How to Manage Household Expenses

 How to Manage Household Expenses When You're Married


Sharing a checking account may be one of the hardest things about sharing a marital bed. In fact, three in 10 Americans who've combined finances say they've deceived their spouses or partners when it comes to money matters, according to a 2010 survey by the National Endowment for Financial Education. Whether you're newlyweds or have been married for decades, there's always time to walk down the path to financial harmony. Here's what you'll need to do.

Decide what's common and what's separate. Decide whether to keep separate bank accounts, merge everything or a bit of both.

• Count your debts. Create a checklist of all the debt each spouse is entering the marriage with and determine whether that person will pay down his or her loans or if both spouses will chip in.
• Decide how to pay for household expenses. Some couples create a joint checking account, and each spouse contributes money to pay for household expenses like the mortgage, utilities and groceries.

Get serious about saving. Your expenses will only grow as you get older, which means you need to start saving now.

• Prepare for an emergency. Financial emergencies cause stress; stress causes discord. And while you can't avoid the emergency, you can avoid the stress. Put three to six months of living expenses in a savings account or money market account and keep it strictly off limits until there's a real emergency.
• Check in annually. Arrange an annual meeting with your spouse to review your financial health. List all assets, debts and sources of income and set long-term goals. If you're in your 40s, start talking about retirement goals, too.
• Make a plan. Use this SmartMoney calculator to set your investment goals, and check out this article in case an emergency strikes when you're cash-strapped.

Chip away at debt. Households with less debt have an easier time qualifying for a home mortgage and can also save more for their future.

• Have roles. Decide who will be responsible for keeping track of the bills and paying them. For unsecured debt, like credit cards, try to pay more than the monthly minimum and pay down the highest interest first.
• Save before spending. Create a strategy to save for one-time expenses, like a vacation or a new piece of furniture, without incurring debt.
• Figure out where you stand. Use this SmartMoney calculator to find out if you have too much debt and this calculator, which shows how much interest borrowers will pay by the time their credit card balance is paid off.

What not to do. The biggest mistake is to start arguing over finances, and that usually happens after one of these mistakes:

• Don't keep secrets. Spouses often overspend and hide it from their other half. It's only a downward spiral from there.
• Don't give up financial control. Just because one of you makes sure the bills are paid doesn't mean the other can live in la-la-land and spend without consequence. In this case, ignorance isn't bliss.
• Don't collect bad debt. Carefully consider getting a loan for a depreciating asset, like a car, because at some point you could owe more than it's worth. And stay away from credit card debt; balances can rack up quickly at very high interest rates.

Credit: www.marketwatch.com/

Managing Family Finance Part 4

Part 4: Staying on Track  

#Don't make large purchases without discussing them first. Establish a monetary limit for what constitutes a "major" purchase. Obviously, this will differ between families, but the important thing is that you have a set limit. For any purchases above this limit, decide that the spouse making the purchase must have the approval of the other before going through with it. If either of you ever breaks this rule, be sure to tell the other immediately. Keeping large expenditures private is just asking for trouble.<ref>Ref</ref>

#Avoid taking on unnecessary debt. Keep each other on track by avoiding taking on debt for medium-sized purchases like furniture or jewelry. Plan these purchases out beforehand with your spouse so that you can combine your resources and afford the full amount of the purchase. This will save you money on interest payments in the long term. In addition, always check in with each other about credit card debt. It may be in your best interest to help a spouse with her credit card payment if she can't make it; missing a monthly payment will hurt your combined credit, which you will need if you apply for a large loan like a mortgage.<ref>Ref</ref>

To live a happy and peaceful life with financial freedom, it's very important to manage family finances properly. Failing to manage spending or agree on financial decisions can cause a married couple to fall into endless arguing. To get through the many financial decisions present in married life, you have to coordinate a budget and financial planning with the whole family and keep an open dialogue going about the family's money. 

#Use software to monitor your finances. With all of the budgeting and financial planning software available today, you'd be a fool not to take advantage of these useful tools. For starters, try tracking your monthly budget in a shared spreadsheet like those available in Google Drive. This type of document allows both of you to access and change the sheet as needed. For budgeting, there is are apps available like HomeBudget or Mint, which summarize the family budget and assets into a simple user interface.

