Beginer’s guide - One Cent At A Time

Money Management Through the Eyes of a Boy Scout

March 22, 2017 2 Comments

When I was younger I was in the Boy Scouts. Like many, I started in grade school with the Cub Scouts and moved up the ranks. Ultimately, I fell short of the Eagle rank by one level, but the lessons learned over my scouting career have stuck with me through the years. Looking back on it now through the eyes of someone who must manage bills, work and family, I think the scouts helped me build a solid framework for future money management skills.

Money Management Through the Eyes of a Boy Scout

I’d like to take you on a journey through my five favorite parts of the Boy Scout Law and demonstrate how each has had an impact on me when it comes to managing my finances. Hopefully, by the end of this post you too will be prepared to go out and be a good scout with your money.

20 Investment Strategies for Beginners

September 10, 2016 8 Comments

When I first started earning money it was 2000, I was in India. I straightaway jumped for stocks and within a year my invested amount lost half of its value. Poor stock picking coupled with the burst of the dot-com bubble taught me what not to do with money when you are a beginner. Since then I committed many mistakes, at the same time, I did things that worked very well for me.

20 Investment Strategies For Beginers

A few of the mutual funds I bought between 2003 and 2005 got almost tripled its value before I sold them off. I had mentored people towards their first investing since then, A little disclaimer, I am not a financial expert and don’t take my advice for granted, consult with someone you trust before taking any of the steps I mentioned below. The following ideas are lessons I learned with my life and lives of the people (at work and within the family) who came to me for advice.

5 Stoic Principles for Financial Success

July 1, 2016 3 Comments

Stoicism is a school of Greek philosophy founded in Athens whose followers practice a way of life that focuses not on what a person says but on how they act. To live a good life, one has to understand the rules of human behavior since Stoic lessons teach that everything happening around you is rooted in your own mind.

What does this have to do with financial success?

Let’s take a look at five Stoic principles that should form the bedrock of your own financial success.

How to Cope With Investment Risk

October 8, 2014 6 Comments

Investing always carries some amount of risk, whether you’re investing in stocks, bonds, real estate, or a lower-risk investment like CDs or Treasury-issued securities. When you think of investment risk, you probably think of the risk of losing some or all of your money because of a bad investment decision or a market downturn. But that’s not the only risk you face as an investor. There are some apparently harmless risks as well.

Coping Investment risk

What many investors don’t realize is that if you don’t invest aggressively enough, inflation will cause your money to lose value over time. If you rely on socking money away in a savings account to get you through retirement, your future purchasing power is sure to disappoint. While you can’t avoid all investment risk, you can mitigate it by learning about the different types of investment vehicles available, developing a sound investment strategy, and letting time work its magic to help your portfolio grow.

Modern Home Bookkeeping with Less Effort and No Cost

May 21, 2013 7 Comments

Do you handle your family’s financials? Are you the one balancing the checkbook each month (do people really still do that)? How do you know where you stand from day-to-day with your finances? In case you do the bookkeeping, do you still use pen and paper and a truck load of receipts to do that? In IT age, old style bookkeeping is obsolete.

Bookkeeping as an activity always was and still is an important aspect of managing personal finance. Keeping track of earnings and spending are two most important aspects of managing personal finance. This post is not about managing your household books electronically with the help of modern software tools which will make your job easier and less time consuming.

The “Short” Journey to Going Long in Real Estate Investment Trusts

April 24, 2013 8 Comments

The housing market is in recovery, a slow and painful one, but a recovery nonetheless. And no, I’m not saying this because I’ve been obsessing over house prices, builder confidence indexes, construction permits numbers and foreclosure rates (ok, I’ve done that too), but because the hedge funds, where the smart money lies, are moving back into real estate. And I’m trailing behind.

I decided to get into real estate investing about four months ago – right around Christmas when the budgets and the belts are too tight to really be thinking about investments. Well, I’ve never had a deep pocket anyway so I decided to jump in with whatever I could scoop together and hope for the best.

Ways to Invest your First $1000 Saving

December 17, 2012 6 Comments

Investing your money to make higher returns is one of the brightest ideas you are probably thinking right now. Yes, managing such amount is not easy because you are creating an idea about where and what is the best ways to spend it with promising interests. Many choices are already available but you should be wise and smart in engaging with those offers. Investing in a right business with the right people in a right time should be your considerations before giving out your $1000, especially, if you are a citizen of the United States. This is because investment offers are rampant in the US. In addition to this, you should be able to know the money returns you will get and how safe the methods are, because scam is everywhere and sometimes unavoidable.

This article is inspired by an USA Today article, first job, first pay check and first budget.

Investing your money that will begin at $1000 can be turned into millions when you engaged yourself with the right decision opening available ways of investments. Because of rampant investments offered in the market today, you should choose your investment ways depending on your personal preferences.

How to Effectively Manage Different Financial Accounts and Information

August 24, 2012 4 Comments

Effectively managing financial institution accounts is equally important as saving money and investing money. Still we don’t usually put much attention to the managing side of personal finance. We concentrate mostly on saving money, opening new investment accounts, saving for retirement and diversifying income, etc.

As a blogger, I haven’t written a single post emphasizing this important need, to of keep track of your money, so far. Long back, I wrote about managing money like a Shepherd, and knowing every details about it. I also wrote about how do I track my net worth and watch them grow but, that was it.

A Self Debt Consolidation Guide

June 13, 2012 17 Comments

As a blogger you receive advertisement/guest post offers from debt consolidation firms. I do receive their pitches regularly. People, in general, think debt consolidation companies are bad, they are loan sharks. The fact is, it’s partially true, they are as bad as credit card companies if you learn to use them they’ll be the helpful ladder for you for coming out of debt.

But, this sector is not as much regulated as the credit card sector so, there are bad companies who adopt fraudulent tactics, giving bad names to debt consolidation industry in general.

If you follow general guidelines, you can take maximum advantage from these debt consolidation companies. Otherwise, if you let loose, you may be ruined. Basically, debt consolidation companies work with certain principles, that you should consolidate all your debts into one single and bigger chunk to better manage them.

How to Start with Managing Personal Finance

April 25, 2012 13 Comments

If you ask a wealthy person how much money he/she needs the reply would be – Just a little bit more – We never find there is enough money. Problem is, having money does not end financial concerns. Managing your money effectively, does!

Money management skills and good financial practices are needed no matter how much or how little money you have. While it’s difficult to think about planning for the future when pay-day is a week away and your wallet and bank accounts are empty, it pays later if you plan and learn to manage your money carefully.

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