One of the best ways to break out of the daily grind, and do something that you really enjoy, is to start a business.  You’ll likely work twice as hard, but because it’s something that you love, you’ll enjoy every minute of it.  When my wife quit her job, she could have used a lot of the advice that is contained in the guide I’m about to share with you.  There were lots of questions about the structure and methods that are necessary to starting a small business.  Luckily, if you’re starting a new business, you can read the guide and cut through some of the learning process.

The guide I’m talking about is one that has been put together by my friend, Eric, from Narrow Bridge Finance.  It’s free.  All you have to do is have an email and sign up for his newsletter.  He’s a stand-up guy, so your email is safe with him, and all you’ll get is some really great information about starting a business and personal finance.

So, go over and sign up for the newsletter and get your copy of the Starting a Small Business guide.

The guide is 16 pages long, and covers everything from developing your idea into a business to increasing revenue and income, to the proper ways to exit a company you’ve started if that’s what you want to do.  It’s not all-inclusive (that would take a couple hundred pages), but it is a great start on your way to starting a small business.

Despite the best of intentions and the clearest of budgets, sometimes holiday spending can snowball out of control. It can start with an innocent extra box of ornaments or a gift for someone not on your list, and before you know it, you’ve charged the entire month of December on your credit cards and you’re facing the New Year with bills you’re not sure how to pay.

Even if you have gone overboard this year, it doesn’t mean you have to spend all of 2012 digging yourself out of the hole. Here’s a step-by-step and (relatively) painless plan for paying off your holiday spending spree.

1. Transfer your credit card balance responsibly. To avoid having to pay interest on your purchases, look into transferring what you owe to a 0% balance transfer credit card. This will give you a little breathing room to pay off your holiday excess—the transfer term is sometimes as long as year or more.

You will generally face a nominal transfer fee of around 3% of the balance, but that will still save you a great deal of money compared to your interest rate, provided you can pay the balance off before the 0% introductory rate expires. As always, make sure that you use this transfer along with a payoff plan (step 2) in order to keep yourself afloat. If you’re not sure about your ability to handle the temptation of a new credit card, then skip right to step 2.

2. Create a payoff plan. With your budget (you do have a budget, right?) and a calendar in hand, determine exactly how much you can send to your credit card each month or with each paycheck. If possible, set up automatic payments to the credit card for the day you receive your paycheck so you don’t even have to think about it. And to keep yourself motivated, start a debt payoff thermometer on a whiteboard or online. (Online thermometers are generally created for fundraisers, but they work just as well for debt payoff). A visual of how far you have come and where you still need to go will help you to remember the big picture when temptation strikes.

3. Find extra ways to make money. Even with a period of 0% interest and a payoff plan, a truly epic spending hangover may still take some time to recover from. If you want to make sure that this lapse in judgment affects as little of your New Year as possible, here are some ways to “find” extra money to send to the debt:

Go on a Financial Fast in January

Just as you might want to refrain from drinking for a while after an all night binge, you might also want to put the kibosh on your spending for some time after the holidays. Basically, you will choose a certain amount of time during which you will refrain from spending any money outside of absolute necessities. It’s very important to be brutal with the definition of a necessity. For example, you can eat through the food you have in your pantry, rather than go to the grocery store during your fast.

Michelle Singletary of The Washington Post recommends committing to at least a 21 day fast in order to see the best results. And after a month of excess, it will feel great to know just how little you need to spend in a month.

Sell Your Gifts

We all receive gifts that aren’t quite right. It may feel strange, but there’s nothing wrong with selling your gifts and gift cards on sites like Ebay and www.giftcardgranny.com. It means that the gift will truly be appreciated and that you can feel more financially comfortable. Just make sure you sincerely thank the giver. They are, after all, giving you an opportunity to get your financial ducks in a row, even if that’s not the gift they intended to give you.

Earn More Money

While there’s only so many ways you can cut your spending, your earning potential is virtually limitless. If you’re still not sure how you can pay off your debt quickly, try to find a second income stream that you can send directly to your credit card. If you find something that you really enjoy doing, you’ll be spending your time more wisely, as well.

