MoneyWiseWomen

Buying a Car Painlessly

Buying a new car can be painless if you do your homework. The last two cars we’ve bought have been kind of a spur of moment decision. Actually, my husband, Steve and I have talked about the make and model of car we wanted but that’s about it. A couple of weeks ago I came home from running errands and announced to my husband I wanted to buy a new car. Our 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee had 143,000 miles on it and had done a great job for 12 years but I was ready for a new Jeep. That’s all it took to get Steve on the hunt for a Jeep Grand Cherokee. And today you can do your home and shopping in the comfort of your own home on the Internet. Steve began by visiting www.truecar.com , a website that helps consumers determine the true price of a car. You simply enter the year, make and model of the car you’re looking for and you’ll get the sticker price listed at local dealerships. You’ll also get a graph with the best local price along with great, good and market prices.

5 Traits to Look for in a Marital Therapist

One of the most important decisions you can make when you are working to save your marriage is choosing the right marital therapist. Trust, patience and compassion are the basic tools of a good therapist, but there are more specific skills needed when the therapy involves couples. Look for these five characteristics in any marital therapist before you begin your first session.

1. Unwavering Pro-Marriage Stance

The main reason you and your spouse have decided to attend marital therapy is to save your relationship. Your therapist needs to believe that staying married is the best choice for both of you. If the therapist is not sure that marriage is the best answer, it will be difficult to work through some of the more complicated issues your relationship might be facing. A good therapist will remain neutral when it comes to taking sides with you or your spouse, and have faith in the marriage's future barring abuse or a dangerous situation for either spouse. In most cases, staying married is the best outcome for your health and your financial well being.

Make a budget that lasts

If you are going to make a budget that lasts, you can’t just jump to categorizing and slashing expenses—that’s a lot like jumping into a diet and following a certain regime without really understanding the “why” behind your eating—it’s not a sustainable solution. Just like with eating, you have to understand the “why” behind your spending.

This doesn’t have to be a laborious process; just becoming more aware should give you a lot of data in a few weeks. To begin, you should start using Mint (the best comprehensive tracking software I have used). Mint gives you a great overview and long-term tool. Along with Mint, I recommend taking a week or two to keep a journal with your daily spending, so you understand on-the-spot how you’re feeling before and after each purchase.

I have identified four types of spending that cover virtually every single dollar that leaves your bank account:

6 Healthcare Careers Offering Self-Employment

The lure of self-employment is clear. I can be my own boss? Set my own hours? Give myself a raise when I deserve it?

Yes, please!

8 Step Plan to avoiding the post-holiday spending hangover

Here’s a question– Did you wake up last January with a spending hangover? You know what I mean- come January, when all the gifts are opened and the parties are over, the Visa, MasterCard, Macy’s and Nordstrom’s bills begin to arrive.

Credit card use is up 7% this holiday season. And sadly, it takes the average American who uses credit cards to finance Christmas six to seven months to pay off the holidays. Who wants to be basking in the summer sunshine while still paying for the gifts you gave your kids, family and friends?

Applying Spousonomics To Money Problems

Always telling the truth about money is something to aspire to, but it may be unrealistic marriage advice. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in a blog post that it is absolutely essential that couples are 100% transparent about their money, or else the relationship probably won’t survive. How silly I am.

Spousonomics shows that this just isn’t true! The book, by Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson, offers a hilarious and valid twist to standard marriage advice by showing how economics—yes, economics—is the key to a happy marriage. What it also showed me is that married people aren’t 100% honest with each other, especially not about money.

In what the call their Exhaustive, Groundbreaking and Very Expensive Marriage Survey, Szuchman and Anderson discovered that based on economics, there are actually incentives for spouses to lie to one other. One such principle is Asymmetrical Information. This means that if you’re totally honest about a topic you might be penalized, so consequently, you withhold information when communicating. For example, you might fudge on the amount of time it takes you to complete a task you were asked to perform by your spouse because you want to build in enough time to goof off before you actually do it. So you lie about it instead of being nagged by your spouse or assigned additional tasks. By withholding information, you get what you want from the spousal transaction.

