While driving home the other day, I heard the Bon Jovi song “Wanted Dead or Alive” and somehow became inspired to write a version of the song that would be good for The Personal Finance Program.

On that note (no pun intended) I came up with the following lyrics to “Wanted Debt or Alive,” which is about how many of us over spend using money that isn’t even ours to begin with.

Enjoy!

It’s all the same
Only the stores will change
Everyday
It seems I’m spendin’ away

Another store
Where the sales are so bold
I shop all night
Because I’m easily sold

I’m a spender
On a Visa I ride
I’m wanted
Debt or alive
Wanted
Debt or alive

Sometimes I’m cheap
Sometimes it’s not for days
To the cashiers I meet
I’m glad to hand my pay

Sometimes you tell the day
By the bill that’s on the brink
And times when you’re alone
You buy everything but the kitchen sink

I’m a spender
On a Visa I ride
I’m wanted
Debt or alive
Wanted
Debt or alive

I’m a spender
On a Visa I ride
I’m wanted
Debt or alive

When I walk these streets
A loaded AMEX string on my back
I buy for keeps
‘Cause I might have to pay it back

I’ve spent everywhere
Still I’m spendin’ it all
I’ve seen a million offers
And I’ve bought them all

‘Cause I’m a spender
On a Visa I ride
I’m wanted
Debt or alive

I’m a spender
FICO’s not on my side
And I’m wanted
Debt or alive
And I’m wrong
Debt or alive
I still spend
Debt or alive

Debt or alive

What did you think?  Any good?  Worth putting together a YouTube video over?  Leave your comments below.

Per FTC regulations, please note that the above link to Amazon.com is an affiliate link.  Should you purchase anything from Amazon.com after clicking the link, I may receive a commission.

Most of us – men especially – view Valentine’s Day as a “Hallmark Holiday.”

For those of you who have never heard this term, it means that Valentine’s Day is pretty much just a corporate sponsored holiday created to force us to spend money on our significant others.

We go along with it because – let’s be honest – if we didn’t, we’d never hear the end of it. This being the case, here are some simple and inexpensive ways for you to get the most of the “holiday” and show your girlfriend or wife that you actually spent a little time thinking about what you ultimately give them.

1) Write your boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, or wife a sincere love letter, explaining why and how much you love them, and why they’re the best thing in your life. Taking the time to write a letter like this will mean a lot and melt their heart!

2) Give him or her something other than the cliche gifts like teddy bears or roses, especially if roses aren’t her favorite flower and he has no need for a new stuffed animal. This will help to save you money, and it shows that you care enough to know what her favorite flowers are.

3) Plan out and cook a dinner at home, and, if possible, make it your significant other their favorite meal. As stated above, it’s cheaper to make a meal at home than it is to go out and eat, plus it will show you’ve listened when he or she has talked.

4) End the night by offering to giving your partner a full body massage. Don’t act like you’re offering this based on alterior motives, and it just might work out in your favor!

Follow this advice and you can have an inexpensive but still very sweet and thoughtful Valentine’s Day.

Despite living in the wealthiest nation in the history of the world, it seems as if more of us are stressed out and at our wit’s end due to concerns about money.

Kind of ironic, although, due to The Great Recession, I suppose it sort of makes sense. At some level, we’re all a little afraid of losing what we’ve worked so hard to acquire.

Given the current circumstances, gaining a grasp on reality, finding your sanity, and putting your finances in order sounds like a monumental task.

It’s not.

By following the following three very simple to understand principles, you can be on your way to saving a ton of money over your lifetime, while coming to the realization that material possessions, while nice, might be one of the biggest stressors in your life.

1) Learn the difference between a “need” and a “want.”

Long story short, if you don’t need it you shouldn’t buy it. Take a look around your house: look at your collection of DVDs, the clothes in your closet, the junk collecting in the garage. How much of it do you use, wear, or watch on even a weekly or monthly basis?

If you grab something that’s lying around and can justify its existence only by saying, “I might use this someday,” then you, my friend, wasted your money on something you clearly did not need. Stop doing this.

2) Vow to never keep up with the Jones.

If you try to keep up with the Jones, all you will end up doing is buying crap you don’t need in an effort to impress people you probably don’t even like.

What’s the point of paying $40,000 for a car when a comparable $18,000 car will do just fine? Are you using your car as transportation or as a status symbol?

Did you pay tens of thousands of dollars to furnish your home so you can show off the three times a year you have people over? Why didn’t you spend a tenth of that on less expensive furniture and put the rest towards paying down debt, retirement, or your rainy day fund?

If people don’t want to hang out with you because you don’t have expensive stuff, do you really want them hanging out with you?

3) Live below your means.

Don’t spend money just because you can. Chances are pretty good you can not only get by, but live a fun, happy, and productive life by spending a lot less than what you bring home.

