Image Courtesy: E Bartholomew

Have you ever heard the saying, “Patience is a virtue?”. Knowing how impatient I am, my mom used to tell me this whenever I'd get upset about something not happening when I wanted it to happen.

Having patience can not only help you deal with a number of situations in your life but patience can also save you money.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most patient person in the world. When I want something, I want it now. If you tell me that you will be here at 1pm, I would really like you to be there at 12:55pm. On the flip side, if I tell you I will be there at 1pm, you should expect me to be there about 12:50pm.

Being impatient has cost me tons of money in the past. It all goes back to me wanting it NOW. I've written several times on this blog that electronic gadgets are my weakness. When I saw something I liked, I'd go ahead and purchase it without planning for it or thinking about how it would affect my finances. Of course, the end result of my impatience was a mound of credit card debt.

I hate to even think about how much money I've thrown away by not waiting. We all know that there are usually big sales around certain times of the year. If there is something I wanted, I didn't have the patience to wait for a sale. For example, last year, I wanted a new flat screen TV. Instead of waiting for the big sales at the end of the year, I bought my new TV in August. Of course, around Christmas time, I saw the same TV advertised for about $200 less than I'd paid just four months earlier.

These days, I'm better at being patient in my personal finances. I plan and save for my next purchase. I still splurge every now and then but I manage that by setting a small amount of money aside each month in a special account for that purpose.

What about you? Does your lack of patience cost you money?

Sunset in Puerto Rico
Image Courtesy: Bowakon

In about 3 weeks, I'll be leaving for my much anticipated vacation to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I found a great deal on a 4 night stay at the Ritz-Carlton in San Juan for less than $500; including round-trip airfare. I've been ready to go since I purchased the trip a few weeks ago.

If anyone wants to submit a guest post, I'll be happy to have them while I'm gone. Just give me a shout and let me know.

Here are some of the posts I've enjoyed this week:
Establish Goals to Prevent Financial Chaos @ SingleMa's Fabulous Financials
Debt Traps College Students Fall Into @ Free From Broke
Do You Save Loose Change? @ Frugal Dad
7 Quick Numbers to Fix Your Financial Situation @ Gather Little by Little
Free Budget Spreadsheets - Over 60 to choose from @ Lazy Man and Money

Thanks for reading SingleGuyMoney and have a great day!

Wikipedia describes bartering as a type of trade that does not use any medium of exchange (money), in which goods or services are exchanged for other goods and services. Bartering dates back to times before there monetary currency.

I was discussing with one of my friends and coworkers about how much I hated to iron my pants. No matter how I do it, I can never get them right. I can never get the creases like I want them and they are usually still wrinkled in some spots. Instead of trying to iron my pants, I would take them to the dry cleaners. The dry cleaner I use charges about $2 per pant with light starch. I only take my khaki's that I wear to work to the dry cleaners; my jeans I still try to iron or I just fold them up out of the dryer.

My friend was talking about how much she hated to balance her to checkbook and how she did not know how to budget. She made a joke a couple of weeks ago about needing me to balance her checkbook and helping her with a budget. I know she makes more money than I do, yet she still manages to live paycheck to paycheck.

I asked her today if she would be willing to iron my pants in exchange for me balancing her checkbook weekly and helping her with a budget. She thought it was a great idea! I never thought she would go for it and was actually just joking. We agreed that I would balance her checkbook once or twice a month and help her setup a budget with Mvelopes. In return, she will iron 5 pairs of pants and 5 shirts (enough for a week of work) for me.

I'll be doing something I don't mind doing and she will be doing something that she does all the time and will save us both a lot of money. No longer will I be spending up to $100 a month in dry cleaning bills and she will be able to save money by not paying overdraft fees. With her new budget in place, she should be able to bulk up her emergency fund which is currently about $80.

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Image Courtesy: Dan4th

If you haven't realized it yet by reading this blog, I hang onto a large amount of cash. I've also been called a "cash hoarder" by some of my close friends.

My current goal is to save $50,000 in cold, hard, cash. I'm about $18,000 away from my goal as of the last checkup. I'm fairly confident that I will be able to meet this goal by the end of this year or early 2010 instead of December 2010 as I'd originally planned. If I hit my goal within the next six months, I will then increase the goal amount to $75,000.

You may ask, why so much cash? There are several reasons that I hang onto a large amount of cash.

Low Risk Tolerance
I'm not a big fan of the stock market. I have a low tolerance for risk when it comes to my money. I don't like the wild swings of the stock market. I sleep better knowing that if I put $1 in the bank today, that $1 will be there tomorrow along with a couple of cents in interest.

Outside of my 401k, I don't do any additional investing. The recent number of scandals involving ponzi schemes (think Bernie Madoff) and people losing large amounts of money in bogus investments does not help my view of investing.

