Help with Financial Advice? - savings accounts, cds, etc?

  • Thread starter Thread starter ~*~honey~*~
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~*~honey~*~

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My husband and I are newly married and money is tight. My husband works a personal construction business in the summer which brings in extra money. But we don't want to spend it all during the summer when we have it and have a hard winter again. Can anyone offer tips for saving money? I manage our money and I'm looking into getting a good savings account for some of the money but I also want to put some of it away in an account or cd or something where it will get a lot of interest. We also have to set aside 25% of that money for taxes, but I would like to try to earn a little bit of interest or something with that money before we have to pay it into taxes... Can you all help me with advice for finding a great savings accounts, cds, etc??? I don't want anything with a lot of risk...
 
Well, you can go with CDs/MMA (money market accounts), which will give any where from 0-5% return/year.

Or if you want to store away your money for the longer term (3+ years), you can go with some stocks, like XOM, WMT, MCD, maybe even AAPL, Chevron. Check this site out if you want good recommendations for stocks:
http://alpha-investing.com/

Also, maybe start looking to build a retirement account (can also find tips on retirement on the ite above).


good luck
 
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=cd%20interest

That's some CD info.

You can place CDs for 3--4, or 9-12, or more months.
The longer the term, the higher the yield.
NONE are great right now.

You'll have to decide how long you can leave cash in a CD. If you have to withdraw before the term, you'll be penalized on interest.

Savings plan?

Make a budget for 12 months, on a spread sheet.
Months across the top columns, Jan - Dec
Make the first column, Expenditures.

Under that list first, all your fixed expenses.
House Payment or rent
Car payments
Utilities
Any Credit Cards
Home Insurance
Car Insurance
Life Insurance
Gasoline (You should have some idea per week or month)
Cable
Phone, cell and land
Internet
Any bills payable each month

Leave a few lines or rows for any additions.
Then head
"Discretionary Expenditures"
Under this, list all expenditures that are fully under your control.
Groceries
Household Goods (Paper goods, cleaning supplies, etc)
Personal Care
Clothing
Cleaning Expense (Clothes)
SAVINGS
Entertainment (Night life, dining out, movies etc)
Miscellaneous (You must enter something here. If you have any excess cash after all budgeted items, put some of it here)
CASH DRAWS (Like ATM)
Any other regular expenditures

You will find that a grocery cash ticket is NOT all groceries.
You will have to break out any of the above items that you want to budget.
You'll have to keep all receipts for cash spent or notes.

You can enter regular payments in each month. You will see that some months that you need more money than others.

When you see how easily cash can get away from you, it will open your eyes. $5 coffee at Starbucks is not a necessity.
Smoking @ $5 per pack is not a necessity.

If your husband tries to cut off your beer, raise hell. Cut off His beer.
This is lots of work, but if you enter these every day, it will become routine.

If you lose track of cash spent, just enter it in Misc. You'll be able see if this gets out of hand.

If you don't want to do this, I can't suggest a better way.


Edit:
Use two columns under each month.
Plan and Actual
 
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