New Mexico Bankruptcy Law Blog

This is a link to the second in an ongoing series billed as the 30 Day Challenge to save $1,000 by Ramit Sethi at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com, his blog on personal finance (banking, saving, budgeting, and investing) and personal entrepreneurship. His series outlines the various ways we can keep money in our pockets.

Tip #2: Turn your thermostat down 3 degrees

This year, the Energy Information Administration projects that Americans will pay about 15% more in their heating bills this winter, because of colder weather and higher fuel costs.

The rule of thumb is that you can save 3% on  your heating bill for every degree you set your thermostat back.  Ramit empahsizes the role of psychological barriers to making simple changes and simple ways to begin making new habits.  When you come back to your cold house after being away at work, instead of automatically raising the heat (”it’s cold!”), he suggests keeping warm slippers and a sweatshirt at the door for when you step inside, so that you have something you can immediately constructively do that addresses the issue (”it’s cold!”) besides turning up the heat.

For the rest of the post click here.

For previous tips: Tip #1: Pack lunches for the rest of the week

This is a link to the first in an ongoing series billed as 30 Day Challenge to save $1,000 by Ramit Sethi at IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com, his blog on personal finance (banking, saving, budgeting, and investing) and personal entrepreneurship. His series which was announced at the end of October outlines the various ways we can keep money in our pockets — not how to “earn” more money, but how to “save” more money.  Frugality tips.  Frugality is essential for most of us in today’s world.

Tip #1: Pack Lunches for the rest of the week

The first tip is to go to the grocery store today and pack lunches for yourself all week. Sounds obvious, but below I’ll include some specific tips and social-psychological techniques to make this actually work.

For the rest of the post click here.

Of course this makes sense if you are eating out regularly, as many of us who work outside of our homes do.  Bring a sandwich that might have cost you $1.00 in ingredients, instead of buying one out for $4.99 or more, especially if you are at a restaurant and also buying tea or coffee.

Happy Holidays and best wishes for the new year!

How do you end up in financial distress? There are many reasons, and, when it comes to facing a potential bankruptcy, very often the biggest triggering event is a medical crisis or a divorce. But there are smaller factors that can add up to your finding yourself in a big crisis. This is the last in a series on what one bankruptcy attorney identifies as the “Top Ten Personal Financial Mistakes” people make. His list is useful for all of us to review and consider, and his posts link to helpful resources available on the web. Be sure to click on the link below to his post and check out the resources he provides, too.

Here’s an excerpt from the series by Eugene S. Melchionne, Connecticut Bankruptcy Attorney at www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com.

Wait!”, you say, “I thought you said there were ten personal financial mistakes?” The worst personal financial mistake you can make is not to admit the mistakes you have made and take the action to correct them. It is possible to get in so deep that the only way out is bankruptcy.

Consider whether legal action to gain the opportunity for a “do over” is appropriate. Bankruptcy is not for everyone, nor is it a solution to every financial problem, but it may be the only legitimate solution for your situation.

Gene urges us to remember that we do not want to keep our heads in the sand about the reality of our situations. Expert advice about bankruptcy and bankruptcy avoidance is important.

Earlier posts in the series: Failing to Live With Direction, Living Beyond Your Means, Borrowing Money With Credit Cards, More on Borrowing From Credit Card Companies, Having No Emergency Fund, Failing to Save for Long-Term Needs, Failing to Accept Free Money, Miscalculating Life-Insurance Needs, Putting Your Eggs In One Basket, Emotional Spending

How do you end up in financial distress? There are many reasons, and, when it comes to facing a potential bankruptcy, very often the biggest triggering event is a medical crisis or a divorce. But there are smaller factors that can add up to your finding yourself in a big crisis. This is the eleventh in a series on what one bankruptcy attorney identifies as the “Top Ten Personal Financial Mistakes” people make. His list is useful for all of us to review and consider, and his posts link to helpful resources available on the web. Be sure to click on the link below to his post and check out the resources he provides, too.

Here’s an excerpt from the series by Eugene S. Melchionne, Connecticut Bankruptcy Attorney at www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com.

Emotion leads to irrational decisions and it is never good to let emotion rule when it comes to finance. Some people use spending to cheer up and avoid feeling depressed. Emotional spending will crash you budget. But saving money will be the long term road to financial independence and ultimately, happiness and freedom from worry. After that, all you need is health.

