Old Man River
Financial Planning for Single Parents - Help!
Financial Help For Single Mothers
By Denise Bergeron
As a single mom, you face unique financial challenges that women with supportive husbands do not face. As such, you need to be aware of programs that you can use to help your family financially. The government and many private organizations have options available to help single moms with their financial needs.
One common need that single moms face is health insurance. Your employer may not offer health insurance, or the premiums may be too high for you to afford. The government has programs that you can use to get insurance for your children. The most common government program is Medicaid. While Medicaid is for those on limited incomes, the income guidelines are determined based on family size, so you should see if you qualify. If you do not qualify for Medicaid, consider the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The income guidelines for SCHIP will be set by your state, and they are higher than Medicaid. You may be able to get health insurance for yourself through this program, depending on your state.
If you are looking for utility assistance, child care assistance, food banks, and other types of assistance programs and don’t know where to look, try dialing 2-1-1 on your phone. You can use this free service to find the programs you need. With one phone call, you can find out about assistance programs you qualify for in your area. Not all areas have the 2-1-1 program, but you can find out if yours does by simply trying the number.
If you are ready to buy a home, there are programs for single moms to help with the home buying process. To start, talk to your local housing authority. This organization may be able to point you towards assistants programs in your area. You can also talk to a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) counselor. You may be able to buy a house through HUD, and HUD has several mortgage assistance programs for you to consider. The organization will also help you find a house that qualifies for the assistance program. Your counselor will be able to help you work through the process.
Single moms may face a rough road, but the good news is that there is help available. Take advantage of the programs you qualify for, because you are, after all, doing the job of two people. With financial assistance programs like these, you can ease up some of the strain on your monthly household budget or get some of the things you need for your family but simply cannot afford on your own.
Are you looking for Financial Aid For Single Mothers? Or maybe you need help with Grants For Women, either way check out this site for Financial Help
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http://EzineArticles.com/?Financial-Help-For-Single-Mothers&id=1173144
Save Money on Gas - Practical Ways to Save Money on Travel
Two Practical Ways to Save Money on Gas
By Loren T Yadeski
Gas prices have soared over the roof and what’s worse is there is no indication of a let down. Every motorist is keen on saving every penny they can on gas.
Back to Basics: Keep Your Car in Tip Top Shape
With the recent gas price increases, it’s back to basics in saving gas money. For efficient fuel consumption, keep your car in tip top shape. Always check your engine’s air filter for clogs. Your engine needs oxygen to burn fuel efficiently and oxygen goes through the air filter. Once this filter is clogged, your engine eats a lot of fuel. Also, always check your tires’ inflation level. Improperly inflated tires make it harder for the engine to roll the car. And the harder the engine works, the more fuel it needs.
Moreover, driving efficiently will also improve your engine’s fuel usage. If you drive below the driving speed, you use less gas and you definitely save money. You may also want to start planning trips to avoid unnecessary car trips. And lastly, avoid idling. If you need to wait for more than five minutes, then it would be best to turn off your car.
Start Using Gas Cards
Many motorists have proven that gas cards help save money on gas. These cards have been around for a while now, but it is only recently that its use has spread like wildfire. Gas cards offer rebates for every gas purchase. Current rebates are from 2% to 5% depending on the card company. Basically, these rebates are accumulated in the form of rewards points. Once these points reach a predetermined amount, they can be redeemed in the form of cash backs which in turn can be used to purchase gas. With gas card cash back rewards; you definitely save money on gas!
Want to save money on gas using gas cards? Visit http://www.GasCardsGalore.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Loren_T_Yadeski
http://EzineArticles.com/?Two-Practical-Ways-to-Save-Money-on-Gas&id=1310523
Financial Planning - Real Life Financial Report Card
Smart Financial Planning - What Are the Numbers in Your Real Life Report Card?
By Bettina Langerfeldt
“My banker has never asked me for my report card”
- Robert Kiyosaki
Numbers don’t lie. Too many grown-ups that were successful, straight “A” students in school and college have to admit years later that they have been hopelessly ignorant in managing their hard earned for income in their adult life. Debt consolidation and mortgage payment seem to be a common need of the modern day family.
The average professional nowadays might have a high-paying job, a big home, a nice car, and be doing well at work, but a quick glance at his or her financial statement will reveal an excess of expenses and, in many cases, a huge debt.
Is this the successful and prosperous life those honored college diplomas so ardently promised years ago?
One thing is for sure: Our highly acclaimed education has definitely not provided us adults with the financial skills necessary to be good stewards of the money we earn.
