Smoosh Your Smartphone Bill!

Coaching, Financial Coaching, Goal Setting, Personal Finance, Saving Money, Uncategorized No Responses »

May 092013

Smoosh Your Smartphone Bill!

The one thing that I can’t live without today is my sexy smartphone. It’s the first thing that I reach for when I wake up to see what the market is doing! I listen to music on it, I track my spending, I trade on it, the calendar tells me where to go or who to meet, I keep in constant contact with my friends and family by texting or facebook and work with email – I even make a call every so often. It has become essential to my life but knowing that I love money more than even it – I won’t let the cost get over $5o before tax.

Recently I had seen the cost of my bill creep up to around $86 with tax based on my usage. Knowing that there are all of these new telecom competitors entering our market with fantastic smartphone deals right now is a great time to smoosh your bill.

I called yesterday and reduced my bill from around $86 a month to $52 including tax! Total score, right? If I stay within my dataplan limits that will save me $408 a year! That is enough for a flight to LA or NY to have an amazing weekend with friends. Here are my steps to get those same savings while improving your plan and then re-invest them into your own happiness ! Win win win.

1. Run around town and check out all of the carriers Smartphone plans and deals. Be sure to check your office fax room fist. The best deals are offered to employees of large companies so see if you can get a group rate based on your employer.

2. Find the best deal that would reduce your bill to around $50 that includes unlimited after 5pm and weekends calling, over 500MB of date or more based on your usage, unlimited texting, and all the Voicemail and caller ID options.

3. Call your carrier and ask them to cheapen your plan based on the fact that there are all of these new competitors out there with cheaper plans. They want your business!

4. Call and ask for the loyalty department then charm them with everything you’ve got. This department gets all of the livid customers and you being cheeky and flirty is a welcome treat for them.

5. Once you get your best plan keep scouring the earth for a better deal. If you find one call them up and try to get that option.

Keep loving your money and there will be $408 savings to love you back from your bill!

Have an awesome week,

Dave

How I Came Out Of University Financially Set!

Financial Coaching, Personal Finance, Saving Money, Uncategorized No Responses »

Apr 292013

Hi Students,

Here are some of my tips for all of you thinking of school in September. With school being even more competitive and Universities and Colleges pushing off more and more of the cost on students, I have some tips that really helped me out.

They are based on what I did in University to come out with a positive cash balance instead of debt! I had made money in University so I could buy a loft and travel for 6 months after I had graduated. I bet loads of students would like to find out how I did it.

Here are my big tips:

To build credit, pay your cell, cable, online and other fixed costs with a pre-authorized payment on your credit card. Budget how much it’ll be each month and pay if off in full.
Use you debit card or cash for your miscellaneous cost. When your money is gone at the end of the month, it’s gone. This will keep you to your budget.
Get a part time job that will help you when you graduate. This will not only open some doors for you when you’re out of school, it’ll give you extra cash to help with the cost of being a student. I worked at Merrill Lynch in London, ON and got a job when I had finished school.
Sell your old stuff. Check out old hockey equipment, text books, collectables, and comics and try to sell them online. Try to sell it before you toss it.
Implement “Financially Free Fridays”. Make your own coffee, eat at home, and play board games with your friends. You still have 6 other days to go out and party. It’ll save you a ton.
Save 10% from EVERY cheque you ever receive and save it. Even if times are hard, don’t touch it. This strategy has made many people very rich. So do it!
Get a student discount card and save on everything you can, movies, computers, transit, even some restaurants offer discounts. I used mine until I was in my 30′s!
Pick a financial mentor and meet with them once a month. Be sure to discuss with them your challenges and successes with your money. My mentor helped me navigate the trappings of school mentality and had me write my CSC and get experience for the real world. I still got to party and travel .
Apply to every corporate, government, scholarship and bursary that is available. There are online sites that categorize them so you can see which ones you can apply for. Don’t leave any resource untapped.
Join professional or investing clubs at school. You’ll make great business relationships, learn to invest, and learn from other ambitious students.

Have an awesome week!

Dave

Your Money Behaviours, Become Your Results!

Coaching, Financial Coaching, Personal Finance, Saving Money No Responses »

Apr 202013

Do you spend more than you plan to month after month even though you WANT to save, with all your heart? Want to change? Are you ready to change? The trick is to not only change your will to save money, but also your behaviours. That is the key to getting results. Here are three quick money behaviours that will help you save more money.

1. Implement Financially Free Fridays! Don’t spend any money on Friday and change your behaviour. Drink company coffee, pack your lunch, play board games with the kids and don’t spend a dime. Concentrating on not spending any money on Friday will effect your decisions on the other six days of the week. Watch you your spending will decrease overall.