Learn to appreciate what you already have, and not only will you save a ton of money, but you’ll likely feel happier with your life and less stressed out.

I know this message is pretty simplistic, but it’s not one that needs to be complicated.

Don’t let money shouldn’t stress you out.  Make good decisions, save for a rainy day, and enjoy your life.

Remember the days when your liquor cabinet was filled with cheap brands like Aristocrat Vodka, Bowman’s Run, and Virginia Gentleman Bourbon, and how you swore that once you made a little more money, you’d stick to nothing but top-shelf fire water?

Turns out, The Great Recession has thrown cold water and a dash of sobriety on those plans.

According to an industry report by the Distilled Spirits Council, released as part of an Associated Press article, the amount of liquor sold increased over the past year, however, drinkers turned away from name brands and to less expensive, “value” brands.

Considering the economic climate over the past year, it’s pretty obvious why both of the aforementioned points are no-brainers.

Increased Liquor Consumption: We’re in the worst recession since WWII. Economic downturns, in general, tend to make people grouchy and want to drink more. Seems to me the worse the economic situation, the grouchier people are and the more they want to self-medicate with booze.

Buying Cheaper Brands: Again, we’re in the worst recession since WWII. Unemployment is the highest it has been in nearly 30 years. When people don’t have jobs or are worried about losing the one they have, they tend to spend less money. Since drinking alcohol is a discretionary expense, it is likely one of the first places people look to rein in their spending.

So, what are your thoughts? Has The Great Recession caused you to change your drinking habits? Where else have you made subtle cuts to save money? Leave your comments below.

One of President Obama’s biggest challenges in fixing the economy is finding a way to help stem the tide of preventable foreclosures that are currently dragging down the battered housing market.

Through the Making Homes Affordable program, home owners and lenders were to work together to find way to modify existing mortgages to make the loans more affordable , usually resulting in a lower interest rate, even for homes that are under water.

The program got off to a sluggish start, with swamped lenders being slow to roll out trial modification programs for eligible borrowers. Lately, many more trial modifications have been offered to borrowers, which shows that the program can in fact work.

However, many of the trial modifications have not been made into permanent changes. In many instances, this is because once a trial modification is put in place, the borrower is required to provide additional documentation in support of the new payment.

The documents required to be submitted by the borrower – proof of income, bank statements, tax documents, etc. – is sometimes never been received by the mortgage servicer, filled out incorrectly, or lost/misplaced by either the borrower or the lender. This causes the trial modification to not only not become a permanent change, but, in many instances, causes monthly payments to return to pre-trial modification levels.

In an attempt to help solve the problem, the Treasury Department announced that borrowers who wish to enter into a trial modification must provide all required documentation UP FRONT.

Obviously, this will make getting a trial modification a little more difficult, but, will ultimately make getting a permanent modification a much more efficient and fool proof process.

And, if you think about it, this is exactly what should have been required from the beginning, especially when you consider that many of these problem loans were Alt-A, no documentation “liar loans.”

So, let’s hope this latest initiative will be a step in the right direction in getting the economy back on track.

First off, please note that this is not legal or investment advice. If you need these services, please contact a certified professional.

Now, on to the good stuff!

With the death of the “gold watch and nice pension for a career well done” era, the burden for making sure you have enough money in retirement now falls on the shoulders of you, the employee.

However, that take this to mean that your employer isn’t willing to help you have a financially secure retirement. In fact, most companies offer employees the option of contributing to a 401(k) retirement account, while some companies even match a certain portion of your contribution.

First, let’s talk about what a 401(k) is and why it’s important for your financial future.

A 401(k) account is what’s known as a tax deferred retirement account. Essentially, that means you contribute money directly from your paycheck to your 401(k) retirement account. Because you never “touched” the money, you do not pay up front taxes the portion of your pay that was contributed to the 401(k) account.

The money you put in your 401(k) account can be allocated to stock, bonds, mutual funds and/or money market accounts; it all depends on the company your employer uses.

To tie it all together, let’s look at this example:

If I have a monthly income of $1,000 and contribute 10% of that to my 401(k), then I will only pay taxes on the $900 I actually receive, while the other $100 will be allocated to the investments I have chosen. Not a bad deal.

However, when you begin to withdraw money from your 401(k) account upon retirement (or under very specific hardship circumstances, where you will likely have to pay some sort of early withdraw penalty), you will have to pay income tax on the money at that point. Thankfully, since the money has been allowed to grow tax free for hopefully many years, chances are pretty good that you will come out on top.

With most 401(k) accounts being tied up in stocks, bonds, mutual funds and/or money market accounts, there are certainly risks associated with this type of investment. You are not guaranteed any return, and may ultimately have less than what you started with.

