Bible Money Matters » finance

5 Things About Money I Wish I Would Have Known When I Was Younger

Guest Poster — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:48:27 +0000

Sam Ewing, who used to play baseball for the Chicago White Sox, once said, “Inflation is when you pay fifteen dollars for the ten-dollar haircut you used to get for five dollars when you had hair.”

Many of us may feel that we can never quite catch up with our money, but one thing is certain: There are many things about money that we probably wish we had known when we were younger. For those of you who are still young or even young at heart, here are five things about money that you should probably think about.

1. Compound Interest

If you can save money at a young age and invest it in a quality mutual fund, you can become a millionaire by the age of 58 with only a small investment. That’s the beauty of compound interest.

Consider this scenario: Beginning at the age of 19, Jane invests $2000 per year ($167 per month) into a mutual fund with a 12% rate of return. She continues to invest $2000 per year into that same fund until she reaches the age of 26. From the age of 27 on, she invests nothing. This gives her a total out-of-pocket investment of $16,000. By the time she is 58, her $16,000 investment will have turned into $1,035,425! It can be difficult to find a fund consistently earning 12%, but even if it is only 10% the power of compound interest still works quite well!

2. Learn to Use a Monthly Budget

A monthly budget is the single most powerful tool you can use to keep tabs on your money. If you aren’t able to see where your money is going each month, you’ll have no way of knowing where you’re overspending or where you need to change your spending habits.

3. Just Say NO to Credit Cards

Remember what we said about compound interest? Well, credit card companies love compound interest. In fact, many of these companies charge interest rates of over 18%. Pretty good return on the money they’re loaning out, isn’t it? The single biggest problem with credit cards is that when you max out the card and only make minimum payments, it will take you forever to pay off the card and the interest that you pay will be much higher than what you originally owed. Even the best credit card rewards don’t make up for all the interest paid if you are paying monthly miniums. Instead use a cashback debit card like Perkstreet Financial which pays just about as much as any credit card rewards.

4. Cash is King

If you budget your money and set specific goals, you’ll be able to use cash for all of your purchases. If you use cash for big-ticket items, you have bargaining power. Most people in the U.S. are afraid to bargain with retailers. Doesn’t it seem strange that when you travel to almost any other country in the world, marketers actually expect you to dicker?

When you bring cash into the store it does a couple of things. First, using cash gives you a sense of the value of the item. It’s much harder to part with the dollars than it is to just put it on a credit card. Guess what? Retailers know this. People who use credit cards for purchases are much more likely to buy more. Basically, it doesn’t hurt as much when you use a card. When you count out that cash to pay for an item, it’s kind of like saying good-bye to a good friend.

Cash enhances your bargaining ability. When the salesperson tells you the price of the item in question, the first thing you can ask is, whether or not you can get a discount for using cash. The answer is usually yes. If it isn’t, you can always go to a store where it is. Using cash also puts a top-end amount that you’re willing to spend. If the item is higher in price than what you have, you can always tell the salesperson that you only have x-amount of dollars. It may take a couple of trips to the manager’s office, but most of the time, you’ll be able to negotiate the price of the item down to what you have.

5. Save Early and Save Often

It’s much easier to save money when you’re young. If you’re in your mid or late teens, you probably live with your parents. This means you have no real living expenses. If you have a job, you can put most of your paycheck into savings or investments. Remember what we said about compound interest? Put your money in a quality mutual fund and be ready to retire early.

Another reason to start saving early is to establish it as a normal habit. Once you’re out of your parents’ house, it’ll be much harder to save. If you’ve established saving as an important goal, you’ll be much more likely to continue a habit that you’ve started early on.

Many of us wish we could have “do overs” in our life. The way we handle money is usually one of them. If you’re still young, begin practicing the items listed above and reap the rewards as you get older.

This article is by Bob Lotich who writes for ChristianPF.com – a blog that looks at personal finance using Biblical principles.

This article was written by Guest Poster. We love guest contributors here at Bible Money Matters. Would you like to write for us as well? Please check out out our guest post submission guidelines and then contact us with your post idea!

How To Get A Spouse To Start Budgeting

Craig Ford — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:00:05 +0000

This post is by Craig Ford. Craig, a freelance writer and missionary, blogs at Money Help For Christians. Today is the last day that you can get a copy Craig’s eBook, The Secret to a Successful Budget for 30% off.

Married couples don’t always see eye to eye. If you’re married, you didn’t need me to tell you that .

When I started writing about making a budget and answering budgeting related questions, I found that people often struggle with a spouse who won’t get on board with the finances.

The usual response is a full frontal attack. One partner digs his or her heals in and pushes, and pushes, and pushes until they get their desired results – the spouse to start budgeting. Not only is this approach extremely damaging for a marriage, it is also highly ineffective. You might get your spouse on board, but they may mentally distance themselves from you.

Instead, a better approach is to subtly try and come alongside your spouse and gently lead them in the right direction.

4 Effective Steps for Getting Your Spouse to Start Budgeting

1. Dream together.

Dreaming about your future is the best way to motivate a spouse to start budgeting. Block off an evening and have a nice dinner together. After dinner, take time to walk and ask each other – where do you picture us in 10 years? What will we be doing?

