I’ve heard a lot of talk recently about credit cards, specifically about the rates going up. While this isn’t anything new (credit card rates are always fluctuating) it is, and will be, cause for concern for many people carrying balances on their credit cards. The amount of interest that you will pay will increase and the time it takes to pay them off will also be extended. In order to avoid these extra charges and pay your debt off sooner, you may want to look to balance transfers. But you’ve got to be careful doing this because you could end up paying even more.

So many cards out there are offering very low balance transfer rates that it shouldn’t be too difficult to find one. Probably the most important aspect I look for (other than the length of the promotional period) is whether or not there is a fee for doing the transfer. Most of the offers that I get in the mail charge a 3% fee just for doing the transfer. Depending on how quickly you think you can pay off the debt, this may or may not be worth it. You will have to decide.

So once you’ve made a balance transfer, make sure that you don’t use the card again until you’ve paid it off in full. The reason for this is because credit card companies charge different interest rates on different balances depending on how they’re categorized. You’re balance transfer can be 0%, new purchases at 17%, and cash advances at 22%. The rub comes in how your payments are allocated. Any payment you make will be applied to the lowest interest rate first which as we know is completely opposite of how you would like it to be done.

So even if you pay off the amount of all new purchases in full every month, you’re actually paying off the 0% interest balance transfer and accruing interest on the new purchases at 17% (in this example). This is why you should never make any new purchases on a card to which you’ve made a balance transfer. It’s simple enough not to do, but the credit card companies are hoping for your ignorance on the subject. So if you’re looking to reduce and eventually eliminate your debt, balance transfers can be the way to go. Just make sure you do things carefully to avoid any other unnecessary charges along the way.

(Editors Note: As you can see (unless you’re reading the feed), there’s a new layout here at Fiscal Musings. You may be wondering why I changed the layout again since I already recently changed it. A little while ago I migrated the blog over to a Wordpress platform, and had to pick a theme in order to do so. I wasn’t completely happy with the theme, but I hadn’t found anything better at the time. I also knew that I wanted a three column layout. So now I’ve finally found what I was looking for. As usual, there are still a few changes that I need to make, but I’ll hopefully be taking care of them soon. Also, if you have any comments or suggestions about the new layout, I’d love to hear them.)

I’ve been thinking more recently about how to improve the work day. I’m not just talking about making it go by faster and surviving it easier, but how to actually enjoy the day more and feel more accomplished and fulfilled. It doesn’t strike me as an easy task but one that I think a lot of people struggle with. So here are some tips to help you enjoy the day more and just feel better in general.

1. Give Yourself Time

The day always seems to get off to a better start when you don’t have to rush. Make sure to give yourself plenty of time in the morning to get ready. Take the time to enjoy a nice breakfast. You may want to establish a simple routine that helps you mentally prepare yourself for the day. I’ve noticed that when I don’t give myself enough time and everything is rushed to get out the door, my mental state is more stressed and on edge. You should also remember that in order to have this time in the morning you need to prepare for it the night before.

2. Prioritize Your Day

You don’t want to go through the day without knowing what you’re going to do all day. You’ll be able to get more done and feel more accomplished knowing that you have an agenda and certain things to accomplish. If you’re not sure what you’re going to do on any given day, then it’s difficult to feel like you accomplished anything. You might also consider setting small daily goals so that you have something to work towards everyday.

3. Take Some Time to Relax

I see so many people that seem like they never take a break and are just continually working. This may work for some time, but it will ultimately lead to burnout and general unhappiness. I’m not saying that you need to take scheduled breaks and establish a strict routine, but you should keep it in mind. You should also know that taking a break is not a sign of inefficiency or weakness and you shouldn’t let others make you feel this way. Learning to relax every once and a while for a few minutes will actually increase your productivity and help you focus.

4. Remember to Find Balance

You can’t just work all the time. You need to balance your work life with all the other aspects of your life. Without this balance you’re work will gradually begin to define you and after a while it can really wear on you. Make sure that you involve yourself in other activities outside of work that you enjoy and where you can find another sense of fulfillment. My suggestion would be to leave work at work. Sure, there will be exceptions from time to time, but don’t let your work life consume the rest of your life.

On a personal note, I find that I have a better day when I have a Diet Coke to drink at some point during the day. I don’t really buy too many sodas, but it’s something that I enjoy. I’m not quite sure why I seem to have better days because of this but at least I recognize it and can use it to my advantage. What are some things that you have noticed help you enjoy the day more?

Now that 2007 is behind us and we’re a little ways into the new year, many people will be receiving year end bonuses and the like from their employers. Some of these bonuses could be considered enormous (if you look at some Wall Street firms) and others are a little more modest. Whatever the size of the bonus, there are smart things to do with it, and there are some not so smart things. I’ll explore both sides of the coin here.

