Life Insurance.....Really?

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You want to save some money fast? Just take a look at your Life insurance. Most people could not tell you the difference between whole life and term insurance, yet explain to you how a Universal life policy works.  The truth is Life insurance is not an investment.  You may have been led to believe that by “investing” in a policy you are guaranteed a certain return. In reality the only guarantee is the profit the insurance company in making from your policy.  You see, buying life insurance is about insuring a life.  If you purchase life insurance with this in mind, term insurance is a great product.  Look to your employer through group term insurance as the least expensive. If not available seek an insurance professional that has the ability to shop for the best rates.  

Cost Saving Idea #1....The Phone

Image via WikipediaWith today’s technology most people now have cell phones. The day of the dedicated land-line is in the past. My wife and I along with our youngest son who is over twenty- one all have cell phones. We were able to disconnect our land line and save $49.00 per month. This ended up saving us $588 per year. I found no down side to having the line disconnected. I have had a few Financial Coaching clients who had smaller children who were concerned about not having a land-line for their baby sitters. Last I looked almost every child over the age of 13 I know had a cell phone. If not you may want to leave one of your cell phones behind or buy one of those very inexpensive cell phone that have pre-paid minutes.

101 Cost Saving Ideas

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Over the next three and a half months our blog will be sharing with you 101 cost savings ideas that will help you keep more of your hard earned money in your pocket and not let it get away. So many time I see the “death by a thousand cut” situation. These are people whose house payments and car payment are reasonable. By reasonable, I mean the house payment including insurance and property taxes are between 25 and 31 percent of their net take-home pay. We see all kinds of little things that they are paying extra money for. By themselves they don’t mean much but added together, these little cuts can cause you to bleed to death. Over the past few years we have seen the $400 cell phone bills, $190 tv/phone/internet/cable bills, $600 a month in Starbuck and much more. We will share some of these stories with you.

          Please keep in mind, regardless of how much money you reduce from your monthly spending, having a clear, on paper/ on purpose budget is the foundation. It would be like me going and running 2 to 3 miles every morning and then going to breakfast and eating sausage biscuits and gravy with extra cheese and extra gravy. I feel great about the running, but I bet I won’t lose many pounds. Keep track of the money coming in and coming out is absolutely the best thing anyone can do to have a healthy financial plan. Follow us over the next 101 days and soak up the savings ideas.