by Karla Dennis | Feb 7, 2019 | Blog
Minimizing the Cost of Dating The cost of dating can really take its toll on your bank account. Dating is hard enough, but maybe even harder when you’re short on cash. Maybe you can barely afford to pay for your own fancy dinner and a movie; how are you going to pay for two? In most cases, women have it a little easier regarding the cost of a date. So for once, it’s all about you, guys! Try these ideas to keep more of your money in your pocket: It doesn’t matter where you take her. That doesn’t mean you can take her to the junkyard to pick car parts in the sweltering heat. But if she genuinely likes you, she’ll be happy to be with you. A pizza and a rented movie can be as good as anything else. The only women that would hold it against you are the women that aren’t really interested in you for you. In fact, keeping the spending to a minimum is a good way to weed out the women you don’t really want anyway. Cheap dating is actually a brilliant strategy. Have an inexpensive restaurant up your sleeve. Every guy should have an economical, but quaint, a restaurant he can fall back on. Your city is sure to have a little Italian or other ethnic restaurants that have a lot of charm. If you don’t have one yet, go find one. Free concerts / festivals. These are perfect. The atmosphere is great, and it’s hard to beat the cost. The first date should be quick (and inexpensive). For a first date,...
by Karla Dennis | Jan 31, 2019 | Blog
Re-Designing Your Life on a Lower Income When unexpected situations cause your income to dip, it’s beneficial to figure out how to live on less money. These strategies will help you learn to conserve, whatever your situation. Simply making two or three of these changes might reduce your expenditures enough to successfully live on the lower amount you’re bringing in right now. Bring your lunch. Taking your lunch five days a week can save you a very decent amount by the end of the month. Depending on how low your income has dropped, taking your lunch to work might actually be the only sacrifice you need to make. Eating out, including tip, may cost nearly $10 a day (unless you’re eating fast food). Saving fifty dollars a week, times 4 weeks in a month, means you’ve cut $200 off of your monthly expenditures. Avoid dry-cleaning costs. Wear clothes to work that can be washed in your washer and save your clothes that must be dry-cleaned for special occasions. At least for now, you can conserve a pretty penny when you avoid wearing clothes every day that require dry-cleaning. Reduce or change your cell phone service. If you’re between cell phone contracts, it’s a good time to consider switching to a lesser-known carrier that charges less and gives you more minutes, data and texting for the price. Alternatively, change to a less expensive plan with your current carrier. Take a look at your cable television service. Do you really need over 300 channels? After all, if you’ve got 2 televisions, you can only watch 2 channels at a time. Consider...
by Karla Dennis | Jan 24, 2019 | Blog
37% of Americans Think They’ll Owe Taxes This Year Will you be one of them? Source: Maurie Backman (TMFBookNerd) Jan 24, 2019 at 6:07AM While most Americans don’t enjoy the process of doing their taxes, once those returns are fired off, the majority at least have something to celebrate in theory: a tax refund. In recent years, roughly 80% of filers have walked away with a tax refund, and that’s money a large chunk of U.S. adults heavily rely on.But all of that might change during the 2019 tax season. In fact, 37% of Americans think they’ll end up owing the IRS money on their taxes this year, according to newly compiled data from Jackson Hewitt. If you’re used to getting a tax refund, prepare for the possibility that for the first time in a long time, the opposite holds true — and start scrounging up that cash as needed. Why taxpayers might see fewer refunds this year The 2018 tax overhaul made a lot of changes to the tax code, one of the most significant of which was lowering virtually all individual tax brackets so that working Americans would wind up with more money in their paychecks month after month. So the withholding tables used by employers to dictate how much tax to reserve from workers’ paychecks were updated as well. IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. The goal of tax withholding is to create a scenario where you have just enough tax taken out of your paychecks so that come tax time, you don’t owe the IRS money, and it doesn’t owe you money, either. The amount of tax you’ll have withheld...
by Karla Dennis | Jan 16, 2019 | Blog
How to Create a Wealth Mindset Wealth creation all starts with the mind. If you have an abundance attitude and wealth mindset, you’ll be able to attract the financial success you deserve! While there are many paths to wealth, once you discover the abundance mindset, you’ve set yourself up for actually achieving your dreams. But how do you create this mindset in the first place? Here are some techniques that will help you develop a wealth mindset: Visualize your goal. It’s not enough to just say you want to “be rich.” You have to make the conscious decision to create a clear goal and visualize all the details. It’s best to focus all of your energy on one thing rather than spreading yourself too thin. Be specific. Break down your goal into minute details and start thinking about the exact steps you need to take in order to get there. Break up the plan. The goal seems huge at first, but once broken down into smaller, more manageable steps, it doesn’t seem so bad. Focus on each individual task that you need to complete, and then congratulate yourself once you achieve each step. Take action. It’s easy to get caught up in the daydreaming and planning phases of your goals, but the action is what it takes to get you there. Your dreams become realities with action; otherwise, they’ll just remain dreams forever. Seek a mentor. Sometimes people are tempted to go at it alone, but you’re not alone in this world! There are many out there that would like to see you succeed and it’s your responsibility to...
by Karla Dennis | Dec 28, 2018 | Blog
Surviving the Holiday Crunch The holidays are supposed to be an excellent time for you and your family, though sometimes the stresses leading up the holidays make it seem like quite the opposite. Remember that even in poor economic times there are ways to enjoy yourself and survive the holiday crunch. Spending Money Chances are you’ll be spending at least some money during the holiday season. With careful planning, you can make a small budget go quite a long way. Consider the following holiday money saving tips: read...
