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How To Avoid a Personal Bailout
As we begin the New Year, the nation's economy is crumbling. It is becoming apparent that protecting your finances is extremely important in addition to protecting your identity. To get you off on the right foot, we have listed several tips and suggestions to get your financial house in order.
1. Separate Needs from Wants. Financial security and independence relies heavily on being a smart spender. Don't, for example, eat out when you can cook at home. Eating is a need but eating out is a want. Being thrifty is truly a necessity. Pay close attention to discounts for things you need, and clip coupons whenever possible.
2. Have a cash stash that is equal to approximately 6 months of living expenses. Average out your utilities, food and other expenses and save some for a rainy day. Put a little back each payday in an account that you cannot touch or dig into. This is your emergency fund and shouldnt be touched unless it is absolutely necessary. If you DO dig into the fund, that money needs to be replaced as soon as possible.
3. Begin paying off your debt. Start with the highest interest bearing loans, like personal loans and credit cards and begin paying them off. These you should take care of BEFORE you begin saving any money. The interest accrued on these loans can be staggering over time and will save you money in the long run if you pay them off first.
4. It has become increasingly more important to protect your identity. Identity theft is becoming the favorite crime among criminals. It is estimated that it costs victims of identity theft over 5 billion dollars a year to pay for identity theft. However, identity theft protection is now offered with services like Life Lock. Life lock guarantees the protection of your credit backed by a $1,000,0000 payment to you fit they don't. They will help reduce the number of credit card offers you receive and will actively monitor you credit.
5. To keep away the temptation to spend all your hard saved money, put money into CDs other financial securities that are harder to dip into. That way you won't have easy access to spending the money, and will therefore be less likely to spend it.
6. Get on a budget and stay on it no matter what. This is really simple to do. Label some jars or boxes with things like "savings" "eating out" or "entertainment". Every payday, put $50 in each jar. That will be your allowance for that category until the next payday. When ever the money from one of the jars is used, you simply move to the next jar until you reach the next payday and can replenish. This sounds tough but it can pay off, literally.
The status of the current economy is awful, but that isn't a secret. Therefore, we must look for ways to protect ourselves and our financial situation so that we don't need the kind of financial assistance that some of the big companies have needed. Don't let any of that nonsense happen to you this year. Keep a budget, look for deals, and spend smart!
If you are cautious with your money, you will not need a bailout in 2009. Hey, maybe you may be the one bailing someone else out.
About the Author Linda Seamore is an expert on the subject of personal finance and has written many articles on it and on credit protection services like LifeLock. She suggests researching all credit protection services like www.lifelock.com before signing up.
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