Alan Greenspan used the term “irrational exuberance” to describe the stock market of the late 1990’s.

Again, Gene wrote this before the September/early October governmental actions. Many of us are trying to be more mindful about how and where we spend our money (and we are grateful that we have money to spend). These are very frightening times for many, economically. Read Gene’s post and go back to Parts 1 and 2 of this series, to review about setting goals and being minddful.

More on Borrowing From Credit Card Companies, Having No Emergency Fund, Failing to Save for Long-Term Needs, Failing to Accept Free Money, Miscalculating Life-Insurance Needs, Putting Your Eggs In One Basket

How do you end up in financial distress? There are many reasons, and, when it comes to facing a potential bankruptcy, very often the biggest triggering event is a medical crisis or a divorce. But there are smaller factors that can add up to your finding yourself in a big crisis. This is the ninth in a series on what one bankruptcy attorney identifies as the “Top Ten Personal Financial Mistakes” people make. His list is useful for all of us to review and consider, and his posts link to helpful resources available on the web. Be sure to click on the link below to his post and check out the resources he provides, too.

Here’s an excerpt from the series by Eugene S. Melchionne, Connecticut Bankruptcy Attorney at www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com.

Diversify your investments for the future. Financial advisors will always tell you not to put your eggs in one basket. One only need to look at 1929 to see the effect of investing too heavily in the stock market had on investors. This pattern is repeated throughout history.

Currently we are seeing a huge contraction in the mortgage industry.

Gene wrote this before the tumultuous September/early October days surrounding the various, huge governmental actions called either a bailout or a recover plan, depending on your perspective.  Learn more about diversification — what it is, what your options are.  The idea, in part, is that while one kind of account loses value, another will gain, and, presumably and hopefully, over the long run, you will get an overall decent rate of return on the invested/saved money.

Earlier posts in the series: Failing to Live With Direction, Living Beyond Your Means, Borrowing Money With Credit Cards, More on Borrowing From Credit Card Companies, Having No Emergency Fund, Failing to Save for Long-Term Needs, Failing to Accept Free Money, Miscalculating Life-Insurance Needs

How do you end up in financial distress? There are many reasons, and, when it comes to facing a potential bankruptcy, very often the biggest triggering event is a medical crisis or a divorce. But there are smaller factors that can add up to your finding yourself in a big crisis. This is the eighth in a series on what one bankruptcy attorney identifies as the “Top Ten Personal Financial Mistakes” people make. His list is useful for all of us to review and consider, and his posts link to helpful resources available on the web. Be sure to click on the link below to his post and check out the resources he provides, too.

Here’s an excerpt from the series by Eugene S. Melchionne, Connecticut Bankruptcy Attorney at www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com.

You can have too much life insurance, but it is also a mistake to not have enough. There is a fine balance to the amount of life insurance you need.

How do you know when enough is enough?

I think of life insurance as something you do — if you do it — to help the people you care about when you die.  Would they be stressed if they felt they were responsible for your bills (even if they are not)? Do they depend on  your living income for their wellbeing, and do you want to help ease the transition to some other level of living by assuring there is some money available at the time you die? Even if it’s a small amount, it might help them handle the reality of your death better, but giving them a little ease.

Earlier posts in the series: Failing to Live With Direction, Living Beyond Your Means, Borrowing Money With Credit Cards, More on Borrowing From Credit Card Companies, Having No Emergency Fund, Failing to Save for Long-Term Needs, Failing to Accept Free Money

How do you end up in financial distress? There are many reasons, and, when it comes to facing a potential bankruptcy, very often the biggest triggering event is a medical crisis or a divorce. But there are smaller factors that can add up to your finding yourself in a big crisis. This is the seventh in a series on what one bankruptcy attorney identifies as the “Top Ten Personal Financial Mistakes” people make. His list is useful for all of us to review and consider, and his posts link to helpful resources available on the web. Be sure to click on the link below to his post and check out the resources he provides, too.

Here’s an excerpt from the series by Eugene S. Melchionne, Connecticut Bankruptcy Attorney at www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com.

Your employer provides access to a retirement plan and has life insurance as part of a benefits package, but you don’t take advantage of it. What? Yes, it costs money an it will reduce your take-home pay, but consider the advantages: cheap term life insurance will pay death benefits to your dependents and retirement funds are often matched by employer contributions. No matter how you calculate the amount, every dollar your employer contributes to your retirement plan is FREE MONEY.