The Bottom Line

We all make mistakes, particularly when temptations are around every cheery holiday corner. The bigger mistake would be to ignore the problem and let it get out of hand without dealing with it. Don’t start your 2012 in the shadow of your poor 2011 decisions. Take charge of your finances and make sure your New Year is a great one.

Emily Guy Birken is a freelance writer and regular contributor to PTMoney: Personal Finance. She lives in Lafayette, Indiana, with her mechanical engineer husband and infant son. Her musings on life, parenting and money can be found at The SAHMnambulist and Live Like a Mensch.

photo credit: faster panda kill kill

My family and friends can’t stand going shopping with me. I used to be easily influenced into buying anything. Now I simply don’t want to buy anything. I’m the worst person to go shopping with now. I second guess every purchase. If I do end up buying something, I ask myself, “what will I get rid of now?” You know, the one in and one out policy. I don’t like to fill up my place with stuff, I would rather experience more.

With Christmas right around the corner we’re all shopping and the malls are jam packed. It’s too tempting to bust out the credit card and buy that perfect Christmas gift for that person on your list. Financially gluttony is way too common around this time of the year. I could go in the direction of racking up massive amounts of credit card debt by buying stuff, but I’m going to go in a different direction. I wanted to get into the actual stuff that we buy. I wanted to focus on what happens with all of the things that we spend our money on.

Is your stuff owning you? How can you tell? Let’s look at a few warning signs when it comes to letting your stuff take over your life:

You can’t get rid of anything.

This is a serious problem. Hoarding is very addictive and there can be no boundaries. Once you start to hoard it’s going to be difficult to stop. You’re going to want to hold on to everything. We all know someone that has a home filled with stuff from the 70s that they really don’t need any more. If you find yourself unable to get rid of anything, this is a sign that your stuff is taking over!

You have no space in your home.

If you can barely get around your place because of all of the stuff, then it’s definitely time to let go of a few things. Stuff is clutter and clutter sucks. There’s no other way to put it. I once rented out a mini disposal bin from a friend and got rid of a whole garage full of stuff. What’s the point of a garage (or basement or spare room) if it’s unusable because there’s too much crap in it? When you have no space this means that you got way too much stuff.

It feels like you never have enough.

When you can never have enough stuff, you’re letting your stuff take over. There’s always an excuse to get more stuff. If you feel like you don’t have enough you’re going to keep on accumulating more and more stuff until you can even find your bed in the room. If you can never have enough, it’s time to break loose of your stuff.

I hope I didn’t scare you hoarders away just yet. What if you’ve noticed some of these warning signs? Is there a solution? Of course there is. There’s no need to stress because you can easily get over this little love affair with stuff. How can you break free from your stuff?

Sell your crap for money.

This is the most obvious solution to dealing with stuff. Since there’s a monetary value behind all of our stuff it makes it difficult to just throw it out. Instead of throwing it out, you can always sell it. As they say, “one man’s trash is is another man’s treasure.” There are many theories and techniques on the Internet when it comes to selling stuff. Mine is simple.

Go on Kijiji, put up an ad, and wait for the responses. If you don’t get any then re-post the ad on a few other similar sites. I’ve always found success with selling my stuff on Kijiji. Just throw something on there RIGHT NOW and see what happens.

Done your stuff to charity.

If you can’t sell your stuff or just can’t get rid of it, then you can always donate it to charity. This is what I started doing with my clothes. I purge my wardrobe every few months. As time goes on, my style changes and as does my size. I work out often so I have plenty of clothes that doesn’t fit. I either give it to my friends or donate it to charity. Clothing is meant to be worn. Not sit in a closet.

Try to experience something cool.

I find that one of the main reasons that we all spend so much of our money and time on stuff is that we don’t know what it’s like to spend money and time on cool experiences. In the last few years I started to go on more trips, look for more unique experiences, and experience more in life. Before I started spending my money on experiences I would just random buy arbitrary crap. When I started to travel I learned that there was so much more to life.

At the end of the day, it’s perfectly normal to be a hoarder. The good news is that you can break free of this habit easily!

Are you ready to break free from your stuff? Let 2012 be the year where you become clutter free.

