FRUGAL LIVING TIP - GIVING YOURSELF A REASON TO SAVE MONEY

By: Jonni Good

In the US and much of the Western world, we equate money with happiness, even though our personal experience seldom gives us reason to believe that the old saying "you can't buy happiness" is anything less than true. We assure ourselves that if we only get a raise or get a better job or win the lottery, all of the stress of daily life will disappear and we'll have time for those things in life we really enjoy.

This would be true, at least partially, if making more money allowed us to have more money in the bank. However, each raise in pay also raises our desire to spend, so a promotion at work can actually put us farther into debt. How many people do we know who bring in over $100,000 a year who are still living paycheck to paycheck? How many lottery winners end up in bankruptcy court, wondering where all the money went and how they managed to make such a muddle of this windfall that should have set them up for a lifetime of financial security?

An option to spending as much or more than you make every month is to live frugally - and it's refreshing to see the increase in interest in the voluntary simplicity movement. Being intentionally frugal can actually bring you the financial security that a high-paying job cannot. In fact, if you go one step further to voluntary poverty, as I have, you may be able to quit that job and actually do something that could really make you feel fulfilled.

The one frugal living tip that makes the biggest difference is to simply keep track of everything you spend for at least a month. You probably won't keep it up for much longer than that, but it will give you an idea of where your money is going, and whether or not the money you spend on each item is really giving you the satisfaction you're paying for.

However, just keeping track won't help much unless you have a vision of another way of life that would really give you pleasure or contentment. Saving money for it's own sake feels like a sacrifice, but saving money so you can retire early and start that little farm you've always wanted would be a goal worth working for. Creating that goal may take some true soul searching and many deep conversations with your family.

When you come up with a goal you all agree on, decide how much time it will take to get there - this time frame is important, and you should be as realistic as you can. Do you want to own your own home without a mortgage? Will it take 5 years of frugal living? Or 10? Would you like to retire all your credit card debt? How long will it take?

Once you have that goal in mind, the best way to start putting money in the bank is to notice where you're spending your money now.

One thing most people discover is that the simple act of jotting down the $3 you spend on coffee every morning, plus every other small or large expenditure, will magically cause you to have money left over that you ever had before. Keeping track causes us to be mindful of our choices, and even without adding up any numbers or making any deep decisions, we save money by spending more consciously.

Once you have at least a few weeks' worth of figures, you're ready to get out the calculator. Divide the items on your list into any categories that seem reasonable - such as lunch at work, utilities, dog food... Then add up the columns to see how much you really spend.

Then, go one step further to give yourself a true shock - multiply the amount you spend on each unnecessary category, like your morning coffee at Starbucks, by the number of months you think it will take you to reach that long-term goal.

If you spend $3.50 each working day at the local coffee shop, it doesn't seem like a very big deal. Multiply that by the average of 20 working days a month, and you may be startled to realize that you spend $70 a month on coffee that you could make yourself in your own kitchen. But the real eye-opener comes when you multiply that $70 times the number of months you need to reach your goal of financial security.

If you are willing to spend 5 years in frugal living to pay down the mortgage on your house or pay off all your credit cards, multiply your monthly coffee money by 60 months, and you'll see $4200 on your calculator screen. That 's enough money for a down payment on a reasonably priced house, or to buy a good used car for your teenager. It's also enough to pay at least several month's mortgage payments, or to put in the bank for a medical emergency. $3.50 isn't an important amount of money, but to almost anyone I know, $4200 is a serious amount of cash.

Do the same calculation for everything on your list that isn't truly necessary, and you may discover that you can reduce the amount of time you need to reach your long-term goal by several years or more. If your credit card debts are weighing you down and causing daily stress, this simple frugal living tip could lead to a complete elimination of debt in just a year or less. In my mind, that's more important than a fancy cup of coffee.

TO MAKE MONEY ON THE INTERNET

By: Gordon Milton

There are lots of ways to make money on the internet, but let's get several things straightened out first. It is just as difficult to make money on the internet as it is to make money with a "bricks and mortar" business, but on the internet, it is possible to get started with very little money. The ways to make money on the internet are as infinite as your imagination and if you combine those two points there is one absolute. Don't part with any money until you are certain about what you are purchasing.

I have found that the real, honest to goodness organizations that you can "joint venture" with, or work for, present their offers to you in a truly transparent manner. The best of the best, will grant you full access to their methods of conducting business online without any prerequisite for you to part with your money.

