If you are worried about gas, try carpooling.
If you follow the news, chances are the state of the economy may have you a little concerned. Bad news is rampant, the housing market is shaky and doom appears to be around every corner. While there are some definite problems with the economy right now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to start panicking. Smart money management is always important, but if you find that you are overly worried about the state of the economy, there are a few steps that you can take to shore up your financial defenses and stop worrying.
The first step is to take a hard look at your mortgage payments, car payments and any other loans that you may have. If they are calculated under a variable rate, now is the time to start allocating a little extra each month to ensure that you have enough to keep up with the payments. If your mortgage payment looks like it is going to be too high, act quickly by negotiating with your bank for either a payment deferment or even a refinance. No one wins in a foreclosure situation and most banks will be willing to work something out with you.
The second step is to think about consolidating your credit card bills if necessary. If you are paying on multiple cards that all have high interest rates, you could be wasting a lot of money each month. Take advantage of a low or no interest card that will allow you to transfer those high balances into one. Just make sure you read the fine print to see how long the interest rate will remain low. Or use Loanio to receive a loan from lenders, this is easy and painless to do. This not only helps you save money on high interest fees, but you can also save time by paying only one bill every month.
Next, you can take a look at what you’re spending and how rising prices are affecting you. For example, the cost of gas right now has many people worried. You may find that you’re spending more to get to work than you may make for the day, or the ratio may have changed dramatically. If this is the case, consider setting up a carpool with other workers to save money, or you may even be able to arrange to telecommute. There are many ways that you can reduce your monthly expenses and free up more money to handle the rising cost of necessities.
This is also a good time to think about setting up an emergency fund. This is a very beneficial type of savings account that can tide you over if you run short during the month, or if you end up with a personal crisis on your hands. When you have the security of a savings account, emergency fund or other means of income, you’ll be in a much better position to weather any economic storm.
While the economy has been better, there is certainly no need to start panicking right now. Simply follow smart money practices, and you’ll be in a position where you can withstand whatever comes.
Photo Credits: 1
Originally posted 2008-10-28 20:01:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Related Articles -
How Much Money Do You Really Spend? Overspending is an enormous problem for Americans right now and the sad truth is, many of us do not even know we are doing it. If you are finding it hard to make ends meet at the end of the month, or you are desperately waiting for that next paycheck...... -
Setting Goals for Good Personal Finance /caption] Setting goals is an important part of your personal finance plan. Goals can be divided into four unique categories that are relatively general in nature. These categories are short term goals, intermediate term goals, long term goals and life goals. Short Term Personal Finance Goals - These short term...... -
What Are Legitimate High Yield Investments? In this day and age, everyone is hurting for money, and locating legitimate high yield investments is not easy. Aside from scams, another consideration that needs to be made is the potential return on any investments that you make. Despite the fact that there are many attractive investment opportunities available...... -
Mortgage Interest Rates Start To Change /caption] There was big news within the mortgage industry recently as interest rates finally went back below 6%. The reaction was mixed, but the rate did prompt many people to rush to refinance their homes. For those that are stuck with variable rate mortgages, the current situation in the housing...... -
7 Budgeting Examples /caption] When it comes to budgeting examples, one of the best things that you can do is to look at a successful budget and draw from it to establish your own. Everyone has a different idea of what makes a good working budget, and your budgeting examples need to be......
Related Sites -
¤Free Excel Spreadsheets for Managing Your Personal Finances ¤ Not so long ago, managing personal finances involved sitting down with a paper, pen, calculator and a checkbook. All the important financial information was either written down on slips of paper meant to be stored in files and any financial planning that took place was mostly in one’s head....... -
Ben Bernanke Wants Personal Finance Blogs Out Of Business! According the the Wall Street Journal Economics Blog Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, in a speech today, stated the importance of financial literacy classes in high school. A survey given to high school seniors had only 48.3% of the students correctly answering questions about personal finance and economics. This is down...... -
Personal finance and debt reduction in school? An article on Blueprint for Financial Prosperity entitled Minimum Credit Card Payments Increase, in addition to reminding his readers that minimum payments on credit card balances are doubling from 2% to 4%, reminds everyone of the high cost of paying only the minimum balance. This is years and years of...... -
Lessons in Personal Finance The past few years have been especially tumultuous for many people as far as personal finance is concerned. There are a number of lessons that can be gleaned from this, and if you can take these lessons away from the past few years of losses, you may be able to...... - Organize Your Personal Finances in No Time by Debbie Stanley If nothing else, the state of the economy has shown that millions of people don’t have a good grasp of how to manage their personal finances. There are hundreds of books written every year on the subject and yet, this concept still seems to elude many. Some books are either......