Cash Gives You Options
If you've ever applied for a loan or credit card, you know how the process goes. You have to submit all of your financial information and hope that you are worthy enough that the bank will loan you money.

If you have cash in the bank, you don't have to worry about that. Do you need to replace your vehicle and you find a nice one for $5,000? You can simply go to the bank and withdraw the money from your account without the headache and hassle of applying for a loan. If you water heater breaks and you need a new one or you need emergency auto repairs, don't let trying to find the money to pay for the repairs add to your worry.

Right now, we are in a "credit crunch". Due to the amount of money banks have lost due to bad loans, they are being very, very picky about who they give money to (and I can't say that I blame them). If you are like me, you aren't as worried about the credit crunch as much as others. I've had the credit limit on several of my credit cards cut because the bank is trying to minimize the risk of loss and it really didn't affect me that much.

Large Expenses Ahead
I have a 16 year old sister that will be headed to college in a couple of years. I know my mother can't afford to pay for any of her education so I plan to help her out as much as I can. I had to work two jobs in college in addition to my student loans, just to make ends meet. I want her to work but just not as much as I had to. In college, you should be focusing on getting your education; not trying to figure out how to pay the bills. Due to my mother's low income, she will be able to get grants and qualify for loans but I don't want her to come out of college with the amount of student loan debt I had/have. Having cash in savings will allow me to help her without wreaking havoc on my own finances.

You always hear about the great returns people have earned in the stock market. Yeah, that may be true but there are also people that have lost their shirts. It's generally only in economic environments like we are in now that people seem to remember that "cash is king".

What about you? Do you hoard cash? Has the recent economic environment changed the amount of cash you save?

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It’s not easy to save money when you’re barely able to make ends meet, but if you are wise, that’s exactly what you will do. These are bad times financially, and anything could happen to make you lose your job and it can be difficult to find a new one. So it’s best to have a nest egg that you’ve put aside for those proverbial rainy days. And speaking of proverbs, if you thought that only the ones with direct references to money like - A fool and his money are soon parted; Penny wise, pound foolish; A penny saved is a penny earned – offer advice about finance, well, you’re wrong.

Read on to see how other proverbs tell you how to be wise about money as well:

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: If you’re rushing to move your money from the safety of a fixed deposit (because of the relatively low interest rate) into the stock market where your potential earnings are high, think again. You may be risking all you have for higher interest rates, especially with most stocks fluctuating badly in the current market scenario. What you have today is much more precious that what you are hoping to get a few months down the road, so don’t risk the former for the latter.

A banker will lend you an umbrella when the sun is shining and ask for it back when it begins to rain: It’s very important to remember this, especially when you’re taking out a loan. You must work on repaying it at the earliest, because the interest adds up pretty fast. Never trust your bank/creditor completely; they may seem to be giving you the best rates, but then, they are in this business to make money. So ensure that you read your terms of service and scan the fine print to avoid paying more than you absolutely have to.

A chain is no stronger than its weakest link: Before making any investments, check them out thoroughly. If you’re staking your money on the reputation and progress of a company, research said concern to see who their partners and affiliates are. If even one of them is weak, you could be risking your hard-earned money. The whole chain is only as strong as the weakest link, so you need to make sure that this is also pretty strong.

A stitch in time saves nine: If you’re prompt when it comes to paying your bills, you’re going to save quite a bit in terms of late fees. Also, instead of paying back just the minimum amount on your credit card bills, pay the entire amount in order to avoid paying interest. All this amounts to extra savings.

Don’t count your chickens before they hatch: Never, ever spend money that you don’t have yet. If you use your credit card unwisely hoping to pay your bills with the amount you’re expecting as an inheritance or from a lottery, you’re pretty stupid. Spend only when you have cold, hard cash, and use your credit card only when it’s absolutely necessary.

When it comes to money, use your brains rather than your heart; only then can you be calculative and save some for the future.

This guest article was written by Adrienne Carlson, who regularly writes on the topic of accredited online university . Adrienne welcomes your comments and question.

Image Courtesy: john.d.mcdonald

I'm a little late (by about 2 months) posting an update on my 2009 Personal Finance Goals. I'd originally planned to do an update every quarter. As you can see, I failed to do so. This weekend, I had a chance to sit down and review how well I've completed my financial "to do list". Overall, I'm pleased with the way things have been going this year.

Here is a recap of my 2009 Financial Goals and an update of the status:

SGM Savings Challenge
My goal is to save $50,000 by end of December 2010. The goal was going pretty well until I had to withdraw $12,000 to refinance my mortgage. My home dropped in value so I had to pay closing costs and an additional $7,000 to bring my loan-to-value down to 97%. I'm currently at about $32,000 and hopefully, I'll hit $50,000 by the end of this year. I will more than likely be bumping up my saving challenge goal to $75,000. Here is the last update on the status of the savings challenge.

