you’re really on a budget, this is a good way to go. For more calories, you can always add in some beans. Beans will help you feel full and provide sufficient calories to keep you going.

One way to save money on food is by shopping at stores such as Sam’s Club or CostCo. Since you are buying the food in bulk, you will usually get the food for much less than you would pay at a normal store. On top of that, if you get the premium membership and shop there a lot throughout the year, they’ll essentially pay you for shopping there from the 2-3 percent that you get back!

by Brandon Lamb

Generally, one of the best things you can do is to consider getting term life insurance instead of whole life insurance. As you might expect, a term policy is only in place for a certain term, or period of time. For example you can buy anything from a one year policy to 30 years or more! Usually the premium rate is fixed for that entire time, and will go up if you get a new term policy after the first one expires.

In the long run, it’s been shown that these policies can cost 5 to 10 times less than a whole life policy! There are several reasons for this, but for now just know that it will likely save you a lot of money in the long run. The trick is to get longer terms such as 5 to 10 years, because your premiums will be lower than if you have a shorter term policy such as just one year.

Another great way to save money on life insurance is to shop around. In fact, this is probably the best thing you can do to make sure that you get a good quote and reputable company. Most life insurance companies these days will give you a quote on the internet or the phone. Within a few hours you can have over a dozen quotes to help you make your decision.

That said I would like to note that you may not necessarily want to go with the lowest quote. My wife and I have a rule where we usually go with the second cheapest or better. While the lowest price may still be a great policy, it could very well be that the lowest price comes with the lowest customer satisfaction, amount of experience, or other important factors!

This brings us to another important point. When you’re shopping for life insurance, you want a company that will take care of everything and your loved ones if things go bad, right? To make sure you get a great company, there are several things you can look at.

The internet is your best friend when it comes to this. Within seconds you can find dozens or hundreds of reviews on different insurance companies. Everyone is looking for ways to save money on life insurance, so often people try to help each other out by recommending the companies they’ve worked with (or recommending to stay away from them!)

Besides online reviews, you should also ask around at work, church, the neighborhood, or your family. I’m sure you will be able to find a few people who have life insurance and can point you towards a great company.

Do you live a very healthy lifestyle? Or are you pretty unhealthy right now, and it doesn’t seem to be changing anytime soon? As you might expect, a good way to save money on life insurance is to be healthy and living a healthy lifestyle. These companies are out to make a profit, and are essentially betting against you when it comes to when you will pass on. They are hoping that you will be around for a long time to collect your premiums!

That said, a good way to save money is to be healthy. Get exercise. Don’t smoke. Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and cut back on the sweets, too much red meat, and carbs. If your insurance company sees that you’re trying to be healthy, they might give you lower premiums.

Another good idea is to start early. If you first purchase life insurance in your 30s or 40s, it will be MUCH cheaper than if you start in your 50s, 60s or 70s! This gives your family more protection than most families this age, as well as locking you in with a solid company that will give you lower rates. Generally renewing an old plan and working with the same company will be less expensive than getting a brand new one.

by Brandon Lamb

To get a better big-picture perspective, let’s look at a few numbers.

Using the Yahoo! Real estate page, you can use their calculator to figure out how much your monthly payments will be (not including taxes or PMI) and how much interest you will pay over the course of a mortgage.

If you use a $150,000 beginning balance on your mortgage and get a 5% interest rate for 30 years, you end up paying about $140,000 just in interest! So essentially your house almost doubles in price.

Do you see the benefits of knowing ways to save money on this mortgage? Think about how much you can save if you’re buying a much more expensive home!

So let’s get started with a few things you can do.

The first and most important thing you can do is RESEARCH. When you start looking to buy a house, looking at 2-3 houses isn’t enough. In fact, looking at 10-15 houses isn’t even enough! To really get a feel for the local market, try to look at 100 houses or more. A lot of this can be done online, so you don’t have to worry about touring around houses for the rest of your life!

Investors often say that money is made when you buy, NOT when you sell. In other words, its much better to get a great deal at the beginning than to buy and hope later the house increases in value. This goes for either an investment or buying your home. The more research and better deal you get upfront, the better your chances of having it be a success.

