October 3, 2010
Filed under: Money Making Tips — Gloria and Alpha @ 1:00 am
This post is most relevant to people with business asset debt. If you’re in business, and you have debt attached to some of your assets, consider whether or not you need those assets in the immediate term. If not, there is the possibility of selling the assets with the debt attached to free you of this debt until you’re in a position to take on a healthy level of debt again.
This is particularly applicable in the current economic climate.
Where there are any assets that you could temporarily do without, consider selling them, along with the attached debt, for a price that a buyer would be willing to pay. This may take some negotiation, and the paperwork will have to legally transfer the responsibility for the debt over to the buyer. I suggest obtaining legal advice before you enter into such an arrangement.
There is also the valuing of the asset at market value. It is best to pay the fee of an objective third party to do this, in order to save yourself potential problems later. The relatively small fee is worth it (and it’s tax deductible).
The other alternative is to sell the asset, and use the proceeds to pay off the debt. This gives you a clean slate and you can focus on making money to buy a similar asset outright, without any debt attached (depending on the asset, it might be a significantly reduced amount of debt rather than debt free).
Make your decision and stick to the result. That is, once you have the cash to repay the debt, make sure you do just that. There’s no point in turning one complicated situation into a bigger complication.
Remember, there are always options, and no matter what the economic climate there are always the right buyers (those that are willing to pay fair market price).
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September 26, 2010
Filed under: Money Making Tips — Gloria and Alpha @ 1:00 am
Ebay has become a phenomenon, and provides all sorts of money making possibilities.
We all have stuff lying around our homes that we no longer need. There is also the saying that someone’s trash is another person’s treasure, so don’t underestimate the potential value sitting under your roof. I once had an interesting experience while selling a street directory on Ebay. I received a lot of interest, and as it turns out, there is a whole community of people who collect old street directories, and they’re quite valuable!
Selling these unwanted items on Ebay is a good way to may extra cash that can go to repay debt you have.
Take a look around your home and create a pile of ‘stuff’ that you can sell. Before you actually put your item up for sale, do some research first on other similar items, to get a feel for what they’re selling for, and how the people are “marketing” them.
Very importantly – make sure you use the proceeds to pay off debt!!
Here are my steps for selling items on Ebay:
1. Sign up for an Ebay account – remember the User ID name that you choose will be the name associated with you as a seller, so choose a name that won’t offend buyers.
2. Once in your Ebay account, go to the top of screen and click on “Sell”. A drop down menu will appear – select “Start Selling Now”.
3. The first thing you must do is to choose a category that suits what you’re selling. You can either enter some of the key features of the item and Ebay will provide you will some possible categories. Or, you can select the category yourself.
4. If you feel it will provide a much greater chance of obtaining a sale, you can pay for choosing a sub-category. For household items I rarely do this. Continue to the next page.
5. Now is where you get a chance to test out your copywriting skills. There may be some preset questions for you to answer, and then you get to sell people on the BENEFITS of what you’re selling.
6. Upload a picture to the Gallery (I always do this, as it increases your “hit” ratio).
7. Select the length of your auction – that is really a personal preference. I’ve tried all different lengths and haven’t found a great deal of difference between any of them, in terms of the effect they have on obtaining a sale.
8. Set your starting price – keep in mind you may only get 1 bid, so be prepared to take this as the final price for your item. Add a decent amount for postage – remembering you also have to buy the bag the item will be mailed in.
9. Buy It Now is also a possibility. You pay extra for this, but it is an option you may want to consider.
10. As far as payment methods go, I find most people like to use PayPal. However, a select few prefer bank transfer, so I’d suggest offering it as an option.
11. Continue to the next page and review your listing.
12. List Your Item, and you’re done!
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September 19, 2010
Filed under: Manage Your Money — Gloria and Alpha @ 1:00 am
What actually is a habit? There are a number of different definitions for what a habit is, but one that’s appropriate is “a mental constitution or attitude”. Behave in any given way for long enough and it can become a habit.
