how to become wealthy - straight talk (investopedia)

Retire Wealthy: The Millennial March to $1,000,000

By Ethan Roberts | Updated December 14, 2016 — 6:00 AM EST 

Today I want to teach members of the Millennial population how to retire wealthy, perhaps with at least a million dollars. It is vital that Millennials understand how to use the power of time in their financial march to a million.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently reported on how Americans are doing when it comes to saving for retirement. Unfortunately, it was not good news.

The GAO analysis discovered that almost half of households with members age 55 or older, had no retirement savings in a 401(k) plan or IRA, and nearly 29% have neither retirement savings nor a traditional pension plan. In about half of the households with members age 65 and older, Social Security provides most of the income.

Social Security? Do you really want to live on $1,500 a month in your later years? Of course you don’t.
So what can a 25-year-old Millennial – maybe still in school, working part-time or working a low-paying job – do about it? Is buying a lotto ticket or marrying someone from a wealthy family your only hope for attaining wealth in your retirement years?

The Two Key Personality Traits

The answer is no.
But your Millennial march to a million bucks requires you to develop two difficult personality traits:
You need to have self-discipline and you need to have patience.

When I mention self-discipline I am referring to the ability to defer immediate gratification and instead to think first about saving and investing your money.
It’s recommended that you save 15% of every paycheck, no matter how small or large it may be. If your company has a 401 (k) plan with a company match, sign up immediately for it. It doesn’t mean you have to work there forever. When you leave your job, you can take the money you've saved with you. (See article: Money Habits of the Millennials.)

The amount the company matches is like a 100% return on your money. 
Plus, investing in a 401 (k) plan will lower your taxable income because the 401 (k) money comes off your full paycheck amount, and then you are taxed on only the remaining money.

So the march-to-a-million plan necessitates that you invest first and then pay your bills. 
Any money that is left afterward becomes your spendable income, or fun money. 
Most young people do just the reverse.
They spend on fun first, pay bills (often late) and then they invest…..well, nothing, since there’s no money left after the first two activities.
Then at age 65 they wonder where all the money they earned over the years has gone.

Next is where patience comes into play. You won’t get rich overnight by investing 15% of your salary. The wealth-building process is a slow, gradual one that takes place over decades. It’s the proverbial tortoise beating the hare over the long run. (See article: How Gen Y Can Avoid Working Forever.)

Where to Put Your Money

But what should you invest your money in? How do you know you won’t lose all your money?

 In order to succeed in investing, you must gain some knowledge. Go to the library or buy several books – and read online – about stocks, bonds, real estate, precious metals and mutual funds. Read everything you can until you feel confident in your ability to choose the right assets to create a diversified portfolio. 

Diversification is important because often one asset class will go up when another goes down,

 so being diversified keeps you from losing a large portion of your portfolio at any time.

Now about that discipline again. You must stay out of debt if you want to march to a million bucks
 in your lifetime. Debt will keep you a slave to your job and poor throughout your life,
especially if it is debt that’s attached to depreciating items, such as cars, boats, computers, cell phones,
and other technology. Debt means paying out additional money in the form of interest.
 Never finance a new car. There’s nothing wrong with buying a top-quality car that is 2-5 years old; by year five that new car has depreciated by more than 60% of its original price.

Save enough money to buy a modest first home.
Find one that costs even less than what the mortgage company will allow you to buy.
 Many bargain-priced homes can be found on auction sites such as Auction.com.
If you do this, owning will be far cheaper than renting. Over time, your equity in the house will grow.
 Live in a home for two years or more and you pay no taxes on the profit you make when you sell.

However, another strategy is to move into your new home, but keep your first home as a rental property. Over time, your tenants will pay down your mortgage in full and then you will create additional income for yourself in retirement.

I have had Millennials tell me,
“I don’t want to make sacrifices while I’m young just so I can have more money in old age.
 I want to be able to go on vacation and buy a nice car and clothes now. 
What if I don’t even live to an old age?”

The problem with this mode of thought is that it is impossible for a Millennial to experience life 
as an elderly person until they get there, so they have little knowledge of how impoverishment 
will feel when they are 80 or 90. Personally I feel 
there is nothing sadder than watching an elderly person, after a lifetime of work,
 digging through their pockets in the supermarket to find that 10-cents-off coupon. 
There is no need to live that way if we plan ahead and have self-discipline and patience.

While I’m sure there are senior citizens who regret not having had more fun in their youth.
I’m also certain that a much larger percentage of them, who are living on nothing more than
Social Security fixed incomes, wish they had saved and invested more over their lifetime.

The Bottom Line

The choice is yours.
But the sooner you start, the sooner – and likelier – you will arrive at retirement with a million bucks!
(For related reading, see article: Retirement Planning the Millennial Way.)

Read more: Retire Wealthy: The Millennial March to $1,000,000 | Investopedia http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/070215/retire-wealthy-millennial-march-1000000.asp#ixzz4ULD3JHUB
 

Get Ready to Retire -- Straight Talk (Marketwatch)

6 ways to keep your dream retirement on track

By Andrea Coombes

Published: Nov 7, 2016 11:53 a.m. ET

You may be ready to retire, but your money may not be

Are you a retirement “do-it-yourselfer,” convinced you can plan for your own retirement without paying for a financial adviser? That’s all well and good, but given that money managers work with people in a variety of financial situations, their experiences with the problems that prevent people from retiring can offer insights into how to overcome those challenges.

I spoke to a few experts to find out how they handle that difficult situation: a client who wants to retire but whose financial picture suggests she shouldn’t yet do so.

Ideally, of course, advisers want people to seek financial advice early on, years before they plan to retire. “Then we have the ability to help you work towards your goals over a period of time and make adjustments as things change,” said Nancy Skeans, managing director of personal financial services at Schneider Downs Wealth Management Advisors in Pittsburgh, Penn.

But sometimes people don’t show up at the adviser’s office until they’re eager to leave the workforce for good. In those cases, she said, advisers sometimes are forced to deliver bad news.

