With the Holidays fast approaching, many of us will be traveling to visit friends and family. While this can be a great time of year to reconnect with those we care about, we shouldn’t ignore the costs associated with such travel plans. Here are a few ideas to help keep your costs down and still have a great time.

1. Plan ahead and research the best gas prices that are along the route that you’ll be traveling. It only takes a few minutes to take a look on GasBuddy.com and find the cheapest prices. The savings may not seem monumental, but for the amount of gas that you’ll go through on a road trip it can add up pretty quickly.

2. Plan ahead and pack some food to take with you so that you don’t have to stop and “pick something up”. You can save quite a bit of money by not having to eat out on the way to where you’re going. A couple of meals can quickly add up. Pack sandwiches, fruit, chips and other snacks. It would also probably be a lot healthier as well.

3. Plan ahead and take coupons for fast food restaurants if you insist on eating out. Some people would rather not hassle with a cooler and worry about packing food. If that’s the case, save some of the coupons that come in the mail for chain restaurants that almost certainly are along your planned route. It only makes sense to pay less for something if you’re able to.

4. Plan ahead and make hotel/motel reservations in advance if your trip requires an overnight stay. This way you’re able to make sure to get a great rate; you’ll also be assured of a room when you get there. Don’t just hope to get a decent rate wherever you decide to stop for the night.

5. Plan ahead for the trip back following the previous advice. If you’re trying to save yourself the money on the trip out, it would only make sense to do the same on the way home.

I’m sure by now you’ve noticed the recurring theme here, and it doesn’t only apply to saving money when you’re traveling. A lot of money can be saved in many areas of our lives by doing a little planning ahead. With this said, everyone enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday.

If you’ve been a long time reader of Fiscal Musings, you know that I’m not big on eating out. There are a couple of reasons for this, but you can read the Restaurant Lifestyle for more information. Unfortunately, even if we would rather save the money, we have friends and family who don’t share the same opinion. Sometimes the only way to maintain a friendship is to go out.

So how do you find a compromise in these situations? I’m going to give a few ways to keep your restaurant tab down while still having a good time with family and friends.

1. If you’re married, or are in a relationship, try splitting a meal. Restaurants are usually very generous with their portion size, and most of us could stand to eat a little less. So cut your bill in half and share a meal.

2. Take a pass on the alcohol. These drinks can easily be the largest part of a bill. If you’re going out with friends who want to drink, order a soft drink instead. You’ll typically get free refills and you can still enjoy the conversation. I have also been given these drinks at no charge when everyone else is ordering alcohol, and nothing beats free.

3. If you don’t want to split a meal, or are single, don’t think that you have to eat everything on your plate. Feel free to take home leftovers. Even though you won’t save anything on your bill, it’ll save you the money you would have spent on another meal.

4. Finally, don’t just let your friends dictate where you’re going to go to eat. Take an active role and lobby for a place that you know won’t break the bank. People sometimes take forever to decide where to go, and that’s the perfect situation for you to suggest some place that you’re comfortable with.

Ultimately, it’s your money, and you can decide how to best spend it. Don’t just give in to the peer pressure when it concerns your personal finances. Too often we just go with the flow and figure we’ll take care of the finances later.

These days there is such a large focus on entertainment. Everyone needs to be going and doing something and entertaining themselves in some form or fashion. There is also no shortage of people and businesses trying to capitalize on this. From concerts, movies, to the countless number of restaurants, you can always find something to do that interests you.

What so many people don’t consider however, is the financial impact that this constant pursuit of entertainment has on them. As an aside, it would be a useful exercise to look over your credit card or bank statement and add up all the money that you spent on keeping yourself entertained. It can be quite surprising to a lot of people. So, in order to keep this constant spending to a minimum, look for alternative forms of entertainment:

1. I’m sure that there are plenty of movies that you haven’t seen yet already out on video that you could watch instead of going to the theaters. Not only is this a cheaper option, but there are also ways to rent movies for free.

2. In my opinion, so many people pay a lot of money for gym memberships that they hardly use and derive very little enjoyment from. Perhaps you should look for other ways to stay active and healthy. Just this last weekend, a friend and I went and played tennis for a couple of hours. It was a great time, and it didn’t cost a thing. It also helped that I dominated my opponent.

3. I’m amazed at how many people are so unfamiliar with where they live. In today’s society where people move around quite a bit, there is ample opportunity to explore your surroundings and see the sites. Most cities have museums and historic sites that are either free or relatively cheap. Not only is it cheap, but you might learn something.

4. Instead of always going to big name concerts and events, try checking out the local scene. There is a lot of live music venues that charge very little and also local amateur sports. It’s also a great way to be active in the community.

There are a lot of other ideas out there, but I’m not going to try and list them all. With a little creativity, you can find a lot of ways to enjoy yourself without straining your finances.

In addition to getting out of debt, being frugal, and saving for retirement, you would be wise to look into various forms of alternative income. If you think about it, looking ahead towards retirement you’re going to need another form of income other than your job. Most people hope to have enough money saved in their retirement accounts that they can live comfortably off of the interest or other investment income. So the question then becomes… Why wait until retirement to develop these income streams?