This was a guest post from Martin of Studenomics, a fun blog aimed at helping you figure out what to do after college and how to find the best credit card for students. If you want to invest your hard earned money you can learn about screening tenants to protect your rental property.

photo credit: justinpickard

This post provided by Money Supermarket.

People have often been told that investing in a home is the best thing they can do. In the recent financial crisis many people have found this not to be true. The reason for this is that so many lenders gave loans to people who were simply not qualified to carry the kind of mortgage payments that were required. Many people bought homes that were out of their price range but were lulled by easy loans with very little or no down payment required.

There were lenders giving loans for bad credit that should never have been approved in the first place. While owning a home is still a good choice it should not be considered as the sole investment vehicle. Housing prices can go down as has been proven in the last few years.

Only buy the kind of home you can reasonably afford to make payments on and never be lulled into signing loans for bad credit that are ultimately not sustainable for your budget.

Getting Your Credit Score

Obtaining a credit card has often been viewed as a bad thing. Many financial advisers told their clients to always pay cash and to never carry debt of any form. While it is never a good idea to be drowning in debt, a little debt can actually be useful. Credit cards can give you a credit score. When you make regular payments your credit score goes up. As a result of this it is easy to obtain loans for cars and mortgages that offer a good interest rate. If you have never had a history of credit and pay for cash with everything, then it may be very difficult to obtain a loan when the time comes.

Lenders want to see a history of consistent payments whether it is for a student loan or a credit card, so they know you are a good credit risk. Speaking of student loans, it has been advised in the past to take out the biggest loan and invest in the best possible school. This leaves graduates with huge student loans that can take decades to repay. It is far better to go to a modestly priced school and only obtain a small loan, while supplementing this with a part-time job.

How To Get Rid of High Interest

People have been advised to never take money out of their 401(k). Now it is thought that using this type of loan is actually very useful when it is used to pay off high interest credit cards. Paying off high interest rate debt faster is one of the best things anyone can do for their finances. If you know the rules for taking out a 401(k) loan and have a plan to pay the money back, it can make financial sense.

Using home equity loans for paying off credit cards has been advocated by many. This can make sense since credit card interest is usually much higher than home equity rates. It can also make people more vulnerable to carry debt as a lifestyle. It can leave individuals more open to bankruptcy and foreclosure too. Paying off high interest rate credit cards is important but as already pointed out in the article, there are other ways to do this.

Even though college students usually don’t have a ton of cash, it’s still possible for you to begin investing while you’re still in school. A small amount of money taken from whatever source of income you may have could build into a portfolio worth a lot of money, providing it’s managed correctly. The investment strategies used by anyone who buys stocks, bonds, or mutual funds could earn money for you, too. Following are a few investment tips for college students.

Start Small

In order to begin investing money for your future, it’s not necessary to have a lot of money, but you shouldn’t neglect paying bills to do it. If you manage your money well, you should be able to set aside a few dollars from each paycheck for investment purposes. Doing this will benefit you in more ways than one. First of all, the money that’s invested will earn you more money if you do it right, and the lessons you learn from investing now will serve you well for the rest of your life. Even if you end up losing a bit of money in the beginning, you should be able to determine whether or not you made a mistake in your investment strategy, and if so, how you can avoid doing it again.

Invest Regularly

It’s important that you develop an investment plan that will allow you to set aside a few dollars on a regular basis. Sticking a few bucks here and there into stocks or bonds most likely won’t earn you a good return, and isn’t a sound investment practice. Instead you should invest regularly by allocating a certain amount of money from each paycheck, even if it’s not very much. When setting up your investment account it’s important to make sure you won’t be able to touch the money easily–it could be too tempting to take out a few bucks now and then to buy tickets to the big game or a getaway at spring break. A sound investment strategy is called for–one that will hopefully grow consistently.