Unless you were lucky enough to have parents that taught you how to manage your income well, you are probably one more of the crowd who thought good grades in school are a guaranteed formula to success in life.
Good grades might be important in school, but in real life it’s your financial statement that counts.
Nevertheless, many adults do not really look at their financial situation until crisis strikes. That is why most adults fail to make financial corrections that are necessary to lead a financially successful life.
Luckily enough, just like any other educational gap, this one can be repaired. Anybody who is willing — or desperate — enough to study diligently can acquire the knowledge that is necessary to make his or her financial statement, their real life report card, mirror a wise money management system that will lead to financial success.
But it will require time and effort. If you are sick of living from paycheck to paycheck, and of paying off your seemingly insurmountable debt, I’d like to invite you to get immediate access to information that has already changed the lives of hundreds of families at http://www.LearnFinancialSkills.com
From Bettina Langerfeldt, who enjoys helping people develop their financial skills.
© 2008 Freedompioneer
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bettina_Langerfeldt
http://EzineArticles.com/?Smart-Financial-Planning—What-Are-the-Numbers-in-Your-Real-Life-Report-Card?&id=1315845
Financial Rut - Escape with Money in Your Pocket
How to Get Out of a Financial Rut
By Ann Marosy
Imagine a world that is free of financial concerns. A place where all essential needs are easily provided and there is no debt or financial hardship. You would have total freedom of choice in what you do, where you go and what material possessions you choose to surround you. Here, everything is in abundance and there is no concept of greed, poverty, scarcity or crime.
In this world, envy is unheard of. Everyone has everything they could possibly need or want, and everyone knows and believes they deserve it. No-one has to take more than their share. Goods and services are traded fairly and for full value. There are no economic slumps, recessions, depressions or inflations.
So what is preventing us from creating this society here and now? In western countries, 80% of the wealth is held by 20% of the population and in other cultures these percentages can swing even more widely in favour of the rich.
The creation of wealth is an achievable goal for everyone. It is now, and it always will be. It is only our conditioning: social, parental, educational and, to a large degree, emotional, that prevents us from being wealthy. There is nothing natural about being poor. It goes against the very tides of nature to have less than what we need to lead happy, successful lives.
Making money is simple. You do not need to be a financial wiz-kid, a stock market expert, a banker, an accountant or a rocket scientist to become rich. All you need is a certain amount of dedication, a reasonable amount of patience, a good strategy and the discipline to stay with it. In essence, you need a well defined program or system that prevents you from going off the rails.
There are approximately six stages of financial management. To master each stage and move on to the next, we need to apply certain strategies. Each stage has its own strategies, or rules. Follow the rules for the stage you are in and you cannot go wrong. Break the rules and you may fail. These stages are natural to success and when you understand them and apply the right strategies, you cannot fail. It is simple and it works.
There may also be times when we cannot break out of a financial rut. If you find yourself repeatedly having the same financial problems, you are probably doing something wrong. Correct that behaviour and your position will improve, ignore it and your situation will stay the same - or become worse.
To understand the natural stages of growth, we simply need to observe nature. Seeds germinate, then the seedlings emerge, the plant grows, buds appear and flowers develop. The different stages need different cultivation, fertilisation, watering and different climatic conditions. You plant daffodils in autumn. The colder months of winter help germinate the bulbs and they flower in spring. You cannot change the system. The rules are in place. Follow the guidelines and you will have a magnificent harvest.
As with nature, we first need to plant the seed for wealth creation, water it, fertilise it and wait for it to grow. We need to weed out the negative habits that can interfere with our harvest. We need patience and dutiful care. There are times when we can be extravagant and times to economise. If we carefully cultivate our finances, we can sit back and watch them grow and flourish.
I first learnt about the benefits of understanding the different stages of growth whilst studying for my accounting degree. In one of my management subjects, we studied the ‘Learning Ladder’ or the stages of Conscious/Competent Learning. It was discovered that when presented with a new area of learning, people naturally progressed through various stages.
The first stage, Unconscious/Incompetent, marks the beginning of any new endeavour or experience. You are ‘unconscious’ because, at this point, you don’t know what is involved or what you have to do, and ‘incompetent’ because you don’t know how to do it yet. This is usually a stress-free time. For example, you have just been told you were successful in getting that new job. You feel happy and elated. You have no idea of what is involved or how to do it. This is a particularly carefree time.
When you start the new job, you enter Stage 2, Conscious/Incompetence. All of a sudden stress appears. You are now ‘conscious’ of the fact that you don’t know what to do, and anxiety increases.
