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If the value of your property has fallen, you’d expect that your property tax bill might fall too, right? Unfortunately this is usually not automatically the case but it certainly pays to check into how much property tax you really should be paying, because you might end up saving up to 20%.

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Starting a new job is an excellent time to look into setting your finances up better. An interesting article from Mint gives a long list of tips for new employees who want to do something about managing their finances from the word go. The tips include:

• Get your pay check paid by direct deposit rather than a check in the hand - it’s less tempting to spend it. (In most countries outside the United States, getting paid by check is impossible - bank deposits are the only way).
• Arrange for direct payments from your salary into a savings or investment account - pay yourself before you pay others!
• With a new income amount, it’s a great time to draw up a personal budget and find good strategies to help you stick to it.
• Use part of the new income to build up an emergency fund.
• Make sure you get sufficient health coverage from your new employer, or set up your own if the employer doesn’t offer any.
• Learn more about tax deductions and tax liability so that you can maximise how much money you get to take home each month by knowing what should be withheld.
• Use the regular income to regularly service your debt and try to reduce it as much as possible.
• Set up the right kind of retirement savings accounts. If you have a 401K that your employer will match, contribute the maximum amount possible.

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If you’ve ever wondered how you can calculate whether or not you’re on track for retirement then a handy article at Yahoo Finance recently gives some great tips. It all hinges around calculating your net worth and then figuring out if your net worth is about right for your age and demographics.

Net worth is relatively easy to calculate and follows a simple formula: Net worth = Assets - Liabilities. So figure out the value of everything you own (that could be quickly turned into cash). Subtract the total amount of your debt, and you’ve got your net worth.

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Over at the No Credit Needed blog, a recent post looked at the writer’s financial priorities for the future. It makes for an interest list and something that a lot of people in debt are probably striving to achieve - and we know that making a list of your goals always helps you to achieve them faster and better. So let’s take a look at the key financial priorities on this list:

• Live within a budget - always have a written budget so you know where you plan to put your money
• Have insurance - always have sufficient coverage of the necessary kinds of insurance (for example, health, dental, life or disability)
• Have an emergency fund - for at least six months’ worth of living expenses
• Fully-fund retirement accounts - that makes the annual tax bill lower and increases the wealth for the retirement days
• Fund self-education accounts - the No Credit Needed blogger has three young children, and has the goal of saving enough for their college tuition
• Live without borrowing money - but with one big advantage - this guy has a house funded by his employer
• Continue to live without credit cards - he uses a debit card instead for situations where a credit card is usually very convenient.

It might be interesting to reconsider your list of financial priorities, too.

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Right now, 30 million Americans are still covered by a traditional pension plan, according to a recent CNN Money article. If you’re one of these people, then at some stage you have to decide whether you want to receive your pension in one lump sum on retirement or by monthly checks for the rest of your life. Apparently, it’s not such an easy decision.

If you had a crystal ball and could forecast the year of your death, then the calculation and decision would be clear. Unfortunately, we don’t have that crystal ball, so you need to do some hard thinking. The Money gang actually summarize that in most cases, the monthly check will work out financially better than a lump sum - yet 90% of people choose the lump sum.

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All the statistics say that we are dealing with money problems more often by bartering products and services. Doing some kind of swap or bargaining some kind of deal that avoids exchanging money is an obvious way to help you deal with a cash-poor situation, and it’s rapidly becoming more popular.

For example, if you have a skill like book-keeping or bricklaying, and you need either something done or you are looking for a particular product, especially something second-hand like furniture or appliances, then finding someone to swap with can make a good deal for both of you. Swap 15 hours of book-keeping work for a second-hand washing machine, for example, and you’re probably both in front.

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A recent J. D. Roth guest post at Zen Habits might go over familiar territory of the best steps to take in paying off debt, but there’s probably always something new to learn if you’re in a position of debt and want to recover from it. The main tips that came out of this article include:

• Stop using all credit cards or financing options immediately.
• Stop any recurring payments - like health club memberships (unless you really, really use it), subscriptions, DVD clubs and so on.
• Ask your credit card companies for a better deal.
• Save up an emergency fund of at least $1,000. Put it in an account that makes it available when you need it but is not too easy to access.
• Make a plan to pay off your credit card and other debts. Rather than paying the highest interest debts first, Roth advocates the snowball method where you pay the minimum balance on everything then as much as possible into the debt with the lowest balance, so it will be finished as fast as possible.
• Spend less money - live frugally.
• Try to increase your income by selling possessions or working another job.
• Start all of these steps now - not tomorrow!

photo credit: TheTruthAboutMortgage.com

Being in serious debt thanks to your credit cards is a serious problem - but it’s one that you can get support for. Organizations such as Debtors Anonymous or simply groups that come together to meet in churches or cafes can really help you to feel that you’re not alone with your problem, and inspire you to find solutions to break the debt cycle.

A recent Wall Street Journal article told the personal stories of several people who are now working on their debt problems after joining support groups. For example, they explained the story of a 26-year-old female accountant who had almost no money to her name despite earning $82,000 a year. It turned out that her problem was mostly in spending money on extras and luxury, like expensive clothes, or high-end fruit for her boyfriend to eat!

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Though women live longer than men, they typically earn less than their male counterparts. Of course longer lives and less pay makes saving for retirement difficult, and new studies show that women aren’t saving enough for retirement.

On average, women live 22 years after retirement, 3 years longer than the average male. Women are also likely to invest more conservatively, take extended periods of time off (without pay), and begin saving 2-4 years later than men. Indeed, for every $84,000 that men make, women make $57,000. On top of their existing salary handicap, women typically don’t take advantage of company savings-matching programs that go a long way toward building a solid retirement nest egg. However, the study also shows that approximately 90% of women are unsure about managing finances, making this problem even more severe.

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When your budget’s tight and inflation’s playing havoc with it, you need to find some clever ways to save a few dollars. Money magazine recently did a special including 18 ways to beat inflation, and some of the highlights of their suggestions were:

• Don’t make unplanned purchases at the supermarket - stick to what’s on your shopping list only - and check the highest and lowest shelves where the cheaper products are often “hidden”
• Save gas by checking your tires are correctly inflated
• Cook more meals at home - avoid takeaway
• Make your home more energy efficient by installing a thermostat that turns the heating off during the night but turns it back on in the morning before you get up
• Replace regular light bulbs with energy-saving fluorescents
• Cancel gym memberships or magazine subscriptions that you don’t really use
• Turn off all appliances at the switch rather than leaving them on stand-by
• Use a credit card (that you pay off in full each month) that gives cash back on gas purchases
• Don’t be afraid to negotiate with a doctor over costs - for example, offer to pay up front in cash for a lower price. 60% of the time, negotiating with a doctor over medical costs works.