Another thing is to make sure you don’t buy a house that’s outside of your price range. Experts used to recommend that you never buy a home worth more than 3 times your yearly income, but now some are even saying 2 years. So if you make $75,000 a year, don’t buy a home that costs more than $150,000.

This is primarily to protect yourself from having to foreclose if you lose your job. Hopefully with a lower monthly payment, you have more money to save in case of emergencies.

So let’s say you’re already in your home and are looking for ways to save money. You basically have two main options (and you can combine them).

One option is to remortgage your house. Usually people do this to get a much lower interest rate, so they’re paying less each month. The only way this really works is to use the new mortgage to pay off the old mortgage. Some people will take out the new mortgage and only pay off part of the old one. This is a very bad idea, because you’re now paying two mortgages each month!

Using numbers to illustrate how this saves you money, let’s say you got a $150K mortgage at 5% interest for 30 years. That means you’re paying about $805.23 per month. If you were able to remortgage the house for 4%, now you’re only paying $716.12 per month. That extra $90 may not seem like much, but it adds up over the year.

The other main way to save money on your mortgage is to pay if off early. You can either send in a payment every 2 weeks (instead of one per month), or you can add on 10% to each month’s payment and make sure the bank puts it towards principal. Just doing this little trick can help you pay off the loan in about 23 years instead of 30, saving you tens of thousands of dollars (or more).

Right now this might seem like a stretch, but chances are if you try it you may not even notice a big difference. Then when your house is paid off much more quickly, you’ll be glad you did this!

Good luck, I hope this taught you some ways to save money that you can put into practice.

by Brandon Lamb

Bank with us in your youth days, whilst you study, after graduating, working as a professional, as you grow and create wealth, and then maintain it.

Kids and teenagers under the age of 18 need to manage their money and make smart financial choices too. Whether you’re saving up for a DVD or an mp3 player, or you simply want the convenience of your own bank account, it’s never too soon to get your finances in order and to start developing good financial habits.

An ideal way for you to get a head start on managing your money, the MegaU Account from Absa is a savings account that allows you to earn interest, with a convenient 24/7 debit card-based access to available funds.

For the under 18′s out there, you can get a debit card that lets you draw cash at all ATMs, do your banking and buy airtime on your cellphone, and even pay for things at shops.

Get the freedom to spend and save your money the way you want to, and have access to your own bank account 24 hours a day. MegaU is for the under 18′s, that want financial freedom. You get a debit card that lets you draw cash at all ATMs, do Cellphone Banking, buy airtime, and even pay for things at shops.

You can even grow your money by getting paid interest in the cash that’s in your account. Plus, you can customise your debit card from two funky designs.

Discover how easy it is to get money-wise and arrange for your parent to put money directly into your MegaU account, without using cash.

Would you like the convenience of being able to bank on the move? Wherever your busy day takes you, Absa’s Cellphone Banking offers you a convenient way of banking using the one item you never leave home without – your cellphone.

With Absa Cellphone Banking, you can do more than just top up prepaid airtime and check your balances. You can also pay accounts, transfer funds between your accounts, send money through CashSend, send a notice of payment or have a statement e-mailed or faxed to an address or number of your choice.

Transform your cellphone into a mobile bank by joining more than one million Absa customers who use Cellphone Banking regularly.

by Absa Bank

Those who are enthusiasts of gold investing options can actually seek for the most beautiful creation and that is Saint Gaudens gold coins. These coins are rare kind of gold sovereigns that came to a halt in the year 1933.Collecting this coin is a great opportunity for investors who are in search of pure gold coins.

There are many investors who are very fond of gold coins as a reasonable form of investment that delivers great returns. Based on the weight one should first and foremost decide as to what amount they are willing to invest and the amount that they are wanting to mint. The coins which are rare to get or not easily available gain a good value and profit for you, if you own it and wish to sell. These coins may be from different countries and various manufacturing dates. The valuation of the coins is done depending on weight and maintenance.

The other types of coins are the collectable coins. These coins are exclusively meant for coin collectors who are aware about the importance of older and rare coins. You can get these coins easily online. Sovereigns are often much smaller, more pleasing on the eye, and probably a more widely known coin

when investors put in their money to buy precious metals like gold it is basically through the IRA transfer. In simple words a gold IRA is a kind of gold investment whose funds have been invested in the commodity of Gold. A gold IRA is backed by gold instead of paper notes. A gold investment is usage of money in a precious metal, which is substantially less prone to decreasing in value unlike stocks, bonds or investments that are backed by paper promises such as the dollar, making a gold IRA a safer place to have your retirement funds.