Student Loan
My goal was to pay an additional $5000 towards the principal balance of my student loan. This is my last non-mortgage debt that needs to be paid off. I've been making additional principal payments of $100 per month to try and knock down the balance. I haven't decided if I will go ahead and apply the extra $5000 since I am trying to work on boosting my savings account balance.

Increase Alternative Income
My goal was to earn $7,500 on top of my regular earnings from my job. Any additional income I earn comes from a combination of EBay sales, online surveys sites and blog income. The bulk of my additional income comes from the blog but the amounts have been a lot less than last year. Any purchase you make through this blog are greatly appreciated.

Purchase an Additional Rental Property
Earlier this year, I put in an offer on a property that I thought would be perfect. It seemed as if everything was going to work out until I was outbid at the last minute by someone with deeper pockets. The investor came in and bought several properties at one time. As they usually say, if something seems to good to be true, it usually is. I've decided to put this on the back burner for now.

I'm going to keep plugging away at my goals and hopefully, by the time of the next update, I'll have more positive news to report.

Follow along on my financial journey.

Image Courtesy: Andrew Mason

Have you started saving for Christmas yet? If not, you may want to start today.

Yes, I know it is the beginning of August and you probably haven't even thought about Christmas gifts. If you do a little planning now, you could possibly avoid accumulating debt when the holiday shopping season comes around.

It's best to start saving in January. This way, you have 11 months to save up the amount you want to spend on gifts for family and friends. If you haven't started a Christmas or Holiday Fund, it's not too late. You'll just need to save a larger amount or plan to spend a smaller amount.

How much will you need to save each month?
The chart below shows the difference in what you'll need to save each month in order to reach $1000. As shown above, if you started saving in August, you would need to put away $250 a month. If you'd started saving in January, you would only need to put away less than $91 a month.

If you failed to save money for your holiday shopping, come December, you would need to either take $1000 out of your December budget, raid your Emergency Fund (you do have one, right?) or as a last resort, pull out the plastic.

Have you started saving for Christmas?




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I've been a member of Mypoints for a long time. I didn't realize how long I'd been a member until I received my "Happy Anniversary" email this morning.

As shown in the picture below, I've been a member of Mypoints for 11 years!!!!

How does it work? Basically, once you sign up and complete your profile, you have several opportunities to earn points. The minimum point level is 5 points and the quickest and easiest way to earn points is to read the e-mails they send. I usually get anywhere from 2 - 10 e-mails a day. There is no time limit to read the e-mails but I usually click on them daily. Even if I get 10 e-mails in a day, it only takes about 2-5 minutes to complete them. You can also earn points by completing surveys and by shopping online.

What do you get? Once you have enough points in your account, you can redeem them for a variety of gift cards. The lowest value gift cards start at 500 points and increase to several thousand points. The points value increase with the dollar value of the gift card. Once you choose to redeem your card, the gift card is then mailed to you within 1-3 weeks. They do have several gift cards that you can redeem online.

If you haven't signed up for a Mypoints account, it's really quick and easy to do so. Once you open an account, you can then refer friends to earn even more points!!

Over the years, I've redeemed the gift cards to Target, TJ Maxx, Home Depot and my favorite - Starbucks!!! This is one of the ways I can continue to enjoy my Starbucks coffee guilt-free.

If you are worried about getting a lot of spam, I recommend setting up a separate email account.

It's been a couple of months since I've posted an update on the savings challenge. I haven't forgotten about it and it is still one of my main goals for the next 16 months.

How am I funding the savings challenge? Once all of my monthly financial obligations are met, any leftover money is applied to the savings challenge. This is in addition to my monthly automatic transfers to savings.

My goal is to have at least $50,000 in my savings account by December 2010.

I was up to a little over $42,000 at the end of June but I had to withdraw about $12,000 for my recent home refinance. Right now, the balance stands at $32600.00.

Barring any major catastrophe or job loss, I'm pretty confident I will make my goal and I may actually adjust the number up to around $75,000.

Some of you may ask, why hold on to so much cash? I have my reasons and I will cover this in a separate post soon.

Follow along on the savings journey.

Image Courtesy: alancleaver

Another month has gone by and it's time to review what happened on SingleGuyMoney during the month of July.

Subscribers:
1115 on June 30, 2009
1161 on July 31, 2009
4.13% increase

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Site Visitors:
3,161 in June
12,085 in July
282% increase!!!

Top 10 Blogs Sending Traffic to SingleGuyMoney:
1. Wisebread
2. Fabulous Financials
3. Frugal Dad
4. Cash Money Life
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10. Budgets Are Sexy

Top 5 Most Popular Posts:
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Carnivals:
Money Hacks #71 - Carnival Day Edition
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