Making Time for What You Want in the New Year

Most people in today’s working world are feeling the pressures of having too much to do and too little time to do it. The stress of trying to do more with less is beginning to take its toll on my productivity and of most of the people I know.  The illnesses, mistakes and even accidents resulting from lack of sleep and extreme stress cost us more than what we are attempting to gain by doing too much. The realization that both time and energy are finite has prompted me to take a deeper look. This year, the buck stops here.

3 Criminal Justice Grants for Women

Criminal justice has historically been a male-dominated field; however, women who go into law enforcement or other areas of criminal justice may find it easier to get jobs because many agencies are trying to correct this imbalance. There are only a handful scholarships for criminal justice majors open to women only, so it's smart to apply for scholarships that are open to all criminal justice majors as well.

Scholarships for Moms

Scholarships for Moms offers a $10,000 scholarship on an annual basis to women in criminal justice criminal justice and criminology college programs. This scholarship is available to female students who are also raising children under the age of 18. To apply for this scholarship, simply fill out an application form on Scholarships for Mom's website. Scholarships for Moms awards scholarships by choosing the names of people at random who register at their site. You may search for other scholarships at their site as well once you've registered.

A Letter to Santa

Do you remember when you believed in Santa Claus? You would write a letter to Santa asking him to bring your favorite things on Christmas Eve. Let’s roll back the years, sit down with a cup of tea, put on some Christmas music and write a letter to Santa. Let you imagination go wild and spend some time daydreaming. What lights your fire? What are your dreams and goals? Do you have a bucket list? If so, imagine yourself doing some of the things on your bucket list. Think of this as a type of dream board.

5 Storage Solutions for Your Small Apartment

Storage is always a problem with small and cheap apartments. If you want more than a few possessions and pieces of furniture, you must address this issue. Some people are perfectly happy living in a cluttered environment, but for those who are not, de-cluttering and organizing is the way to go.

Three Simple Storage Solutions

Maximize wall space for optimal holding capacity. You can use a variety of shelves to increase the holding capacity of any apartment. Adjustable wire or plastic shelves, wall shelves and bookshelves are just a few possibilities. Free hanging shelves that do not stand on the floor are useful over couches and other large pieces of furniture.

Use baskets under coffee tables to hold remotes, magazines and other sundries you need close-at-hand. Although there are tables you can purchase that include baskets, a few decorative baskets from a department store work just as well. This clears off the table and makes your home feel less cluttered and messy.

You can maximize cabinet space using a variety of the many kitchen organizers available. Most cabinets have wasted space you can use. Storing spices in bins, when a spice rack is not available condenses these small and inefficient bottles. Spice bottles seldom reach the bottom of the shelf above, so, if possible, lower that shelf to increase the space above it.

Nets, Totes and More

Ceiling nets hold light yet bulky items. If you do not want to invest in a net, hang an attractive sheet from the ceiling to keep these larger items out of the way. Keep the sheet high enough that people will not walk into it. Toss stuffed animals, extra linens and pillows into the net and they will be easily accessible when needed.

You can never have too many stackable plastic totes. Try to find totes that are the same size so to stack efficiently. Use under-the-bed boxes to save even more space. Do not stack any totes or boxes so high that you cannot get to them without creating an avalanche. Space saving should not cause a concussion. Place heavier totes at the bottom and lighter ones toward the top. This will keep the stacked boxes secure and stable.

An Easier-to-Manage Routine

Anything you do not use on a daily basis should have a home. This home may be in a tote, on a shelf or in a basket. As you begin to create a more efficient home, your daily routine will become easier to manage. Cleaning tasks will be easier because you won’t have to uncover every surface to clean it. Do not limit the possibilities. Use your imagination and discover new and unique ways to increase the storage of your home.