• There are also apps for keeping track of financial paperwork, like FileThis.
• Try a few of these apps out and decide which ones work for you. Most of them are free or inexpensive to use, or at least offer a trial period.<ref>Ref</ref>

 Source: http://www.wikihow.com

Managing Family Finance Part 3

Part 3: Saving for Life Goals

#Decide on long-term goals together. Have an open conversation about your savings goals, including saving for a house, for retirement, and for other large purchases like a car or boat. Make sure that you both agree that the purchase or expense in question is worth saving for and that you agree on the amount needed. This will help coordinate your savings and investment efforts.<ref>Ref</ref>

#Prepare Emergency Fund. Every family should strive to keep an emergency savings fund for when things go south. Who knows when one of you might lose a job or experience unexpected medical problems? An emergency fund can help you avoid future debt and provide some financial security and flexibility.<ref>Ref</ref> The traditional wisdom is to keep three to six month's salary in a savings account; however, this would be more than enough for some families and not nearly enough for others. Luckily, there are several financial calculators online that you can use to calculate roughly how much you need to save to cover your expenses.

• Try searching for emergency fund calculators using a search engine.
• There is also an app, HelloWallet, that offers this type of calculator.<ref>Ref</ref>

To live a happy and peaceful life with financial freedom, it's very important to manage family finances properly. Failing to manage spending or agree on financial decisions can cause a married couple to fall into endless arguing. To get through the many financial decisions present in married life, you have to coordinate a budget and financial planning with the whole family and keep an open dialogue going about the family's money

#Reduce your debt. Your first goal should be to pay off your existing debt. Only by paying down student loans, car loans, and other debt can you qualify for more credit as a couple and move forward with saving for other goals. To eliminate debt, work together to pay more than the minimum payment on each loan (as long as there are no prepayment penalties for doing so). Work with your spouse to create a plan and schedule for paying off your outstanding debt. If necessary, have one of you in charge of making sure that debt payments have been made each month.<ref>Ref</ref>

#Save for retirement. Couples should start planning for retirement as early as possible. This is because, due to the effects of compound interest, money placed in a retirement fund at a young age will earn much more interest over its life than the same amount of money put in at a later age. Make sure to make every effort to increase your retirement savings, including seeking to max out your employer's 401(k) match (if they have one), maxing out IRS-limits for 401(k) savings, and regularly increasing your retirement savings amounts if you can fit it into the budget.

• You should save for retirement before putting money into education funds for your children. This is because there will always be scholarships and grants available for education, but not for your retirement.
• If you don't have a combined retirement portfolio, be sure to coordinate your risk profiles and asset allocations.<ref>Ref</ref>

#Plan for educational expenses. If you're planning to fund part or all your child's higher education, it's best to start saving early on. Start by investigating options like 529 savings plans, which have special tax benefits for students. Speak with a financial advisor to learn more and get started saving today. If you don't have much time before your child leaves for school, look into government loans and grants, as well as your option in earning federal student aid.<ref>Ref</ref>

Source: http://www.wikihow.com

Managing Family Finance Part 2

 

Part 2: Using a Budget

#Choose a budget format. Before you create a budget, you'll have to decide how to keep that budget. While many people can get away with just using a notepad and pen, others find it easier to track their spending through a spreadsheet or financial software. There are a number of a free software platforms available online that you can use to establish and track a budget. For example, programs like Mint.com and Manilla offer free budgeting services. If you want full service financial software, try Quicken or Microsoft Money.<ref>Ref</ref>

To live a happy and peaceful life with financial freedom, it's very important to manage family finances properly. Failing to manage spending or agree on financial decisions can cause a married couple to fall into endless arguing. To get through the many financial decisions present in married life, you have to coordinate a budget and financial planning with the whole family and keep an open dialogue going about the family's money

#Assess your current spending habits. For a month, write down a note every time you spend money, even for very small amounts. Record the amount spent and what it was you paid for. At the end of the month, sit down with your spouse and total up both your spending. Add in major expenditures to get a clear picture of where the family's money went that month. Split up expenses by category (home, car, food, etc.) if you can. Then, compare that amount to your combined, after-tax income. This is your starting point for determining a budget.

• It may also be helpful to work with your bank statement to make sure you didn't miss any recurring payments or online purchases when totaling your expenses.<ref>Ref</ref>

#Come together to create a Budget. Look at your compiled spending habits. Do you have a surplus? Or are you spending more than you make? Work from here to identify areas where you can cut back, if needed. If at all possible, try to free up money that can be put into savings or into the retirement fund. Create spending limits on certain categories, like food and entertainment, and try to stick to them over time.