“We just had that situation with an individual and his wife,” Skeans said. “He’s thinking about retiring in two to three years. It was very obvious to me when I looked at his balance sheet, coupled with what I backed out as to their spending, that if they retired immediately they would put themselves into a precarious situation.”

One red flag was that this couple hadn’t accounted for their retirement tax bill. “All of their assets were in tax-deferred accounts,” Skeans said. “Every dollar they spend is going to be a dollar plus the taxes. That means, if you’re trying to support a standard of living after tax, you’re going to have to gross that money up.”

So, one lesson is to remember that the government is going to take a bite out of your retirement account. Here are more lessons financial advisers say they’ve been forced to teach new clients:

1. Be disciplined about a budget

In 2008, Skeans said, a client who was about 64 years old was laid off. “He decided he wasn’t going to look for other work,” she said. “We ran the projection. Obviously, at that point in time the portfolios were down because of the market and I was deeply concerned.

“Fortunately the guy was a finance guy, a controller for a small company. He heard us loud and clear that the biggest thing he and his wife needed to do was stay within a budget,” she said.

At the time, Skeans talked with the couple about how to stabilize their finances through reduced spending. “He was very adamant he did not want to go back to work,” she said. “We were able to help him and his wife structure a budget and they have stuck to it and continue to do so.”

And now? “Eight years later, their portfolio is just slightly below where it was eight years ago,” Skeans said.

2. Take a practice run

People sometimes underestimate what they’ll spend in retirement, especially in the early years when they suddenly find themselves with plenty of free time and energy, said Tripp Yates, a wealth strategist at Waddell & Associates in Memphis, Tenn.

 “I’ve seen it where people do a budget for retirement and they tell me, ‘OK, we’ve done all the numbers and we can live off $50,000 a year,’” Yates said. Too often, that’s a bare-bones budget that doesn’t take into account travel and other activities. “The first five to 10 years of retirement, people are probably going to spend more rather than less, because they’re in fairly good health and want to enjoy that time,” he said.

One way to get a good handle on your spending is to test-run your retirement budget, he said. In one recent conversation with a couple, he told them: “Maybe one spouse who really wants to retire can. The other spouse continues working and maybe we take six months to a year and try to live on that budget, practice, see if it’s actually doable before both husband and wife call it retirement,” Yates said.

3. Don’t focus on the market

Given the media’s attention on the market’s every move, it’s no surprise that people seeking help from an adviser often fret about what happen next. That’s the wrong focus, said Robert Klein, president of the Retirement Income Center in Newport Beach, Calif. (Klein is also a writer for MarketWatch’s RetireMentor section.)

“People read so much in the media about performance and that’s naturally their focus until you show them on paper it’s all about your goals and planning for those and controlling what you can control,” he said. While investors must make sure their investments are diversified, there’s no way of knowing when the market might take another steep plunge.

“You have to control what you can control and develop prudent strategies that are going to work no matter what the market does,” Klein said.

4. Be clear about your goals

Retirement planning is about more than “just having X dollars in income,” Klein said. Figure out what you want retirement to look like, and then work from that. “It’s about a lifestyle in retirement. What are they going to be doing day-to-day in retirement?” he said. “Then you can focus on the finances: ‘What is it going to take so I can do that?’”

For some people, a hard look at a retirement lifestyle leads them to choose to work longer, Klein said. “A lot of people are better off working longer even if they can afford to retire. They just don’t have the hobbies. It’s a whole different routine when you retire,” he said. “Phased retirement is really good for a lot of those people, so they can take baby steps into retirement,” he added.

5. Use software that provides a picture

If you’re planning your own retirement, are you using financial software that will create projections as a chart? “Most people don’t communicate with numbers, they communicate pictorially,” said Kimberly Foss, founder of Empyrion Wealth Management Inc. in Roseville, Calif. 

Foss said she shows clients a simple chart depicting how long their money is likely to last if they retire now. In some cases, she might produce a second chart that shows how spending less might make their outlook improve, and then talk with the client about options, such as downsizing the house or refinancing, working longer or delaying the purchase of a new car.

For one couple, seeing those pictures and having that discussion made all the difference, Foss said. They wanted to spend the same amount of money in retirement that they’d been spending while they worked, but the size of their savings account didn’t support that goal. So, they switched from the country club to a lower-cost health club, refinanced into a cheaper mortgage and started cooking at home more rather than eating out.

Reducing those costs and others preserved their portfolio for the long haul. Said Foss: “It created the income so that they could retire.”

6. Get real with your adult children

In some cases, people retire but unforeseen expenses put their financial security at risk. Skeans said one client unexpectedly found herself supporting her adult daughter and grandson, who live in her home, even as she herself recently entered a care facility.

“She’s taken out enormous amounts of money to help her daughter and grandson,” Skeans said. “She’s supporting their household and she’s paying the cost of assisted living. I said, ‘If you continue at this pace, this portfolio is going to be gone in five years.’”

Skeans said if the client sells her home—that is, asks her daughter to find her own place—that money would bolster her finances. “She should be able to make it and still leave something to this daughter in the end,” Skeans said. “She said, ‘I’m going to talk to my daughter about that.’”

Money Lessons -- You Don't Want to Learn These the Hard Way (bankrate.com)

8 personal finance lessons you must master by age 40

By Jennie L. Phipps • Bankrate.com

iStock.com/gilaxia

8 money lessons to learn by age 40

If you've hit 40 and managed to avert a midlife crisis -- congratulations. That sporty red convertible at the dealer showroom can wait if you want to be smart about money management.

Bankrate offers 8 personal finance lessons that everyone should know by age 40. Young precocious adults who adopt these lessons early will not be sorry, and late learners still have time to catch up. Read on to learn the important financial facts of life.

iStock.com/pixdeluxe

Money is freedom

Figure out your net worth and, after you get over the shock, have a recovery plan. You don't have to be wealthy, but you do have to have enough that you aren't a slave to the shortfall.

"After getting on a budget, a lot of people feel like they've gotten a raise even though their income hasn't changed," says Dave Ramsey, a Tennessee-based financial adviser and media personality, who bases his approach on mistakes he personally made.