For example, remember the Enron scandal? Many of Enron’s employees lost all of their retirement savings when the company went belly up because they (the employees) had a significant portion of their 401(k) in company stock.

In order to avoid a scenario like this, if you have a 401(k) account or plan on starting one, I urge you to speak with a professional financial planner to get help in determining the correct retirement/investing strategy for you.

All of that being said, there is one way to “ensure” you get a return on your 401(k) investment – TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EMPLOYER MATCHING!

Many employers will match an employee’s 401(k) contribution, up to a certain amount. Essentially what this boils down to is an automatic return on your investment.

Let’s go back to the previous example I used, where I contributed 10% of my $1,000 salary every month. Let’s say I work for an employer that matches every $1 of my contribution with a $.50 contribution of their own. That means each month when I put in $100 my employer will put another $50 in my account for me.

That’s an instant return of 50%!

Granted, this is just an example, and not every company will match this well, but no matter what your company matches, the moral of the story is it is an automatic return on your investment, and you’d be a fool to pass up this free money – which could eventually mean hundreds of thousands of dollars towards retirement.

So, if you haven’t started a 401(k) account, I highly recommend you go and talk to your company’s human resources department to find out how you go about setting one up. Once you have an account set up, or if you already have a 401(k) account, I suggest you meet with a financial planner that you trust in order to determine the investment options that are best for you.

Here’s a pretty simple way for you to save both directly and indirectly on your clothing costs – avoid dry clean only clothes.

Dry clean only clothes are, more or less, a double edged sword: you almost always pay more up front when you purchase them, and then you have to pay a lot of money over the time you own them in order to keep them clean.

Let me give you a real world example:

This past Christmas I received a very nice pair of dry clean only black slacks, which I’m sure cost well over $100. Now, whenever I want to have them cleaned, I have to take the pants down to my local dry cleaner and pay them $8. Not cool.

Not to sound a terrible grandson, but I would have much rather received two or three pairs of “regular wash” pants that would probably look just as nice, last just as long, but don’t cost me $8 every time I want to have them cleaned.

So, when you’re shopping for clothes and it comes time to choose between “dry clean only” and “regular” clothes, go with the clothes you can clean yourself.

Over the past several years, two things have come into focus as incredibly important: saving money and saving the environment.  This post aims to show you six ways how you can very easily do both.

All of the solutions below clost little or no money, and have an immediate pay off in terms of reducing your energy consumption.  This reduction will ultimately save you money and reduce your carbon footprint and impact on the environment.

1) Kill the energy vampires. According to Treehugger.com, electronics that are plugged in but not in use can account for up to 20% of your monthly electricity bill. Electronics that plugged in but not in use will still draw power, hence the name “energy vampires.”

Obviously, the draw is not as much energy as when the electronic device is in use, but, it’s still a waste. Some common energy vampires include cell phone and laptop chargers, TVs, and stereo equipment.

In order to kill the energy vampires, you can either completely unplug these sorts of things when they’re not in use, or, better yet, you can plug everything into an energy saving power strip that you can simply turn on and off as needed. Here’s a highly rated power strip from Amazon.com for only $6.77 – and it’s already 51% off!

Over time, these power strips should more than pay for themselves in the amount of money you save on your energy bills.

2) Use a programmable thermostat. A programmable thermostat allows you to adjust the heat/air conditioning temperature based on certain times of the day.

For example, in the winter, you can have the furnace kick on and heat the house to a comfortable temperature just before you get out of bed and start your morning routine. Then, while you’re out of the house and at work – when you don’t need the house to be warm and comfortable – the thermostat can drop to a much lower temperature, before returning to a higher temperature just before you get home.

Because you’re not keeping the thermostat set a higher temperature throughout the day, you’ll save a pretty good amount of money each month. In fact, according to EnergyStar.gov, the average household can save about $180 per year by installing and properly using a programmable thermostat.

Here’s a highly rated programmable thermostat from Amazon.com for only $65.76, which is 18% off the usual price.

NOTE – before purchasing a programmable thermostat, make sure it is compatible with your current heating and air conditioning system.

3) Clean your appliances. Your appliances will run most efficiently when they’re in good shape. One of the easiest ways to make sure your big appliances aren’t overworking and running inefficiently is to make sure they’re free and clear of debris.

This means doing things regularly changing your furnace’s air filter and vacuuming your refrigerator’s coils.

Here are some highly rated air filters from Amazon.com.

NOTE – Make sure you are purchasing the correct sized air filters for your heating/cooling system.

4) Unblock vents. Your heating and cooling system is a very complex system (sorry for the redundancy) where, in order for everything to work correctly, there must be a complete free flow of air throughout the vents and returns.

In order to allow the system to operate at maximum efficiency, you need to make sure all of the vents and returns in your house are neither blocked nor obstructed.

