Archive for the ‘personal finance’ Category:
How to Save Money on Mobile Phones
These days it seems that almost everyone owns a cell phone. This personal accessory can be extremely handy but the charges can quickly add up if you’re not careful. Fortunately for consumers, the wireless phone business is one of the most competitive out there. If you’re prepared to sort through all the offers, you can usually find a better deal. Here are some ways to save money on mobile phones.
Consider whether you really need it
Cell phones aren’t cheap, and subscribing to a calling plan is a substantial monthly expense. Think about whether this is something you really need. Hard as it is to believe, up until about fifteen years ago, most people managed quite well without a mobile phone. Is the convenience worth the cost? Only you can decide that.
Don’t buy more phone than you need.
No matter how much you love your new phone, the novelty always wears off after a few weeks. Once your enthusiasm starts to wane, many of the high-tech features you paid for will go unused. In fact, most phone owners use barely a fraction of their phone’s capabilities.
Before you buy an expensive, feature-rich cell phone, stop and consider. Are the extra ringtones and video games that important to you? Do you have a genuine requirement for Internet access on your cell phone, or could you wait until you get home to update your Facebook status or check your eBay auction?
Stick to buying what you really need. The more features you can live without, the more money you’ll save on both the phone and the service plan.
Buy the plan, not the phone
The best advice for cell phone owners is to focus on finding the perfect service plan rather than choosing the perfect handset. This is because your satisfaction or dissatisfaction will be based more on the phone service than the phone itself. The service plan, too, is where the expenses mount and where you can achieve the biggest savings. Even if you pay several hundred dollars for a fancy cell phone, the service costs can easily exceed that within the first six months.
Instead of buying a large and comprehensive service plan on the assumption that you will make full use of it, you should start small and make a conservative estimate of your phone usage. Then, if you discover that you really do need more services, you can upgrade later. That’s more economical than buying a plan just in case you need all those minutes or all those long-distance calls. Many people don’t even come close to using up everything they have paid for.
Finally, pick a service package that matches your texting use. Some phone owners do more typing than talking and the cost of texts can really add up. Find a plan that gives you the best value for the amount of texting you or your kids do. And remember that you can send text messages from a computer to someone’s mobile phone for free.
Pay as you go
Although a post-paid wireless service will cost less per minute than a pay-as-you-go service, it may not be such a bargain if you don’t use all the minutes you’ve paid for. On the other hand, prepaid or pay-as-you-go service plans are getting better and more economical, with service providers offering their customers increasingly competitive rates. This makes such plans a good alternative for people who rarely use their mobile phone.
If you’re a light user who normally uses less than 200 cell phone minutes per month, you may want to consider switching to prepaid service. The biggest advantage of pay-as-you-go plans is that you are not locked into a contract. You can buy minutes only as you need them. However, one drawback of prepaid minutes is that they usually expire quickly. Even so, you are not locked into a contract and forced to pay for monthly services that you don’t use.
Get your most-called contacts on the same network
Another good way to save on your cell phone bill is to coordinate calling plans among your family and friends. Get the people you regularly talk to on the same network. Then you can use cheaper “in-network” minutes for most of your chatting and use fewer of the more expensive “any-network” minutes. With this strategy, you might even be able to drop down a tier of services, saving you even more money.
Most people who own a mobile phone are unwilling to give it up. If you must have a cell phone, you can still get better value for your money by shopping around and showing some restraint in your usage. Choose your plan carefully, consider prepaid services if appropriate for you, and try to cut back on the extra features. When it comes to cell phones, talk is not necessarily cheap.
How to Efficiently Deal with a Financial Emergency
It happens to everyone at least once — just when you think you are on top of your finances and your budget is flowing smoothly, disaster strikes. The size of the disaster may not be huge; it could just be a blown tire during your tightly budgeted vacation. Or it could be as big as the loss of a job, a house fire or a disabling health condition. Whatever your financial emergency, you can get through it if you have planned ahead and prioritize.
A big part of making your budget is saving for the unexpected. Most financial experts agree that everyone should have an emergency fund of at least one month’s expenses. Ideally you should have savings and investments that could support you for six months or more.
Even if you are well set with savings to take care of financial emergencies, certain considerations will come into play.
* Redo your budget – While the cost to replace a blown tire may be covered in your ongoing car budget, you might find yourself spending an unexpected night in a motel while waiting for the tire shop to open. Or the kitchen fire that is covered by insurance may put a jump on your plans to renovate, requiring some shifting of budgeted savings. If a sudden loss of income has occurred, the budget may have to be drastically redone to meet basic needs.
* Negotiate payments – Call lenders and utility companies and see if a modification is available. Sometimes loans have built-in deferment options that could be available to you, or perhaps they can refinance to lower or put off a couple of payments.
If loan holders aren’t at the point where they are likely to sue you, you may just have to ignore them for a couple of months. Utility companies will often take one or two bills and spread them out over the next year. This would help if it’s a short-term crisis, but may only make things worse a few months down the road if nothing has changed.
* Ask for help – Consider getting any available help from the state or charities. Perhaps a new disability makes you eligible for Social Security or even food stamps. You can usually find help with groceries and utility payments at local food banks, social service organizations and churches.
* Prioritize – What expenses are most important? Always consider the roof over your head and the food on your table first. If that means your credit cards don’t get paid, so be it.
* Cut expenses down to the bare minimum – You do not need cable TV to survive, so it can go. Eliminate extra phone lines, leisure activities, and non-work related internet service. Cancel subscriptions and memberships that are about to renew or have monthly payments. Be careful of the legal implications of breaking any associated contracts, though.
* Earn extra money – You may not be able to take on an extra job in your current situation, but chances are you have things in your house you could sell. Try Craigslist or eBay, or just have a big rummage sale. You may be surprised at how much money you could make.
These are a few of the ways you can make it through a financial emergency or flat-out disaster. It may seem impossible, but many others have walked in the same shoes before and come out on the other end stronger and wiser for it. You can make it through.