Investment Clubs

If you know other people that are interested in learning how to invest wisely, it may be a good idea to join an investment club or start one yourself. By sharing information and knowledge with other people who have similar goals, you can all learn how to invest your money with a realistic hope of making a profit. Make it a point to meet regularly and go over your investment strategies. Finding out the mistakes investors make now, while there’s relatively little money at stake, can save you money in the future. Another important aspect of being involved in an investment club while you’re in college are the contacts you’ll make, which will hopefully last for the rest of your life. Different people have varying skill sets, and you can learn to take advantage of the talents of others while they can feed off yours.

Spread Out Your Eggs

You’ve no doubt heard the expression, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” That’s sound advice under most circumstances, and nowhere more so than when investing money–especially if you don’t have much cash to begin with. If you have $500 to invest and use it to buy a few shares of a stock because you got a hot tip, you may as well go to a casino and bet it all on red–your chances of making money are just about as good. Instead you would probably be better off spreading that money around by opening a savings account or getting into a mutual fund. If you do decide to enter the stock market do as much research ahead of time as you possibly can–and even then hold a few dollars back to invest in other stocks or bonds.

Seek Professional Advice

Probably the best advice anyone can give you is to seek professional advice before investing any money. Ask your parents, relatives, and friends if they can recommend a good financial planner or accountant. Before signing any papers, make sure you read the fine print. Keep in mind that the best investment strategies are those that allow you to make money steadily over a long period of time. Sure, some people make a quick killing in the stock market, or by investing in other things, but for the most part the people who are successful investors are those who are patient and research their investments.

Guest post from Taylor Harris. Taylor writes about online colleges and universities for BestOnlineColleges.com.

photo credit: epicharmus

This is a guest post from Ashley over at Learn Stock Market Basics. If you are interested in learning more about the stock market stop by and see what they have to offer. They are focused on helping you find the best investments for your situation.

Health insurance is one of those things that only seem to get more expensive each year. Doctor’s visits, medications, and surgical procedures can cost you a fortune if you do not have coverage. This is why every person needs to have health insurance. Here are a few of the ways that you can lower the cost of health insurance.

Compare healthcare programs

You can get the best health savings by doing some comparison shopping online. There are a number of quality health insurance companies that have the plans that you are looking for. Be sure to compare the costs of the plan with all of the benefits that the plan provides. You should take a look at the different plans offered by healthcare companies and select the one that has the best plan for you.

Get in better shape

Losing weight can save you a lot of money off of your insurance premiums. Obese people pay a lot more on a monthly basis to have health insurance. That is because they have a much higher risk of falling ill and being susceptible to diseases. Dropping a few extra pounds could save you hundreds of dollars every single month.

Drop the bad habits

Bad habits like smoking and drinking are not only bad for your body. They are bad for your wallet as well. Your insurance company will go up on your rates if they discover that you engage in these activities. Kicking a few bad habits will allow you to live a longer life and pay less money for your insurance too.

Use a network

Staying in network is one of the best ways to keep the costs of your doctor’s visit down. HMO and PPO plans require minimum out of pocket costs if you visit a doctor in the company’s network. Check to make sure that your doctor is in your network’s plan so that all of your visits will be covered.

Buy a high deductible plan

High deductible plans work well for those individuals that find that basic insurance plans are too costly. A high deductible plan allows you to get coverage for you and your kids. You just need to pay more cash out of pocket upfront. Once you have covered the full amount of the deductible, the insurance will kick in. This type of insurance is great for covering the costs of expensive procedures.

photo credit: Truthout.org

It’s important to trust your financial advisor.

A few years ago I caught a story on the local news about a financial advisor from my hometown who was arrested for violating that trust. He had been a financial advisor for many years and was charged with financial exploitation of the elderly.

In one instance, he had sold one of his elderly clients an annuity. She trusted her advisor and considered him a friend so she wrote him a check. Did you catch that?

A check directly to him, not the insurance company, in the amount of $20,000 and then he disappeared. As it turns out, she was not the only client  that had been taken advantage of.

Financial Planner Violates Trust

When I see story like this, I’m angered because I love my profession, I love what I do, and I love earning my clients’ trust. But when you have individuals as such; that abuse that sacred trust with their client, it gives my profession a bad name. You may be wondering if this could happen to you.