So, go around your house and make sure you don’t have your couch over a vent, or a curtain blocking a return. If you do, move the obstruction immediately.

5) Switch to CFL or LED lights. I’m sure you’ve already heard a lot about this one over the past two or three years. CFL and LED lights are much more energy efficient and last a lot longer than their old incandescent counterparts.

They also give off a lot less heat, which will help with your cooling costs in the summer time.

While they cost more up front, over the life of the energy efficient bulbs, you will end up saving money in reduced energy consumption and bulb replacement costs.

Here are some highly rated CFL and LED lights from Amazon.com.

6) Run your laundry on cold water and then air dry the clothes. According to Treehugger.com, 90% of the energy used in washing clothes goes towards heating the water. So, it goes without saying, the more loads of laundry you can do in cold water, the more money you’re going to save.

After you wash your clothes, instead of jamming them into the dryer, place them on a drying rack or clothes line and let them air dry and really watch your utility costs drop.

If you follow these six suggestions, I think you’ll see a significant decrease in the amount of energy you use each month. Not only will this add up to a lot of savings, but you’ll also be doing your part to help the environment.

Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

What are your thoughts? What do you do to save energy each month? Have you had success with any of the above tips? Leave your comments below.

Per FTC regulations, please be aware that the above links to Amazon.com are affiliate links, and I will receive a commission if you purchase items from Amazon.com after clicking my affiliate links.

Is it just me, or does it seem like every other commercial on the TV or radio is for some sort of debt relief or debt consolidation company?

I know things are very tough right now with the economy. Unemployment is at the highest levels since the early 1980s, it’s still very hard for small businesses and consumers to get access to credit, and the housing market – the single largest source of personal wealth in this country – will probably never rebound to its 2005/2006 peak.

But, are things so bad and were we collectively such terrible money managers that we need to be completely inundated with companies offering to help us settle our credit card debt for pennies on the dollar?

Considering much of our (fake) economic prosperity over the past 20 to 25 years has been fueled by debt spending – both by our government and by the general public – it makes sense that we’re in a world of hurt. After all, it’s easy to spend on debt when all you have to do is do a quick cash-out refinance of your always-increasing-in-value home.

But now that the refinance and home-equity loan spigot has been all but turned off thanks to rapidly falling home values – nearly one in four borrowers is underwater – we actually have to pay down our acquired debt with our savings – which, for a while, was either negative or right around zero percent.

Couple this with the fact that the number of Americans who filed for personal bankruptcy surged by almost 33% in 2009, it’s easy to see why there is such a demand for debt consolidation and credit counseling services. After all, we wouldn’t be surrounded by these advertisements if they were falling on deaf ears.

Hopefully The Great Recession has reminded us that frugality is good, make sure we live within our means, and save for a rainy day – or in this case a rainy two years.

What are your thoughts? Please leave your comments below.

First of all, happy New Year!

Like most everyone else, you’ve probably come up with some New Year’s resolutions, some of which may include some financial goals. Maybe you want to pay down some credit card debt, save up for a house, or just be “better with money.” Whatever financial goals for 2010 are, I want to help make sure you see them through.

In order to make sure you follow through on your goals for all of 2010 and not just for the first few months, you need to do two separate things, which, if done right, will dramatically increase the chance you’ll complete your resolution.

1. Determine the what, why, and how of your goal/resolution
2. Write down the what, why, and how of your goal/resolution and carry it with you

Both of these steps are pretty straight forward, and leave you little room for excuses!

WHAT: state what you want to achieve, trying to be as specific as possible. For example, don’t just say, “I want to pay down some credit card debt.” Instead say, “I want to pay down $1,000 of my credit card debt by June.” The more specific and absolute you can are, the easier it is going to track your progress and hold yourself accountable.

WHY: state what you stand to gain from accomplishing the goal, again, being as specific as possible. Using the above example, you could say something like, “in order to achieve more financial stability and to improve my credit score.” When you review your goals from time to time, seeing the “why” will reinforce the goal and help to keep you moving forward.

HOW: this is where you outline your battle plan, being (you guessed it) as specific as possible. In taking the credit card debt example, you might say, “by going out to eat only once per week and not buying any new electronics until I’ve met my goal,” as opposed to saying something like, “by spending less.”

Now that you have your fully formed goal(s), go ahead and, on a small piece of paper, write down all of the pieces of your goal(s). When you’re done, stick the piece of paper some place you look at frequently in order to keep the goals fresh in your mind. Because these are financial goals, I find it useful to stick the piece of paper in my wallet.

I wish you a very happy and healthy 2010, and hope that by following this advice you achieve all of your goals – both financial and non-financial – throughout the year.

Want to share your resolutions? Have a better way to plan out and track your goals? Leave your comments below!