MoneyWiseWomen

Getting Started With Evaluating Mutual Fund Performance

When it comes to mutual fund investing, many people ask me how to evaluate the performance and quality of their mutual funds in their brokerage account, 401(k) IRAs, etc. Simply evaluating performance in terms of rates of return can be disappointing in our current environment; additionally, it doesn’t speak to an overall investment philosophy or guideline that you can refer to when times are tough. Therefore, when I help clients with their mutual fund investing, I use these four guidelines to help them decide how to move forward when building their investment portfolio:

5 Perks of Owning a Hybrid

There's a lot to love about driving a hybrid. Aside from the warm fuzzy feelings associated with leaving less waste behind, many drivers will save money by owning a hybrid, even though the initial cost is more. The hybrid begins paying for itself even before you start to drive it.

Car Insurance: When is it Wiser not to Claim?

Car insurance is there to help you cover the costs of any damages to your car, but sometimes filing a claim is not worth the potential consequences. The claim you file will show up on your insurance record and it could affect everything from your insurance rates to your good driving history. If you find yourself in the following situations, think twice about filing that claim.

Save Money When You Leave Behind these 6 Travel Unnecessary Items

When you pack for a trip to the city, keep it light and leave plenty of room for the souvenirs you'll want to buy once you get there. Here are some things you can leave at home on your next city trip.

1. Your Own Towels - A good towel is soft and fluffy and can take up more space in a travel bag than two days' worth of clothes. Trust that your hotel will have decent towels available and save the suitcase space for more important items. You'll avoid extra bag fees.

Money and the Blame Game

Lots of people play the blame game with money—you blame the person who “owed” you because you worked so hard, or tolerated something else that you thought would bring a greater payoff—but whenever you play the blame game, you miss the opportunity to gain more power, control and peace over your money. And when you don’t recognize the dynamic you’re engaging in, you’re doomed to repeat it.

 

Blaming someone else (or blaming yourself) about any frustrations over money has to do with the basic thought that your survival is being compromised. The perception is that this other person has the power to make or break your financial life, depending on what they do. It’s very difficult to like, much less love, someone on whom you believe that your survival depends. So when you are engaged in the blame game, you may forget that you are every bit as responsible for the relationship dynamic as the other person.

 

Maintain Your Car Without Destroying Your Monthly Budget

Owning a car means a lot more than forking over the cash for each monthly payment. The cost of gas alone will throw some of us over budget each month. When you add in oil changes, washing and detailing and other maintenance, you're probably spending a pretty penny each month just to get from Point A to Point B safely. If all this vehicle maintenance has you feeling down, you might consider cutting a few corners to lower the cost of owning a vehicle.

Things to Do On a “Snow Day”

By the time this blog is read, the Washington State “snow days” of January 2012 may be long behind us. Still, the concepts can be applied to when you encounter airport closures, canceled conferences/meetings/concerts or when someone gets cold feet and pulls out of a wedding. The intent of this is not to suggest you micromanage your time to the degree of being inflexible, but to help you gain control over your time and make better choices when unplanned events create havoc.

The notion came to me when I was forced to reschedule presentations, workshops and meetings over the course of four days due to our city being almost paralyzed by snow and ice this week. (Ok, I’ll have to insert this bit of info: Seattleites are light weights. We rarely have snow or sub freezing temperatures, have lots of hills and pretty much can’t drive safely under extreme conditions. The result is that many people become housebound and services often come to a screeching halt).

How To Improve Your Wealth Creation Competence

If one of your New Year's resolutions was to improve your wealth creation process, you have to approach it as if you were developing a brand new skill set, such as learning a sport or a game. If you want to continually improve your ability to create wealth, you need to keep in mind these 4 stages of awareness:

 

Unconsciously Incompetent. This is the stage where you don’t know what you don’t know. This skill or thing isn’t even on your radar; like before you were interested in learning to drive, you didn’t even think about it, right? Learning to drive was a non-issue. Many people are unconsciously incompetent with wealth creation because while growing up, it wasn’t an issue for them. Things got bought and paid for and no one ever talked about money. However, there usually comes a time when you have a use for the specific skill and then you become . . .

 

 

Look Into Your 2012 Crystal Ball

A couple of Saturdays ago, I finally sat down with my magic crystal ball. I was ready to create my personal 2012 spending and income plan. I was a bit nervous this year about what I would see in the ball. I really need to convert my house to gas, or at least replace my dinosaur of a furnace. Yikes. And I’ve been asked to join some friends on a big out of country trip. I would like to go! And since I already did my business annual plan, so I know what income I have this year.

So I sat down with a cup of Starbucks coffee, called up The Crystal Ball and set to work.

(Lights darken, crystal ball begins to glow, getting brighter and brighter, mists swirl in its depth and begin to part, and I lean forward, peering into the future….)

Two hours later, I had all my answers. Well, I had a lot of answers and I wanted time to think. To feel. To journal.  To digest the future I had just seen. This future seemed to have several scenarios and I was going to have to make some choices. I am reminded of that saying, “You can have anything you want, but you can’t have everything you want.” Rats.

Get Back On Track With Your Personal Budget

No one can ever be perfect with their personal budget; there will always be moments when you choose to overspend in a certain area, because something holds a higher priority for you than sticking to your budget. This can be either a conscious or unconscious decision. But getting back on track doesn't have to be difficult if you keep in mind 6 simple steps.

For employed people, I advocate the Zero-Based Personal Budget method, which means money in equals money out, every month. Since you can reasonably predict what you’ll be receiving, there are rarely surprises with this method.

For self-employed business owners, like myself, I try to apply the Zero-Base Personal Budget using an average income from the prior 6 months; if income goes down, you have to adjust your personal budget down as well. If income goes up, you hold the excess until you have another 6 months of evidence that your income has stabilized upwards. It can get more complicated, but you get the gist.

Some of you know that I use Mint to track if I am going over in one of the areas of my personal budget. I have alerts for my overspending “danger zones” which are eating out, coffee, coffee and coffee. I think I have finally conquered books as an overspending item! But because some months I have extra cash above my personal budget, I know that I have a little breathing room if I want to spend extra on something.

So, this last month I did. I had WAY too many meals out, in addition to special holiday grocery purchases. And somehow, I was so hypnotized by Starbucks pretty red holiday cups that I had a Peppermint Mocha in my hand more times than not.