Smart Bonus Moves

1. Start or enhance your emergency fund. I know, how boring. You just got a chunk of change and all you do is transfer it into an account where it’s going to just sit there. Well, sometimes boring is what’s best. And once you start to see the balance of your emergency fund continue to grow, it will get more exciting I promise.

2. Beef up your retirement accounts. This is a little more eventful since you’ll most likely be investing the balance in some sort of fund or possibly even stocks. Even if the bonus is paid out to you before being able to put it into your 401k, you can change your contribution amount that is deducted from your paycheck until the balance has been fully transferred. Keep in mind that you can contribute $15,500 to your 401k, $4k to an IRA for 2007, and $5k to an IRA in 2008. If you’re over 50 you can make catch-up contributions, but all that is for another post. Your Retirement accounts would be a great place to stash this extra windfall.

3. Pay down/off your debts. Here we go with another boring idea. It can also seem as if you never even got a bonus since it all went to pay off what you already have. So use this as the opportunity to rid yourself of the debt millstone and remember what it was like when you could keep your entire paycheck for yourself instead of handing a portion of it over to [insert favorite bank/lender here].

4. Invest in something. I’m not going to specify what sort of investment since we all have our preferences and different risk tolerances. I wouldn’t have a problem using it as a down payment or partial down payment on an investment property. Others may prefer to throw it in the stock market or try their hand at forex trading. Whatever your inclination is, give it a shot and put the money to work for you.

5. Start your own business. If you’ve ever thought about starting a business, there’s no better time than the present as they say. All you’ve got to do is check out Inc. Magazine to see how many businesses have been started with almost nothing. This isn’t the right thing for everyone, but I know there are some out there that have always wanted to and are just trigger shy. Give it a go.

Stupid Bonus Moves

1. Buying a new big screen TV. You could also substitute whatever gadget or toy you’d like, but the point is the same. Why would you go blow this extra money right out of the gate when you have the opportunity to greatly improve your financial situation? I see this one happen all the time and I always just have to shake my head.

2. Going for broke at the casino. I actually heard of someone that was going to take their bonus and head to Vegas for a weekend and just blow it all. There weren’t even any hopes of winning; he just wanted to blow it. I hope he takes a lot of pictures since the memory will be all he has after he loses the camera in a poker game. Unbelievable.

3. Splurging on some fancy restaurant. I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to treat yourself to something like the Big Deal from Jack in the Box, but going all out at some swanky place where you pay more and more for less and less food is something I don’t understand. There are much better ways to utilize your bonus money. If you just have to celebrate by going out to eat though, at least be savvy about it and use Restaurant.com to get a great discount.

4. Making a down payment on a new car. You might say that it’s good to put the money down on a car so that you don’t have to finance it 100%. But what’s wrong with your current car? If you actually need to get a new car (and I don’t actually mean new) there might be an exception here, but I would seriously evaluate the supposed inability of your current car to get you from point A to point B.

5. Doing anything that does give you actual value. This is kind of a catch all for thoughtless consumer spending. Does any of it add to your bottom line and increase your net worth? Will it help you reach your financial goals and ultimately allow you to spend more time with friends and family or doing what you love? These are just some of the questions you should ask yourself before hastily going out and spending that bonus.

So there you have it. 5 smart things and 5 stupid things to do with your bonus (or any lump sum payment for that matter). If you’ve got any other suggestions or something to add, let us hear about it in the comments.

If you’ve read enough blogs, you’ve probably heard of feeds or RSS and seen a lot of those little orange logos like you see here on the top right. This post, however, is for all of you who may be new to the world of blogging and aren’t entirely sure what a blog feed is and why everyone is asking you to subscribe.

What exactly is an RSS feed?

RSS is a form of content syndication commonly known as Really Simple Syndication. This is also what is referred to as a feed or blog feed. The format is specified with XML which you can read more about at Wikipedia if you’re interested. The purpose of these feeds is so that you can keep up with your favorite sites automatically and all in one place by using a reader.

What exactly is a reader?

You’ll always be asked to subscribe to someone’s feed and to do this you need something that will read it. The software that accomplishes this is an aggregator or what’s commonly to referred to just as a feed reader. These aren’t anything complicated and most of them are free to use. In fact, you can use Google’s feed reader for free, and it’s already integrated with your existing Gmail account.

In order to subscribe to a website’s feed, you just need to click on the RSS logo or other feed link and then choose the reader that you have. It will then add the feed’s content to your reader along with everything else that you subscribe to. This way you’ll only need to go to one place to read all of your favorite websites instead of having to visit each site one by one. You can also have the feed delivered to your email address if you’d rather go that route.

Give it a shot.