What To Do If Your Financial Planner is Crooked

• If the advisor asks you to write him a personal check, that is a clear red flag. Never, never, write out a check directly to the advisor. Especially, if you are purchasing some kind of investment product.
• If you recently purchased something but never received anything in the mail, call your advisor and see if you can get a copy of the confirmation ticket. (think of the confirmation ticket as your receipt of purchase)
• If your advisor is guaranteeing an outrageous rate of return, be extremely cautious. I ran into a competitor that was guaranteeing 12% return on his mutual funds he was offering.

Background Checks On Your Advisor

Start by thoroughly researching any broker, financial planner, or adviser you are considering hiring. Explore the North American Securities Administrators Association Website, www.nasaa.org, or call 888-84-NASAA for a regulator in your state.

State regulators, along with the National Association of Securities Dealers, jointly maintain a database of more than 650,000 stockbrokers and 5,000 securities firms. Known as the CRD, or the Central Registration Depository, the database contains critical information, such as whether a broker has ever been sanctioned or fined for investor wrongdoing.

To check CRD records, contact FINRA’s consumer hotline at 800-289-9999, or visit the them online and use their “Broker Check” system.  You’ll be amazed on how much information you can find out about the financial advisor including such things as: previous work history, outside business activities, and if they have any judgements against them.

You shouldn’t just do a background check on the financial advisor you’re considering hiring.  You should also consider doing some research on the one that you are currently working with.   You never know what you’ll find out and it literally only takes a few minutes to find out.

Jeff Rose is an Illinois Certified Financial Planner. He blogs at Good Financial Cents and Soldier of Finance. He loves Crossfit workouts, writes about Roth IRA rules and craves In-N-Out burger.

photo credit: seniorliving.org

This post is being brought to you through the sponsorship of CouponCodes4U.com

I have a small confession to make to you.  Despite the obvious frugal focus of this site, I’m terrible at looking for coupons for things before I buy them.  I’m a calculated buyer.  I’ll price compare for hours before deciding on an item.  I’ll spend weeks bidding on things on eBay to get the price I want and the product I want.  But, I’m terrible at looking for coupons first.

My wife is the couponer.  She has a knack for finding coupons, collecting the deals up and using the coupons to buy what we need.  The other day, she hit Walmart and came away with over $50 in coupon savings.  She’s good at it.  I’m not.  She’s also good at remembering to use the links in the paid-to-shop sites as well.  I can’t seem to ever remember them.

But, with the rise of couponing, once again, as a viable way to stay frugal on a budget, it’s become more and more important to look for a coupon when shopping for anything.  And, there are starting to be coupons for just about anything you could want to buy.  Say you want to buy a pair of Vans shoes.  If you look, you can find Vans coupons.

One popular misconception that many have is that coupons are usually only for brand name items, and smaller ticket items.  That isn’t necessarily true anymore.  Say you’re looking for a new cell phone contract, but you don’t want to spend the big bucks and get locked into a long-term contract.  Going with one of the pre-paid services might be right for you.  What you need is a Straight Talk Promo Code.  Then you can get that wireless service, at a frugal price.

Finding and using coupons isn’t all that hard.  But, it’s something that I definitely need to get much better at.  Just because I’m saving money by buying online (usually), and making calculated buying decisions doesn’t mean that I can’t save even more money by using coupons.  Combined with those frugal buying habits, coupons can be a great money saver.

Whether you’re buying a toaster, shoes, or even a cell phone, doing a quick search for a coupon first can save you money.

What are your coupon habits?  Do you clip like there’s no tomorrow?  Or do you see coupons as just another waste of your time and leave them to others to use?  Or, maybe you’re like me and use coupons only when you remember to?

A recent article on CNNMoney.com caught my eye – it’s titled “Many don’t have $2,000 for a rainy day.” Since one of my cardinal rules for retirement planning is that you should have 6 months of spending in the bank (or easily accessible, within 3 days), I read this article with interest.

The CNNMoney.com article references a recent National Bureau of Economic Research study which asked participants if they could come up with $2,000 for any surprise expense, such as a home repair, hospital bill, short-term job loss, or legal expense.  Frighteningly, only 25% said that they were certain they could find the $2,000 without a struggle.  What does that say about the other 75%?  The others said they would access their savings accounts, borrow from neighbors or family, put these charges on their credit cards, or use other borrowing methods such as home equity loan.