2. Go on a Cleanse! Not only will this be good for you to detox for two weeks, it’ll get you into the habit of having to buy groceries and eat in. It’ll set a positive behavior that makes you plan your meals and what you eat and drink when out with friends. Eating out is one of the biggest costs that we all have to deal with. It’ll slim down your waste line AND your spending. Win win. Here is an awesome site to help with the cleanse. Healthy Delicious

3. Make Money Everyday! Rich people are always trying to make money, each and every day. Think how you can right now. It can be as simple as rolling coins and depositing them, selling old comic books or antiques, or writing a blog and selling advertising space like me. If you down time is used making money vs. spending money, your results will be positive.

Change your behaviours to support your money goals and they’ll bring you positive money results. Take your first step today and you’ll be off to the money races!

Have an awesome week,
Dave

What Does It Really Cost? Do You Still Want it?

Coaching, Financial Coaching, Personal Finance No Responses »

Apr 072013

Have you ever crunched ALL the numbers to see how much your car, cable bill, or house really costs? I bet they cost way more than you think they do. Our brains are programmed to just grab the little information that we remember vs if we crunch all the costs associated with something to find the true cost. We remember the rent or mortgage amount coming out of your account instead of extended list of associated costs like:

$1650 mtg

$275 maintenance

$100 electricity bill

$135 property taxes

$20 condo insurance

$1650 is a big difference from that actual cost to run my loft $2180!

This is fun. Let’s do it for my cable bill. I only get basic everything on my cable. I don’t need the lumberjack channel. All I need is BNN and CNBC so I can get insights to trade my portfolio. Unfortunately it comes in one of the bundles and it costs more. Add it all up to see if you can save more money….

$69 cable

$53 cell

$40 internet

Minus my 10% discount for bundelling them all together. When ever the prices go up I’ll call and threaten to cancel. My goal is to keep my products all around $150 before taxes. I went a year without cable but I missed BNN and CNBC. :/

Do the same for your car. We think of the payment and say to ourselves” I can totally pull that off each month for that stud mobile” but do the math. Say that payment is $650 a month plus….

$200 fuel

$200 insurance

$50 a month for yearly license charges, maintenance, oil, wipers, and fuzzy dice.

$1,060 is a HUGE difference compared to $650.

Do this to all of your bills to see how much extra cost there is and then plug the actual number into your yearly budget. $7,800 vs. the actual $12,720 for the yearly car cost might get you to get rid of it or downsize to a put put. Ask yourself – self? Will that $12,720 can make me happier or more secure as a trip or in an savings account. What do you think?

Love your money and it’ll love you back with a better life!

Have a great week,

Dave

I Heart Our Banks!

Dividend Investing, Financial Coaching, Investing, Mutual Funds, Saving Money No Responses »

Feb 182013

People LOVE to hate the big five Canadian banks. If you read through their corporate twitter feeds or read the comments after the CBC Market Watch show on bank fees – you’ll read people’s rage. Other personal finance “talking heads” have been getting in on the action by tweeting about increased overdraft fees and other pain points that rally the unhappy customer rage.

I, on the other hand love when the banks increase fees. When they buy another bank like ING. When they add another ATM charge. Because I make sure not to pay these fees with some quick and easy steps AND I get my increased dividend payouts by owning all of the big five banks. Win win for me!

The BMO big five banks ETF that I own symbol ZEB did 14.71% in 1 yr. That’s probably better than any of the mutual funds that all of those banks sell. BMO ETF Equal Weighted Banks

Here is how I keep the dividends without paying the fees!

1. Keep the minimum balance in your account to waive the fee: I keep $1,000 to waive the $4 fee in my 10 transaction a month account.

2. Limit your transactions: I charge my gym, cell, insurance, internet, TV, groceries, gas etc. to my card and have it paid off at the end of the month with one transaction automatically. ( call your credit card company to do this).

3. Automatically have your retirement, mortgage/rent and debt payments come out of your account fixed: Make sure all of your necessities are automatic and set for your success. Max out on paying back debt and building up retirement vs. maxing out cards and lines of credit.

4. Take out weekly miscellaneous spending amount ONCE a week: Things like hair cuts, coffee, dinning out, gifts, clothes, and movies. This will keep your transactions to 4 or 5 a month plus they’ll stop you from using other bank machines. If you’re good with your credit cards you can make payment for the weekly amount and then charge away until it’s gone. But be good!

Keep getting the big 5 banks dividends without paying the fees!