Ramsey offers no-brainer personal finance lessons that most people can follow: "Do a written budget every month before the month begins. Give every dollar of income a name so you know where it is going. Include a line for how much you want to save each month. Then, stick to the plan."

iStock.com/KatarzynaBialasiewicz

No relationship is perfect

Working it out is usually cheaper than calling it quits. Even after the relationship is long over, getting along with your ex is cheaper than fighting over the kids or whether or not both spouses are paying their share.

"Divorce isn't good for your pocketbook. It is a long, messy and expensive process," says Jay Zagorsky, a research scientist at The Ohio State University who has studied the cost of divorce for nearly 20 years.

His research demonstrated that on average, divorce drops a person's wealth overall by 77%. "Wealth starts declining well before the final decree, and after divorce, people don't suddenly start with a clean slate," he says.

In other words, it's cheaper to keep her (or him).

iStock.com/carrollphoto

You can't buy security

Insurance can help, but it wasn't meant to pay routine costs. Its purpose is to cover devastating financial losses.

"Many people tend to purchase coverage with low deductibles, which can be costly. Because states have low liability limits, people think they should start there. But for most individuals, those limits are woefully inadequate, so they end up paying a lot for insurance that doesn't cover enough," says Robert Hoyt, who heads the Risk Management and Insurance Program at the University of Georgia.

Someone with lots to lose -- a home, a car and future income -- is better off picking a plan with high deductibles, he says, and planning only to claim when there is a devastating loss that the insured can't pay for otherwise. In other words, you collect when the house burns down or the car is totaled or the accident causes major injury.

"Assess what you can afford with high limits of loss and then add a personal umbrella, which can be cost-effective and provide protection if you are faced with tens of thousands (of dollars) in losses," Hoyt advises.

iStock.com/sudok1

Credit is a tool

Becoming an expert at using credit will improve your life.

At this stage, you're likely dealing with a mortgage, car loans and children entering college. "A healthy credit score is vitally important to you," says Bruce McClary, vice president of public relations and communications for the nonprofit National Foundation for Credit Counseling.

If you examine your credit score and you don't like what you see, chances are you haven't paid your bills on time. "Paying on time counts for about one-third of your score," McClary says.

Committing to paying everything on time is the obvious solution to this problem.

It also pays to check your credit report carefully for credit killers, such as identity theft or inaccurate reports. "There are a lot of those problems out there," McClary says.

Check your credit report for free at myBankrate.

Finally, at your age, you ought to be working to pay off debt and keep balances low, he says. "Focus on power-paying those balances and getting rid of them as fast as possible."

This will give you more credit flexibility if you really need to borrow because you have a health emergency, want to start a business or need to replace the roof. "A solid-gold credit score will make borrowing for any of these easier," McClary says.

iStock.com/Csondy

Keeping up with the Joneses is a no-win

As humorist Will Rogers is credited for saying: "Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people that they don't like."

Envy was one of the "7 deadly sins" and a route to hell, says Susan Matt, chair of the history department at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and the author of "Keeping Up With the Joneses: Envy in American Consumer Society, 1890-1930."

"Yesterday, envy was a sin; today, it is one of the fundamentals of our consumer-driven society," she says.

"People think the sky is the limit. When they get what they want, they want the next step up. People have never-ending desires, and they are never satisfied."

Is that bad? "It keeps our economy moving," she says. "But I don't think it makes people any happier."

iStock.com/RBFried

You can count on uncertainty

Trust us: Jobs don't last forever, and neither does excellent health.

The best hedge against poor health, job loss or other unforeseen setbacks is a financial plan that will help you navigate the shoals until you get back on your feet, says Chris Hogan, author of "Retire Inspired" and a popular speaker about personal finance issues.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result," Hogan says. "If you don't have a plan, you keep doing more of the same, and you never have anything to show for it."

To get around this conundrum, "you have to have an awareness of where you are now, an understanding of what it will take to get there and the determination to work your plan," Hogan says.

iStock.com/fotomenis-it

Everybody needs an ace in the hole

You need a financial plan B that doesn't count on another person -- not even the love of your life. It's not disloyal to figure out an answer to the question, "How will I support myself if X happens?" whether X is divorce, death, disability or something else.

"'Everybody Loves Raymond' explained it best,'" says Cindy Hounsell, president of the Women's Institute for a Secure Retirement, or WISER.

Here's the exchange on the TV episode that she's referring to:

Debra: Ray and I were talking about wills, and he doesn't want to make one.

Robert: Oh, why not?

Debra: He thinks it's going to tempt fate.

Robert: No, no, silly. If you don't have a will, you're tempting fate. "I don't need a will. I'm gonna live forever." Manhole!

Ray: I don't know.

Robert: Raymond, listen to me. You need to have a will and eat a fibrous breakfast every morning and nothing can touch you.

Hounsell isn't so sure about the fibrous breakfast, but she thinks the will part is right, along with savings and insurance. "Anybody who is dependent on somebody else to make ends meet -- or even if you just depend on yourself -- you need a plan for what you're going to do when that goes away," she says.

iStock.com/AWelshLad

Working forever isn't a retirement plan

You just can't work forever.

Author Chris Hogan says, "I have a friend who was diagnosed at 48 with early onset Alzheimer's. He knows life has changed, but he can't do anything about it. When people say to me, 'I love what I do and I plan to work forever,' I tell them about my friend and ask them, 'What are you going to do if your mind or your body won't allow you to keep working?"'

Having a retirement savings plan is key. "The earlier you start, the longer your money works for you and the greater your chance of amassing a nice nest egg. It's a snowball effect. You start small and it builds," says Brian Hogan, director of small-business retirement products for Fidelity.

Or as Chris Hogan says, "It is never too early or too late to start saving."

Should You Invest In Your Twenties (from Quora.com)

Should a 21-year-old save up money or spend it all on things that make him happy?

Jay Bazzinotti, No one is perfect... but I am as close as you can get without a prescription ;-) I am a frustrated writer and storyteller. I love the quote from Edward Everett Hale, the famous Boston gadfly. He said "I am but one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something and I will not let what I cannot do stop me from doing what I can do.".

