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Personal Finance Tips

Take advantage of online savings accounts. A couple of the bigger ones include HSBC Direct and ING Direct. Have your paycheck deposited directly into savings, and then transfer only the money you need for monthly expenses. We save money by having our mortgage payment paid directly out of our savings account - it's earning interest for the month instead of sitting in our checking account. Make sure the online bank is FDIC insured (most are). Most of these banks have variable interest rates. But, it is an extremely easy way to save your money - it really takes only a few minutes to apply and link your bank account.
Use an online investment company, such as Sharebuilder. It's inexpensive to purchase stocks, and you can set up automatic investing. With Sharebuilder, there are no account minimums. They also have thousands of stocks to choose from.
Pay bills online. This doesn't mean that you need to set up automatic bill pay - a lot of places now offer one-time bill pay at no cost (check the website to make sure).
Use Microsoft Outlook to set up reminders to pay bills. Have the reminder timer set for 1 day before to make sure that it's not late.
Keep loose change in a jar (I use an old pasta sauce jar), and periodically turn it into cash or gift cards using a Coinstar terminal. There is a charge if you convert the coins into bills, but right now Coinstar does not charge if you redeem your coins for specific gift cards.
You've all heard this before - but pay down your credit cards! I know people will disagree with me on how to do this, but I believe the best way to eliminate debt is to pay off the small cards first, and then apply the extra money each month to other cards with higher balances. For example, say you have a retail store card with a $120 balance, and gas card with a $400 balance. If the minimum balance on the retail store card is $20, after that card is paid off, apply the extra $20 to the gas card. It's an awesome feeling to have a credit card paid off - but be sure to cut it up! You don't necessarily need to close the account, that can actually hurt your credit.*
Check your credit report faithfully each year - the official website is www.annualcreditreport.com. It is a pain to correct mistakes that are not your fault, but it is so important to have a good score when shopping for a home or auto loan.

*THIS ARTICLE IS STRICTLY THE OPINION OF THE AUTHOR - CONSULT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR.

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