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Discussing financial matters with your husband or wife can be a tense situation, especially if your financial situation isn’t too good. If your partner has a different approach to financial matters from you, or even if they’re similar but have different priorities for money you save, then there is bound to be some conflict. Trent at the Simple Dollar has some talk tactics that should help your discussion work out better, including:

• Start off by talking about your financial goals and ideas for the future
• Focus on one issue per conversation (reducing spending, or retirement planning)
• Don’t make any accusations without admitting to some of your own faults at the same time
• Be realistic with expectations, and how much change you can expect - both from yourself and from your partner
• Decide on precise tasks for each of you to do before the next conversation (for example, researching retirement plan options)
• Consider what financial or material sacrifices you are willing to make (before you start talking)
• Don’t hide any spending secrets or unpaid bills from your partner - put all the financial story on the table
• If you have trouble talking about it calmly together, consider having the conversation in another way, such as by email

Sure, you have to watch your budget a lot more carefully these days, but plenty of people think they still deserve to live a little. Yahoo came up with some useful tips on how to save money on your splurges so you can have some fun without completely blowing the budget:

• Internet service: Rather than canceling your internet service to save money, shop around to see what the prices are at the competitor - then see if you can negotiate a better deal with your current provider.
• Cell phone service: Make sure you are not paying for a larger plan than you actually need. If you’re not consistently using all the talk time or messaging services that your plan includes, then downgrade to a cheaper monthly rate.
• Cable service: Try to bundle your cable subscription with another service like your cell phone - these days you’ll often get a better deal if you use the same provider for more than one service.
• Dining out: Always high on the hit list when we think about cutting back on spending, just find ways to make it cheaper and you can still go out sometimes - for example, buying an Entertainment Book for your city, or using sites like DinnerBroker.com where you can get 30% off your meal just for making a reservation ahead of time.

Did you know that one of the simplest ways to save money is by changing the way you buy food? Eating for less need not mean a sacrifice in taste or variety. In fact, you may quickly discover that paying more attention to the amount of money you spend on groceries translates into more attention to the foods you choose and how you prepare them. Drawing inspiration from “tips and tricks to eat healthy on a budget“, here are a few hints to get you started: 

• Pack a lunch instead of buying food during the day. Ready-made food is often expensive and unhealthy. Stick to eating what you know is good for you. 
• Buy local whenever possible. Enjoying fresh and healthy food from local producers isn’t as expensive as you might expect. 
• Prepare a specific shopping list before you head out to do your food shopping and never shop on an empty stomach. This will help you avoid the impulse purchases that are based more on your poor memory or hungry stomach than any real need you might have for a product.
• Make some thrifty friends and find out what they do to save money on food and where they shop. If you have coworkers with lots of kids, ask them where they shop for food. A person accustomed to feeding lots of people in one house typically knows where to shop for the best food deals!  photo credit: x-eyedblonde

You can imagine the scenario: one partner is a big spender and the other a big spendthrift, and it’s a marriage doomed to arguments and conflict forever. Or is it? Some recent tips from Laura Rowley do at least provide some hope for couples who have major financial differences of opinion.

One suggestion is to seek the aid of a financial coach who can work with both partners to reach a compromise on your financial strategies. Since a lot of your financial approach to life can be a result of your childhood and family circumstances, it’s sometimes difficult to understand where your partner’s seemingly crazy ideas are coming from - a coach will help you both explain your thinking and work together to have a compatible outlook for future saving and spending.

Another helpful way to get partners on the same financial track is to use an effective tool to manage your money - for example, finding a good piece of budgeting and money tracking software that you can both use. Some of these tools, like Mvelopes.com, include a section for discretionary spending for each individual - for example, a clothing or computer game budget per month - which means that you can each buy something you like for yourself without feeling guilty, because it’s part of the agreed budget.

If you’re interested in saving money or getting out of debt, then you’ve probably heard this advice a hundred times: “Skip your daily Starbucks coffee and you’ll save a heap of money per year”. It’s sound advice, but a recent discussion at The Simple Dollar questions whether we should be focusing on small steps like these or big steps like - as in their example - selling the jet ski we only use once a year - and probably saving more money than we would by foregoing the daily coffee at Starbucks.

But the summary of the discussion is this: the best way to personal financial stability is to take a combination of small steps and big steps. If you take a lot of small steps, like brown-bagging your lunch instead of buying out, skipping that coffee, and hiring DVDs instead of going out to the cinema, then they will add up to be the equivalent of some of the big steps. If, at the same time, you also take some big financial steps, like downsizing your home or surviving with one car instead of two, then you’ll be accumulating a whole lot more savings there.