Most dreams have financial implications. Leave those implications for another time. Enjoy the evening.

Later, follow up with your spouse by proceeding to step two.

2. Introduce the benefits.

Nagging and critiquing never helps improve someone’s willingness or attitude, but kind affirmative words always provide the right structure for having a financial discussion.

Don’t say – I’ve asked you a hundred times to keep your receipts and track your spending.

The problem: It is accusatory and will automatically make the other person feel defensive.

Try: I think I’ve found a way for us to afford that Europe vacation we talked about the other night. It’s going to require us to change our spending, but I really think we can do it.

3. Search for middle ground.

Most married couples consist of one free spirit and one geek. The geek typically takes the lead when it comes to budgeting. The geek then sets up an elaborate budgeting system with 457 budget categories. As the geek explains the new budgeting process, the free spirit feels more and more overwhelmed. Nothing in this plan sounds like any fun. Can geeks and free spirits ever find middle ground?

Don’t say – I’ve already set up the budget on the computer so you need to enter your expenses.

The problem: There is no discussion about budgeting preferences and systems that work. One party has made a decision without including the other, and they expect the other to follow ‘their’ pattern.

Try: I’ve done a little research and found that there are five good ways that we could budget. Perhaps we could find some time this week to choose the budgeting system that works best for our personalities?

4. Share victories.

This is similar to introducing the benefits, but now you’ll actually share positive results. Let’s say that your spouse is still hesitant about budgeting. Implement some of the changes yourself and share those positive results.

Say: Guess what, sweetie? I started to keep a grocery budget this month and I was able to save $50 on groceries. I’ve opened up a new bank account and we now have $50 towards our Europe vacation.

Remember, direct confrontation in marriage is rarely effective. Instead, try and come alongside your spouse and gently lead them in the right direction.

What suggestions do you have for getting a spouse on board? Have any of you ever experienced this struggle?

This article was written by Craig Ford. Craig is a fulltime missionary in Papua New Guinea who writes Money Help For Christians and Help Me Travel Cheap, a frugal family travel blog. He is the author of Money Wisdom From Proverbs, has a Masters of Divinity degree, and (most importantly) eats homemade pizza with his family every Friday night.

How To Get Free Financial Help Online

Jason Price — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 12:00:37 +0000

I’ve talked a lot over at One Money Design about my personal experience as a Money Map Coach and often share how this FREE program is a helpful resource for people experiencing financial challenges.

In short, the coaching services are FREE and available through Crown Financial Ministries. Crown is dedicated to equipping people worldwide to learn teach God’s financial principles.

Money Map Coaching

If you’re not familiar with Money Map Coaching, there are two key components that make it so helpful to people.

First, coaches help people learn what the Bible says about money and how to honor the Lord in finances. As a Christian, it’s important to realize God is the owner of everything (including money) and it’s our job to manage money wisely. If you understand these two principles (ownership and financial stewardship) your financial journey is positively impacted forever.

Second, coaches help you apply practical tools to your financial situation and identify where you are on the Crown Money Map journey. The Money Map is a proven 7 step plan to reaching true financial freedom (the final destination). At this final destination, you have a fully funded retirement along with other investments and no longer depend on full-time work. Reaching this destination enables you to be more generous with your time and money.

Online Coaching

But, there is more to Money Map Coaching than just the in-person service. On a recent Crown MoneyLife radio program, I listened to Chuck Bentley interview Jocelin Boutet who is the Crown Money Map Coach Manager.

Jocelin talked about an area of Money Map coaching that I honestly don’t have much experience with, but I think it’s a valuable resource for people. It’s the online Money Map coaching service that is available through the Crown website.

With online coaching you can go online and talk real-time (depending on the time of day) with a Money Map coach to get your financial questions answered. The resource is completely anonymous, so you can ask questions without someone knowing your identity unless you choose to disclose it.

For example, let’s say you’re having a difficult time determining whether or not you should get a new car. Perhaps your existing car is having mechanical trouble. Do you need an objective opinion from another Christian who understands Biblical truths about money? Or, someone who can point you to some practical tools to help plan your way? If so, take your question to an online coach who can help answer it in a matter of minutes.

Jocelin mentioned she once spoke to a pastor who was concerned about visiting with a Money Map Coach who also attended his church. In other words, as the pastor he was uncomfortable revealing his financial challenges to another church member. Well, the privacy of the online program proved to be a great resource for this pastor and served the same needs as in-person coaching.

How Does Online Coaching Work?

It’s actually very easy to get started. Just visit the Crown Money Map coaching page and click on the online coaching link. You’ll need to agree to the disclaimer and then you’re chat session with a coach will begin.

There are over 100 online coaches ready to work with you and help you with your finances. Remember, this can be a great FREE way to help you with a tough financial decision, find a Biblical financial reference, and learn more about where you are on the Money Map journey and how to make forward progress.

What do you think about these FREE financial services?