So now that you know what all this feed talk is about, you ought to check out either Google’s feed reader or any other reader. They’re really easy to use and you can organize the different feeds into categories however you’d like. And this wouldn’t be much of a post if I didn’t put a plug in for my own feed that you can subscribe to above or at the link here at the bottom of this post. You’ll get to be reminded all the time to save and invest and learn to improve your finances.

Also, if you’ve got any other questions about the blogging arena, I’ll do my best to answer it or at least point you in the right direction to someone who can.

With the start of the new year, many people are intent on their new year’s resolutions. You’ve probably got a few of them, even if they aren’t official and written down, or have at least been thinking about a few things you’d like to change. Obviously this blog has a financial slant on these goals, but I hope that you’re able to achieve any and all goals that you’ve set for yourself.

Like I briefly touched on above, you ought to accurately define your goals and write them down so that there’s no mistake as to what you’re trying to achieve. If you don’t define your goals and write them down, a couple of things will happen to them. Eventually you’ll forget about them (or just ignore them). You will also continue to change and redefine them over and over usually to make them easier to achieve. It’s difficult to attain a goal that’s always in flux.

So what are some specific goals that would be good to work on this year? It will be different for everyone since we’re all in different places financially, but here are a few suggestions:

1. Pay off/down your debt. If you’re making this a goal this year, make sure to attach a specific number to it and a completion date. Don’t be vague with this one or it’ll never happen.

2. Increase your savings. You’ll want to again make this one specific and also make sub-goals to go along with it. Perhaps part of it will include increasing your 401K contributions like was mentioned at Money Ning. You also might want to start automatic transfers into savings or increase the amount if you’re already doing this.

3. Develop another income stream. This isn’t a goal for everyone, but I know it is for a lot of people. It might come by starting a new business or from an investment, but you’ll want to have a date set by which you want to accomplish this. Otherwise it’ll just linger out there and never get done.

4. Learn about investing. This is a goal that I think everyone would do well to have. It won’t cost you anything except for your time. You can find a wealth of knowledge at the public library and learn about everything from stock market investing, mutual funds, to real estate investing. We’ll also be talking about this stuff here at Fiscal Musings so you’ll want to make sure and subscribe to the feed.

Whatever your goals are, I wish you the best in attaining them. I’m sure there are also a bunch of you out there that would like to lose some weight and be healthier in general. You should also find some way to quantify these goals and, of course, write them down. It’s going to be a great year, and I look forward to making progress with all of you.

With today being Christmas Eve, a lot of people are headed out to do their last minute Christmas shopping. This is all well and good (mostly for the retailers), but there are a few things to remember so you don’t “break the bank” as they say.

1. Don’t buy something just because it’s there. Far too many people scramble at the last minute to buy a gift for someone that they end up buying something they don’t really care to give and the person won’t care to get. If you don’t have a well thought out gift, or the store is out of stock of the item, don’t feel bad giving a gift card instead that the person can use to purchase the item later. And with a gift card you can at least limit what you’re going to spend.

2. Don’t buy another gift for someone you’ve already bought for. When you’re out shopping, stick to your remaining list and forgo the five dollar knick knack that’s “just perfect” for Susie. All these little things will add up and the recipient probably won’t care about the extra little gifts. You also don’t need to buy extra things just so people have more things to open.

3. Just stop shopping and go home. Besides this just saving money, don’t forget what the holiday season is all about, spending time with friends and family. If you’re too caught up in the shopping frenzy, you’ll miss the time that you could have spent at home. Any more shopping that you could do will probably have a marginal impact anyway. So just go home and have a Merry Christmas.

I’ve been to a few different people’s houses recently for various activities, and something struck me the other day. I have noticed all of the beverages that people have available at their houses. There all different kinds of sodas be it Pepsi products, Coke products, or some other brand. There are also all of the different kinds of beer. And then there are those who have to have a glass of wine in the evening or at some other time.

I’m sure it’s no secret where I’m going with this. It can’t be all that cheap to always have these beverages in the house. Wine can be pretty expensive, especially if you’re pretty picky about it. Beer doesn’t come cheap either no matter which kind you buy. And the cost of soda can really add up after a while as well.

If you’re familiar with David Bach, then I’m sure you’ve heard of his “Latte Factor”, and this isn’t really any different. It’s just applied to something else. I’m not going to go through all the math of what you could save and how much it would be worth in 40 years (I’m not a big fan of those calculations), but I’m sure it would be significant. I mean, soda alone is about $3 per 12-pack and that can really add up after a while.

So what ever happened to just drinking water? And I’m not talking about bottled water which can also be expensive. It’s pretty much free and is probably the most healthy thing for you.

I’m also always amazed when I hear that someone’s finances are stretched so thin, yet I see all of the beverages that they absolutely must have. I’m not trying to say that we should never drink some of these things, but I do want to mention that it can be a significant cost to us. You can also save quite a bit on your restaurant bills if you’d order water instead of something else. Just something to keep in mind.