A few weeks into the new job and you have learnt what to do. However, you still have to concentrate, or remain conscious, on every task to ensure that you are doing it correctly. This is Stage 3, Conscious/Competence. This is still a stressful time.
Finally, you have mastered the tasks within the job. You know the job backwards. You don’t have to think about what to do next. It is easy and stress-free. This is Stage 4, Unconscious/Competence.
In learning any new skill, whether it’s driving a car or learning to play a guitar, you will automatically progress through these four stages. However, because of the stress factor of stages 2 and 3, this is the time when people are most likely to fail or drop out. If there was something that you have tried to master but failed - look back. Did you give up too soon?
And so it is with managing money. Many of us have simply given up too soon. We may have had a difficult job; left and taken a lesser paid one, only to resign ourselves to earning less money. Or maybe we struck financial hardship and just surrendered to the belief that this was our lot in life. We may have started going into debt and instead of being proactive, used more debt to try to recover - burying ourselves deeper and deeper into financial crisis.
To have more money, we need to understand the various stages of wealth creation and become proactive in managing these stages. This means to commit to a positive course of action and being prepared to devote a certain level of effort and time to it.
Copyright © Ann M Marosy 2008. Ann Marosy is an accountant, consultant, and former university lecturer. She was formally the Financial Controller of the Fortune 500 Company, Jardine Matheson, and Finalist of SA Executive Woman of the Year. Ann is the author and creator of ‘The Money Program: How to Manage the 6 Stages of Wealth’. For more details visit her website: http://www.moneta.com.au
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http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Get-Out-of-a-Financial-Rut&id=1316357
Financial Education - Teach Kids Financial Responsibility
How to Teach Your Kids to Be Responsible With Money
By W. M. Blake
Money is an essential part of life in today’s modern world, so kids are never too young to start learning about it. Children will have greater respect for money and be able to use it better if parents start teaching them as early as possible. Here’s how to do it:
Children learn primarily from their parents, so don’t wait until they learn about money in math class to teach them. Important life lessons on money are learned by children from Mom and Dad in the home.
Kids need to learn that, while money is essential to life, it can’t buy happiness. And it doesn’t grow on any trees either. It is important for children to understand that the family’s needs such as water, electricity, food, and a home are paid for with the money that their parents earn. If Mom and Dad don’t work, there simply will not be money available for such necessities.
Start training your children with money they are gifted at holidays and birthdays. Teach them that by saving up money little by little they will be able to purchase something they really want instead of just what they happen to be able to afford at the moment.
Allowing kids to be part of arranging a family budget will help them to understand not just that there is such a thing as money, but that it must be handled correctly. As Mom and Dad determine how much is to be spent each month on bills and recreation, children will learn a lot.
Children can learn how disciplining yourself financially will eventually bring worthwhile rewards. You can accomplish this with your kids by saving money each month to be used by the family to go out and do something special and fun that the kids have picked out.
Disastrous results are sure to come from allowing children to learn about the use of money themselves instead of from their parents. If they receive money but have never learned how to use it wisely, it’s sure to disappear without anything to show for it. When parents do not provide their kids with financial advice, they will no doubt find it with their financially irresponsible friends.
If children never learn to handle money responsibly, they will simply count on their parents for financial assistance every time they get stuck in money troubles. Bailing kids out of financial difficulties when this happens will not teach them anything about being responsible for money. Even though no parent wants their child to have to experience the unpleasant consequences of poor financial decisions, asking for and expecting to be given money will turn into a strongly entrenched habit that only becomes more difficult to break as children grow older.
Financially responsible adults were once financially responsible children. Start teaching your kids about the importance of handling money wisely as early as possible.
Does the credit card company you deal with use two cycle billing? If you don’t know, you could be losing even more money than you think if you don’t pay off your credit card every month. Find out what two cycle billing is and why it’s such a bad thing on the Debt Smackdown website.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=W._M._Blake
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Teach-Your-Kids-to-Be-Responsible-With-Money&id=1318885
Live Cheaper - Frugal Living Tips
Frugal Living Tips - Ways To Live Cheaper
By Melissa Hash
Learn to save some of your hard earned cash with these frugal living tips. You do not have to use them all but picking even one will save you some money!
Bills- Do we need everything we pay for?
Do we need every movie channel that our cable or satellite company provides? Do we pay for five movies at a time from Netflix when we only watch three? Are we getting the best deal on auto or home insurance that we can? Do we really need such a large home or three cars?
It is important to evaluate every bill you pay and make sure you really need it. Can you cut your cable bill in half? Call around and get estimates on auto and home insurance to see if you could save some cash. If only two of you drive in the household do you really need three cars? Can you get by on one?