526 upvotes by Matthew Lengenfelder, Viola Yee, Achmad Gazza Putra, (more)

Here's a thing that my financial adviser told me that I have never forgotten and tell every young person I can:

When it comes to saving for the future or for retirement, all of the money you earn in interest is made in the early years of your life, not the final ones, and you can never make up for that later.

You have an amazing advantage at your age -- time to take advantage of the compounding of interest. DON'T BLOW IT.

You can make a small sacrifice and still enjoy your life today. By making small sacrifices you can save 500 dollars a month. In the meantime you should be contributing to your IRA and 401K or other responsible retirement vehicle. You will still have money to blow on toys and if you do nothing else, save that 500 dollars a month. Save it in a Vanguard no-load S&P index fund and save it whether the market goes up or the market goes down. The beauty of the Vanguard S&P fund is that over the kind of time you are speaking of, nothing has beaten it as an investment. It does not require much, if any balancing. (when you turn 50 convert half the funds to S&P index bond funds) You don't have to watch it constantly. Just keep that money flowing into it every single month and you will have almost a million dollars saved in addition to any other retirement vehicle by the time you are 65. You should review the right funds with your accountant but look at VLGSX, VTMSX and VTTHX if you are too lazy and just want to get on with it. You will not lose over time, unless the world comes to an end or the US collapses. 

You WILL get old one day and when you do you will need money -- lots of money. And 40 years from now the world is going to be a MUCH harsher place than it is now. You really need to prepare for that. 

If you want, look up the "Rule of 72" and see how compounding works for you.If there was nothing else I could tell you, it would be these things. Don't wait -- time is not your friend. You will forget the silk shirt you buy today, but you will never forget being forced to eat dog food when you are 65. At 8 percent interest, which is what Vanguard funds I selected pay out over 20 years, the doubling period is 9 years, therefore, that 6000 dollars you invest at 21 would double 5 times by the time you are 65 to $192,000. If you wait til you are 30 to start putting it away you will lose $96,000. Obviously YMMV because the market goes up and down, but it's A LOT of money. 

EVERY SINGLE THING YOU DO TODAY IS PREPARING YOU FOR THE LIFE YOU WILL LIVE TOMORROW.

Free Stuff - things you should never pay for

This post comes from Stacy Johnson at partner site Money Talks News.

21 things you should never pay for

If you want to find extra money in your budget, stop paying for things you could get for nothing.

By MSN Money partner Oct 5, 2012 11:30AM

There are only two ways to become richer -- make more or spend less.

One of the best ways to spend less? Stop paying for things you could get free.




Here's a list of 21:

1. Free cars for long-distance trips
Many people want their cars moved from place to place but don't want to do the driving. Sometimes these cars are delivered by truck, but often they're driven -- by people like you. If you have a clean driving record, a car delivery company like AutoDriveaway might hook you up.

I did car delivery a few times when I was in college and found it a great way to get where you're going. It's best if you're flexible about when you leave, return and perhaps even where you go. You still have to pay for gas, and the trip home can be problematic. I used to hitchhike, but smarter choices today would be bus, plane, train or waiting at the other end for another drive-away car.

2. Free lodging
Why stay in a hotel when nonprofit Couchsurfing.org offers tourists a chance to stay at homes for free? Make friends with sponsoring families throughout the U.S. and countries ranging from Croatia to France. You have to set up a profile on the CouchSurfing website, which provides tips on how to find families willing to open their homes to you. Obviously, the digs won't be fancy, but they'll be free.

Another way to get free lodging is to home swap.

3. Free audiobooks
Now you can find out for free the fate of Pip in "Great Expectations" or Elizabeth in "Pride and Prejudice" as you drive or jog. Download free audiobooks from nonprofit LibriVox.org, which has volunteers recording classics in the public domain. You can also volunteer to help by reading. LibriVox will even provide you with free recording software.

4. Free food
There's at least one day every year when you shouldn't think of paying for a meal. Frugal Living has a list of hundreds of businesses that offer birthday freebies, most of which are food. For a free libation at your favorite pub, do what I do: Loudly proclaim it's your birthday. Often people within earshot will pick up your next round.

5. Free food for kids
Don't go to another restaurant that doesn't feed your kids for free. MyKidsEatFree.com offers a roadmap of where you can save on kids' meals. You'll pay, but your kids won't at more than 5,000 restaurants across the country.

6. Free samples
Before you go to the drugstore and shell out silly sums for travel sizes of your favorite toiletries, go to Volition.com or one of many other websites that offer free samples. In addition to soap, shampoo, etc., you might find all manner of interesting things. For example, we've spotted circus tickets, a free diet analysis and free advance movie screenings. Other free megasites include TheFreeSite.com and Freechannel.net.

7. Free TV
While more than 100 million Americans shell out an average of $75 every month for satellite or cable TV, local channels are still free. And thanks to digital signals, reception is better than ever. You can also find free TV shows and movies online.

8. Free software
You can get free software for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, databases and other uses by going to OpenOffice.org. And that's the tip of the iceberg. No matter what kind of software you want, you can probably find it for free.

9. Free anti-virus
This one could go under "free software," but it's important enough to warrant its own spot on the list. We provided a solution on MoneyTalksNews.

10. Free speech
Make your voice heard around the world with your own blog. Many companies will help you set up your own site at no charge, such as WordPress and Blogger. They'll even give you free, easy instructions and a choice of blog templates.

11. Free foreign language lessons
The BBC is on the other side of the pond, but it offers free 12-week classes to learn French, Spanish, Italian or German -- gratis. You'll even get a certificate at the completion of the course. The BBC also offers other audio and video courses in the four languages, as well as help with learning other languages.

12. Free checking
According to The Wall Street Journal, the average minimum checking account balance required to avoid a monthly fee at U.S. banks is $723, and the average monthly fee is $5.48. But banks aren't the only game in town. While not all credit unions offer free checking, the prospect of lower fees is one of the reasons you should join one.