This article was written by Jason Price. Jason Price is a personal finance writer at One Money Design and a Money Map Coach. His mission is helping people achieve true financial freedom. He provides practical tips for managing money wisely and shares Biblical financial principles. Beyond personal finance, Jason enjoys spending time with his family and playing soccer. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

Family Finance: Top Mistakes Young Families Make

Jason Price — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:44:48 +0000

Singles finance and family finance differ quite a bit. I’ve learned that well over the past 5 1/2 years (our oldest child is now 5 1/2). My personal experience has shown there are more spending pressures and overall expenses when you have a young family. Examples include birthday parties, swim lessons, dance lessons, clothes, toys, doctor’s visits for runny noses and coughs, camps and trips to the ice cream shop.

As our children get older the needs and expenses are certain to change even more. My advice for singles who want to someday have a family (as well as for married couples without kids) is to take advantage of a less complicated situation and use this time wisely to set your finances in order.

Whether you’re single and want to prepare for the future, or have a young family, Smart Money recently mentioned 6 mistakes young families make with their finances. I think if you can insure you have a plan around each of these areas, you’re sure to be heading in the right direction.

Carrying Too Much Debt

Smart Money says it’s okay to have some debt, but to avoid carrying too much debt. I actually disagree with this approach. While most people have debt, it doesn’t mean it’s okay to have it lingering around limiting your ability to achieve other goals such as saving for retirement. Work to get out of debt and make a solid commitment to stop going into car debt or carrying over credit card balances from month to month. Strive to avoid debt rather than avoid carrying too much debt.

Poor Budgeting

Budgeting always gets such a negative response, but it’s just a matter of smart planning. Without a plan or budget people will tend to freely or impulsively spend and lose sight of saving, investing, giving and other important things to do with money each month. A budget helps stop impulse buying.

Could the absence of a budget be as a bad as debt? Well maybe not, but it definitely has an impact on spending and might result in using a credit card to make up the difference month to month.

A close cousin to the debt problem is poor budgeting. Young couples tend to underestimate their expenses by 20%

Not Saving For Retirement

Getting an employer match on your 401(k) is free money and should be the minimum you invest for retirement. However, you should only invest if you’re able to make progress on getting out of debt and saving money for emergencies. Not having the ability to save for retirement is just another solid reason to get out of debt.

Many young couples just can’t get their heads around the importance of saving for retirement. While they focus on short-term goals, such as saving for a new minivan, they fail to max out their 401(k), or even contribute enough to qualify for their employer’s match

Not Having Enough Insurance

Life insurance can be tricky, especially if you’re good buddy is trying to sell you a policy. Most families simply need term life insurance. The savings whole life suggests is typically at low interest rates that don’t make it worth it.

There’s a lot of bad advice out there on insurance. Perhaps that’s why so many young couples are under insured. The most common error people make is that they buy expensive products, like whole life insurance, for too little coverage.

Not Saving For Children’s Education

It scares me to think about the price of college in the future. This is an area we’ve personally lagged behind in as we’ve been wrestling with savings and getting out of car debt. But it’s definitely an important savings step to get started as soon as you can. This goal should come after you have a well established emergency fund, are out of debt and maxing out your retirement.

SmartMoney.com projects that, in 18 years, a four-year private university education will cost more than $300,000.

Not Enough Emergency Savings

I can completely relate to to trying to build up an emergency savings while supporting a young family. It’s hard sometimes with all the expenses I mentioned in the introduction. But, we’re making progress. As I said, singles, get your savings established now as there will be more expenses to consider later in life.

You’ve heard it before: Everyone should set aside three to six months of salary for a rainy day. That way, there should be enough to live on in case of an unexpected job loss or medical emergency. Unfortunately, this can feel like an impossible goal for folks with small kids. Who has that kind of cash saved up after buying a new home or car or paying for childcare? Don’t let the difficulty of the task dissuade you from trying. In a weak job market, it’s more important than ever to create an emergency account. Remember, every little bit counts.

So, what do you think about these financial mistakes young families make? If you have a plan around each of them, would you feel more confident around your financial situation?

A Small Business Wonder: Review Of OutRight.com

John Frainee — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:59:53 +0000

If you have a small business, the last thing you want to do is focus on accounting. Instead, you probably would rather focus on your work – what you love to do for a living! Accounting has been one of those business tasks that usually gets put on the back-burner.

For those of us who dread accounting on our small business financials, OutRight.com aims to ease the pain. I’ve been trying out this free service for a few months, and I can tell you that it is truly remarkable for the price. Their trademark is “free yourself from accounting,” and that it does.

From their website:

Outright records your income and expenses automatically, categorizes the transactions to maximize deductions, and prepares your estimated and end of year taxes, so you can get back to the work you love.

Yep. It does that. And so much more.

The focus of their marketing is that the average entrepreneur doesn’t have time to track every single transaction they make – let alone calculate estimated taxes and all possible deductions. It’s true. I remember when I was first starting my work at TheChristianDollar.com there was an overwhelming amount of info on how to conduct the business end of things.

You can truly automate your income and expense tracking by syncing your credit cards and PayPal accounts – perfect for bloggers and online business people. You can also manually enter transactions the old-fashioned way if you like.

Income and Outgo Automagically

When you enter the main window of OutRight.com, you are presented with a beautiful graph of your income vs. your expenses. Your profit is clearly shown and any notices (such as upcoming estimated tax submission deadlines) are displayed in the “Upcoming Events” section.