In combination, not only will you learn to live more frugally, but you’ll be feeling more secure because you are likely to get out or remain out of debt, and to be able to save towards a your retirement, too.

If you’re one of the many people looking for work at the moment, it won’t be a surprise to hear that this is a particularly tough time to be doing so. At CNN Money they have listed a few key tips for particular groups of job hunters, and perhaps one of these will be the tip you need that snags you a good job.

• For the older unemployed: the statistics are scary, with 9% of people over 50 losing their job in the past year - but check out AARP’s website which collates all the benefits you could be eligible for, and look at Retirement.com to see a list of companies that are more likely to hire older workers.
• For the younger unemployed: teenagers without any work experience are obviously finding it especially hard to find work in the current economic climate. Take advantage of your flexibility by being able to work nights or weekends without family responsibilities getting in the way; and don’t ignore internships as a great way of getting your foot in the door.
• For everyone: take this chance to gain more skills and thus make you even more employable. This is the time when many kinds of skills courses are out there recruiting trainees and students because they know this is the time they’re most needed.

photo credit: lumaxart

No matter how old you are, once you secure your first job you should begin to save for retirement. As you know, the earlier you start the more money you will have when you finally decide to hang it up for good. Compound interest is a great thing, and this is just one reason why you need to get your retirement savings into high gear as early as possible.

The way you save for retirement is up to you. Some people rely solely on one plan, such as a 401K, that they have through their employer. This is a particularly good idea if your company offers a “match” up to a certain percentage. After all, who doesn’t want free money?

Of course, you don’t need the help of your employer in order to save for retirement. You can open your own account, such as a traditional or Roth IRA. Both of these are perfect for those who want to plan their own retirement while also taking advantage of many tax benefits.

Finally, don’t forget that you can also save cash. This may not be the best way to earn interest on your money, but there is nothing wrong with keeping a bit of cash in an online savings or other high yield account. This may not be your primary retirement account, but it can go a long way when everything is said and done.

No matter how old you are or how much money you earn you should be saving for retirement. Are you on the ball? Or have you fallen behind?

photo credit: pfala

Did you know that the right budget can save you hundreds of dollars every month? People who don’t have a budget will never believe this. But those who do, and follow all its details, will tell you time after time that it saves them a lot of money. With money so tight, why wouldn’t you want to save? Millions of Americans are strapped for cash, but the right budget can help you better your situation and avoid future problems.

With a budget you will know for sure how much money you earn and how much you spend. It is your expense column that will show you just how much you can save. For example, after a few weeks of budgeting you may find that you are spending $500 per month on groceries. In turn, you decide that this is entirely too much and begin to watch what you are buying. Soon enough you may be able to trim your grocery budget to $400. This may not work with every expense, but there are a few that you may be able to cut a little bit in order to save money.

Even if your budget only saves you a few dollars each month this will add up by the end of the year. Let your budget guide you, and there is a good chance that more and more money will end up in your savings column. And that is what you want, right?

photo credit: Tracy O

When you have a child, the big decision is how soon, or if at all, to return to the workforce. Of course, there are plenty of personal factors involved here, but one major influence is often the financial situation. But make sure you take into account all the costs before deciding whether or not returning to work makes sense from a financial viewpoint:

• Calculate child care costs: This can quickly reach into the thousands of dollars. Unless you’re really career-focused, you want to make sure you’re earning significantly more than you’re paying to put your child into child care. And in this case, more children make it more expensive.
• Calculate extra costs of being at work: For example, the quick coffee that you buy on your lunch break (even if you are frugal enough to bring your lunch from home); and the extras you need to be able to be at work, for example, work-style clothing. On top of that, factor in the costs of transport or commuting both to the child care center and to your place of employment.

Once you’ve gathered this information accurately, compare that to the income you will receive by returning to work - this makes at least one aspect of the decision a little more grounded in reality, because it’s not an easy decision for many parents to make.

Everywhere you look, financial planners and economic advisers are telling us to save money for our retirement and our future. But the younger you are, the harder that is to really imagine - why should we put money away now that we can’t access for another thirty or forty years? What if I’m dead before then? What if something happens to that money and I lose it all anyway?

With these thoughts in mind, it’s useful to look into the psychology of saving for retirement. Obviously, our real “self” changes a lot from when we start working, perhaps as a teenager, and as we go through middle age, have a family, and then start looking forward to retirement - and even our attitude to money and savings will be forever changing.

Perhaps the best advice is to try to get outside of your own mind when you are looking into retirement planning and financial issues. Pat Regnier from Money Magazine put it really well:

Imagine that a court put you in charge of the finances of an elderly uncle you don’t know well. You’d set aside your own tastes and try to make prudent decisions for him. Do the same for you.