In your search for ways to make money on the internet, very often you will be presented with offers to be a re-seller. This means you buy information to sell on to others. Frequently, this information is about how someone has made hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly millions of dollars, by using techniques obtained through purchasing an e-book for seemingly very little money. The impression is that the "up-side" is so massive as to make the purchase price appear trivial.

Take care. Commonly, the person selling the information has made a fortune using methods that exploit a loop-hole in a service. However, the service-provider maybe closing the loop-hole. You could be too late to gain any advantage using the tactics yourself and word may have spread, making it very difficult to sell the information onwards.

Always ask yourself why the person is offering this information to the public at large. After all, if the biggest businesses go to incredible lengths to keep their money making methods secret, don't you think that anyone who has successfully discovered how to make money on the internet would do the same. However, there are always exceptions.

Sometimes you can be a re-seller for a service, such as web-hosting, or an auto-responder for example. Such services are based on an ongoing subscription and may be linked to an affiliate program. In such circumstances, it is understandable to be offered the opportunity to be a re-seller. The person offering you the service will continue making money on your subscription and you will continue to make money on the internet for the lifetime of your customer's subscriptions.

THE PRINCIPLE LAW OF ONLINE MONEYMAKING VENTURES

By: Stephen Thomas

The Principle Law Of Online Moneymaking Ventures

There are two ways to earn money in the real world. Either you will work for a boss, or be your own boss. Working for a boss entails employment of some nature, in an establishment that has some need for the services you could provide. Being your own boss entails having your own business and facilitating the production of some goods or the distribution of some services. Either way, you'll earn your keep (or at least, you should).

It's the basic law of making money, you have to give or render something to receive something in return. When it comes to making money online, it's the same principle at work. You have to give or render something to receive something in return. And yes, you could work for a boss, or you could be your own boss. The opportunities are there in the World Wide Web. The choice is yours. The first question in your mind, most probably, is this: could I really earn a living online?

The answer to that question is an emphatic "yes!" But let me explain, dear friend. I am not referring to some ordinary opportunities that would reward you with measly earnings that won't even be enough to purchase a happy meal. Oh, most definitely not. I am talking about REAL opportunities that would help you earn REAL money in the World Wide Web.

The things you will learn in this series of email lessons would make you realize that the virtual world is just as profitable, if not more lucrative, than offline ventures. Based on my experience, it is more profitable to have your own business on the internet. Case in point: I personally know 34 people who live comfortable lives by working for someone else via the communication channels that the internet has made possible, but I also personally know around 200 people who have made it big online without having to work as much as those who have decided to render their services for hire. By "big," I mean big time big! I'm talking about a yearly gross in the high six digits, if not over the magical 7 digit barrier! And I'm just talking about the people I "personally" know, people I have befriended and people I have mentored at some point. What more the people outside my circle, right?

But first, we must cover the basics. Tell me, what's the common thing that can be observed in any business? The answer, of course, is that you have to sell something. What you will be able to sell would be your bread and butter. It will be the source of your profits. You can't earn if you can't offer anything for a particular market. You may offer them some goods or some services, which they would need or want. This is related to the driving principle of the commercial world: the law of supply in demand. This principle is quite easy to understand. The lower the supply, the higher the demand. This is the lesson I want you to learn: you can't make money from the real world without delivering something, be it some goods or some services. And you can't make money from the internet without delivering something as well. It's the basic business model at work.

Using what we have discussed so far as basis, we could formulate an outline for your online business plan, one that would allow you to cover the basic concepts and advance to more complicated ones. Here are the things you have to learn, eventually:

1. How to find a profitable market.

2. The different types of products you could sell.

3. How to create your own information product.

4. How to create unconventional products that can be digitally delivered.

5. How to come up with products without having to go through the process of creation.

6. How to build your own digital store.

7. The basics of search engine optimization.

8. The basics of article marketing.

9. The basics of forum marketing.

10. How to make a blog work for your business.

11. How to price your product.

12. How to employ novel packaging techniques to make your product highly sellable.

13. Cross-selling and back-selling items for sustainable profit.

I am not exaggerating when I tell you that you'd be able to earn an amount that might rival and even surpass what you earn from your day job. The Internet, after all, has always been a secret breeding ground for millionaires. Master the basics we have enumerated above and you will be able to realize the extreme profitability an online moneymaking opportunity can truly offer.