Reports are important, and OutRight gives you several ways to review how your business has been doing. First, you can view profit and loss by month, quarter, or by year. Second, you can view who your most valuable customers are. This will allow you to prioritize your pursuits as you do business.

One great advantage of this website is that it allows you to have your bookkeeper or accountant to have access. Simply invite them by email, and you’ll have everything nice and tidy when tax time rolls around.

Accuracy and Security All-In-One

You may be concerned that OutRight might not properly estimate your taxes owed. To this, OutRight responds:

Because every person’s tax situation is different, we cannot provide an estimated tax calculation that is guaranteed to be accurate. Instead, we provide a conservative guidance based on the following:

We calculate your businesses profit through the end of the IRS quarter (or through today’s date if the quarter hasn’t ended.) For example, if you were to look at the taxes page on June 10, you would see profit – or loss – through May 31, which is the end of the second quarter for IRS purposes.

We then calculate the self employment tax (which consists of social security and medicare contributions) using the latest IRS rates.

To the self-employment tax, we add your business income tax. For this, we simply use the marginal tax rate based on the profit to date. For businesses earning higher income, this may result in a higher tax payment than using the average rate, but we figure it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Finally, and most importantly, your business info is secure at OutRight. Your information is secured by encryption and backed up hourly just in case the site goes down.

These advantages have made OutRight.com a true help for me and my business. I recommend any small business owner to head over to OutRight.com right now and check out the services they have to offer. You’ll be glad you did!

What’s your favorite accounting program? Do you have any tips and tricks for automating your small business finances?

This article was written by John Frainee. John Frainee is a personal finance writer at TheChristianDollar.com. His goal is to provide biblical financial principles that encourage people to live healthier lives. Beyond personal finance, John enjoys spending time with his wife and two crazy cats, playing a competitive game of Monopoly, and reading just about anything he can get his hands on. You can also find him on Twitter and Facebook.

3 Steps To Easily Pay Your Bills On Time

John Frainee — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:42:38 +0000

Upon contemplating how to implement our first budget, I ran into an inevitable problem: how to cash flow monthly expenditures. Having worked in retail for large corporations, I understood that other people had a similar problem. When it came time to pay their bill, some would say, “Well, I don’t get paid until Friday. Can I make partial payments?” I had to find a way to avoid this problem and stay current with all of our bills.

Perhaps you have the same issue. You can’t quite figure out how to easily pay all of your bills on time. Or maybe you’re dealing with stress from barely making enough money to pay your bills in the first place. Things can get twice as complicated when you have a variable income. What do you do at that point?

There are three steps you can implement so that you can easily pay all your bills on time:

Use this month’s income to pay next month’s bills. This is the most reliable way to make sure you have the cash to pay all your bills on time. To get to the point where this becomes feasible, you must drop your expenses and raise your income to have this “1-month cash buffer.” You know that you have enough money to get this system in place once you can pay all of this month’s bills on the 1st of this month. Allow me to explain. During the month of May, we wrote down all of our paychecks in a list and at the end of the month we totaled that list. Whatever the total was, we budgeted it for the month of June. That way, we spent only the money we had ACTUALLY HAD in our checking account. As June progresses, we will only be spending the amount of income we had in the month of May. Meanwhile, June’s income will be filling our checking account which will prepare us for July. This method assumes that you have at least one paycheck a month. If you’re commission-based, you may want to budget according to averaged timeframes. To understand other ways this helps you pay your bills on time click here!
Prioritize your expenditures. When you have variable income this is especially important. Start by writing your list as expenses pop into your mind. When you’ve maxed out your list, put check marks next to the items that are essentials (things you need for survival). For example: Food, Shelter, Utilities, Transportation, Reasonable Clothing, etc. Put these items on the top of a second list and order them according to your specific situation. Then add all the non-essentials (things that help you live a productive life and enjoy life). Prioritize these things as well. In the end, you should have a master list. Cash flow your income to pay for these expenses in this prioritized order.
Create 7-day advance reminders for all non-auto-pay bills. Of course, you want to make sure you set up auto-pay for all bills you can. For those bills you can’t, use a reminder system such as Things to keep you on track. I use 7 days as a rule of thumb, but you can adjust as needed. Once your reminder pops up, stop everything you’re doing and pay that bill!

There you have it. Follow these three steps and you’re on your way to paying bills with ease.

How do you currently pay your bills on time? What are some tips and tricks you use to effectively manage your budget?

Should Your Finances Be In Order Before Having Children?

Jason Price — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:59:57 +0000

You might be surprised by my response to this question. But in general, I don’t think you should plan having children around your finances or financial situation. In other words, I do not think finances have to be in order to have children.

Now I know there are some exceptions in which a child couldn’t receive the medical care or food needed for survival if there wasn’t some sort of firm financial foundation or income. But then again, by whose standards of living am I basing that statement? There are people with children in other parts of this world without the standards we’re accustomed to having. Although there are struggles, many children survive fine.