Being in debt can also be a habit. Thankfully, habits can be broken by being replaced with a different, more constructive habit.
There are many schools of thought on how long it takes to break or make a habit. I’ve found the consensus to be 30 days. So, the task is to work on replacing your habit of being in debt, with another habit. As with most things, the first step is mindset. We’ve already dealt with that in previous posts, so I won’t go into it again here.
What action leads to the result of debt? There are likely to be quite a few, but let’s start with spending. If the habit of spending is what’s leading you to being in debt, why not replace it with the habit of not spending?
Start by taking a look at your credit card statement for the last few months. What items on there aren’t absolutely necessary – be it the item itself, or the exclusivity of the item?
For 30 days, focus on not spending on items that aren’t absolutely necessary (i.e. food, rent/mortgage payments, petrol, public transport, etc.). Once you get out of the habit of constantly spending, you will find it easier to moderate your non-essential spending.
I’m certainly not saying to never spend another dollar on items that aren’t absolutely necessary. It’s important to you get your spending under control and take charge of the situation.
At the end of your 30 days, look back on how easy or difficult the process was. It might even be worth keeping a “money diary” through the process, so you can more effectively track your progress. What have you got to lose?
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September 12, 2010
Filed under: Money and You — Gloria and Alpha @ 1:00 am
Let’s take managing money back to its most basic concepts. In a previous post we looked at Your Inherited View of Money. You need to consider this when you learn about money from now on, as it might be clouding your education.
At its most fundamental, in order to grow your reserves of money, you shouldn’t spend more than you earn. This is a basic concept and if all else fails, will always mean that you end up with more than you started with.
We are all creatures of habit. If you are constantly in debt and feel as though money is a struggle, take a look at your past 3 months of incomings and outgoings. Do you see a pattern forming?
There is always something that comes up and unless you make the conscious decision to break the pattern, it will keep repeating itself. This is closely linked to your view of money that you learned as a child.
This is not to say that you need to go into analysis paralysis with every financial decision that you make. Just be aware that there may be a pattern, and as soon as you become aware of it and realise you are in control of changing the situation, you have more power than you started out with.
Again, at the basic level, think about how easy it is to spend money. Also, credit cards make it so easy to buy everything we want now, without thinking about whether we could have waited until we really had the money to buy the item.
It’s natural to be impatient and want something straight away, but believe it or not, you will actually value the item more if you wait until you can actually afford it outright.
This is all commonsense, but it’s good to be reminded sometimes…
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September 5, 2010
Filed under: Money and You — Gloria and Alpha @ 1:00 am
Your state of mind is an incredibly important part of how you view yourself and the actions you take as a result. It becomes a vicious cycle if you’re in debt and don’t want to be. It can wreak havoc with your feeling of self worth, which can in turn lead to more debt.
Guilt and regret belong in the past – leave them there. What’s done is done.
T Harv Ecker, in his book “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”, says, “The fact is that your character, your thinking and your beliefs are a critical part of what determines the level of your success”.
If you’re in a position that you don’t want to be, find role models you are, and learn from them. There are so many great people out there – learn from their triumphs and challenging experiences (they have all had them). Their stories are fascinating, and it will show you what’s really possible, and the mindset it took to get there.
We all have a money mindset and as with everything, we can determine what our mindset is – it’s not always easy, but it can be done if you truly want it.
One of my favourite stories in this arena is Richard Branson’s “Business Stripped Bare”. While not directly related to debt reduction, it goes through what process Mr Branson went through in order to build the Virgin businesses into what they are today.
Donald Trump is another worthwhile source of information. He built a business empire, only to over-extend himself with debt and lose it all, and then some. He not only recovered from this, he is even more wealthy than before. These are the people to watch and learn from.
For truly mind changing concepts, pick up a copy of Napoleon Hill’s classic “Think And Grow Rich”. While the language is a product of the time the book was written in (1937), the messages contained within this book are powerful.
Here is an important sentence from this book, which I want you to really think about:
“The turning point in the lives of those who succeed, usually comes at the moment of some crisis, through which they are introduced to their “other selves””.