Let’s step back here and think about this question.  Assuming that you would like to retire someday (I define “retirement” as doing what you wish with your time, vs. being required to work to pay current and expected future expenses), you’ll have to either be very lucky and win the lottery, or you’ll have to save from your current income.   Unfortunately, life sometimes throws us a curve ball in the form of an unexpected expense or perhaps a loss of a job or other income source, and we must cope for a short period of time.  If your strategy for “coping” is to borrow money from your friends or use your credit card instead of accessing a short-term savings account, then you’ll never dig out of the debt trap and you’ll be forced to earn an income for the rest of your life!

What if you had a goal to put six months of what you spend each month in a bank account and labeled it “rainy day account”?  This isn’t easy; if you typically spend what you earn each month it might take some changes to your spending habits to save 5% or 10% each month.  Remember, we’re not talking about what you earn pre-tax or what you have in your paycheck after-tax for this calculation – we’re talking about the amount you actually spend each month.  So, if you could save 10% of your spending each month for a year, you’ll have 1.2 months saved in just one year.  Using this plan, you’ll have 6 months of spending in that account within 5 years.

5 years sounds like a long time, just to have a rainy day fund.  What I’ve found over the years is that those who start on this plan quickly find ways to save without really impacting their lifestyle, and they also find ways to make more income, thus compressing the time required to get to the goal much faster.  What’s more, if you have 6 months of savings in the bank, not only will life’s little (or big) emergencies not derail your entire financial future, but you’ll have the mindset of saving, which will allow you to direct your income to productive investments, vs. just spending today.

To be sure, this transition from “earn now, spend now” isn’t easy.  But when you compare it to potentially having to work for your entire life it isn’t as painful.

What can you do to get started with your “rainy day fund” today?

Mike Egan, a 20-year Wall Street veteran, is on a mission to help Americans unleash the power within them to build a stronger financial future. He is the author of “Your Stronger Financial Future” and a blogger at MacroMike.com.

photo credit: Marko Milošević

Late last week, I participated in the 10th Yakezie Blog Swap. It’s a fun project where a bunch of Yakezie Personal Finance Blogs get together and swap some posts to give our audiences a little bit different perspective with a different voice. This time around my fellow bloggers and I were to share our Best Go Green Method To Save Money. It’s always incredible to go through and read the different perspectives on each topic.  Go through an read them, I’m sure you’ll pick up a few hot tips!

Nickel by Nickel tells us how they read green using ebooks over at Beating Broke.

Everything Finance shares with us his success in growing his own veggies at Retire by 40.

Narrow Bridge Finance tells us how going green has saved him some green at Mom’s plans.

The 60K Project shares 8 ways she has made her kitchen green at Stock Market Basics.

One Cent at a Time shares 23 ways reusing household items can save you money at Sustainable Life Blog.

Prairie Eco-Thrifter  shares numerous recipes for making your own cleaning products at Financial Success for Young Adults.

Debt Eye tells us how to eliminate the paper trail at Little House in the Valley.

Sustainable Personal Finance tells us why air sealing your home is a good idea at Financially Consumed.

Stock Market Basics shares 5 ways to go green and save natural resources at Free Money Wisdom.

Financially Consumed tells how you can go green at home incrementally at Sustainable Personal Finance.

Little House in the Valley shares how going car-lite can save money at Debt Eye.

Financial Success for Young Adults shares how you can go green on a budget at Prairie Eco-Thrifter.

Sustainable Life Blog tells us to watch out for a leaky window at One Cent at a Time.

Free Money Wisdom shares why we should avoid country funds at 60K Project.

Mom’s Plans tells how we can eat green at Narrow Bridge Finance.

Retire by 40 shares how living in smaller home is green at Everything Finance.

Beating Broke tells how cycling makes you green at Nickel by Nickel.

As always, it was a ton of fun participating.  We’re already working up some fun topics for future blog swaps, so keep your eyes open for that!

photo credit: HikingArtist.com