The Disadvantage Of Using Your Debit Card

The Disadvantage Of Using Your Debit Card

The main drawback of using a debit card is that it mimics a credit card in 2 ways.

1. You’re not really aware of how much money you are debiting and how often you are using your debit card.

If your goal is to control spending, debit is not the way to go.

A great way to stay on plan when shopping is to use the envelope method. You place the amount of money you have allocated (e.g. for groceries) in an envelope. This method can and should be used for entertainment cost or pocket money as well. Leave the debit card in your wallet. You shop from the envelope and when the money is gone, or nearly gone, you will know for sure since the envelope will be lighter. That sends a very clear message about your spending, and how much you have left to spend. That’s when you’ll have the ah-ha moment.

2. Using debit also increases bank fees, and if you do not have a service plan that allows for unlimited transactions, that cost can increase dramatically.

Debit cards are great, but if at the end of the month you cannot account for some of your cash, check your account and see how many times you have used your debit card in that month.

A tip on managing your money successfully.

Tessa-Marie

tessamarieshillingford@gmail.com

What are your plans for your tax refund?

I have a novel idea for you

First answer this question.

What do you plan to do with your tax refund?

Answer: Pay off my Credit Card

Splurge. It’s found money,

Naturally that has always been the recommended thing to do with your forced savings for the entire 2016.

This is how you generate a tax refund

Your employer took taxes based on the T1 you signed when you were first employed. You decided to put money into your RRSP.   You had not informed your employer so he sent the required amount of taxes base on your T1. This creates a refund. Since the money you contributed to your RRSP is tax sheltered. There are other methods of decreasing your taxes, but the RRSP is the most advantageous for the regular person.

Group No. 1 – Pay off my credit card

These groups are the ones who do the same thing every year with their refund and expect a different outcome throughout the remainder of the year.

That group uses their tax refund and pay off their credit card year after year. Then they wonder why they cannot create a savings plan. They will tell you if you ask them in October what did you do with your tax refund. Paid off my credit cards and boy that felt so good. To that you answer great, so you are free of debt that must feel truly wonderful. Then with a sad look on their faces they reply. Well you remember when Joan got married that cost me a mint, then my car broke down, then I went on vacation that was a hefty cost. Now I am just waiting for my refund this year to pay off my card. You are left dumbfounded.

Group No. 2 – Splurge its found money.

These groups are people who wait to see what comes up to spend it on. They play the wait and see game. They wait and see gamers have no plan for the refund. You know for sure that, if you have no plan, things just go wherever the wind takes it. The same applies to your money, if it has no purpose it will certainly disappear. Then in a month if you ask the wait and see gamers what they did with their refund. The answer will surprise you. It might go something like that…you know I have no idea, oh wait, I bought me a lovely pair of boots they were on sale 50% off then I just spent the rest. This is the money story of a wait and see gamer.

Now its time to tell you about my novel idea

What I recommend you do with your tax refund no matter if its $50.00 or more is to stash it away. Save it. If its more than $50.00 divided into two of your savings accounts with a purpose. Some in Tax Free and the rest in a vacation account. You are now paying yourself first and have just sown the seed of investing in your future.

You were paying the credit card every month well continue paying it. Stop using it. Do not carry it with you. If you do this you are changing what you have done since you filed you very first Income Tax.

What I am asking you to do goes against the conventional thinking. Which is, why would I save money and have debt to pay. Well that method has not netted you a positive financial statement.

What do you have to loose. Try this for say one year and then let me know. I am sure six months into this new plan you will feel emotionally better and amazing in a year.

Hope this help.

If you have questions or if this has helped you let me know at:

tessamarieshillingford46@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

Being a Mom on Tessa- Marie’s Plan

I am the $27.00 bra girl sharing some money saving tips on the first year of being a mom

After one year of Mommyhood, Tessa-Marie asked me to write my top tips for year 1 of this new adventure I am on!

While the path through pregnancy and parenthood varies greatly, the focus is always the same; we want the best for our babies.

Here’s what I have learned:

Say Yes! Say yes to baby equipment that is being offered to you, either on loan or for keeps. I have a Mom-Friend who had two babies before me and so generously offered me an arsenal of gear; baby bath, swing, chair, jolly jumper, play mat and playpen.  Retail value of my gear was over $1100.  My daughter enjoyed only the playmat and the bath.  Not all babies like the same types of movement or positions and you won’t know until your baby arrives. As much as I wanted that cute ‘baby sleeping in a cute swing’ picture, every time I tried it and she cried.  I was grateful I didn’t spend $200 on it.