Ask yourself these questions and more to figure out what you really need and not what just makes you feel better.
Buy used and sell used
Don’t throw away that lamp you don’t like. Try and sell it on ebay or craigslist, and if that doesn’t work then donate it to a charitable organization like the Salvation Army or Goodwill or your local church.
Instead of running to the showroom floor when you need new furniture or home decor scour the flea markets and garage sales instead. Not only may you find an expensive sofa for half the price of new and only six months old but you are also saving an item from ending up in a landfill!
Pay it off!
Plan a budget and stick to it. You will feel better than you can ever imagine when you have no credit card debt. And when you pay off that credit card debt you can move on to bigger things. What if you have not auto debt or home debt anymore? How much stress would that reduce in your life?
Pay off the smallest bills first then use that money to pay off larger debt and so on (while making your minimum monthly payments) and see how fast you can pay off what you owe!
The best feeling in the world comes from buying a big ticket item for cash and knowing you will not have to pay anyone interest.
Go meatless!
Another of the easiest frugal living tips is to cut meat out of your diet for at least one meal a week. While this may sound like it is not that fun, especially for the meat and potato group, you may be surprised at the meatless meals you can come up with!
Some excellent meal ideas for eating meatless are beans and cornbread, baked potato dinner, cheese quesadillas, or vegetable soup. Think about the meals your family enjoys and you may be surprised to find more than one meatless meal in your recipe file already!
Remember, as Benjamin Franklin said, “A penny saved is a penny earned!”
Article Supplied By: M. Kaye Hash, Co-owner and photographer of the nature photography and Eco-friendly gifts and family living articles website www.naturesthumbprint.com She is a contributing editor and co-webmaster at www.mccallsfloormart.com Melissa has a degree in Art History from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has been writing and taking pictures since she was young. Melissa is also an avid animal lover and she raises four dogs of her own while being creative in as many ways as possible.
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http://EzineArticles.com/?Frugal-Living-Tips—Ways-To-Live-Cheaper&id=1201743
Frugal Living - Treasures of the Heart Cost Nothing
When you think of frugal living, sometimes you wonder if you can cut the cost of living any more than you already have. In these days of expensive gas, food, and outrageous cost of living hikes, it’s always nice to find something you need that costs less, or nothing. It’s possible.
Friendship
One of the most overlooked amenities of life is friendship. True friendship costs you nothing and offers great rewards. Life has taught me that I can’t out give God. I can try, and it’s a good idea to give more and more of yourself to others, attempting the impossible has its own rewards. No matter how much you give, God will always give you back way more.
Love
Unlimited reserves of love stand waiting for your, when you give love away. Reaching out to others offers the greatest rewards in life, just simply because you gave more love, you will receive more love. The power of giving love opens up your life to receive more love. Never close that door.
Trust
When you trust others, by opening up your hand and allowing them access to you, to your belongings, and most importantly to your heart, you open up an avenue to receive. You can’t accept with a clinched fist. Those who hold onto their trust with a tight fist and never learn to open up and trust others, never fully learn to live. Their lives are never unlocked to the opportunities life offers.
Hope
Hope offers a foundation of acceptance and understanding. Those who accept the love of others have no difficulty understanding the love of a God they cannot see, cannot understand or do not have consumate proof of existance. The ability to simply believe God exists and look up in Hope of a greater existence and being have the greatest of all HOPE in life.
Faith
Understanding that each moment of each day is a gift of existence offers an opportunity to have faith in yourself, in life, and in God. Having faith is different from being faithful in that you can be faithful and just in your service to others, but having great faith means simply to let go of control and accept that life exists on a greater and more perfect level than you can determine. Step back from the world and watch it spin comfortably at the pace God created and know that you can change the little things, but the big things are created by one far greater than self, who knows and understands what you want in your life.
Welcome to Heartstring Treasures!
In case you arrive here before I get the site up and actively moving forward, this site is about making a home from the heart and all the fun that goes into making a home, a home. I’ll be talking about decor on a shoe string, frugal menu planning, and making your home the serene, pleasant place where you desire to end every night and begin every morning. I’ll be sharing homemaking tips and ideas that have made our home more managable and more peaceful over the years.
I’ll also be sharing ideas and thoughts that are shared with me. In fact, if you have a suggestion, I’d welcome your input in the comments after each post. Please do leave your thoughts and a single link to your website. I’ll be randomly promoting various businesses who participate in this blog. So, if you have a relevant business topic. Join the fray and have some fun.