• Remember to always leave room in your monthly budget for unexpected expenses, like small medical bills or car repairs.<ref>Ref</ref>

#Work to improve and change your budget as needed. Return to your budget regularly to eliminate unnecessary spending or to adjust your budgeted amounts as needed. For example, having a child may cause you to have to completely restructure your budget. In any case, constantly seek out areas where you can cut back and save more. You'll find that you can be just as happy while spending much less than you do now.<ref>Ref</ref>

Source: http://www.wikihow.com

Managing Family Finance Part 1

To live a happy and peaceful life with financial freedom, it's very important to manage family finances properly. Failing to manage spending or agree on financial decisions can cause a married couple to fall into endless arguing. To get through the many financial decisions present in married life, you have to coordinate a budget and financial planning with the whole family and keep an open dialogue going about the family's money.

Part 1: Coordinating Family Finances 

#Talk openly about your finances. While this is important all the way through life, it is especially important to establish financial honestly before you get married. If one partner has a poor credit history or large debts that are not brought up before marriage, it can lead to resentment and problems down the road. Before getting married, you should meet with your loved one and discuss his current financial situation, including how much he makes, where that money goes, his credit history, and any large debts he is carrying. This sets the tone for financial openness in the rest of your lives together. (Ref)

#Meet regularly to talk about money. Decide on a time of the month to get together specifically to discuss your finances. Perhaps this meeting can coincide with the arrival of the monthly bank statement or the due date of monthly bills. In any case, use your time at this meeting to assess the previous month's expenditures, mark your progress towards long-term goals, and to propose any changes or major purchases that you want to make. Only by talking about money regularly can you make doing so a comfortable and productive experience.<ref>Ref</ref>

#Don't make one person the sole manager of the family's money. Many families choose to allow one person to take charge of all the family's finances; however, this places an unnecessary burden on that person and leads to others' being unaware of the family's current financial situation. In addition, if that person leaves through death or divorce, it leaves the others completely unaware of how to manage or even access the family's finances. Solve this problem by splitting up tasks between you or by managing finances in alternating months.

• *Both you and your spouse should attend any meetings with financial professionals, such as those with a loan officer or investment advisor.<ref>Ref</ref>

#Decide on an account setup. Families have options when it comes to setting up joint accounts. Some choose to keep everything together while others keep their finances mostly separate. At minimum, you should have a joint account to pay for household expenses and your mortgage payment. At the end of the month, you can split these expenses in half and each transfer in an equal amount of money into this account to pay these expenses. Having separate account can prevent arguments that might arise from one person's spending habits.

• Just make sure to set limits to how much money each of you can spend each month so that one person doesn't end up spending all of the family's money.<ref>Ref</ref>

#Build up individual credit. Even though your finances will be combined, it is still important for each of you to have a strong credit score. Doing so will ensure not only that your credit will be good when you apply for credit jointly, but also that your credit history will remain intact if you split up. A simple way to manage this is by having separate credit cards, each established only in the name of the spouse who uses it.<ref>Ref</ref>

Credit:  http://www.wikihow.com/

Abah's ways to Cut Expenses

15 ways to cut your expenses.

Alright it is time to cut some expenses!  I encourage you to take a long, hard look at all your expenses and ask yourself, “Do I really have to have this?”  Often times you will find that you really don’t and that giving it up for a short while (whatever it is) is well worth getting more of your debt paid off!

1. Car Insurance

Believe me, if you haven’t shopped around for car insurance in a couple years, it is worth your while. I really was sure that I had the lowest rates I could get (after all I run a website about personal finance), but then I checked out Islamic Takaful and found that I could save RM330 a year for the same coverage. I was so blown away that they could save me RM330 that I didn’t shop anywhere else.

Remember, going through broker you are paying the brokers's fee and the higher the insurance premium, the more the commission the broker recieved. As an advise, pastikan;
1. coverage insurance kereta anda tidak melebihi harga semasa
2. Shop around including browsing internet
3. Get advise from friends who knew about insurance.

2. Save money on petrol/gas

While everyone wants gas prices to go down, you can cut your monthly gas bill by taking some pro-active steps. Check out these 75 gas saving tips, grab a few of them and start working them into your driving. And for some more advanced techniques you can learn how to hypermile as well.

Save Money on Phone

3. Cell Phones

Grab your most recent cell phone bills and look at them to see what you are actually paying for.

    Are you paying for internet service that you are not using?
    Are you paying for 1000 minutes a month, when you are only averaging about 350?
    Are you paying for text messages that you are not using?

