7 Habits to Boost Your Savings

The savings rate for US households has steadily gone up in the last couple of years.  One benefit to the Great Recession is that it makes people think about what is necessary and putting everything else in the nice to have category.  Ask any personal finance blogger, and you will get a list of ways to save and boost your savings rate.  Here is my take on some habits that can help you boost your savings, so you can get what you really want in the near future.

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Seven Habits Of Saving:

1. Use your neighborhood library for books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs, video games and all sorts of entertainment.  I bet you didn't know half that list was offered by the NYC library system.
2. Eat home cooked meals.  Bring food from home.  Doing this can save you an average of $50 to $70 a week, assuming your lunch costs around $10 to $15 each.  Yes, you can find cheaper fare, such as the $1 pizza slice I tweeted about several months ago, but how much pizza can you really eat?  Home cooked / prepared is usually much healthier to boot!
3. Commute by mass transit.  Living in NYC has many benefits, one of which is having a very good public transportation system.  Yes we all gripe about it from time to time, but if you journey to other cities and compare their mass transit options, you'll know you are getting a good bargain using the trains and buses.  Compare the monthly cost of an unlimited metrocard to driving back and forth to work, you'll most likely save $100 or more a month since you don't pay for insurance, upkeep, gas, parking and other car related expenses.  That's at least $1200 a year you are saving on travel compared to a car owner.
4. New Yorkers love to shop.  If you are one to shop for clothing quite often, you should cut back or scale down.  Shop less, shop for only items you need, shop for basics that you can mix and match.  Buying the latest in fashion trends can cost you thousands every year.  If you can't help but buy name brands, I suggest you check out outlets, thrift shops and other such stores.  They often have goods at half the cost you would normally spend.
5. Love Music?  Who doesn't?  Music can get expensive though.  Thanks to technology, you can find your favorite music free!  You've probably used Pandora or other related sites for music.  Online radio, regular FM radio, your existing CD/MP3 collection, are some other ways to enjoy music for no cost at all.
6. Use coupons and sales whenever possible.  I've gotten items free, and sometimes I even get a little money back from buying things on sale, with a coupon.  It doesn't happen often, but every little bit helps in this economy, and especially those still on the lookout for a job.  So stop throwing out your Sunday circulars and save the coupons.   You can also print coupons from sites such as coupons.com or redplum.com.
7. Don't buy new gadgets, I tend to use my existing doodads to its full extent.  Those of you with the latest Blackberry or iPhone probably only use certain features.  Don't forget to use it as a temporary night light/flash light, alarm clock, notepad, calculator, etc..  Before you buy your next App, check out what's already there.

Do you have any suggestions for habits that can boost your savings rate?  I'd love to hear your ideas.

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5 Tax and Money Savings Tips

Tax time is almost here.  If you are getting a refund, you should have filed already!  If you are going to be paying taxes because you did not withhold enough, here are some tips to minimize that payment.  Even if you cannot use all these tips for this tax season, they will come in handy for next year's tax season.

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Give  Giving really can be rewarding.  Not only do you feel good about giving to the causes you believe in, you also get some money back from Uncle Sam.  If you've given to your church, charities or other non-profit organizations - all you need is the receipt and you can deduct the amount you gave.  If you need ideas, I can suggest the NYC Libraries, Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Red Cross, your local church, museums and numerous other charities.

Deduct Job hunting expenses  If you are looking for a job, and these days it seems like half the people I know are, then you should not forget about deducting your expenses.  These can include printing resumes, transportation to and from interviews, cell phone bills, suits and other clothing for interviews.  The catch is, you need to be looking for a similar line of work.

Go Green.  Many people in the recent past have bought a Toyota Prius and get a deduction.  But going green doesn't stop there.  If you put a good amount of money into your home to improve energy efficiency such as heating or cooling systems, insulation, or alternative energy sources such as solar, you can get a nice tax credit on your return for that year.

Educate Yourself.  Continuing your education can be good for your future earnings and your wallet.  There are tax credits and deductions for you to take.  Interest from student loans are deductable from your return as well.  If you have a large enough loan, this can be pretty significant.

Tax Preparation.  Books, classes, software and tax preparation services are deductible on your tax return as a miscellaneous itemized deduction.  It's easy to find this tip using software such as Taxcut or TurboTax.

What tax savings tips do you have to share?  What deductions and savings are you taking this year?

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photo by alancleaver_2000

Are You Getting A Tax Refund?

Are you expecting a tax refund this year? The average tax refund is $2700 this year.

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If you are getting a refund of $2700 or more, perhaps you should adjust your W4 withholdings for 2010 and keep more of your hard earned money. Instead of giving Uncle Sam an interest free loan, you could be giving yourself $50 more a week. Just make changes to your W4 and you are on your way to a self provided raise! You can use the IRS's W4 withholding calculator to do this.

There are reasons to withhold a bit more. If you under pay Uncle Sam, you'll be charged interest and perhaps even a penalty. If you are making estimated quarterly taxes because you are an independent contractor or in similar situations, then perhaps you should withhold a little more so you don't get penalized next year.

So tell us, are you getting or expecting a refund this year?

Recommended Book: The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: Expanded and Updated, With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.

Love Reading? Get the Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device (9.7" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)


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9 Books To Bring You Closer To Success

Do you read a lot of books? What about books on success and productivity? I admit I read more than I should when it comes to these topics.  I should be putting some of the concepts into practice. Had I put all of the lessons learned in these books into practice, I'm sure I would be more successful at what I do.  So like many of you, I'm still learning and doing what I can to apply the lessons I learn.

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Here are the books.  I've arranged the nine books in a tic-tac-toe format, or the Brady Bunch format if you prefer.  Aren't you glad I still remember how to do tables in HTML?  These books used to be on my sidebar, I decided to do some cleaning up and so I'm putting them on this post.


These are all great books. At the moment, my favorite book from the above list is The 4-Hour Workweek, Expanded and Updated: With Over 100 New Pages of Cutting-Edge Content.  This version contains additional content found on Tim Ferriss' blog along with testimonials from others who used some of the concepts and achieved success.  It gives you a blueprint of how to make the best use of your time so you can do the more important things in life, whatever that may be.

If you love reading, you might want to get the Kindle DX Wireless Reading Device (9.7" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation).  I think it's a better product than the Apple iPad for reading books.

What about you?  Have you read any of the books from the above list?  What is your favorite?  Do you have other books you would like to suggest?

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COBRA subsidy starts to phase out

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If you have utilized the COBRA (Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act) subsidy signed into the stimulus package by President Barack Obama, you've been saving hundreds of dollars on your monthly health insurance premiums.  This program was put in place for 9 months.  If you signed up for COBRA in the beginning of March 2009, you will see an uptick in your premium costs starting this week.  The program was established to help you pay 65% of your COBRA premiums, you paid the remaining 35%.  For a family of four, this could be a lot of money.

Starting this week, the program will start to phase out.    Those of you who have found jobs, congratulations, you don't have to worry about COBRA anymore.  For everyone else, what can you do to keep your costs down?  There have been bills introduced to extend the program, but none of them will be acted on anytime soon.  You may want to think about alternatives, such as public health insurance programs for low-income families.  If you are still unemployed and qualify, programs such as Health First in NYC come to mind.

Whether you decide to keep paying the premiums or look for alternatives, you should think things through before pulling the trigger.

What options are you looking at?  Share your thoughts in the comments.


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