Beating Broke

Personal Finance from the Broke Perspective

  • Home
  • Get Updates
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy

Powered by Genesis

5 Things a Groundhogs Shadow Won’t Tell You Today

February 2, 2011 By Shane 2 Comments

Happy Groundhogs Day everyone! Today’s the day! Good ol’ Puxi.. let’s just call him Phil, shall we? Good ol’ Phil is gonna come on up out of his hidey hole and do his annual weather forecast for us.

Whether you believe in the Phils shadow or not, here’s 5 things that he’s not going to be able to determine for you.

  1. No matter what the weather will hold for the next 6 weeks, only you can determine what you do with them.  Determine to break away from your broke habits, and see what you can do in those 6 weeks!
  2. Your tax refund!  It’s tax time.  If you haven’t filed your taxes yet, it’s time to get all your paperwork together and get your forms all filled out and sent in.  Don’t be one of those people waiting in line in April to get your envelope postmarked!
  3. Your happiness!  You know whether you’re truly happy or not.  If you are unhappy with your situation, whether it be at work, school, or just with your finances, TODAY is the day to find a way to be happier!  Make those changes and be a happier person!
  4. Your wealth!  What does wealth mean to you?  It it lots of zeros on your bank balance?  Or is it being debt free and living the life you want to live, doing what you want to be doing?
  5. Your health!  6 more weeks of winter?  Don’t crawl back into your hole like Phil!  Spend some time determining the changes to your health that you want to make.  Now’s a great time to revisit your new years resolutions, if you made any, and get back on track!

Have a great Groundhogs Day!

Filed Under: Guru Advice Tagged With: advice, groundhog, groundhogs, groundhogs day, phil

Ask for the Special

January 24, 2011 By Shane 4 Comments

I’m not a very outgoing person.  I have a hard time going up to people I’ve never met.  I have a hard time even talking to people I’ve never met.  So, I have a very hard time following the old advice that you have to ask for the real discount.  Luckily, not everything has to be done in person, so I can send emails for some things.  Which is exactly how I proved that old adage true.

For Christmas, instead of receiving gifts from all of our relatives, we asked them to put in the money that they would normally have spent to a mini-vacation fund for us.  We all have set spending limits for our Christmas presents, so it was pretty easy for them to do that.  Then, we took a nice little weekend trip the day after Thanksgiving.

We wanted someplace nice that would be within the budget, but would still count as a vacation.  In other words, Super 8 just wasn’t going to cut it.  We had originally settled on one place, but, being the curious fella that I am, I kept looking for a better deal.  And, as luck would have it I found one.  In fact, for what it would have cost us for one night at the original place, we stayed for two at the next place.  And, if you want my honest opinion, I think the place I found was a lot nicer.  How did we get such a deal?  I asked for it.

Simple really.  I emailed the manager who was listed on the website.  He forwarded my email on to the guy in charge of reservations.  In my email, I simply told him what days we were planning on staying, and asked if there were any specials that would be active for that weekend.  At this point, he could have easily just said no.  But, he didn’t.  And he earned a customer.

IMG_2154The place was very nice. (Here’s a link and a picture of the living room area if you’re curious: Chase on the Lake, I highly recommend it.) They called the room we stayed in a “condotel”.  Basically, it was a two bedroom, two bathroom, suite with a full kitchen and living room.  Everything was way above the typical standards that we have for a hotel room.  Overall, it was incredible.  We spent the whole weekend relaxing (kid-free, thanks to Grandma) and came home refreshed.

We would have gone on the trip in any case.  But, because I asked for the special, it became a lot cheaper than we had planned on it being.  And, if we plan on doing it again (we will), I think we’ve found our place.  Next time you’re making plans for a trip, or just trying to buy something special, make sure you at least ask for a special.  You might just surprise yourself and get one!

Filed Under: Coupons and Discounts, Frugality, Saving, ShareMe Tagged With: advice, chase on the lake, coupon, discount, frugaler, Saving, special, vacation

Catching Up On Your Year End Financial Planning

December 20, 2010 By Aloysa 10 Comments

The 2010 year end is almost here, and hopefully most of us are looking at our finances and asking ourselves a question: “Are we ready for 2011? Is there something we need to do before 2010 ends?”