Why your finances don’t have to be in order

Okay, so back to my initial thought. Why do I feel this way? Simple…

Having children is a blessed part of life. If you’re considering starting a family let me tell you there is never a perfect time to do so. Truthfully, the only perfect timing is God’s timing. If you use finances as an excuse you’ll certainly find something holding you back. A financial excuse could also block God’s plans for you as it relates to children.

Let’s just consider for a moment you have no debt and your emergency savings is fully funded. You could still conclude you don’t have your retirement fund established , or perhaps your home paid off.

No, there is not a financially ideal time until perhaps you’ve reached the point of financial freedom and all financial goals are achieved. But even at that point, I suppose you could reason you don’t have enough time and resources for children because you’re focused on giving to others.

How far do you take achieving financial goals before making the decision to have a child? I don’t think there is a good answer and therefore, I don’t believe you can ever apply what I refer to as a financial child birth formula.

Do finances fit anywhere into the picture of having children?

While I don’t think finances should deter or stop you from having children, I do think there are some wise financial things to do in order to prepare.

Lifestyle adjustments

The best approach to prepare for having children, in my opinion is to focus on adjusting lifestyle. Ultimately, I believe people should have children and adjust their lifestyle accordingly. By adjusting lifestyle you can still make progress towards financial goals and enjoy the blessing of having a child.

Perhaps you’re diagnosed with a condition that required additional expenses to treat each month. You might be forced into a lifestyle change in order to continue to make forward progress with paying off debt, etc. The same approach holds true with having a child.

Emergency savings

You can either build an emergency savings, or create a separate cash savings for children. Having cash on-hand is helpful. There are many expenses that come up that are sometimes unplanned with young children. Having an extra savings fund available to draw upon from is helpful in those cases.

But guess how much emergency savings I had when we had our first child? Zero, yes, zero. It would have been helpful, but it’s not necessary. Again, a lifestyle adjustment would ideally allow you to build an emergency savings while raising children.

Insurance

Buy the most insurance you can afford. As the father of two young children, I can tell you that you will want the best coverage that fits within your budget. You might be able to save on insurance premiums later, but good coverage early can help cover pregnancy, delivery, hospital and other medical costs.

One household income

Live off one household income. I feel very blessed my wife and I made the decision when we did to sacrifice and learn to live off of my income. It took some adjusting (again lifestyle adjustments), but we made it work. As an aside, I love the fact that my children are able to spend each day with my wife. This is an opportunity for my wife to instill into them our Christian values.

Reduce or eliminate debt

Of course, it’s helpful to reduce or eliminate debt. Looking back, we paid off debt to make living off one household income possible. But if you’re unable to pay off debt prior to having your child, you can look to cut out big expenses which might include driving used versus new.

Pray

Finally, set everything aside and just turn to God. It may be within God’s plan for you to have a child now. And even if your finances are not in order you have to be open and responsive to God’s plan for your life. You have to trust He will provide.

Final thoughts

Don’t sacrifice having a child, which is one of the rich’s blessings in life, over accomplishing financial goals and having a perfect financial situation. Remember the path to financial freedom is a life-time journey. Life will bring many new things along the journey. Certainly, we have to take wise steps to prepare, but most importantly we have to learn to adjust and modify our plans around these blessed events. And of course, you can still achieve financial freedom with children.

What are your thoughts on having your finances in order before having children?

How A Little Blogging Insider Information Can Help You Find Trusted Financial Information Online

Craig Ford — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:55:32 +0000

Isn’t the web an amazing thing? This blog would certainly be a different thing without the net. Because there is so much information online it is occasionally hard to know where to go for accurate financial information.

Peter just finished off a fantastic series on How To Make Money With A Blog. Non-bloggers can also learn some important information from some of those posts because a little insider blogging information can actually help you find good financial resources online..

How to Find Trustworthy Financial Information Online

Lessons from SEO and Niche Websites

Since I’ve started blogging I’ve learned a little bit about SEO – Search Engine Optimization. SEO is basically the best words and phrases to use to get people to visit your website through a search engine. In the process of learning about SEO I also learned that it can be lucrative to set up something called ‘niche websites’.

What is a niche website?

A niche website is a website that was designed specifically to appeal to a very small target audience. This blog, for example, is not a niche website. It deals with all things financial. If, however, this were a website that focused only on Christian Debt Consolidation and used those words in the name of my blog, then that would be a niche website.

Niche websites can get good traffic because they focus on a very specific keyword – Christian debt consolidation. Since that name is in their blog title they have added search weight. They then ‘manipulate’ the rankings by exchanging, requesting, or linking to that website.

Why offline wisdom doesn’t work online

If you were looking for a lawyer to help with your property tax issues you would want to find a lawyer who specializes in that topic. If you were looking for a doctor to operate on your brain you would want to find a brain surgeon.

However, the niche websites are often set up because they are profitable. Thus, the sole criteria for starting a niche website is – can I make money doing if? When you visit a niche website you are not getting an individual who specializes in a topic. Instead, you are getting a person who learned the least amount of information possible on the topic, wrote 30-40 articles, and is now just waiting to milk this cash cow. A person who does niche websites will have dozens or hundreds of websites.

Trust Financial Advice From Trusted Websites

Google (and other search engines) does try and help you find trusted material. However, they determine trust (rank) based primarily on the number of back links.