Another option is online-only banks. Without the overhead that brick-and-mortar branches have, the terms are often much better. Consumerism Commentary ranks the best online checking accounts.

Too much hassle to leave your bank? Threaten to and see if you can have fees reduced or eliminated.

13. Free credit reports and scores
Don't pay for a copy of your credit report. Instead, go to AnnualCreditReport.com for a free look at each of your three major credit reports once a year.

As for free credit scores, you can turn to websites like Credit Karma or Credit Sesame, although they won't give you the most widely used score, the FICO score. For that, you could try enrolling in a FICO product that comes with a free score, then canceling within the cancellation period.

14. Free cash
Tired of paying a $2.50 "convenience fee" for using an ATM that's not in your bank's network? Use an app like ATM Hunter to find a branch ATM. If you can't find an ATM near you for a free cash withdrawal, no worries: Plenty of stores will give you cash back with no fee when you make a purchase with your debit card.

15. Free information
Use the search feature on your smartphone, or text a business name to Google, and you'll get the number texted back. You can also dial Free 411 at (800) Free411. The results are sponsored by companies (you'll have to listen to a 10-second ad), but it's free.

16. Free scholarship search
Plenty of websites, such as Fastweb, offer free searches for scholarships. A company called Free Scholarship Searches offers links to 40 websites that offer free scholarship searches.

17. Free baggage
My wife and I went to Europe for 10 days with just one carry-on each. If we can do it, so can you. But if you insist on checking a bag, try to fly with the only two airlines that allow a free checked bag: Southwest and JetBlue. And avoid the two that slap consumers in the face by charging for carry-ons: Spirit and Allegiant.

Need to check a bag and fly an airline that charges? Delta, United and American all offer credit cards that include checked-bag-fee waivers for cardholders and, in some cases, their companions.

18. Free entertainment
Your local library, parks and universities offer lots of free fun, from books and DVDs to plays and concerts. Join email lists to see what's up. And of course, there's the Internet, offering free games as well as articles. Just go to the website of your favorite news source.

Volunteering doesn't cost a dime and can pay off for both you and your community. Local animal shelters, homebuilding groups, shelters and food banks are always looking for volunteers. And check out volunteer opportunities at local festivals and events. By volunteering, you get to go to the event free.

19. Free water
While technically not free, tap water is about as close as you can get. If you're concerned about water quality, buy a filter.

20. Free telephone calls
Always calling a loved one long distance? If you both get something like Skype, you can talk all you want without paying a dime. And with a service like Google Voice, you can get all of your cellphone calls free too.

21. Free everything else
You have something you don't want but it's too valuable to throw away? You might donate it to charity, but you also might give it away at sites like Craigslist or Freecycle, a nonprofit set up to help you find free stuff and keep it out of landfills. From used furniture to sports equipment, you'll be amazed at what people give away.

Finding the Best Travel Deals (Sunday NY Times)

19 Web Sites for Travel Savings in 2012

By MICHELLE HIGGINS
New York Times
January 4, 2012


HIGHER hotel prices, airline capacity cuts and rising travel demand mean travelers will have to work harder to find a good deal in 2012. But there are plenty of online tools to help keep your vacation expenses in check. Here are 19 go-to Web sites to help you save money this year.

FLIGHTS

Looking for sales on a specific route, or just want to go somewhere cheap? AirfareWatchdog.com hunts down deals computers tend to miss, like promo codes airlines include in e-mail newsletters. It also finds sales from Allegiant and Southwest, which typically aren’t listed on major airfare search engines. You can sign up for specific fare alerts or a list of all the cheap round-trip fares from your local airport.

Where can you go for $500 or less? Kayak.com/explore will show you where you can vacation for a particular price and display the results on a map. You can narrow your search by month, region, flight length, weather or activity. Clicking on a price reveals dates the fare is available.

If you already know where you want to go, use Itasoftware.com to find the cheapest dates to fly. Click on “airfare search” in the middle of the home page, then enter your departure date and destination and select “see calendar of lowest fares.” To purchase, you must go to the airline’s Web site or online agencies like Travelocity.

To figure out whether to buy that plane ticket now or wait, go to Bing.com/travel. Its Price Predictor can determine how likely a fare is to rise or fall during the next seven days from more than 250 cities in the United States to top domestic destinations and major hubs in Europe. The site claims that its predictions are about 75 percent accurate and save customers more than $50 on average for a round trip.

After you’ve booked your tickets at an airline site, enter your flight information at Yapta.com to track the price so you don’t miss out on savings if the price drops. If the difference in price exceeds the rebooking fee (typically $75 to $150), Yapta will send you, without charge, an e-mail or tweet so you can call the airline to claim the credit.

HOTELS

To get the best deal on Priceline.com, where travelers name their own price and pay before learning the hotel’s name, sites like Biddingfortravel.com and Betterbidding.com have long offered strategic advice on how to game the system. Now, a new site, Biddingtraveler.com, goes a step further. Enter the city, dates, neighborhood and star ratings for the hotel you want. Then, after reviewing the site’s recommendations, enter a “lowball” bid and “final offer.” The Bidding Traveler then calculates and helps you execute the optimal bidding strategy on Priceline.

Not willing to gamble? Hotels.com offers nearly 145,000 properties in more than 60 countries from national chain hotels and all-inclusive resorts to bed-and-breakfasts. You can find particularly good last-minute deals on Tuesdays and Thursdays. And the site has a loyalty program through which members earn a free-night voucher after they book 10 nights.

For hotel fanciers, Luxurylink.com, offers discounts on high-end hotels and villas through online auctions and deals. Just last month the site was auctioning off a five-night package at La Samanna on St. Martin in the Caribbean that included a deluxe ocean-view room with a private terrace, airport transfers, a bottle of rum upon arrival, two 45-minute massages and a one-day car rental with a minimum starting bid of $2,475. The package normally costs $6,171.

VACATION RENTALS

As hotel prices rise, vacation rentals can be the better deal. HomeAway.com offers more than 290,000 listings in 145 countries, including rentals by owners that cut out the middleman.

