Whether we’re talking about eliminating our debt or building up of our savings, there’s one thing that’s crucial to that success, and that is to have at least one long term goal in place, and hopefully more.

Of course you can have more than one long-term goal because you can have personal goals, financial goals, professional goals, family goals, etc.

The reason why you should and must have a long term goal in place is because when you’re looking at putting away savings and building up wealth, along with eliminating your debt, there is always short-term pain involved, which if you don’t deal with, will cause you to quit very easily and revert back to past practices which have led you to where you’re at now, with debt overload and no ability to put away money for the future.

In other words, there’s a lot of psychology involved with defeating your debt and having healthy finances, and a key to successfully navigating those waters is to have long term goals in place which you can use as inspiration and guidelines for the reason you’re deferring gratification till a later date.

Almost everyone that doesn’t do this is destined to fail in their financial efforts, as there is very little motivation to take care of things today if you have no hope for tomorrow.

What we must all do in reference to debt is immediately eliminate our bad spending habits in order to begin a program which will give us hope of victory and eventual release from the huge debt burden we carry.

That requires the setting of long term goals which will be what you continually remind yourself concerning as to why you’re experiencing short-term pain. As athletes have said in the past: no pain, no gain. And that’s true. But the other element involved is they definitely have a goal and purpose as to why they’re training and what they’re shooting for.

No athlete goes through the training because they just love to train or for the sake of training itself. Athletes go through the rigorous training they do because they have a personal or team goal of becoming excellent and a top competitor in the sport they’re involved in.

That’s just another way of saying they have a long term goal. You get the point.

There is no way you can endure deferred gratification if you don’t have specific goals set before you which motivate you to endure the pain of paying down debt and to quit spending on things you think you ‘must’ have, but in reality usually buy because you saw or heard someone else having it and decided right away that you do too.

Paying down debt or putting away money for savings means that the money set aside can’t be used for purposes you would prefer. That’s the pain aspect of it. The long term gain is you will eventually be able to buy or do whatever you want once you’re free from the burden of heavy debt, and when you buy things at that time it’ll be a positive experience as you won’t be thinking in terms of how you’re going to pay for it going forward.

If you want to successfully save money and build up your wealth, there are things you won’t be able to do that others who are increasing their debt will be able to, although at eventual and extreme burden to themselves as the bills eventually mount up to the point of no return, as many have recently.

The key is to neglect what appears to be affluence, but in reality is someone in debt over their heads who are building that appearance at the risk of losing everything.

Set yourself some long term goals which can help you discipline yourself and keep in mind why you’re going through some short-term pain. You’ll eventually be thankful you’ve taken these steps and will enjoy the lifestyle you want without the concern you’re one job loss away from losing everything.

There is no big secret to making a household budget, and no matter who you’re talking to, there are basic things everyone needs to do to make it a success. There can be some variations on the budget and words used to describe it, but when you come down to it, it’s pretty much what I’ve listed below.

It’s also what I’ve encouraged people to do that came to me in the past when I was a financial adviser and they wanted to learn the best way to control their spending and manage their finances.

1.

The first step to take is to find out what the monthly average you pay out for all your liabilities. This includes your regular payments you make like electricity, cable, etc. Again, the purpose is to get an actual monthly average and not try to guess what you must pay out monthly.

2.

Next, you want to get a hold on your monthly income. So simply write down all places you draw an income from and what it is. You want to find out if you even have enough to meet your obligations or you need to get another source of income.

3.

Now make a list of your fixed monthly expenses and your estimated expenses. For example, do you service your vehicles on a quarterly basis. Do you expect to have to pay out some money for household repairs sometime soon. Do you set aside a certain amount for potential problems that may arise.

Here you want to at least a some money set aside for these types of emergencies so you don’t get caught off guard and it messes up your budget.

4.

Be sure to list your fixed expenses and variable expenses into different categories so you understand them and know what to expect. Here is where many people get frustrated and can quit because it was easy enough to list fixed expenses, but forgetting to take into account variable expenses can crush you when they unexpectedly arise. Don’t be caught off guard with this.

5.

Add up the amount of income you take in each month along with the fixed and variable expenses. This gives you the actual conditions of your financial health and will tell you the story of what needs to be done to take care of it.

6.

So far this has all been easy. But now you must take the practical steps of using the numbers you’ve discovered to make adjustments to how you’re going to go forward. This isn’t the fun part of a budget, but it is the most necessary part. No pain no gain. Let’s face it, all of us who have too much debt have brought that upon ourselves. Now we must take it upon ourselves to deal with it.

