HOW TO STOP SPENDING YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY

By: Neil Parnham

Answer these questions:

a. Does your spouse or partner complain that you spend too much money?

b. Are you surprised each month when your credit card bill arrives at how much more you charged than you thought you had?

c. Do you have more shoes and clothes in your closet than you could ever possibly wear?

d. Do you own every new gadget before it has time to collect dust on a retailer’s shelf?

e. Do you buy things you didn’t know you wanted until you saw them on display in a store?

If you answered “yes” to any two of the above questions, you are an impulse spender and indulge yourself in retail therapy.

This is not a good thing. It will prevent you from saving for the important things like a house, a new car, a vacation or retirement. You must set some financial goals and resist spending money on items that really don’t matter in the long run.

Impulse spending will not only put a strain on your finances but your relationships, as well. To overcome the problem, the first thing to do is learn to separate your needs from your wants.

Advertisers blitz us hawking their products at us 24/7. The trick is to give yourself a cooling-off period before you buy anything that you have not planned for.

When you go shopping, make a list and take only enough cash to pay for what you have planned to buy. Leave your credit cards at home.

If you see something you think you really need, give yourself two weeks to decide if it is really something you need or something you can easily do without. By following this simple solution, you will mend your financial fences and your relationships.

TIPS ON HOW TO TEACH YOUR KIDS TO SAVE MONEY

By: Norleen Gray

A lot of teens nowadays do not understand the value of earning and spending money. They were not oriented that investing is necessary even if they are still students. As parents, you play a crucial role in this area.

You should be able to teach your kids on how to save money. They should be able to understand the concept of money and investment as early as childhood. This will prepare them to learn money management, as they grow old.

Here are some tips on how you can teach your children how to save money:

1. Your children should be educated of the meaning of money. Once your children have learned how to count, that is the perfect time for you teach them the real meaning of money. You should be consistent and explain to them in simple ways and do this frequently so that they may be able to remember what you taught them.

2. Always explain to them the value of saving money. Make them understand its importance and how it will impact their life. It is important that you entertain questions from them about money and you should be able to answer them right away.

3. When giving them their allowances. You need to give them their allowances in denominations. Then you can encourage them that they should keep a certain bill for the future. You can motivate them to do this by telling them that the money can be saved and they can buy new pair of shoes or the toys they want once they are able to save.

4. You can also teach them to work for money. You can start this at your own home. You can pay them fifty cents to one dollar every time they clean their rooms, do the dishes or feed their pets. This concept of earning little money will make them think that money is something they have worked for and should be spent wisely.

5. You can teach them to save money by giving them piggy banks where they can put coins and wait until they get full. You can also open bank accounts for them and let them deposit money from their allowance. You should always show them how much they have earned to keep them motivated.

Money and saving is not something that is learned by children in one sitting. You should be patient in teaching them and relating the value of money in all of their activities. Children will learn this easily if you are patient and consistent in guiding them and encouraging them in this endeavor.

THEMES SITES WITH eBAY LISTINGS SAVE TIME AND MONEY

By: Matthew Ryan

If you have searched for something to buy online, chances are you have come across a “niche site” streaming listings from eBay. These sites can help you find what you are looking for and all while removing the hassle of searching eBay and other sites yourself.

A few years back, eBay launched a program where webmasters could put eBay listings directly on their web site. This spawned a new generation of so-called “niche” web sites, where a webmaster would create a web site themed around a certain product. The product listings on eBay are streamed directly to the web site. Even categories and subcategories are transferred to the web site, making it easy to navigate and find what you are looking for. If the webmaster did a good job designing the web site, then finding what you are looking for is much easier than going directly to eBay doing a search for what you want.

For example, let us take a look at the web site www.transformersnation.com. The web site is themed around the “Transformers” niche. You can see in the left sidebar all the categories for the different Transformers products. Searching for products that can be found in multiple categories spread across eBay can be a pain. The niche site transformersnation.com relieves this pain as every category that Transformers products fall in are right there on the side of the page.

The competition on eBay tends to keep prices low compared to other web sites selling their product directly from their stock. This adds even more value for the customer when using a niche site with eBay listings as you will be saving time and money. This makes the experience of using one of these niche web sites second to none.

As you can see, niche sites with eBay listings can be very helpful to anyone performing a search looking to buy something online.