Before you call your cell phone company, check other Cellular companies to see how their rates compare. If it is still worth your while to stay with your current provider, then call them up and talk to them about the changes that you can make.

4. Home phone lines

Ask yourself a tough question, “Do I really need a fixed line? Would it be possible to use my cell phone for all calls?”

If you have a fixed line solely for the purpose of having a DSL internet connection, I would recommend calling the phone company to adjust your phone plan. here are may packages now that offer competitive rates - both from cell companies or Telekom.

If you can get by without a land line, call and cancel it. This will probably save you RM100 or more a month just by making a phone call.

5. Save on the Internet

I am not suggesting that you get dial-up. That is just cruel and unusual punishment  . But, if you are paying for the premium package, should you consider one of the slower packages? Many people won’t notice a difference in how fast the web pages load.

Again, it may be worthwhile looking at the options available for high-speed internet service. I saved about $20 a month switching from one company to another.


Save money on Food

This is one of the easiest fixes for most people. I know I am saving hundreds of dollars a month by not doing what I used to do with my food purchases.

6. Make going out to dinner something special

Not only will you save yourself a lot of money, but it will be more fun when you do go out. Have you noticed that when you do something all the time, it just isn’t as fun anymore? This is a great way to “add fun” and save money.

A couple going out to dinner just two times in a week could easily spend $300 a month. If they knock it down to just one time a week that is $150 savings.

7. Make it yourself

You really can cook. I don’t care if people told you that you were a bad cook, don’t listen to them. You aren’t bad and it is not that hard. There are tons of meals that you can make that require little more than an ability to set a timer and read directions. Start at Allrecipes.com; they have lots of cool features that I won’t get into here – just check it out.

8. Bring your lunch

This is one of those rubber-meets-the-road sacrifices. But it pays off handsomely. If you are paying $10 to go out to lunch each day, you are spending $200 a month. If you bring your lunch 3 days a week, you should easily be able to save $100 a month.

9. Eat what you have

Buy food that you are going to eat and eat what you have. I cut my grocery bill by 50% from my wasteful years by eating the food I had and not wasting any. I could not believe how much money I was wasting by letting food spoil. Just putting a little bit of thought into your grocery list each week will be an easy way to save money.

10. Clip coupons

Most of the food we buy doesn’t have coupons, so this has never been too much help for me. But, there are some people who take pride in buying a grocery cart full of food for $25 and 100 coupons. Even if you aren’t a pro, beginners can save $50 a month without much difficulty.

11. Drink water

Adakah Starbuck atau Coke itu minum keperluan. Minum seperti ini mahal tetapi memudaratkan kepada kesihatan. Memang badan kita memerlukan gula tetapi bukanlah melalui konsumpsi minuman yang mahal.Tinggalkan minuman seperti ini dan ambil minuman yag lebih berkhasiat atau air mineral, saksikan berapa anda akan  jimat?


12. Save on your energy bills


Lampu mungkin tidak banyak menjejaskan konsumsi bill eletrik tetapi membudayakan menutup lampu atau pint yang tidak relevan adalah paling baik.

That being said you can check out these 10 ways to conserve energy and save money and these winter energy saving tips.

13. Pay your bills on time!

Ambil semua bil yang terakhir dan sila semak bayaran-bayarn yang tidak sepatutnya ada, seperti caj lambat bayar yang pastinya membazirkan wang anda yang amat berharga.
 

Kalau anda sering terlupa membayar bil-bil utiliti, sila gunakan Google Calendar atau senarai bayaran bill. Lebih mudah lagi buat bayaran online secara otomatik atau 'standing instruction'. Cara ini akan memudahkan kerja anda.

14. Save at the bank


Grab your recent bank statements and examine them for ambiguous fees. If you see any and don’t know what they are, call your bank and ask them to explain it. I worked at a bank for years and I know how good they can be at coming up with creative names for their fees.

If you find out that you are paying fees for your basic banking needs, I recommend switching. There is no reason you should be paying fees for falling below a minimum balance or anything else. It is your money. Take it somewhere where you have control over the money, not the bank.

Most credit unions will not have many (or all) of the fees that bigger banks may have. I currently use Capital One 360 as a savings account.

15. Save on purchases

Kalau tengah berkira-kira untuk menyelesaikan hutang-piutang, anda sepatutnya berusaha keras berfikir tentang belian yang berskala besar lagi boros. Tetapi jika perlu membeli, pastikan anda membeli dengan harga yang terbaik. Sila semak melalui internet jika perlu.

Rujukan Di sini