Dave

2013 Goal Planning!

Coaching, Credit Cards, Financial Coaching, Goal Setting, Uncategorized No Responses »

Feb 032013

The New Year is just a month ago and there is no better way to kick off the year than with a solid plan for 2013. This year instead of just writing down the same old stuff like going to the gym and reading more — blow out your ideal life. Go area by area and in great detail crystallize what you truly want each area to be. Dream you reality and then live it.

Things you have always wanted but were afraid to ask for? Add them. Better food, better body, more fun, more adventure, the things that will make the hair on your arm stand up because you’re so excited by the thought of living that way.

The best way to motivate ourselves in life is by designing our ideal reality. Not just one or two things that we think we can accomplish but every single thing that we can dream we go for. Spend an evening with a bottle of wine in a quite place and let your mind go free. Don’t sensor anything. If it comes to you. Write it down.

Instead of writing “a million dollars” in the bank. Write what that million dollars would allow you to do. Travel 6 months of the year, spoil your family, nest egg for an future health problems, the dream car that you have always wanted. There is nothing more powerful than dreaming our ultimate reality, confirming why it is important to us, and then achieving it. What is happiness if not that.

Take three pieces of paper and write on the top of each one “Personal Goals”, “Professional Goals”, and “Material Goals”. Take the time with each piece of paper and fill both sides with everything that you want. This is your life so dig deep for inspiration. For personal it could be classes you want to take, creative expressions through music, dance or art, even more time with your dad. Professional could be getting your MBA or writing a book to share the skills you have learned through business. Material goals are simply every thing you want to buy. If it costs $5 or $1.5M — it goes down on the page. This is the fun one for me.

After you have filled a page front and back for each three areas. Write beside them a priority if “1″ if it is super important to do, “2″ if is is less important and “3″ if is the least important to you. We’re going to do everything so don’t feel bad about the “3″s you softy! Write down all of the items that you have a “1″ beside and commit to yourself the EXACT date when they will be achieved. These will be your top goals to accomplish this year. Keep them close to you and when you feel less motivated take them out and re-energize thinking of how amazing you felt when crafting the list.

Next week I’ll show you how to commit to your goals and then allocate resources to achieve them all!

Happy February everyone,

Dave

What Investors Need To Know For 2013 - MSN Money

Coaching, Credit Cards, Financial Coaching, Income Investing, Personal Finance No Responses »

Jan 282013

What investors need to know for 2013

2013 is the year of the snake (the yin to last year’s dragon yang), and according to www.astrology.com that means “we’re likely to see significant developments in the area of science and technology this year.” So if you want to base your investing on the stars that’s your prerogative, but for those looking for more down to earth advice I spoke with David Campbell Lester, a financial life coach and author of the best-selling book I Heart Money.

Lester predicts 2013 will “be relatively flat like 2012 has been. Investors should expect the first increase to the bank of Canada’s prime rate as well as a slowing in condo sales and house prices. Chinese growth will determine if the markets rise or decrease in 2013. If China can keep positive growth it will slowly pull Europe out of its recession. Go China!”

He also says it’s going to be a slow climb from the 2009 bottom of the fiscal crisis. Old strategies are about as reliable as basing your investments on your horoscope, Lester says. “Buying ETFs and mutual funds, with the hope that they will go up over time, won’t work anymore. Investors need to diversify into dividend or income producing investments to “get paid to wait.” Look at alternative investments to gain income like REITs or covered call strategies on large cap dividend companies.”

David Campbell Lester

Of course when crystal balling 2013, it’s not all about money. Fortune tellers are constantly being asked about finding love (or holding onto the love you’ve got). So don’t let your financial plan mess up a good thing. Lester says make sure you and your partner are both on the same portfolio page.

“Having a common money strategy with your love monkey is a huge plus,” says Lester. “Separately draw up all your material, personal and professional goals. Then sit down together and discuss what you both want. Look at what the other person wants to achieve first. Is it paying off the mortgage or building a retirement nest egg? That would suggest to me that they were looking for security. If your partner wants trips and convertibles, they are looking for freedom. Working together to satisfy both of your core values, set up a monthly contribution to both of your RRSPs. At the end of the year, take the return and enjoy it with a trip somewhere awesome! Now that is how to satisfy both your values while being financially responsible as well!”

And even if you’re not ready to invest, there are some simple steps you can take to bolster your financial situation, without resorting to tea leaves, or even a budget. “Budgets don’t work,” says Lester. “Everyone hates them. It goes against our humanness. Automatically have your housing, retirement, debt repayment, and goal saving taken out of your pay each month. What is left over is what you get to spend until [the] next paycheque. Take out the cash and when it is gone, it is gone. Or dump your miscellaneous spending amount on your credit card before you spend, and THEN spend down to zero. That way you’ll get the points and will never spend more than what you’ve dumped on the card. Or you shouldn’t, if you’re good! ”David can be found on his blog, Iheartmoney.ca.