Again, at first this can be a little discouraging, but once you implement it you will get the feeling of being empowered, and instead of feeling you’re always being acted upon, you’re now taking action to manage your finances and your life.

7.

Immediately start to put money away for the purpose of paying down your debt. The credit card with the highest interest rate should be your first target.

Having said that though, if you need a psychological boost, take the credit card with the lowest amount and start paying that off, as it gives you a sense of accomplishment and you can see very quickly your debt load starting to disappear.

8.

Once you begin this, then simply go over your budget on a monthly basis as things begin to change financially for you. As you do, make whatever adjustments you need to make and fix anything that may be leaking through.
 
Just keep repeating this process until you pay things down.

If you’re married or have joint debt with someone else, be sure to sit down with them and get on the same page. Obviously this won’t work with two people going in opposite directions.
 
Finally, use a software program so you can enter all your data and see the results easily. It helps you do get into the budgeting frame of mind and can give you encouragement as you check your progress from month to month.

Remember that the entire purpose of this is to free up money so you have more to set aside for building wealth. Forget that and the budget begins to make you think you’re being cheated, just like a diet can when you see that big piece of chocolate cake you want to get and take a big bite out of.

Just keep the idea or vision in your head of the day you’re free from debt and have a lot of money to invest, build wealth, and spend on the things you need without going into debt.

If you hear the word budget and your cringe, you probably just found out why you’re in debt so badly, as you more than likely spent far beyond your means and now have to face the consequence of that spending.

But this isn’t a beat you over the head article, anyone deep in debt should know they spend more than they took in, and eventually you have to pay that debt off.

Now as far as it relates to savings, remember, if you are paying everything off on debt, you have nothing left over to put away to build your wealth up. So it should be a priority, as it’s becoming with many people after they struggled so hard over the last two years because of excessive debt, to develop a budget to not only get a handle on where your finances really are, but also where the best places to attack paying down your debt to get the maximum benefit.

Budgeting is like going on a diet in the sense that very few people stick with it. But for those that do, and you can hang around long enough doing it so it becomes more of a habit than a burden, it’s not that difficult once you put it in place and stick with it. It’s always getting the ball rolling and doing it long enough to become part of your lifestyle. That’s the challenge anyone faces with creating and sticking to a budget, or anything in life for that matter.

The psychology behind this which you must adopt to be successful is to get rid of the short-term or present-oriented way of thinking, and start to think in terms of years rather than instant gratification, which will always lead you down the debt hole, as there will always be something you “must” have right now.

This, more than anything, is what leads people to the devastation of a debt load which basically results in them living from paycheck to paycheck with no financial future to speak. We must be willing to change that, and to change that way of thinking and living does require some discipline and short-term pain.

Let’s face it, when you get addicted to spending, yes, addicted to spending, it’s a lot of fun. But just like heartburn and discomfort after eating the wrong types of food or eating too much, it doesn’t take long before the pain from overspending comes to haunt you, and it does that with the first bill that arrives at your home which gives you the results of your temporary spending spree.

Either way, you’re going to experience the pain from too much debt or the pain from dealing with that debt. One type of pain leads to nowhere, as continuing to spend at a pace you’ll never pay back for decades will not be a pleasing experience for you. But when you spend and have all that fun spending, the pain of having to stop and be disciplined is also very real, but it also at least has an end in sight when you can finally leave the load of debt and be free from it all.

Next article we’ll get into the practicals of budgeting, but now realize that you have a problem and that problem is how you spend you money, or rather, someone else’s money which drives into a place of being in debt to the point of almost feeling hopeless to deal with it.

Surprisingly, once you start to be earnest about paying down your debt, you can take care of a lot of it fairly quickly by making a few changes. The key is to stop spending so when you pay down your debt you’re making progress and you can see yourself getting closer to the end of the tunnel.

Again, the whole point of this is to have more money available to build up your wealth so the day will come when you can buy just about anything you want and there will be no pain except the loss of the money you already had put away.

To do that you must decide to create and adhere to a household budget which will deal directly with the problem and have immediate and measurable results.

One of the major enemies of savings is in fact carrying a heavy debt load. It’s not worth the time looking at various savings programs, or for that matter, even ways to budget if you don’t deal with the underlying problems of why you’re continually under a heavy debt load.

Now I know there are certain types of debt that are good debt, although it is still debt that must be taken care of, but I’m talking about lifestyle practices which can be brought under discipline, and which needs to be identified and dealt with by you.