Let’s say I like an article at One Money Design (another staff writer for Bible Money Matters) so I link to that article. I’ve just helped One Money Design’s trust or rank. Those who set up niche websites exchange links with other ‘illegitimate’ websites. Joe is doing this niche website. Steve is doing that niche website. Joe and Steve exchange links – Joe links to Steve, Steve links to Joe, and both get an improved rank with Google. But, neither Joe nor Steve necessarily produced anything valuable. Joe can then contact another website and say, “If you link to me I’ll give you $10”. This link improves the trust of Joe’s site.

When it comes to financial resources I would not trust information that comes from a ‘niche website’. The site has only been designed with the intention that you would visit the site, click on an ad, and then go on your merry way.

How do you Find Trusted Financial Websites:

Of course on option is to visit professionally owned and branded websites – wall street journal, yahoo finance, msn money. However, sometimes these larger sites lack the personal feel most readers value.

Visit the Wisebread Top 100 Personal Finance Blogs (interestingly, a list with about 400). For sure all of the sites listed in the top half of this list are legitimate financial sites. This does not mean these writers are not making money. It does not mean they are right. It simply means they have dealt with a large variety of personal finance topics and real people somewhere find their information helpful.

Who is the author or site sponsor?

If a blogger maintains a blog, he or she is typically quite open about saying this is me and I run this site. Anonymity is a bad sign. For example, if you went to my about page you could learn some personal information as well as some information about the purpose of my blog. If there is not an about page or site sponsor information, it is more likely just a site designed to get you to visit for advertisement purposes.

What is the website title?

Again, a specific ‘niche’ title is usually a bad sign. If you search for bankruptcy you may see howtofilebankruptcy.com. Want to guess what this website will tell you? Instead, look for something like Should a Christian file bankruptcy on a site like Money Help For Christians. You know this is a person who deals with other financial topics who will present his or her honest opinion on the topic.

How often is the site updated?

Niche websites typically get a group of articles posted and move on to other projects. You know a website with updated information is still offering current and valuable information.

Look for comments

Comments are a sign that others are reading this information and at least on a ‘human’ level, people are interacting with the content.

What do other sources say about the topic?

When you look under the comments section there may be something that says ‘trackbacks’. A trackback means someone else out in cyberspace linked to that article. That is usually a good sign because another person online decided it is good enough to include it on his or her own site.

Time and Trust

It takes time to build a trustworthy site. Older sites should inherently get more trust. Under the archive section you can know how long someone has been blogging. While this does not mean you should ignore younger blogs, it does mean that, just like a friendship, trust takes time to build.

Do you have your own tips for finding trusted financial information online? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!

Fraud, Identity Theft Grow At ATMs

50 Personal Finance Bloggers To Watch In 2010

Peter Anderson — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:05:32 +0000

Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger.net recently hosted a guest post that gave a list of 30 Bloggers To Watch In 2010. After the post went live Darren gave a challenge to others in the blogosphere to make their own lists of bloggers to watch in their own niches. I decided to join in the fun!

My list contains a lot of newer blogs, and blogs that have hit their stride in the past year. All of them are valuable additions to your RSS reader. Some of the bigger blogs in the personal finance niche may not appear, but that’s OK as you’ve probably already heard of them anyway!

If you want to follow these people, and over 200 others in the personal finance niche, check out my personal finance twitter list! So without further ado, here’s my list of 50 Personal Finance Bloggers To Watch in 2010.

50 Personal Finance Bloggers To Watch in 2010

This list isn’t in any particular order, I’ve just listed 50 of my most favorite personal finance blogs of the past year who I expect big things from in 2010.