Diapers: While I was pregnant, I searched the Internet for cheap but reliable cloth diapers, because I considered the one time investment compared to disposables and it seemed to make sense.  I bought a week’s worth of cloth diapers on a Black Friday sale while I was pregnant. Once my baby arrived, and the reality of new Mommy life set in, the last thing I wanted to do was to stuff liners in cloth diapers.  I discovered store brand disposables.  They retail for half the cost of brand name diapers, and work (for my active baby) just as well.  They rarely go on sale, but their regular cost is significantly cheaper than the sale cost of big brands.

Freebies: Many are shocked when they hear exactly how many free products I received from baby companies. A quick Google search of ‘free baby samples’ will cast you into a pool so deep you could be requesting samples for days! Diapers, formula, coupons, wipes, creams, lotions all arrived in the mail just before my due date.  Receiving mystery packages filled with baby supplies was a great perk at the end of a long pregnancy.  Some products I didn’t end up using, so it’s important to me to pass this point on; local food banks will gladly accept all un-opened baby samples.

Solid Food: This tip is what made Tessa-Marie realize I was well on my way to a ‘Planned Spending Mommy hood’. I did make most of my daughter’s food from whatever fruit and veggies I had on hand, but found it much easy to have pre-prepared food while I was out and about.  In the baby food aisle, below the fancy cute squeeze pouches, is the same food in jars.  The jars are not as cute BUT they are half the price for the same amount of food!

Clothing: I love baby clothes: the matching outfits, the little shoes! I did not know what gender my baby was until she arrived, but I wanted to be prepared.  I set a challenge for my self while pregnant: a $3 limit. Any piece of gender-neutral clothing that I loved, I bought. (Important: you have to love it! There are always amazing deals but if you don’t LOVE it, it’s a waste). Now, $3 makes me sound crazy, but the amount of pieces I picked up during those months was incredible! I kept the tags on everything, so anything my daughter didn’t wear went straight into a box to use as gifts for other babies.

Enjoying my tiny baby was my priority, having to not worry about dollars at the same time because my plan was in place made it all a bit sweeter.

Thanks Kathleen for sharing.

I hope new mothers will benefit from your experience.

If you need any help, please contact me at: tessamarieshillingford46@gmail.com

 

Two Financial Advisors Walk Into a Bar

If two financial advisors walked into the bar, the financial advice they give would be completely different.

Depending on the company they represent and experience, these advisors are going to offer advice on how to invest money.

What these two advisors have in common is that they both have an interest in investing people’s money to make their 1%.

This isn’t necessarily bad, this sort of financial advice benefits individuals with money to invest. These individuals are already financially healthy and can benefit from the ‘financial advisor’ bar discussion.

Those with money to invest can listen to the investors and decide where they want to invest. Everyone at this proverbial bar: the investors and the advisors, clink glasses and drink beer to the possibility of investment growth.

But what about the rest of us? Those of us that don’t have money to invest? For some of us, this is not a joke. The reality is there is no money to invest and so it doesn’t matter what type of financial advisor walks into the bar.  

There’s no money to invest. Only debt owed.

There aren’t many financial advisors that will show you how to get out of debt. This is what I do. I am a financial advisor that will help you get out of debt and create a financial plan.

I educate, enlighten and encourage you to manage your money successfully. I help with your financial journey in a different way, I advise on your financial well-being. I help you:

• Save money
• Pay down debt
• Plan before making purchases
• Create a spending plan

I call these the 4 Financial Building Blocks to a Healthy Financial Well-being. I advise on how to create a plan by using these 4 Building Blocks. I do this without using the dreaded word “budget”. Budget is a bad word. I don’t like it. I help you develop a plan depending on your lifestyle and what you want out of your life. There is no budgeting; only planning and achieving your goals.

I help put your financial health in order.

The key to a happy life requires balance life. Balance can be broken down into the following areas:

• Financial
• Mental
• Physical
• Emotional
• Spiritual

These are what I call the 5 Pillars of Health, only when the five pillars of your life are in order, will you find yourself living a focused and purposeful life.

In order to achieve balance in the 5 Pillars of Health, you first need to focus on your finances, the 4 Financial Building Blocks:

• Saving

Saving money is the main pillar and the key to a balanced life. The reason why we accumulate debt is always because of the lack of cash flow. This is why saving money no matter how small is paramount to a successful life.

• Paying off Debt

Having debt to pay off every month is like an albatross around your neck or a shackle around your ankle, you can barely move. You think about your debt first thing in the morning, all throughout the day and it’s the last thing you think about before closing your eyes. In order to break free from this, you must pay off your debt as quickly as you can. The very worst debt is revolving debt, your credit card and lines of credit. You have to break from that shackle or albatross by creating a plan to pay the debt off, focusing on your revolving debt first.