Before we get into that though, recognize that one of the best ways to grow your savings and ultimately to build wealth is to free up your capital in order to create a savings and investment plan. The way to do that is by eliminating or significantly reducing your debt.

It’s surprising once you’re out from under the burden of debt the ideas that come to you concerning how to better invest your money. As a matter of fact, many times simple ways of investing are clouded because debt can do that to us, as it seems to separate us from clarity concerning the matter.

The bottom line is, if you don’t have money to invest or put away, you’re never going to be free to do what you want when you want, as debt keeps you a servant until you’re released from it.

I’ve been out of complete debt for well over a decade, and the time and money I have to put away for whatever I want is always there, even if my income may be cut back at times, or I’d rather spend time doing something else, rather than spending all my time only making money or investing.

We’ll get a little more into freeing yourself from debt in the articles ahead, but for now, understand that it’s not perfecting some type of budget plan which will deliver you from debt, that’s the secondary practical step to take.

What needs to be done first is to admit to what it is that debt really is, and that is you spend more each month than you take in. Simple to understand but difficult to deal with if you’ve become addicted to debt in a way that you have problems stopping spending.

I know we’re getting a little into the psychological side of debt here, but this is really where it all starts, and there are many reasons why it could be happening in your life on an ongoing basis.

With that in mind, you should take an honest evaluation of yourself to see why it is you spend how you do, and from there look at the best way to develop that dreaded word and practice: budgeting.

Budgeting works, but not if you don’t face the reasons why you’re overspending. Once you identify the why and where, then developing a budget makes sense. If you don’t what will happen is you’ll do the same thing many people do when losing weight. They’ll start the usual idea of diet and exercise, but because they haven’t dealt with the underlying reasons of why they’re overeating, they fail time after time until they completely give up on attempting to lose weight, because they believe the diet is the key, rather than looking at the reasoning behind it all.

That’s the same with budgeting. You can develop a budget, but if the reasoning behind why you’re continually spending isn’t faced, you’ll do the same as a diet, and go through budget after budget with a few changes for each one, and eventually just go back to your spending practices again.

Having said that, a budget is the answer in the sense of practically taking care of the issue, but if you continue on in your ways, in many cases lying to yourself, you’ll find that even though you think you’re adhering to your budget, you’re in reality pretty much spending as you always have.

The reason for all of this isn’t to just get rid of debt though, as that’s only a first step. You’re doing this so you can get more money to put away and build up your wealth. Just like weight loss, it’s not enough to just cut back on something, as that will never carry you through. Thinking on things like the benefits of a longer life and feeling physically better on a daily basis is a part of the overall success of those that faithfully adhere to dieting.

Budgeting is the same thing, as it’s essentially dieting your money in order to protect yourself financially over the long term, and eventually to get everything you want without the weight of a debt load you’re not able to carry.

If you live in the United Kingdom, a great option to help you get out of debt might be an IVA. An IVA is an individual voluntary arrangement, a great alternative option to bankruptcy for those who want to pay off their debts.

In the end, why pay your money out for things you can temporarily do without, in order to be able to buy whatever you want in the future without adding the stress of too much debt to your life?

This is why so many Americans are starting to pay down their debt now, as the recession and difficult financial circumstances have woken them up to the reality they can’t afford to live this way.

Now once that debt is paid down, we can then start to put more money into our savings and ultimately building up our personal wealthy at a much faster and higher rate than we ever have before.

With the coming of the new year, the recession is expected to continue – no matter what government reports say – and so you should consider a couple of things concerning your savings account you set aside to protect you in times of emergencies.

There are a couple of things to consider in our economic times that will help better prepare you for the near future, that promises to be about the same as it has been for the last couple of years.

Keep in mind that many companies continue to lay off, reports continue to come in that the jobs lost over the last couple years may never return, and the so-called recovery will be a jobless one.

In other words, be sure to keep your emergency fund built up, and during 2010, I would advise you build it up for another several months at least, and if you can, up to a year. If the worst happens and you’re laid off, in these economic conditions you’ll have to assume it’ll take at least a couple months more than normal to get yourself another job. I would think in terms of at least several months more than normal to find a job if you’re laid off or fired; so building an emergency fund to reflect those realities should be part of your financial strategy for 2010.

The second element to take into account is the inflation rate. Already commodities are starting to rise in price for 2010, and the commodities rising in price directly have an effect on regular consumers. For example, oil prices and agricultural products are already rising in price, and that should continue on throughout the year.

While oil and related products are less than 5% of what we pay now, it is projected to reach as high as 6% or more for the year, which historically causes consumers to spend less during those period of times. More importantly, we need to prepare for those realities with our emergency funds, thinking in terms of adding an additional five to six percent in it to protect us during these times of inflation.