Punch Debt In The Face: This site has been one of my favorites this year just because the author always makes me smile with his hilarious drawings, and biting take on personal finance topics. Recent post: My 401k Is Gonna Be Pissed!
Wealth Pilgrim: Neal at Wealth Pilgrim is one of the smartest guys in the PF blogosphere, and he’s a nice guy to boot. He’s got a ton of great content, and just put out an ebook! Read his inspiring story first: My Story.
Budgets Are Sexy: Another blogger that has taken off this past year, because of his insightful posts, helpful resources, and creative look at finances. Favorite post: Scratch Off Lottery Project.
Good Financial Cents: Jeff is a certified financial planner and all around tough guy! He’s served our country in Iraq, and now he’s serving us all by giving us the best personal finance content! Top 135+ Personal Finance Posts of 2009.
Oblivious Investor: If you want good information on investing, visit this site. ‘Nuff said. Post: How to Rollover Your 401k into a Roth IRA
One Money Design: Christian personal finance site that makes you think about the impact faith should have on your finances. FYI: Jason also writes for this site. Post: What The Bible Says About Money.
Financial Highway: Ray has been one of the more prolific writers in the PF world this year, with guest posts on several of the biggest blogs. His site rocks too: 5 Tips For Effective Goal Setting.
Free From Broke: One of my favorite blogs, and a great guy! Post: Why Should I Keep Dumping Money Into My Old Car Or Other Old Junk?
PT Money: Phil over at PTMoney hit his stride this year with a ton of great posts, a new design, and his awesome article that was passed around everywhere, including MSN Money: 52 Ways To Make Extra Money.
Enemy of Debt: An inspirational read, especially if you’re trying to get out of debt: People Need An Excuse To Spend Money, And They’re Eager To Find One.
Personal Finance Notebook: A newer blog that I’ve been enjoying reading. Big things in 2010! Five Keys to a Successful Budget.
My Next Buck: Brian’s blog has been gaining steam, especially with his latest guest series: Friday Financial Foul Ups.
Debt Free Adventure: Matt has been everywhere this year doing posts for some of the biggest PF bloggers, and building up his own great site. Plus he’s one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet: 3 Ways to Get Started Investing with $1,000 or Less.
GenXFinance: Jeremy is a truly funny guy, but also is extremely smart when it comes to all things financial: Are You a Credit Card Junkie? Learn How to Kick the Habit.
Redeeming Riches: Jason is an other great Christian personal finance blogger, and has a lot of thought provoking posts: Should You Give Money To A Homeless Person?
Cash Money Life: Ryan has a great site, with tons of great money saving information. Don’t forget to check out his deals page. Post: The Most Important Financial Goals for 2010.
Financial Samurai: I’ve only discovered the Samurai recently, and he’s not shy about voicing his opinions. Recent post: Be A Sloth and Don’t ROTH – Why Converting To A ROTH Is A Mistake!
Deliver Away Debt: A blog by a guy delivering pizzas to help get rid of his debt. Recent post: Pay 401K Loan or High Interest Loan.
Frugal Dad: Jason has one of the best personal finance and frugality blogs out there. Recent post: Delaying Roth IRA Contributions One Year Could Cost You $74,000 .
Money Help For Christians: Another staff writer for this site, Craig also has his own great personal finance blog. Recent post: 8 Benefits of a Fully Funded Emergency Fund.
Darwin’s Finance: Solid personal finance advice, with an interesting twist. Recent post: Get Off Your Butt and Do Something Quick and Easy to Improve Your Finances!
You Have More Than You Think: Shawanda’s blog is one of my favorite new personal finance blogs. Recent post: Budgets Aren’t Suppose to Work. You Are.
Canadian Finance: If you’re a Canadian, this is one of the better Canadian finance blogs. Recent post: What’s Yours Is Mine: Consolidating Your Debts After Marriage.
Own The Dollar: A great new personal finance blog I’ve enjoyed reading the past few months. Recent post: How To Choose a Life Insurance Plan that Meets Your Needs and Budget.
Christian Personal Finance: One of the inspirations for this blog, and still one of the best. Recent post: How To Make Money Blogging.
Money Energy: Great content, and very active in social media. Recent post: Have You Made Your Financial Plan For 2010?
The Debt Hawk: Another great debt blog and another great story of getting out of debt. Recent post: Getting Student Loans Can Be Career Suicide.
Joe Taxpayer: Great blog for investing topics, and another helpful blogger! Recent post: Can the Market Make You Rich?
Fiscal Fizzle: Spicy personal finance thoughts from a new daddy! Recent post: 6 Important Tasks After a New Baby’s Birth.
Fiscal Geek: Great personal finance content, along with some creative hacking posts. Recent post: The A-Team talks about the Roth 401k vs. Traditional 401ks.
Mrs Micah: Mrs. Micah is one of the most helpful bloggers out there, and she writes from the heart. Recent post: Why I Don’t Want to Retire Early.
Studenomics: Students who are worried about finances, pay attention to this blogger! Recent post: 5 Steps to Get You Hired as an English Teacher Abroad.
Green Panda Treehouse: Great personal finance blog for college students and recent grads. Recent post: What Comic Book Characters Taught Me About Personal Finance.
No Debt Plan: Kevin at No Debt Plan is a great guy, and his posts are insightful. Recent post: Your Spouse: Financial Teammate or Financial Enemy?
Amateur Asset Allocator: Kyle talks about all facets of personal finance from credit cards to investing. Recent post: Using Your Credit Card Costs You!
Being Frugal: Lynnae writes about personal finance topics from the viewpoint of a mom, and frugal queen. Recent post: 101 Ways to Cut Your Spending This Year
Moolanomy: Pinyo was very helpful to me when I was a new blogger. His site gives top notch personal finance advice. Recent post: Do You Have To Pay Taxes On Unemployment Income?
Four Pillars: Four Pillars is another popular Canadian finance blog, and the advice is second to none. Recent post: Threats As A Negotiation Strategy.
Debt Kid: Debt Kid has an amazing story of how he acquired his debt, and how he’s trying to get out. Recent post: 11 Alternative Investment Options for 2010
The Wisdom Journal: Ron really does impart a lot of wisdom on his site, and you’d do well to subscribe. Recent post: Top 5 Personal Finance Resolutions
ManVsDebt: It seems that world traveler Baker has been showing up on all the popular lists, and how could I not mention him again? Recent post: Tyler Durden’s Guide To Personal Finance.
SquawkFox: Kerry, the Fox from SquawkFox.com is a fitness, personal finance and photography guru. Check out her new book too! Recent post: 10 Frugal Ways to get Fit this Winter.
Dough Roller: The Dough Roller is the man when it comes to good personal finance and blogging advice. Recent post: 11 Smart Money Moves to Supercharge Your Finances
Million Dollar Journey: Another Canadian blogger, the frugal trader gives solid investment and finance advice. Recent post: Early Retirement Series
Money Crashers: Money Crashers is a good read, and they’re currently hosting a huge giveaway! Recent post: Important Tax Dates To Remember
Tough Money Love: I love the no-nonsense advice given out on this site. Fools will not be suffered. Recent post: The Unemployed Flocking to Grad School – A Bad Idea that Won’t Die
LenPenzo.com: Len has a different take on life, and his posts are always entertaining. Especially love the movie reviews! Recent post: The Only New Year’s Resolution That Really Matters
My Dollar Plan: Madison has quietly grown My Dollar Plan to be one of the leading personal finance blogs. Recent post: 35 Best Personal Finance Books
Saving To Invest: Andy’s site has become one of my first stops for information about taxes, tax deductions and stimulus info. Recent post: Health Care Bill Hits Married Couples Harder
Suburban Dollar: Kyle writes about personal finance from the viewpoint of a normal suburban dad, and does it well. Recent post: The Art of Delayed Gratification