• Planning Before Making Purchases

A lot of us are impulse buyers. We buy something because we see it and we want it. It’s why magazines and candy are at the check-out at grocery stores. There’s a psychology behind this. The grocery stores are hoping that you will buy the candy and magazines and give into your impulse tendencies. You get the immediate feel-good reward of having that magazine, but at the end of the month, you don’t have any money saved because you didn’t plan.

Planning is what determines your financial success and eliminates impulsive buying behaviour. You need to determine in advance how you are going to spend your money, and on what and when.

Regardless of whether it is planning a long-term purchase or planning a two-hour shopping spree, the planning aspect of money management is the major contributor to financial success. Having a plan eliminates impulse buying, because you know what you can afford and what you’re financial plans and goals are. Having a strategic plan doesn’t guarantee your success though. Very often, even when plans are prepared, they are not implemented. It takes effort, purpose and focus. Having a goal you are committed to is the first step.

• Creating a Spending plan

The name speaks for itself. Create. You are the one formulating this plan, the choices of how and when you spend your money. It gives you a certain amount of confidence knowing you are making the decisions on how to spend your money. After creating your spending plan you feel empowered. You then make an effort to work with the financial decisions you made. It takes time to make this spending plan. You have to invest time. Managing your money without a spending plan is like going to an unfamiliar place with no GPS. We all need a spending plan in order to navigate our goals.

If you would like help with your own financial journey and goals please contact me. I am passionate about helping others with their own financial plans and will help you for free.

Thanks

Tessa-Marie

Contact me at;  tessamarieshillingford46@gmail.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOWINNG FINANCIAL SEEDS

 

Sowinng Financial Seeds

I would like to dig a little deeper into my last blog SETTING UP THOSE SPECIAL SAVINGS ACCOUNTS. There was a flood of questions about setting up multiple saving accounts.

In gardening a seed represents growth, development, and strength. If you don’t tend to that seed and give it attention which it needs, the seed won’t grow. It doesn’t matter how small the seed is, only that you tend to it, water it and encourage it to grow.

When I was setting up my multiple savings accounts, I was planting many tiny seeds and I knew that I needed to invest in them in order to see them grow.

In this blog I will address 2 of the top questions from my previous blog.

1. Why would I only save between $3.75 & $11.75?
2. What can that small amount of saving do for me?

In order for me to answer those questions, I have to first give you a background on those five savings accounts.

When I opened those accounts in 1970, we had very little money to spare and our income in those days was not bountiful by any stretch of the imagination. Cost of living was also significantly less expensive than it is now.

After paying our bills, all we had left to save was $18.75 bi-weekly. I had to divide that into the five categories, which I convinced my husband was perfect for our future financial needs. Now my husband was not in favour of five accounts, he too thought that only saving $18.75 was meager and useless. He had no idea how to tame me, so he shrugged his shoulders and left me to my own financial devise.

And so I tended to my financial garden.

Here’s how the funds were divided:

1. Buying a home   = $3.75
2. Vacation               = $3.75
3. Emergency           = $3.75
4. Starting a family = $3.75
5. Buying a Car       = $3.75

Total                                         $18.75

The next step was making sure that each raise we received was placed into those accounts. Seven years & several raises and job changes later, we were eventually able to save $82.00 bi-weekly.

At that time, our home buying account had $7,000.00 in it. We purchased our home with $5,000.00 down, paid our legal fees and shopped for used appliances on Queen Street with the rest. We bought a stove with a solid white door but no glass, a fridge, and a washing machine but no dryer. We hung our clothes out to dry in the basement. We bought nails and twine at Honest Ed’s, and used a brick as our hammer to set up our dryer line.

Honest Ed’s was our shop of choice – we were there every two weeks. We also frequently shopped at Knob Hill Farms, Bargain Harold’s and Bi-Way because back then they had the best deals. We kept saving and being cautious with our money.

All that I have financially today comes from that $3.75. Without it I could not be here in my present financial situation.

My small bi-weekly savings didn’t seem like much, but I was sowinng my financial seeds. My small savings were lettuce seeds.

As an avid gardener I can tell you lettuce seeds are tiny, but from that miniscule seed grows this huge head of lettuce.

I’m reaping what I sowed and I am helping thousands of people start their successful financial journey.

We’re all inherently gardeners in some form or another, but ask yourself, are you sowing your financial seeds?

Give it a try: make note of where you are today, date the page in your notebook and write the exact amount of savings you have today. The next step is setting up automatic transfers into a savings account. Calculate whatever amount you’re able to put away bi-weekly for one year. At the end of the year, compare your savings to what you had at the start. I can guarantee a big a-ha moment and a huge smile on your face.

