Cancel HBO

Premium cable networks such as HBO and Showtime can add upwards of $1000 per year to your total cable or satellite subscription bill. If you’re not watching the content you’re paying for, it makes sense to cancel that part of your service and pocket the savings. Most people only watch a handful of channels compared to the hundreds they are paying for.

Cut back On Those Subscriptions

Are you receiving magazines or other periodicals you rarely ever look at? If you subscribe to say a half dozen magazines, that could mean a couple hundred dollars each year. Much of the content found these periodicals can be obtained for free online. In addition to saving you money, the online content is many times much more current and immediate.

Fire Your Bank

Banks are notorious for “nickle and diming” you to death with fees for everything from checking accounts to withdrawing money from an ATM. The banking industry is intensely competitive. These fees can add it quickly over the course of the year. If your bank is charging you fees to do business, it’s time to find another bank.

Pay On Time

This may seem obvious but paying your bills on time is probably to simplest way to keep more money in your pocket. While it can be easy to forget to pay a bill, the late fees and other charges that comes with that forgetfulness can add up in a hurry.  These fees can ranges from just a few dollars to $30 or $40 or more for each incident. One way to insure on time payments is to make use of any automatic electronic payment systems your bank may offer.

Brown Bag It

Instead of ordering out for lunch, pack your own. Bringing your own lunch to work each day can mean a savings of $800 based on spending only $6 a day. Even you you can’t bring your lunch everyday, try to do so a couple of days. Even two days a week will save you a significant amount of money.

Ever feel you have no idea where all your money goes? With energy prices along with everything else skyrocketing to unheard of heights, staying on top of your finances is crucial.  There is software you can purchase to help you keep track of income and expenses, but much of it is expensive and rather cumbersome and time consuming to use.

A new web based solution has recently become available that is not only easy to use, but free. 

Mint.com offers its users a quick and easy way to gather and track all your financial information in one simple, secure online solution. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re like me, you probably have received tempting zero percent credit card offers in the mail from time to time. These offers usually loudly proclaim that you are “pre-approved” for a new Visa or MasterCard with a special 0% “introductory” interest rate. This rate is usually dependent on you agreeing to transfer the balance of one of your other high interest rate credit card accounts. While these offers can definitely save you money, they can also be traps which can cost you far more money in the log run than you expect. Below are five potential traps to watch out for if you decide to take the zero percent interest rate plunge: Read the rest of this entry »

Your credit score is the most influential factor in determining whether you will be approved for a loan or mortgage and the interest rate you will have to pay. Your credit score or FICO (the term refers to the company, Fair Issac Corporation, which created the method used to calculate credit scores) is a measurement that the credit reporting bureaus use to predict your creditworthiness and helps creditors determine whether to grant you credit. Your score can be any where between 300 to 850. The higher the number, the more credit worthy you are and the lower the interest rate you will pay. Since having a high credit score number directly correlates with the amount of money your loan or mortgage will cost you, it obviously pays to maximize the conditions that will give you the highest score possible.

Below are six ways to maximize your own credit score: Read the rest of this entry »