How to do that would be to get an accurate count of what your monthly expenses are on average through the year. Assume you’ll be paying an extra 5% during 2010 for living expenses; including oil, gas and food.

If your expenses are $15,000 a year say, and you’re building up a fund to protect you during an entire year, then just multiply the $15,000 by about 5% in order to come up how much more you want to put into the fund in case you lose your job or some other unexpected emergency arises which makes take a leave of absence or quit.

Either way, if you do, and you’re expecting your current emergency fund to take care of you for a year, and the cost of living has risen by 5%, you’ll have less money and time to work with than you originally thought. That’s why we must keep up with inflation to be sure we adjust our emergency fund reserves accordingly.

As far as the job market goes, it doesn’t look good in 2010, and that demands more money to be put away in my estimation, as the time it will take to get a new job could be much longer than normal.

Add inflationary pressures and longer time to find a job if you’re laid off, and you see how it would be wise to add several more months to your emergency fund at least, and if at all possible, I would extend it from at least six months to a year if you can, as the job market is that tough.

An emergency fund is there for you to buy time, and time is at a premium during an economic crisis, and inflation can cut back on the time you have it you don’t pay attention to it.

When someone puts away money into savings, the first purpose in doing it should be to build up a safety net for a minimum period of six months. In our current economic climate that could be extended to twelve months if you’re able to swing it.

Building up a personal cash reserve for at least a six-month period means you could continue living like you are and take care of all reflects the money you’re currently making at your existing job. So whatever you’re making on the job monthly now, you should multiply by six and have a goal of having at least that in your cash reserve.

Most of us know about or have heard something like this before, so we won’t get into that part of it. What I want to do is help you understand that reasons behind that financial safety net and not to move off of it no matter what happens.

I’ve been talking about investing in low interest rate and potentially high inflationary periods of time recently, and that can have the type of negative effect on someone in regard to their cash reserves if they attempt to battle those factors to the neglect of the purpose behind having a financial safety net under you.

The first thing to remember is your financial safety net is just for that and nothing else. No matter what happens, your purpose is to have a minimum of six months cash on hand available to take you through that time without suffering any losses. Nothing should move you off of that, even things like interest rates and inflation.

Now it doesn’t hurt to understand these pressures and know how to combat them, as long as it doesn’t cut into your saved capital.

So what you don’t want to do is start moving out of your comfort zone or the safety factor of your backup fund in order to beat inflation or get a better yield, if it has risk associated with it that could lose you money, or possibly cost you more through fees to change it to another account type which may give you a better return, but cost you as much to make the change.

If inflation does rear its ugly head in a big way, sure we must be mindful of that, as it could cut into the funds we have set aside to protect ourselves in difficult times. So what at one time was money set aside for six months could fairly quickly only pay for five months of living if inflation really takes off; which it probably will over the next couple of years.

At the same time though, the low interest rate environment should also stop, as it’s thought they should start rising sometime near the end of 2010, assuming the job market changes, which the Federal Reserve says will be largely the determining factor in keeping rates low if it doesn’t improve.

If inflation rises along with interest rates, you should be able to hold pretty steady for your safety fund, as they will grow together, hopefully close enough so you won’t have to try to increase your risk factor to keep up with it. Resist that temptation.

It would also be better to go over your financial obligations and habits in order to find places you can cut back if the cost of living goes up, as your primary financial goal should be to have enough put away in case of emergency. Everything else is build out from that foundation.

The bottom line is you must understand why you have a safety net in the first place, and even if outside factors like inflation cut into the buying power of that fund, you can either add more money to it to make up for that, or simply have a little less time to buy if things get bad unexpectedly for you. The worst thing to do would be to take steps which could threaten your protective nest egg.

A financial safety net is just that, and no outside force should do anything to make you start to take money out of it, other than for the purpose it exists: you lose your job and need to buy time to find a new source of income. That’s the purpose of putting money away: to buy time, and nothing else.

Now a little earlier in the article I mentioned something about the economic times we live in. Not only am I talking about the job market and inflationary pressures, neither am I talking about the pathetic returns we’re getting on our money. Rather, I’m talking about an even more increasing practice of businesses in outsourcing, hiring on a temporary basis, and moving to a more part-time culture.

With that in mind, it’s more important than ever to build up a cash reserve fund for yourself, as this will usually mean times of feast or famine for you, and developing the practice of putting away money when you have it is the best financial discipline you can have going forward.