– Steven Bereznai, MSN Money

Posted at 11:02 AM in Banking, Behaviour, Credit cards, Debt, Family finances, Interest rates, Money management, Mutual funds, Personal finance, RRSP | Permalink

Savvy Car Insurance Shopping

Coaching, Dividend Investing, Financial Coaching, Personal Finance, Saving Money 1 Response »

Jan 202013

Savvy Car Insurance Shopping

I just got my yearly insurance bill and I saved more money again! Insurance is one of those expenses where you hate to pay but need to have it. Why not trim those premiums and try to make some money in the process? That’s how we roll, right? Here are some of the things I do to take the itch out of insurance prices. Enjoy my money monkeys!

Reduce Your Deductible

I would never claim any damage under $1,000 so why not increase my deductible to that amount. When my insurance agency tried to get me to reduce that amount it would have cost me another $1,000 a year. I’ll save that $1,000 and keep it in my rainy day emergency fund making me interest. I’ve been driving for 18 years and I’ve only been in two car accidents. Doing that math I’ll only need the $1,000 every 9 years! (I’m knocking on wood now.)

Keep All of Your Insurance Policies At One Place

I have house insurance and so I keep it with my car insurance people. I save another 5% for each insurance policy I have with them. When I get my plane, boat, and cottage insurance with them I’ll save even more

Shop Around!

I love harassing the poor customer retention department staff. When they call I’ll charm them by telling them what a great customer I am and how I deserve a better discount. I’ll phone their competitors and if I find a better price I’ll have them beat it! It’s getting very competitive in the insurance industry and they will bend over backwards to keep good customers.

Affiliate Discount Programs

Ask at work or your spouse’s work if you have any affiliate programs with insurance companies. Being associated with a large company can save you a lot of money. I get a discount for also being a UWO alumni. Finally my schooling is paying me back!

Ditch The Extras

Get rid of any rental car benefits. Cheap cars will cost you $20 a day. Towing and other perks should be kept to a minimum that cost you more. Think how often you get into an accident vs. how many years you pay these extra fees.

Buy The Insurance Company Stock

Going back to my point that insurance companies make tons of money off of you. Make it right back by buying the stock of the insurance company you hold. Do you research and if it pays a dividend and has been a good stock why not let them pay you a premium for a change.

Love your money and it’ll love you back with savvy insurance,

Dave

Pick Up Every Penny In 2013!

Coaching, Personal Finance, Saving Money No Responses »

Jan 132013

Pick Up Every Penny In 2013!

How you treat a lost penny is a window into how you view money overall. Do you keep walking past and not bother with them? Or do you scoop down and pick them up? Then compare to the way you treat bigger financial realms like your credit cards, investments and career?

If your belief system understands money to be important, it’ll show itself in the other financial areas in your life. Pick up those pennies and that respect will flow into other areas like making more money!

Have an awesome week,

Dave

Be Financially Savvy in 2013! Now 24% off.

Business Tips, Coaching, Credit Cards, Dating and Money, Financial Coaching, Investing, Mutual Funds, Personal Finance, Saving Money No Responses »

Dec 222012

CLICK ON THE BOOK TO BUY!

“While budgeting is akin to dental surgery to many, Lester approaches this in a way that is both painless and practical. He includes budgeting exercises that are easy to complete and which help you identify misguided spending that, when redirected, can result in better allocation of assets and income. “Writing it down in black and white is half the battle towards being a master at budgeting. The same principle applies to your goals,” says Lester. His ‘life status’ section allows you to identify your core values and to prioritize your life while also providing you with tracking tools to chalk up your achievements. These chapters alone make the book worthwhile.”

John Archer is an investment adviser with RBC Dominion Securities in Montreal and will be spending his New Year’s Eve coun
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Budgeting+will+help+make+money+love+back/5930472/story.html#ixzz2FnHVetI5

Older Entries

Smoosh Your Smartphone Bill!

How I Came Out Of University Financially Set!

Your Money Behaviours, Become Your Results!

What Does It Really Cost? Do You Still Want it?

I Heart Our Banks!

2013 Goal Planning!

What Investors Need To Know For 2013 - MSN Money

What investors need to know for 2013

Savvy Car Insurance Shopping

Pick Up Every Penny In 2013!

Be Financially Savvy in 2013! Now 24% off.

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