If you’re experiencing a period of crisis, what “other self” will you find?
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August 29, 2010
Filed under: Manage Your Money — Gloria and Alpha @ 1:00 am
This is a concept that may seem pretty simplistic, but it’s one of the main ways you can really start to reduce your debt.
The first step is calculating how much debt you actually have, and the sources of it. It’s not a pleasant process, but extremely necessary. Make a list of what debt you have and with whom the debt is sitting with.
If it’s predominantly on credit cards, you can often open a new credit card and the transferred balances incur a lower rate of interest for an introductory period.
Keep your eye out for these types of deals, as they will accelerate your debt reduction process.
A very important aspect to this however is to then CANCEL all those credit cards you previously had balances with. Remove the temptation. You will feel lighter, and it will also improve your future credit prospects.
Likewise, if you have a home loan, and there is some equity in your property, you may be able to increase your home loan to pay off all your credit cards. The interest rate on a home loan is generally substantially lower than credit card interest rates, and it also simplifies the repayment process, as you only have one bill to pay off at the end of the month.
Again, the important caveat to this is cancelling the cards that have been paid out. Just keep one (or possibly two) credit cards, and ensure they have a low credit limit.
This is also not a strategy to repeat every other month. Be disciplined. Do it once and learn from your spending mistakes.
Getting into debt can happen without you really notice it, so take steps to reduce the debt and move on. There’s no need to dwell on the process and spiral into a depressive state. This may sound easier in theory then practice, but we’ve all been there at some point or another. Learn from the lesson and don’t let a state of debt define you.
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August 22, 2010
Filed under: Manage Your Money — Gloria and Alpha @ 5:11 am
If you’re faced with a level of debt that you’re not comfortable with, think about how it came to be in terms of timing. It happened little by little, or purchase by purchase.
Unless you receive an unexpected financial windfall, you will need to approach reducing your level of debt in the same way.
To start with you need a plan for reducing your debt. Pick the debt that has the highest rate of interest charged on it, and focus more of your money on paying that off.
Break down your earnings in terms of how much you can use to service each different source of debt that you have, and allocate more to the source you’re focusing on.
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August 16, 2010
Filed under: Manage Your Money — Gloria and Alpha @ 8:54 pm
Years ago, there used to be a saying, “Boys and their cars…”, but today, many women are also very car conscious.
By that I mean, they are very fond of their car and really take care of it. I say, many and not most deliberately, because all the women in my family, although we love our cars, we aren’t fanatical about them. However, it is just as important to watch the expenses you incur in looking after your car as are the expenses when grocery shopping or any other part of your financial outlays.
So here are 9 simple, effective steps to owning a car
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August 11, 2010
Filed under: Manage Your Money — Gloria and Alpha @ 7:35 pm
Grocery shopping is probably the simplest way to spend more money than you anticipated. Not only is looking at all those beautifully displayed foods pleasing to our visual sense, but the lingering smells as you walk around a supermarket or shopping mall….
It’s a well-known fact that, our sense of smell has the quickest and most direct line to our brain, and so, when we smell all those tantalising aromas, our brain says, “I must have that.”
Even the most disciplined buyer can be tempted to ignore the well-thoughtout shopping list. You then end up spending at least a quarter as much again as you had planned to spend.
Here are 6 grocery shopping tips to stay on track
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August 6, 2010
Filed under: Manage Your Money — Gloria and Alpha @ 6:15 pm
Do you feel that you could handle your finances better? Are you finding it hard to get ahead? How often have you vowed to take a grip and spend less, only to find that you slip back into old over-spending ways?
Spending money is a habit. In fact, everything we do is a habit. And, just as we created that habit, we can also get rid of that habit.
Notice I didn’t say, “Change that habit”. I said, “Get rid of that habit”. Habits cannot be changed, they must be replaced by another habit, so that it fades ‘off into the sunset’.
Just imagine back to when you first started work and you received your first pay. You had all these good intentions to save, didn’t you?
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