Remember, a financial safety net exists for financial safety. Don’t do anything to tap into it unless it meets the needs you build it up for in the first place.

Many, or probably most, people reading Savings Toolbox would like to have extra capital to plow into a savings program to create a safety moat as well as build up their wealth.

What may surprise some of you, is there could very well be a very simple and effective way for you to do just that with just a few adjustments to your lifestyle. What is it? Renegotiating on the services you buy or rent monthly.

It’s no surprise that not just consumers are struggling during these times, but many companies who offer services which aren’t necessary to survive are also struggling, as people put more money into paying down debt and increasing their savings.

With that in mind, many businesses offering you services are concerned over the possibility you may be the next one to stop using them in order to survive. That’s a great advantage to you, and you should definitely try to use that as a point to start negotiations.

This shouldn’t scare you, as we’re not talking about the type of pressurized negotiations you may see at a flea market or pawn shop.

So how you you go about it to best position yourself for a better deal? First of all you’ve got to decide whether you are willing to walk away from the service if you can’t strike a deal with them. If they you on it and you are found to be bluffing, it’ll do nothing to help you at all.

Don’t be only bluffing is the first thing to keep in mind. If you need more money to put away, be willing to go all the way and stop services if you aren’t satisfied with their answer.

The first step is to attempt to keep your current services if you can and do it at a better price. You could call them and say you’re cutting their services because you can’t afford their price, and then just sit there and listen to what they say.

One thing to keep in mind here is there are some unimaginative and poorly trained employees at times, and they aren’t ready to offer alternatives to you. If you find that, be ready to give them a few ideas, saying you would like to keep their service, you just can’t do it at the price they’re currently charging you. Again, this is in relationship to keeping your current services at a discounted price.

If that doesn’t work, and they simply won’t work with you in any way, then you might ask about lower-level services which can do the same for you, but with less of what they currently offer. For example, less minutes on your mobile phone, less channels on cable, etc.

One thing I did a long time about was get rid of my land-line phone. Why pay the extra for absolutely no extra value or use? Every bit of that savings can be applied to building up your wealth or paying down your debt.

A friend of my recently experienced some tough times and asked for a discount on her rent or she would have to move out. She wasn’t bluffing, and the landlord really needed a renter in the home, so she got a $150 discount in order to stay there. Not bad for a couple of minutes’ work.

This will work better for homes that aren’t part of a large conglomerate. In other words, if your landlord owns just a few homes that he rents, he would be more apt to give you a discount in times like these than a large rental company would. It’s definitely worth the effort, as you have a good chance in these times to secure a better deal for yourself and put extra cash into your pocket on a monthly basis.

In the end, it’s better to get rid of whatever you need in order to secure your future, and there are worse things to happen to you than to cancel your cable or high speed Internet connection.

Just think in terms that it is a temporary situation, and once you get things on track again by paying down bills and building up enough capital to take you through at least six months of unemployment with your current financial obligations, at that time you can simply add some of the perks you had before.

The point is you’re probably leaving money on the table if you have full service on most things. There hasn’t been a time like this in decades where asking for a better deal may be answered with a yes.

If not, be prepared to cancel what is needed to give you the extra money you need to build solid, long-term financial success.

Just be sure to have the discipline to pay down your debt or put money into savings when you do cut back on costs, otherwise it’s all being done in vain.

We need all the help we can get during these difficult economic times, and the latest offering from Citibank for those who currently own an AT&T Universal Credit Card delivers just that, as they’re giving away a $100 checking account bonus for those who open up a new checking account with them.

Now if you already have a checking account with Citibank and also use an AT&T Universal Credit Card, unfortunately you won’t qualify for the $100 bonus.

Among what are called the ‘qualifying activities’ to receive the $100 bonus, is to make a minimum deposit in the checking account, after you open it, of $1,000 by January 31, 2010. That’s not the only qualification, but it will be the major one for most of those looking to participate in the program and receive the bonus from Citibank.

Other activities you must participate in to receive the bonus would be to make a minimum of five signature debit card purchases for three straight months, or one direct deposit for three consecutive months, or make two electronic bill payments for three months in a row.

Understand that you don’t need to do each of the above, but you do have to perform one to qualify, along with the $1,000 deposit required by the end of January.

This offer is made to AT&T Universal Credit Card, and so you’ll receive the offer via your AT&T Universal Card statement. That’s the best place to look for it, although you can call the company or visit a nearby Citibank branch to sign up for it.

Remember that this deal ends by January 31, and if you’re interested in making an extra $100 over a relatively short period of time, this is a good chance to do it.