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Save Face, Manage Cents
Cindy Battles
I’ll admit, there was a time when I couldn’t balance a checkbook. I remember my dad asking, “Cin, how can you control what has to go out if you don’t write down what’s coming in?” All I had to do was to start implementing the simplest of structures: In/Out expenses by the month. Do you think I listened?
My dénouement: one night I was in the supermarket and got my groceries up to the checkout and swiped my debit card when… “DENIED” popped up on the screen. ”Um, miss, can I put back the avocados, chocolate chip cookie dough and the Grape Nuts?” Can you spell mort-i-fied?
I realized — the hard way — it was high time to structure my expenses and institute a monthly budget.
Since then, I faithfully manage my checkbook to the dime so I don’t deplete my debit account like that again. No need to go public with your debts!
How you can avoid this: one book I ran across in the library really makes it easy — and ease of use is what the novice budgeter is looking for because, after all, at the start, it can seem a bit overwhelming (and frankly, I find Quicken just plain intimidating!). But The Budget Kit: The Common Cents Money Management Workbook (by Judy Lawrence) makes structuring your finances a snap with all kinds of useful tips and tools. Here’s the summary from Amazon:
- Create a simple, functional system for managing your finances, with or without financial software
- Navigate the latest developments in the paperless world of electronic banking
- Discover the freedom of being able to achieve your personal and financial goals
- Make a plan to pay off debt and plan for the future
Don’t get me wrong, The Budget Kit is not fun. It will require a few hours of planning, categorizing and recording your spending each and every month. Judy even helps you get organized for tax time so you can get a jump on 2011. Most importantly, the relief you’ll feel to have a better grip on your finances is worth the effort. No more embarrassing supermarket checkouts!
Actually, I didn’t need that cookie dough anyway.
Cindy
Cindy Battles is a freelance writer based in Rutland, VT, winner of the National Disability Institute’s 2008 Blog Contest and a regular contributor here on the Real Economic Impact blog.
Saving for Your Summer Vacation
Cindy Battles
I love to travel but generally don’t get much farther than my favorite café for lunch, most of the winter. That’s one of the many reasons why I look forward to summer. Perfect time for a road trip. And now is neither too early nor too late to start saving for a summer getaway.
This year my mom, best friend and I are going to venture down to Cape Cod for a week. Specifically, the little town of Harwichport, conveniently located at mid-Cape. We’re planning on staying at a charming yet affordable inn we’ve frequented before, just a grassy country road down from the ocean. In order to keep prices way down, we’re going in early September, off-season there.
Indeed, if you simply budget the time to plan ahead, a trip doesn’t mean you have to blow your bank account or rack up egregious credit card debt. I like to save the old-fashioned way with a cookie jar into which I toss change and dollar bills saved from not going out to lunch or dinner for a few months, brown bagging lunch once a week, getting my books from the library rather than Barnes and Noble, you get the (frugal) picture.
Plus, There’s always your tax refund at this time of year to go right into the jar, a nice chunk of change to get you started. You could also go big-time and open a savings account, to which you can have part of your regular paycheck easily — and wisely — directly deposited.
You could go online and shop around from Priceline to Expedia.com for the very best flight and hotel deals. But chances are, if your vacation spot is within driving distance, your overall costs will be lower. And if, like me, you’ve got a fuel-efficient smart car, you’ll save even more.
In preparation, a little advanced research never hurts; take this book I found online called The Little Budget Travel Book which promises tips and tricks for splendid vacationing that doesn’t involve pending a small fortune. It’s subtitled: “Secrets of a Frequent Traveler Who Goes on Vacation Like It’s Free.” Perfect. In addition, plan to visit my local library and look up Cape Cod low-cost travel books which offer suggestions on free galleries, reasonable Cape Cod dining spots, grocery stores and the various entertainment to be found on the cheap.
It helps, too, if you can meet up with a vacation spot local like a friend or family member — an insider who can give you any additional savings skinny.
Just know that it’s not too late to start your own summer holiday savings plan! You deserve a vacation! And June, July, August, and September will be here before you know it.
Cindy
Cindy Battles is a freelance writer based in Rutland, VT, winner of the National Disability Institute’s 2008 Blog Contest and a regular contributor here on the Real Economic Impact blog.