Airbnb.com connects travelers with locals who are offering a place to stay, whether it is a couch, a private apartment or a castle. It currently has about 100,000 listings in 19,000 cities and towns in 192 countries, and charges booking fees from 6 to 12 percent. Wimdu.com offers a similar service focused mostly on places in Europe with 35,000 listings across 100 countries. Do as much due diligence as you can when using such sites; some hosts have been known to cancel confirmed reservations at the last minute.

For luxury seekers, Jetsetter.com/homes, a members-only site, offers discounts of up to 50 percent on 5 to 10 carefully selected vacation rentals. Membership is free and by invitation only. You can also request a free membership on Jetsetter.com.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Tired of sifting through daily-deal or group-shopping sites like Groupon and LivingSocial for local bargains? YipIt.com, collects those deals from 787 services in 118 North American cities. Travelers who sign up with an e-mail can filter results by checking categories like wine tasting, museum, golf or other activities. A recent search for restaurant and spa deals in New York turned up a $60 three-course dinner for two with wine (worth $136) at Tenpenny, the Gotham Hotel’s restaurant, and a $199 Moroccan Spa treatment at the Trump SoHo, worth $339. Pay close attention to expiration dates to be sure the deals will be good for your travel plans.

Autoslash.com searches the Web for discount coupons on car rentals and applies them after you book. It then continually checks for lower rates and coupons until your trip date and automatically applies any discounts it finds.

Cayole.com lets you search cruises by price, destination, room type or cruise line, then offers price predictions to give cruisers an idea of whether they should buy now or wait for a possible price drop. For example, by clicking “get more details” for a five-night Western Mediterranean cruise in September, the site recommended that travelers booking balcony cabins buy “as soon as possible, because prices are likely to increase.” For interior ocean-view rooms or suites it suggested waiting.

If you’re willing to swap places with a stranger, list your home and find travelers willing to trade on Homeexchange.com, which facilitates about 60,000 swaps a year. Recent listings included a two-bedroom apartment on Lake Como in Italy and a six-bedroom oceanfront lodge in Cape Town with a resident game ranger. Members pay $119.40 to list their home for a year or $47.85 for three months.

How to Get Cheaper Cable TV (Wall St Journal)

Customers Say to Cable Firms, 'Let's Make a Deal'

By LAUREN A. E. SCHUKER
Want cheaper cable television? Try asking for it.

Every three to six months, when his most recent promotional deal expires, Carey Anthony blocks out an hour of his day to negotiate with his cable company. Each time, the president of a software company in Los Angeles says he can knock $20 to $30 off his monthly bill.

Lauren Schuker on The News Hub has some tips on how to trim your cable bill, such as asking your service provider for unadvertised deals.

"Negotiating works every time," says Mr. Anthony, 46, who estimates he has saved more than $350 a year over the past decade. "Sometimes you have to threaten to cancel service, or switch to another provider, or sit on hold for an hour, but I've never failed to get a discount," he says. "You just have to be diligent."

As prices for cable services have surged over the past 10 years and the faltering economy has pressured household incomes, a growing number of cable customers face skyrocketing bills.

Today, the average cable TV subscriber pays about $128 a month in fees for all services, including TV, Internet and phone—nearly three times the $48 they paid each month in 2001, according to estimates by research firm SNL Kagan.

The increase is largely the result of sharply rising costs of programming, particularly sports. The TV networks pass those additional costs onto the operators, which in turn pass them onto consumers.

Cable-company executives have said publicly that they're worried rising costs could drive consumers away. The largest U.S. cable company, Comcast Corp., lost 442,000 video subscribers in the first nine months of this year, though this was fewer than in the same period last year. No. 2 Time Warner Cable Inc. lost 319,000 over the same period.

.Telecommunications companies including Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. are now offering more competitive services. And a growing number of early adapters are severing ties to cable altogether to rely on broadcast TV and Internet distributors, such as Netflix Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., though getting live sports can be difficult for these so-called cord cutters. Even in rural areas, where customers often have only one cable TV option, competition from satellite service is increasing, though satellite providers are facing similar cost pressures and passing on higher bills.

To stanch the bleeding, some cable companies have begun to quietly offer stripped-down plans to retain viewers. They frequently go unadvertised in many regions and customers might have to hunt for them on providers' websites to find out exactly what to ask for.

Comcast, for example, has a "digital economy" tier that sells for between $29.99 and $39.99, depending on the area. The next tier up in service Comcast offers, which includes ESPN, often sells for around $58 a month.

The digital economy tier includes local broadcast channels, as well as popular cable channels, such as USA, Lifetime, but no ESPN. The company says it will work with customers to find a package to fit their needs.

Time Warner Cable late last year introduced a "TV Essentials" package in the same vein. It can cost as much as $49.99 but the company also offers promotional rates as low as $29.99 a month. It includes broadcast channels as well as 38 additional channels, but not ESPN.

Fans of premium channels and their shows, such as HBO's 'Game of Thrones,' can add them to the most basic cable service.
."TV Essentials is geared towards a segment of our customers who are having trouble affording the larger packages, even though they want [them]," a spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable says, adding most people who call about it end up taking a "more robust" package.

Some cable operators and DirecTV also offer a family packages, which usually cost $30 to $40, and give households all the broadcast channels as well limited cable channels such as the Disney Channel and Food Network.

Other subscribers are dumping bulky packages of 190 channels or more in favor of the most basic service—often known as the "Lifeline" tier in the industry. These usually include public broadcast stations and the handful of over-the-air channels, and usually cost $13 to $16, compared to the $40 to $60 it usually costs to get the more widely-distributed level of digital cable service, which includes ESPN, MTV, TNT and other basic cable channels.

Although cable operators don't widely market it, a federal law requires them to allow consumers to tack on premium channels such as HBO or Showtime for roughly $17 a month, even if they only have the most basic cable package.

Some consumers say they can finagle long-term extensions of special promotional rates used to attract new subscribers that normally expire after a year or two.