To answer your question “what can a small amount of saving do for me? It can eventually give you financial freedom. Such a simple concept, with monumental results.

Let me know if you are going to take on the challenge. I will be here for you every step of the way.

Send me an email if you want to talk further about growing your financial lettuce.

tessamarieshillingford46@gmail.com

Thanks

Tessa-Marie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHOCK AND AWE

Shock and Awe

Now you have received the credit cards bills for your lavish spending in December 2016.

Wipe that frown off your face. I have a plan for you. I can show you ways to never ever find yourself in this position again.

Pick up those bills. Open them. Get your calculator and total the amount you spent during the months of November and December for all those gifts you bought. I am sure you purchased something yourself. Because, you felt that you deserved it.

What is the total? I can guess. It runs from $1000.00 to $1500.00. It did not seem like you were spending that much. Did it?. No way would you know. While swiping your credit card the totals leave your mind. You are focus only on the next purchase. Here we are the end of January and now you know.

Let us begin with the way to avoid this from happening again.

Add 10% more to your total. Then take this number and divided by the amount of times you get paid in a year.

Here is an example of someone who spent $1,500 and gets paid bi-weekly.

$1500.00 + 10% for inflation $150.00 it’s a bit high but just incase I prefer to use a 10% increase.

Formula= $1500.00 + $150.00 / by 26 = $63.46.

This is the amount you need to save every payday to enable you to have $1650.00 to spend on Christmas.

If you did not spend that much decrease your amount and follow the very same formula. Perhaps you get paid weekly then you divide by 52.

Next step go to your financial institution and have them set up an automatic transfer to a special savings account the transfer to coincide with your payday.

Naturally, if this amount is too much decrease, but do something to avoid finding yourself in the similar position next January.

Hope this helps.

Tessa-Marie

 

 

 

New Cost of Living Increases for 2017

Here they are folks; hold on to your money.

2017 comes roaring in with a vast amount of increases. These increases are in every area of our life, and each and everyone will hit us in the wallets, where it hurts the most.

I am here to help you navigate through 2017 with positive financial results.

In order to get where you plan to be financially throughout 2017 you have to follow a plan. Just like going on a trip. You need a navigator. Especially since you are getting into unchartered waters.

I will remind you of what the major increases coming your way this year, and I am here to help you navigate through them. I am your financial GPS.

First let’s look at the list of items going up.

1. The cost of fueling up or vehicles.
2. The cost of electricity.
3. The cost of heating our homes.
4. The cost of feeding our families.
5. The cost of public transportation.

Well the big five. What can we do to help us come out on the positive side of these life-changing situations? I will discuss each item with tips to help you move forward in a confident manner.

The cost of fueling up or vehicles

• Make sure the tires on the vehicles are properly inflated according to the manufacturer’s recommendation.
• Keep up all service recommended by your mechanic.
• Change your oil and filters when needed.
• Avoid driving when walking is within normal limits.

The cost of electricity

• Look for sales on energy saving light bulbs and take advantage of opportunities to replace your bulbs with low energy ones.
• Turn off the lights and TV when not in the room.
• Cook meals for at least two days when using electricity before 7pm or after 7am.
• Do laundry on weekends or after 7pm in the evenings.

The cost of heating our homes 

• Lower the thermostat by 2 points, by 3 points when no one is home.
• Wear warmer clothing when at home. Like track suits and socks.
• Make sure you are not losing heat through windows and doors left open for long periods at a time.
• Replace your furnace filters regularly.
• Lower the heating cycle on your hot water heater.

The cost of feeding our families

• Check the pantry I mean all your pantries. Like the places you put the extra toilet paper, pasta, rice and flour.
• Open the kitchen cupboard; make a list of the items in your cupboard.
• The fridge, checks it out, what do you have in there. Can it be used?
• The freezer; how much meat is in there? Chicken, Pork, Beef and Seafood.
• Make a list of the items on hand.
• Use them before purchasing anything new.
• Watch your vegetable purchases. Do you like kale; because someone said it’s good for you is not a good enough reason to buy it. You must eat it.
• Only purchase items you will consume.

Public transportation 

What can we do about it? If you have to use it you must pay. Make sure you are using it to your advantage.

• Do your math, is it better to purchase a monthly pass?
• Is it better financial sense to purchase a weekly pass, if you do not use public transportation on weekends? Work the cost out and choose the one that suits your needs.

These are a few tips to help you navigate through 2017. I trust that you find them helpful, or at the very least trigger you to make some changes to keep more of your income.

Tessa-Marie