In fact, the sooner you create this alternative income, the sooner you will have reached financial freedom. Once your alternative income streams are greater than your expenses, you have the freedom to do whatever you’d like. You can continue to work, quit altogether, or find some happy medium in between. The point of all this is that you don’t have to wait until age 65 to make this happen.

There are many different forms of alternative income, and you’ll need to find what you’re most comfortable with. If you put your money into a money market account, you can view the interest earned as passive income. You might decide to purchase stocks that pay nice dividends. These dividends may serve to replace some of your current job income. One of my personal favorites would be real estate investment income. Here you may have an income producing rental property that gives you a hundred or so dollars a month or even more.

You may not want to put all of your money into income producing investments, but you’d be wise not to ignore them. It’s not bad to play the asset appreciation game, but there’s a whole other playing field with cash flow. Also, the more you look into this type of investing, the more opportunities you’ll find to increase your financial position.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about the recent rate cut from the Federal Reserve of 0.5 percent. It was obvious that Wall Street loved it as the market experienced a large upswing, but many others are critical of the move and view it as a Wall Street bailout. What does it mean to your average person though?

Within days of the rate cut, I was informed that the rate on my ING DIRECT money market account was being lowered to 4.3% APY from 4.5% APY. This isn’t isolated however, savings and money markets are lowering rates all over the place.

Those with ARM mortgages might benefit as their loans may reset to a lower rate after the introductory period lapses. This is nice for those that bought more house than they realistically could afford, but interestingly enough, longer term rates have actually increased. These longer term rates are what affect the traditional fixed rate mortgages. So it would seem that the financially prudent will once again be paying to bailout the unwise.

Whatever your view is on the recent rate cut, there isn’t much that the average person can do about it. What we have to be able to do is adapt as best we can to the circumstances that we’re given. If interest rates continue to drop for money market accounts, other options can be explored. The stock market usually reacts positively as interest rates fall which could be helped further as people pour more money in as their cash accounts don’t perform as well.

Most people won’t be noticeably affected by what’s going on, but for those of you who pay attention to these sorts of things, you’ll begin to notice ways that you can take advantage of the changes. It also serves as a reminder that our financial plans can’t be static. We must be willing to make changes and adapt to the changing market and financial conditions.

There’s always a lot of talk in the realm of personal finance about emergency funds. How much should one have? Where should one keep it? I’ve talked about these before on this site, and I don’t want to rehash it all right now. I do however want to mention an aspect that I haven’t really seen addressed.What happens if you’re involved in a true emergency such as a natural disaster? I’m talking about something where the normal infrastructure has either been destroyed or isn’t accessible. Would you be prepared for such a circumstance?

Obviously there are a lot of issues here, but I’m only concerned with the financial in this space. Regardless of how much you choose to keep in an emergency fund and at which institution you decide to hold it, it would probably be a good idea to keep at least some money in cash for true emergencies. When I say cash, I mean actual cash money kept at your home or some other self-designated place.

How much you decide to keep on hand is a choice that you’re going to have to make based on your circumstances and needs. I would recommend keeping whatever you’d need for at least a period of 72 hours. This would obviously be only for extreme cases, but I’m sure you’d be glad to have it if something awful were to happen. Like I stated before, this isn’t your typical emergency fund, but it’s another part of your personal finances that you ought to consider.

A few months ago I wrote an article entitled, 4 Reasons You’re Not Rich. Today I’m going to continue on this theme with 4 reasons that you’re not getting ahead.

1. Credit Cards

A good portion of the population has credit card debt. What’s even more unsettling is that many people consider at least some level of consumer debt to be “normal”. There’s already been plenty written about how to combat this problem, but even if you pay off your credit cards every month, they can still keep you from getting ahead. It’s incredibly easy to spend money with these cards. If you’re not careful, you’ll end up spending more than you would have otherwise. In this scenario, you’re losing money that you could have saved or invested instead. Just paying off your cards every month isn’t enough. You still need to watch how much you’re really spending.

2. Lack of Planning

Even when you have a budget and think that you’re monthly expenses are covered, you can still run into problems. Do you remember the insurance premiums that come due every six months, or does it always set you back a little. What about car inspections and registrations that occur once a year or so? It also wouldn’t be a bad idea to think about Christmas in July. For some reason, this yearly holiday seems to blindside people financially. You know it’s coming; plan for it.

3. The Save then Spend Mentality

This typically wouldn’t be considered something that would keep you from getting ahead. It’s good to save and not buy on credit, right? The problem arises when you save a decent sum and then go spend it all to buy a car or take a “much needed” vacation. This actually isn’t any different from spending everything you earn. If you’re continually spending all your savings, you won’t get ahead.

4. Impatience and Lack of Follow Through

When one begins to invest, the investors continued contributions are the main reason that the account balances go up. Investment gains tend to increase exponentially, and the investment returns don’t begin to trump the contributions for quite some time. Too often, people don’t see the immediate benefit of investing and they either stop contributing or withdraw everything all together. In order to get ahead, be patient and let the power of compounding work it’s magic.