So there you have it. My list of the top 50 personal finance blogs to watch in 2010. If those aren’t enough blogs, head on over to WiseBread.com’s Top 100+ Personal Finance Blogs list. There are a ton of other great blogs there to check out!

Thanks for stopping by! Before you go, please subscribe to this site via RSS or email, and follow us on twitter and facebook!

Have some other great personal finance blogs for everyone to check out? Feel slighted that you weren’t included? Leave a comment with your url below, and we’ll make sure it gets approved!

This article was written by Peter Anderson. Peter Anderson is a Christian, husband to his beautiful wife Maria, and father to his baby boy, Carter. He loves reading and writing about personal finance, and also loves a brisk game of tennis every now and again. You can find out more about him on the about page or check out his design site at http://www.logosforwebsites.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at @moneymatters.

Do You Have Financial Purpose Or Do You Just Manage Your Money?

Craig Ford — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:11:25 +0000

Steven Covey makes an important distinction between leaders and managers.

Leaders are those who have vision and direction.

Managers simply master the art of doing ‘it’ better and more efficiently.

Covey offers the following illustration:

The managers are those who are finding better swinging movements to cut more branches with less effort while the leader is the one climbing to the top of the tree to see if they are in the right forest and to see if they are heading the right direction.

The manager might race to figure out how quickly she can climb up the ladder while the leader checks to be sure the ladder is in the right place before attempting to climb.

Too often our time and energy is spent trying to do money management.

We simply try to do the money thing better. We want to maximize our investment on return, find the best savings account, learn how to cut a few more dollars from our budget. But at some point we need to take a break from our busy money management and ask – what is the purpose of all this?

Your financial purpose helps you be sure you are doing the right thing with your money – not just the most efficient thing with your money.

4 Reasons To Discover Your Financial Purpose

1. To Have Clear Financial Goals

Wouldn’t it be a great feeling to be ‘on track’ financially?

It is impossible to know if you are on or off track until you have first looked ahead to decide on some financial goals. Once you have financial goals in place you can now set some goals along the way to help you track your progress.

When you have financial purpose you can lead your money according to your goals.

2. So You Can Find More Satisfaction In Your Interactions With Money

At times we wonder – what is the point of all this?

Why should I save this or spend that? We fall into a pattern of money management depression. We find that budgeting is a waste of time. There is no point in tracking our spending. This indicates that you are just managing your money. You have no sense of direction or purpose. If, however, you establish a clear financial purpose those accounting and money management tasks become tools to help you accomplish your financial goals.

When you have financial purpose you will find more satisfaction in your interactions with money.

3. You’ll Have Emotional, Physical, and Spiritual Peace

When you accomplish something, you typically feel a tremendous amount of satisfaction.

When people decide to diet and start to lose weight they often talk about how it impacts them both emotionally and even spiritually. There is something satisfying about accomplishing goals.

When you have financial purpose you will experience emotional, physical, and spiritual peace.

4. You’ll Get To Help Others More

Giving rarely happens unless it is intentional.

The wait for “enough” is a loooooong wait. In fact, if you cannot give today I suspect you will find it hard to give tomorrow – no matter how much you make.

When, however, you have a financial purpose you can intentionally decide to bless others based on what you have. A classic example of this is the graduated tithe. The graduated tithe gives you a direction and a purpose even for money that you are yet to earn.

When you have financial purpose you have a wonderful opportunity to help others.

Take Advantage Of The New Year To Set Some Financial Purpose Goals

For a moment step back and commit to looking at the big picture. Don’t just try to make an extra $1,000 in 2010. Rather decide on a legitimate purpose to make an extra $1,000. If, for example, you want to make some extra money to pay down debt, each dollar you earn can then be used according to your financial purpose.

Set some larger, long-term goals to give purpose to your money management and you will find the mundane financial tasks will be easier to mange.

Get out of your financial rut. Stop merely managing your money. Its time to lead and find your financial purpose.

What are you striving for? What is your financial purpose? Any goals for 2010? Tell us yours in the comments!

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