Get REAL: Tax Benefits
Steven Mendelsohn
Welcome to Real Economic Impact’s Get REAL (Reliable Experts, Answers & Lessons) series: reliable advice re: your economic concerns from leading money, legal, and financial experts from around the country.
This week’s Get REAL expert is Steven Mendelsohn, Attorney and Co-Principal Investigator and Researcher at Syracuse University’s Burton Blatt Institute.
Q: Why is it important for individuals with disabilities, parents and family members, teachers, support coordinators, and rehabilitation counselors to know more about tax benefits?
A: Recognized or not, tax law touches upon everyone’s life. From the wealthy investor who makes a variety of personal and business decisions on the basis of tax consequences, to the individual who receives services through tax-exempt community organizations, tax law plays an inevitable if sometimes invisible role.
For people with disabilities, their families, their employers and the nonprofit organizations with which they may work, this role can be very important, and an understanding of tax options and strategies available can — in many cases — make the difference between being financially able or unable to pursue a particular course of action or attain a particular goal.
For these many points of interaction between tax law and living or working with a disability to be understood, an in-depth knowledge of both the issues facing people with disabilities and the intersecting provisions for law is necessary.
Most importantly, a general understanding of tax benefits can individual consumers, families and service professionals to the existence of a major tax dimension to their activities and situations. Where employment-related, assistive technology, accommodation or other specialized expenditures are involved, there is usually a means within the tax law for obtaining some degree of tax benefit; however, the way the transaction, expense or action is documented and explained, as well as its timing, will largely determine how much of the potential benefit can be realized.
One thing to keep in mind: often, conventional sources of tax advice (books, IRS publications and even professional tax preparers) may provide only limited help to taxpayers with disabilities. Many key provisions are obscure and rarely encountered, and tax preparers may also find it awkward to raise disability-related issues if these are not surfaced by the taxpayer.
Our Get REAL blog series welcomes your questions. Simply e-mail us at GetREAL@RealEconomicImpact.org.
Putting Your Tax Refund to Work
The best thing about Tax Season? The green grass? Sunshine? Beautiful yellow jonquils everywhere? Naaaaah. Getting your state and federal refund checks in the mail!
Cindy Battles
If you, like me, have difficulty saving beyond occasionally stuffing the cookie jar, a refund check always comes as a blessing! It’s like someone did the hard work of saving for me… now all I have to do is decide what to do with it. For me, that means depositing it directly into my savings account. And feeling the wiser for it.
Why? Because in five years or 10 years or 30 years that deposit will grow and grow and grow. And before I know it, I’ll have a good chunk stashed away for whenever I might need it — especially knowing that the average refund weighs in at over $2000 (not remotely mine, I’m sorry to say, but thank you for that info, Forbes)!
If maybe it’s your first time saving your refund check, think of this as only the beginning. What if you were to create an automatic deposit of your paycheck into your savings account each pay period? Just think, $25 per week = $1300 per year. In 10 years, you’ve got $13,000 plus interest!
The best thing about a growing savings account? Knowing that you’ve created your own financial safety net — that you can take care of yourself by weathering a financial crisis. Nothing beats that security.
So save your refund (which should be arriving soon, track yours here). A year, not to mention a decade, passes quickly and your savings will thank you.
Blue skies — also nice,
Cindy
Freelance Writer How-To’s
Cindy Battles
This post was contributed by Cindy Battles, a freelance writer based in Rutland, VT who’s been diagnosed with and managing bipolar disorder for many years.
In journalism school, I’d always dreamed of being a freelance writer. And thankfully, technology now makes it much easier for my dream to become a reality. Why?
In the past, not only did you have to work much harder to obtain contact information (there was no “Google”) but most of the time you were simply waiting for snail-mail to first, deliver your query and second — hopefully — deliver a response.
There was a lot of waiting.
Today, it’s so easy to search online for editors’ e-mail addresses and send multiple digital queries/writing samples; the potential job pool is unlimited. And, the range of topics available seems never-ending. I’ve written about book clubs, economic fund-raising festivals, state fairs, a judicial profile, a peony farm, elderhostels, and a pediatric outpatient center, among other topics. Certainly, the variety keeps it interesting!