I never understood this one — I have never had the opportunity for an employer to match any kind of contribution I might make, but I always knew I would save the max the employer would match, at a minimum.  My heavens! Free money!

One caveat — how safe is the fund you are contributing to? If it goes bust, okay, that money was not well invested (saved) — BUT don’t use that as an excuse NOT to invest (save) appropriately.  Do some research, think about it, and save what and where it is appropriate to do so.

Earlier posts in the series: Failing to Live With Direction, Living Beyond Your Means, Borrowing Money With Credit Cards, More on Borrowing From Credit Card Companies, Having No Emergency Fund, Failing to Save for Long-Term Needs

How do you end up in financial distress? There are many reasons, and, when it comes to facing a potential bankruptcy, very often the biggest triggering event is a medical crisis or a divorce. But there are smaller factors that can add up to your finding yourself in a big crisis. This is the sixth in a series on what one bankruptcy attorney identifies as the “Top Ten Personal Financial Mistakes” people make. His list is useful for all of us to review and consider, and his posts link to helpful resources available on the web. Be sure to click on the link below to his post and check out the resources he provides, too.

Here’s an excerpt from the series by Eugene S. Melchionne, Connecticut Bankruptcy Attorney at www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com.

Start saving now for your long-term financial goals. This means setting up now for retirement. There is every suspicion that social security will not be there when you retire. In fact, social security was never meant to be a substitute for a retirement fund, it was meant as a supplement and a minimal funds for those without.

The earlier you start saving for retirement will mean the more that you will have available when you do retire. A twenty year old who puts aside $25 a week for retirement will have nearly $1.2 million at age 65. Yet a 50 year old who just starts putting aside $250 a week for retirement will have only $450,000.00 at age 65. Which would rather be at 65 years old? Save early and save often.

“Retirement” often is thought of as the time when you don’t have to work AND you have enough money somehow coming to you so that you can have a decent life style, including paying rent or a mortgage, being able to cover all uninsured medical expenses, healthy food and … here’s the dream for many: traveling, doing “everything” you didn’t do while you were working.

Where will the money come from? Many of us simply don’t know how much we will have, and we also don’t know how much the things we want and need will cost “then”.  Today’s retirees are facing big stresses with the recent astronomical increase in the cost of putting gasoline in their cars, and fear what the winter’s heating costs will be, with good reason.  Saving something now helps you have more later.

Earlier posts in the series: Failing to Live With Direction, Living Beyond Your Means, Borrowing Money With Credit Cards, More on Borrowing From Credit Card Companies, Having No Emergency Fund

How do you end up in financial distress? There are many reasons, and, when it comes to facing a potential bankruptcy, very often the biggest triggering event is a medical crisis or a divorce. But there are smaller factors that can add up to your finding yourself in a big crisis. This is the fifth in a series on what one bankruptcy attorney identifies as the “Top Ten Personal Financial Mistakes” people make. His list is useful for all of us to review and consider, and his posts link to helpful resources available on the web. Be sure to click on the link below to his post and check out the resources he provides, too.

Here’s an excerpt from the series by Eugene S. Melchionne, Connecticut Bankruptcy Attorney at www.bankruptcylawnetwork.com.

The biggest mistake anyone can make is failing to have an emergency fund. When you don’t have even the smallest amount put aside for an emergency, any unplanned expense can start the ball rolling to financial ruin. Whip out the plastic and pay for the failure to save for the next ten to twenty years.

Some experts (and talk radio hosts) suggest that you start with a small emergency fund of $1,000.00. This sum may not be easy to save, but it is a start. By no means should this be the end of your savings.

Just like your debt can mushroom while you aren’t looking at it, so, too, can your savings. Start even with a small amount, e.g., $5 or $25 a pay period automatically transferred from a checking account to a savings account. Out of sight out of mind applies to savings — what you don’t see you won’t think to spend and it can grow for when you need it. Just think — maybe you won’t have to borrow on a credit card if you can pay it from your emergency fund!

Earlier posts in the series: Failing to Live With Direction, Living Beyond Your Means, Borrowing Money With Credit Cards, More on Borrowing From Credit Card Companies