Getting Down to Basics
Negotiate. Many providers offer less-expensive packages with fewer channels but don't advertise them widely. Providers often will allow customers to continue cost-saving promotions well after they expire. Other providers will cut you a new deal every six months—but you have to call and ask. Often, if customers threaten to cancel service, they are transferred to the "retention department" staffed with representatives who are trained to offer customers deals to stay put.

Don't be beholden to the bundle. Service representatives are trained to push various bundled services (cable, Internet, telephone) because it's more profitable for the company. Some customers don't need a landline and can save a lot by avoiding that service. If you are offered a promotion or discount, suggest how it could be modified to meet your needs and make the company a counter-offer.

Go basic. If you love premium channels, you can still get HBO, Showtime and others with the most basic, broadcast-channels-only service—and knock your bill down to less than $50 a month. Just ask to add those channels onto the most basic offering.

Give up the DVR. Digital video recorders can increase bills by as much as $20 to $30 in some cases. When companies introduced the DVR in the early 2000s, charges were roughly $8 to $9 in addition to the cable box. Now they often cost as much as an additional $12.

Keep tabs on promotions. Place reminders on your calendar for when a special offer expires so you can negotiate a new deal before the promotion ends and you end up paying full price.

Russell Bailyn, a 29-year-old wealth manager in New York City, says he has threatened to switch service in order to keep the new-subscriber promotional rate for television, broadband, and telephone service, even though he originally signed up for Time Warner Cable back in 2004.

Mr. Bailyn says he keeps meticulous notes of his conversations, but it isn't always an easy negotiation. "Time Warner has people trained to deal with people like me," he adds. "They won't just give into an angry, articulate New Yorker easily."

A spokesman from Time Warner Cable declined to comment on customer negotiations and extending promotional pricing.

Other subscribers say they bend the truth to score promotional rates years after signing up by cancelling service and asking someone else in the household—a spouse, grandparent, or older child—sign up for service at the cheaper, "new customer" rate.

Switching to a bundled TV, phone and Internet package can work, if you really need all three services.

Mark Nitzberg, who lives with his wife and two kids in Westmont, N.J., says he now saves about $70 a month as a result of switching his family from Comcast TV and Internet service and Verizon phone service to bundling everything together with Verizon's FIOS service earlier this year.

They used the extra money to buy a new flat-screen TV and upgrade the living room couch to a new sectional sofa. "After seeing how much we're saving, our friends constantly ask how we got the $79.99 deal," he says.

Write to Lauren A. E. Schuker at lauren.schuker@wsj.com

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved

How to Become a Millionaire (CSMonitor)

Secret millionaire donates her fortune to Lake Forest College. Here's how she did it. / The Christian Science Monitor - CSMonitor.com

Free Financial Help ( PC Magazine's Recommended Websites)

Free Financial Help for Tough Times

PC Magazine reviews free websites for budgeting, monitoring your accounts, and keeping track of bills

Frugal Living Ideas: Free Stuff (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

sun-sentinel.com/features/time-money/bargains/sfl-save-money-vasquez-c042009sbapr20,0,5496852.column

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Save money: Let the Web help you cut costs on dining, shopping and more
Use the Internet to uncover cost-conscious dealsDaniel Vasquez on consumer issues

Consumer columnist

April 20, 2009

No free lunch? Actually, you can get that and more if you're a savvy shopper — and online surfer.

Companies are bending over backward today to get business; in some cases giving away stuff and services for free just to get your attention and maybe some repeat business.

Here are 10 ways to live, eat and play for free (and check my ConsumerTalk blog at SunSentinel.com/consumerblog for other free offers).



Kids eat free
It's hardly cheap feeding the little ones, but finding restaurants where they dine free helps. To find them, frequent Web sites that track down neighborhood establishments with family friendly specials.

MyKidsEatFree.com tipped us to Sonny's BBQ, where kids eat free on Wednesdays, and Piccadilly Restaurant, which serves 99 cent meals for children on Thursdays (and from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays). The site also lets users search by state and city.

Also check out KidsEat4Free.com, KiddieMenu.com and coupondivas.com/ kids-eat-free.


Never pay shipping again
Before you waste gas and time visiting your favorite store, check online. Major retailer sites such as Kmart.com and BathandBodyWorks.com often offer free shipping deals.

But if visiting those Web sites now and then is too much sweat, let Web sites do the work for you. Somemonitor free shipping deals from major retailers and send e-mail alerts to your computer or cell phone, even sending you coupon codes.

Check out FreeShipping.org, DealTaker.com and Bargainist.com.


Why pay for Wi-Fi?
For those who live on the Web via a cell phone or laptop, it's crucial to find the nearest no-cost hot spot. McDonald's restaurants are a good bet. And it's smart to check with your carrier for special access deals; AT&T customers with an iPhone or Blackberry get free Wi-Fi at Starbucks.

Public libraries often offer free hot spots, though you may need a valid library card account to access it. Check out WiFiFree.com and jiwire.com.

Note: At airports, be wary of Wi-Fi networks with names like "Free Wi-Fi"; they can be ad hoc, peer-to-peer networks set up as a trap by someone with a laptop nearby.


Books
You can find free books on the Web faster than you can say the phrase three times. For a taste of free lit, check out GetFreeeBooks.com, Fiction.us and ManyBooks.net.

And, of courses, there's also the public library — where you can also rent DVDs, CDs and even video cassettes. (Check Browardlibrary.org, PBClibrary.org or MDPLS.org for catalog lists.)


Legal advice
Would you like to talk to an attorney for free? Maybe you have questions about bankruptcy or foreclosure? Or a dispute with a business. Call LegalLine at 866-596-0399 between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. on the first Wednesday of each month and anonymously ask away (in English and Spanish).

The Dade County Bar Association help-line dispenses free, basic legal advice for South Floridians. Specialties covered include family, probate, criminal, real estate, condo, landlord-tenant, business and immigration law. The next opportunities to call: May 6 and June 3.


Video games
When you need an arcade game fix but can't afford tokens, go to FreeVideoGames Online.org. You'll fall in love again with old school favorites like Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Tetris. Also, check FreeArcade.com, BoomGames.com and GameTap.com.