Most of us probably have already done everything from buying Christmas gifts and donating to charities to scheduling annual doctors visits to make sure our flexible spending accounts

are zeroed out. But for those people who (like me) are too busy with work and blogging, and too tired from Holiday parties or just too relaxed on their couches with a book in hand or a favorite movie on TV, I came up with the “Year End To Do List.”

DSC_0042-cb_1_72 - My New Years Eve Look - Coutesy of my Grandchildren
During the Holidays, financial planning is obviously not a high priority on our holiday agenda. But if we do some planning right now, it might save us some money in the future. I am sure you already know all of the stuff I summarized in my list. But I think a refresher course might not hurt, and a summary below might be useful to consider.

Disclaimer: Aloysa is not your personal financial adviser. Please take this fact into consideration if you decide to follow the list below.

Year End To Do List:

1. Evaluate your portfolio. Do you have some deadbeat stock that you don’t want? Why hang on to it in anticipation of better times? Consider getting rid off them now. Why? Because you can use losses to offset gains (if you have any) to minimize your tax liability. You can use up to $3,000 in capital losses to offset your gains. Do you have any leftover? You can carry it over to the next year. Just make sure that you do not sell your deadbeat stock and buy the same or similar stock within 30 days in order to take advantage of the losses.

2. Don’t forget to max out your IRA contribution to the full IRA contribution limits (if you can). You can contribute up to $5,000 this year. Don’t forget your 401K too!

3. Some of us have traditional IRA accounts. I will not go into explanations of what it is because I assume that if you have it, you know what I am talking about. If you are clueless, skip this and move on to # 4. One of my friends is considering converting her traditional IRA accounts to a Roth. She anticipates that her income tax rate will increase significantly in 2011. I think everyone is given an opportunity to convert their traditional IRA to Roth in 2010. If you do the conversion in 2010, you will be able to delay paying taxes until 2011 or 2012. If later you are not sure anymore and think that the conversion was not a right move, you have until October 15 of the year following the year of conversion to change your mind.

4.  I believe that one of the proposed changes by the deficit commission was to reduce the tax benefits of charitable donations. If this proposal becomes law, our charitable contributions might be limited to whatever rate will be determined. If you are in higher tax bracket (Check your 2011 tax brackets) you might not get a full tax deduction on your charitable contribution. But this year you still may be able to take advantage of charitable contributions (subject to certain limitations). In the end, you will feel good too because you supported your favorite charity and a great cause.

5. You are finally totaling your receipts and looking at your flexible spending account balance. What do you see? There is some balance left! You decide to do an annual exam with your physician. Wait a second, don’t rush to see your favorite doctor. I’d recommend you consider putting your annual check up off because under health care reform, most employer insurance plans must offer free preventive care, starting in 2011. You might be better off making some flexible spending account changes and spending your flexible spending account balance on a new pair of glasses, contact lenses, or getting flu shots if you didn’t get them yet.

photo credit: bterrycompton

Filed Under: budget, economy, Financial Miscellaneous, Giving, Investing, Taxes Tagged With: advice, flex spending, flexible spending accounts, new year, Retirement, tax brackets, Taxes

  • 1
  • 2
  • Next Page »
  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Subscribe to Beating Broke

Sign up below to receive a weekly (on Tuesdays) email with the most recent posts from Beating Broke along with some occasional special emails (about Quarterly) from Beating Broke.

Beating Broke Recommends

  • Lending Club
  • Capital One 360
  • Republic Wireless

Follow Beating Broke on…

Follow @BeatingBroke

Best Savings Rates

Improve Your Credit Score

Sponsors

Money Blogs

  • Bible Money Matters
  • Budgeting in the Fun Stuff
  • Celebrating Financial Freedom
  • Christian PF
  • Consumerism Commentary
  • Gajizmo.com
  • Lazy Man and Money
  • Make Money Your Way
  • Money Talks News
  • My Dollar Plan
  • My Personal Finance Journey
  • Personal Profitability
  • Reach Financial Independence
  • Rockstar Finance
  • So Over Debt
  • The Savvy Scot
  • Yakezie Group
  • Yes, I am Cheap

Money Resources

  • PFBuzz

Other Links

  • Financial Blogger Conference

Disclaimer

Please note that Beating Broke has financial relationships with some of the merchants mentioned here. Beating Broke may be compensated if consumers choose to utilize the links located throughout the content on this site and generate sales for the said merchant.