Plus, with so much writing happening across the Internet, freelance writers are in demand. So it’s a great time to try it out and perhaps earn a little extra income.
Things you could do to start bringing your writing dream alive:
- Attend local writing groups and workshops to both improve your work as well as to network with others in the field (check your local library or newspaper for listings, often, they’re free)
- Research through reading (again, the library’s a great place to start, try Starting Your Career As a Freelance Writer)
- Call local magazines/newspapers and ask what their submission procedures are (chances are, you’ll find a helpful person on the other line willing to push you in the right direction)
- Expect to “flail;” meaning: be patient, experiment, learn the hard ways, learn the easy ways — just know that often, there is no direct route to success, it can take time — for sure, flailing is necessary! It will be key in teaching yourself persistence and resilience you’ll need.
So go ahead. You can do it! Dream, write, flail!
Cindy
Bringing Financial Education Into the Home
Michael Roush
This post was contributed by Michael Roush, National Program Director for the National Disability Institute and “Chief Financial Officer” of his family.
Often, when we think “financial education,” we might think of a structured classroom setting or an online course — likely the opposite of most family living environments. So when it comes to bringing financial education into the home, a great way to make your approach easy, fun and entertaining is to turn it into a game.
Menu Management
Managing spending is a key piece of financial education. For most households, one of the largest monthly expenses is food.
Start by planning out your menu for one week with a Menu Planning Worksheet. Every member in the family can have an opportunity to contribute ideas for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Assign one family member a designated day. For one week, one person is in charge of breakfast everyday. Or mix it up. There’s lots of possibilities and it’s fun to use colored markers to identify each person involved.
You’ll also want to create a Shopping List. So before you hit the grocery store, check the cupboards and refrigerator to see what items you need and add each item to your Shopping List; again, assigning certain members different areas to check keeps it fun. Put someone in charge of writing down each needed item on the list while others look.
Now, identify how much money you have to spend on groceries for the week. Write this number at the top of your Shopping List. Will the ingredients on your list reasonably fit your budget? If not, it’s okay to re-examine your Menu Planning Worksheet and adjust as needed.
Next, divide up the list among each family member and pile everyone into the car and head to the grocery store — remember, financial education is a team effort! And, as this stage of Menu Management is very much like a scavenger hunt, everyone can play. Remember: congratulate items found but be sure to emphasize that each member only retrieve the items on his or her list; if it’s not on the list, it doesn’t belong in the cart.
Once you’ve arrived home, the game continues as the entire team puts away the groceries — not only will your children be learning valuable financial skills but Menu Management also serves as a great teambuilding exercise!
Lastly, find a prominent spot for your Menu Planning Worksheet and keep it on display for everyone to refer to throughout the month.
You can download and print Menu Planning Worksheets, Shopping Lists here.
Michael
What to Do with Your Tax Refund
Cindy Battles
This is the time of year when I get hopeful; hopeful for Spring and hopeful for everyday’s mail — that it will bring my tax refund.
Why not do something responsible with your tax refund this year? Do you really need that new, big-ticket item? Or is this the year (and the economy in which) to save?
How about this: allow yourself to blow 10% of your refund so you feel better about saving the rest. In my case, that’s approximately 2 years of double-shot iced mocha lattes. With the rest, I suggest you resist temptation… and I offer these saving/spending ideas:
1. Pay Down Debt — I don’t have credit cards so I don’t have to worry about this. I make do with a VISA debit card which stays up to date. But many people do have credit and it’s a good idea to make some headway on your credit card bills with the chunk of change that comes in your mail this tax season. More here on managing credit.
2. Save in an Emergency Fund — Only about three in 10 U.S. households have enough savings to get them through three months of unemployment. That’s a little scary tidbit from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It may seem quixotic — it might not be enough — but it won’t hurt to save your refund for the unexpected. Every little bit helps. Auto repairs, for example, can sky-rocket to $800 or more from nowhere and eat up your funds… so having an emergency fund to draw from is the way to save.
3. Take a Course — If you want to keep yourself employable or boost your earnings, you may need to learn new skills. Save the money until you find the course that best suits where you are at right now and where you want to go. Then invest in your future.