Museums
While some museums don't charge admission, some cost $20 or more. But you can still take advantage of free days, half-day specials and nightly discounts offered on a weekly or monthly basis at institutions across the country. Check museum Web sites of any city you plan to visit.

For example, the Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale offers one-hour group tours during regular business hours (must be booked two weeks in advance) and Public Highlight tours Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Both are free with admission. And the Morikami Museum in Delray Beach offers Saturday Family Fun Programs.

Your employer or bank also may offer discounts.

The first weekend of each month, for instance, Bank of America customers get into eight South Florida museums for no charge. Caveats: It's only good for general admission (no special exhibits or ticketed shows) and you can't combine it with any other discounts.

Just present your ATM, credit card or check card along with valid photo identification. The participating museums are: Miami Art Museum, Miami Children's Museum, Miami Science Museum, The Morikami Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Museum of Discovery & Science and South Florida Science Museum.


Education
Many colleges offer free online courses, such as Carnegie Mellon University and the University of California. Florida International University Online lets you take practice courses at no cost.

Stanford University offers free courses on iTunes. Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers much of its undergraduate and graduate curriculum, and anyone can quickly download course material from 35 departments, including Architecture, Economics and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.


Pets
Looking for a four-legged best friend but want to avoid pet stores? You'll find plenty of offers from owners on Craigslist Community Pet Listings and Petfinder.com. You also may consider rescuing a pet from a local shelter, though fees can range from $70 to $100.


Phone calls
Use the Web and skip the phone fees. At Skype.com, for instance, download software at no cost and start calling (computer to computer) friends and loved ones who are also Skype users, anywhere in the world. A Web cam will let you see their smiling face too. You just need a working DSL line or cable modem and headset.

Daniel Vasquez can be reached at dvasquez @SunSentinel.com, or 954-356-4219, or 561-243- 6600, ext. 4219. For more Daniel Vasquez columns, go to SunSentinel.com/vasquez.

Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Common Sense from Ben Stein (NY Times)

March 30, 2008
Everybody's Business
Time to Go on a Liquid Diet
By BEN STEIN
AS the market keeps torturing us, many people say the problem is fallout from the losses in subprime mortgages. Others say it is fear of a recession because of the credit crisis, rising oil prices and the collapsing dollar and its flip side, inflation.
We could be in for much more pain as profits fall this year, and maybe even into 2009. Financial companies account for a huge hunk of total corporate profits — or they did.
And we could be in for more suffering if the currents of fear whipped up by the short-sellers grow into tidal waves.
Markets can certainly fall: from 1926 through 2007, the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell 3 out of every 10 years. Some declines can be substantial. And there can be times like the 1970s when the market is sluggish for cruelly long periods.
As we are now seeing, real estate is far from a consistent shelter. And, for many of us, there isn’t much time before we’ll want to hang up our spurs. (Actually, I don’t ever plan to hang up my spurs. I plan to die going through an airport security line en route to a speech.)
So what do we do? I am going to be honest here: I don’t know. Or at least I don’t know for sure. (Hey, honesty may not be the best policy, but it’s worth trying every once in a while, as my old chief, Richard Nixon, once said. He had a much better sense of humor than is usually believed.) But I do have some general considerations that should guide you.
No one ever went broke from too much liquidity. In volatile times like these, cash is your best friend, aside from your dogs and cats. True, you earn very little interest on cash these days. True, if the stock market has a huge move up and you are largely in cash, you will be sad.
But it is also true that cash does not crash — although it does slowly but surely lose its value. You can pay your bills with it without having to sell it at a loss. So, as my pal Ray Lucia, the San Diego money manager, has taught me over the years, your first bucket of money should be in cash.
Having a plan is vital. It does not have to be a perfect or precise plan. Indeed, it cannot be, because you cannot forecast your rate of return or cost of living. But a rough plan to get you to and through retirement (to the Rainbow Bridge, where you meet all your departed dogs and cats) is a must.
Nowadays, alas, such a plan must consider the likelihood of much higher inflation than we had expected, as imports and food costs skyrocket. And we have to plan for the possibility of prolonged low returns from stocks. That means more saving.
Third, we have to be diversified: large- and small-capitalization stocks, foreign and domestic, emerging and developed markets. My own preference is for index funds, but there may be some fine managed funds out there, too.
Diversification should also include real estate investment trusts, with their fabulous yields, and commodities, which can easily be bought through index funds. Commodities may well have hit an air pocket, as commodities do, but they will be back someday.
My preference for a plan would also include guaranteed income that you cannot outlive — and that means annuities. There are now fixed annuities and variable annuities that give you inflation protection as well as protection from a collapse of the stock market. Of course, you have to pay for this, as you would for any hedge, but it can allow you to sleep better. Investigate the fees carefully and buy only the features that you want and need.
Fourth, plan for living more frugally. This is not easy for some of us. “What were once vices are now habits,” as the Doobie Brothers once said. This is true for millions of us, but we simply cannot escape the logic and power of arithmetic.
We cannot live forever on more than we have in principal and interest (or earnings ) and pensions. If that means no more second homes, or no more third cars, so be it.
No comfort is worth putting yourself in genuine fear of poverty. For me, your humble scribe, this is a vicious problem, but at some point, it must be solved.
But look on the bright side. My pal and investment guru Phil DeMuth and I have shown repeatedly that the best returns for stocks come after periods of extreme pessimism. It is just when the horizon seems darkest and cloudiest that we find above-par returns. And it is just when hopes seem dimmest for the United States that the economy starts to rally. If you have enough liquidity, if you are well diversified, now would be a good time to start back into the buying pool, in the most diversified way imaginable.
The best time to go house-hunting may be when pundits say the housing market is hopeless. That market, too, will eventually turn around. Many homes bought decades ago, when prices seemed insanely high, are now a steal. If you do buy a home, be patient. The days of flipping for easy money are long gone.
Prudence is the order of the day. If we can remember that, we’ll really be well off when, soon enough, the good times start rolling again.
Ben Stein is a lawyer, writer, actor and economist. E-mail: ebiz@nytimes.com.