A gold IRA shields you from a range of common pitfalls. An individual with an IRA not backed by gold has to be concerned about rising inflation. This is because of the unstable rate of interest, the failure of banks and many wars. But you can stay assured about your security with a Gold IRA.

by allanaddi

A huge tsunami, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, and a nuclear plant emitting radiation.

When some others feel it is seriously awesome to look at a 2012-like scene come about in true lifestyle, most will just appear you inside the eye like you’ve lost your brain and shake their heads in disgust. Consider this earthquake/tsunami happening in some other 3rd world nation, in the event you will. I doubt a creating will remain unscathed. But powerful earthquakes in Japan are nothing new that is why their buildings can stand up to the tremors – but what transpired that Friday afternoon was unprecedented.

The good news is, people today have this nature to bounce back rapidly, and wanting back with the background of Japan, it’s no surprise if they’d be up and running wonderful in only a couple of many years. They’ve already been by considerable trauma and destruction through the WWII, (and although it is entirely from a distinctive bring about), their recovery and re-emergence being a world strength deserves a salute.

As humanitarian aids and pledges of assistance came pouring days soon after the notorious March 11 (doesn’t it remind you of September 11?) the diploma of harm was unveiled: communities teeming with life had been reduced to a depressing rubble and spots close to the nuclear strength plant all of a sudden grew to become ghost towns as citizens fled to far sites in fear of radiation.

These are however living the nightmare of it but being the ever-resilient, disciplined and really civilized Japanese, it’s not very difficult for them to unite and rebuild their nation. (Had it took place to a different nation, you are able to wager on rampant looting and chaos as panic sets in; however the Japanese remained level-headed within the midst of it all.) Maybe that is why regardless of a lot of foreigners wanting to obtain out of Japan rapid, numerous made a decision to stay to assist inside the recovery and would not quit their job there.

Undeniably, one of the hardest hit sectors is their economic system. The market evidently suffered a sharp decline while in the height in the radiation concern nevertheless it returned on course around the following several days, albeit steadily.

Regardless of what took place to them while in the previous, Japan’s financial system seems to be heading to an additional economic bubble. There’s no doubt that 1000s of enterprises have been hit (instantly or indirectly) through the catastrophe. But shortly they will nonetheless should select up where they left off and begin anew.

Inspite of each of the challenges they deal with, Japan can nevertheless appear forward with aspiration. This just could possibly be the chance for his or her politics and financial state (which are both on the stalemate for many decades) to enter a long-overdue progress. The Bank of Japan is supplying to release a stimulus to finance the nation’s street to recovery.

With all of the building that could be heading all over while in the near long run, it could get started a growth while in the financial system as lots of individuals will probably be involved in the do the job. Providers will need much more employees to help keep up with the price they really should create a structure, for instance.

The truth is, a lot of traders are eyeing Japanese stock market place for any enormous probable to make earnings for them, from the extended run, which is. They are considering the long-term advantage of getting low cost stocks and waiting for the market to rise.

The stigma through the Chernobyl incident while in the previous may have triggered an overreaction on the rest of your globe. Constantly checking radiation amounts in their vicinity; advising citizens to pull out from Japan; and banning food products allegedly made up of large levels of radiation. But when the nuclear power plant challenge concluded, these are expected to flip close to.

Perhaps, we will count on the fact that Japan’s economic system can bounce back from tragedy and also its people. Then the Land of the Rising Sun can nonetheless look and feel forward to a lively trade.

Atlantic International Partnership (AIP) offers a comprehensive service giving you, AIP investors and entrepreneurs access to Marketplaces in your region and around the World.

AIP investors are uniquely dynamic individuals or groups of individuals. AIP investors invest their capital in new or early stage companies. We have found that AIP investors are not a source of capital alone but we have found them to make excellent mentors. As most AIP investors are in fact successful entrepreneurs or business people themselves we have found that they are able to offer entrepreneurs advice and helpful suggestions based on the experience that they have accumulated from their own businesses.

by Atlantic International