4. Go to a Conference —This is the mini version of the above. A one- or two-day fee-based work conference can allow you to network, get your business card passed around, meet and greet. It can be an effective way (by passing out resumes) to combat unemployment. It may use up your refund to attend but could also pay off heavily.
Your tax refund may be a big piece of temptation. Save or spend it wisely and you’ll be glad you did.
Cindy
Get REAL: Self-Employment
Cary Griffin
Welcome to Real Economic Impact’s Get REAL (Reliable Experts, Answers & Lessons) series: reliable advice re: your economic concerns from leading money, legal, and financial experts from around the country.
This week’s Get REAL expert’s are Cary Griffin & Dave Hammis, Senior Partners at Griffin – Hammis Associates, LLC, a full service consultancy specializing in building communities of economic cooperation, creating high performance organizations, and focusing on disability and employment.
Q: Why is it important for individuals with disabilities, parents and family members, teachers, support coordinators, and rehabilitation counselors to know more about self-employment?
A: A person’s disability should not determine his or her fitness for self-employment. Owning a business can be one of the least stigmatizing forms of employment for individuals with significant disabilities because the opportunity to gently rely on ongoing or time-limited rehabilitation services coexists with typically purchased business supports. Certainly, self-employment is not for everyone. It’s a personal choice that should be balanced by a variety of life circumstances, including financial position and funding, availability and quality of business and personal supports, and the viability of the business idea. In some cases, allowing the person to experiment with different career options is the greatest support available.
Dave Hammis
Moreover, there appear to be certain indicators of success probability in self-employment. For instance, many small business owners learned their trade and understand the market because they worked for someone else first. Still, because so many people with disabilities never get the chance to begin with a typical job, self-employment presents a unique opportunity to create an employment circumstance specifically tailored to their personal situation, degree of mobility, speed of production, stamina, health, and accommodation needs. Again, a person’s disability should not determine his or her fitness for self-employment. Rather, each situation is assessed to point out the need for supports—such as financing, skills training in specific tasks, and tooling and/or assistive technology—in the same manner that any entrepreneur requires supports in areas of need, in order to make it work. Typical business owners outsource accounting, marketing, subcomponent manufacturing, and other functions that they either cannot handle themselves or do not enjoy.
Our Get REAL blog series welcomes your questions. Simply e-mail us at GetREAL@RealEconomicImpact.org.
The Single Saver
This post was contributed by Elizabeth Jennings, Program Associate for National Disability Institute and Syracuse University’s Burton Blatt Institute, Singleton and Saver.
“If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing.”
This has always been my favorite proverb. It’s from Africa and is usually found written alongside pictures of African women wearing broad smiles and traditional African garb, their arms stretched out towards one another with hands intertwined, evoking thoughts of joyous dancing. A celebration.
To me, it has always given me the feeling that if I can do the basic steps, I can do anything. It gives me hope in my own abilities. It empowers me beyond my usual fear of failure/embarrassment to the possibility of success. Or, at the very least, joy in the motions.
Let’s mix it up…. “If you can work, you can earn. If you can budget, you can save.”
Half of the challenge we each experience in building a better economic life for ourselves is having the self-confidence to believe that we can do it.
It often feels like it takes someone who’s smarter, who earns more, who has their life in better order or has someone to take care of it all for them.
It doesn’t.
You can do it. You just need to learn the basics.
And to prove it…. I’m gonna do it with you.
Over the next several months, I am going to walk you through the steps I took to redefine my financial life. We’re gonna cover all the basics and learn to walk and talk personal finance.
Think this will be easy for me? It won’t.
It’s embarrassing to admit there was a time in my life when I put my finances off to the side (I’ll tell you why in my next post).
And the idea of putting my personal life out on the web for all the world to see is simply mortifying to me.
But, more importantly, I am a single woman and a recent Pew Foundation report shows that single women have the lowest household incomes.
So I feel it’s important that I share with my fellow singletons how I took control of my financial life, set a savings goal and am sticking with it.
I’m not a financial planner and I’m not an expert on personal finances. But I am someone who went from Point A to Point B and is willing to share the experience.
Ladies, the choice is simple, wait for a husband/partner to better your economic future or take your financial life into your own hands.
Anyone ready to learn to dance with me?
— Elizabeth
