Dec 3
Who in your household handles the finances? Is it you or your spouse? It is almost always only one individual in the household that handles the money and truly has a grasp on their financial circumstances. But what about the other person? Shouldn’t they know exactly where the money is going and how much is in savings?Up until I got this nanny job, our finances were handled by Aaron. I had no problem with him handling it, as he had more experience setting up a budget than I had up until that point. Every once in a while though a situation would come where I needed to know where we were in our financial progress and if we had enough money for an item in savings. For example, if I needed to go to the doctors and have a procedure that I knew wasn’t going to be covered by our insurance, I would have to call Aaron or wait until he got home so he could show me if there was money for the procedure or not. After a little while, Aaron and I both realized that I needed to be more involved in the whole process. What we started out doing was having a “financial meeting” about every two weeks to once a month just to go over where we were and how close we were to our goals that we set for ourselves. It was actually really helpful for me. I felt more involved and had a better grasp on where we were and where we were headed, whether positive or negative.

Then came this new job. I would be getting a steady income and I had some very specific goals of my own that I needed to save this money for, like college bills for example. So, how were we supposed to handle this? Should we combine our money and handle it as one large paycheck? Should I keep my money completely separate and do my own thing with it? In the end we did a combination of the both. I had read an article that encouraged both spouses in a family to know the ins and outs of their financial status and how to go about taking care of the bills and other necessities. The article made the point, what would you do if something would happen to your spouse? Would the other person know what savings accounts there where? What money was invested and where it was invested? How to go about the weekly and day to day business of handling the family’s money? I would have had to say “no” to all of that. Yeah I saw the budget sheet each month but that didn’t mean I knew how to go about doing any of it.

Aaron and I both decided that it would be a good idea for me to have practice with a budget sheet and managing money in general. He sat down with me and we worked on setting up a budget sheet that worked for both of us. Even though it is my paycheck there are still common goals that we are working towards. This extra income in helping us to save for those things faster while still paying off my college debt month to month. This has worked out great so far. I am learning first hand how to handle money while still having Aaron involved. We both feel very strongly about having combined finances as much as possible and always keeping the other person in the loop with what is going on. Now if something were to happen to either one of us we both know exactly what to do and where everything is.

I would encourage every person to learn how to manage your families money, for several reasons:

1. If something were to happen to your spouse you would be prepared to still get the bills out on time and would know where all the pertinent information was. It would be a lot less worry in a time of possible distress.

2. Learning the importance of managing money is an invaluable life lesson. “Money is what makes the world go ’round.”

3. If both spouses are on the same page with their finances there is a lot less room for miscommunication and possible arguments.

4. It keeps both spouses accountable for their spending. If you both know where you are on your financial road map, then it will be a lot harder to make excuses for your excessive spending. You can’t get away with the “I didn’t know” excuse.

If you and your spouse handle your finances together let me know how you work it out in the comments below. If you are going to try this for the first time let us know about your progress. It may be a little tricky at first until both people are on the same page, but it will be well worth the time. There will be a lot less stress for the both of you in the future. Good luck!

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Dec 2

This is part six on a series covering the American Dream. Read parts one, two, three, four, five and six to get the big picture!

Closeup of a copper rivet on blue jeans.Now, I know that this subject area may not apply to most of you, BUT for some of you, this will hit you square on the head.

As we have discovered so far in our journey to redefine the American Dream, it is mostly made up of the outer appearance, and how the people around us see us. The house, the car, the degree hanging on the wall in the nice frame, and the debt that is covered up but used on a regular basis to fund this FAKE lifestyle. It is all for the sake of others.

We cannot leave out of that list CLOTHING! The very act of covering ourselves with clothing is used to portray a false lifestyle. What kind of shoes is she wearing? Wow, those are expensive, she must be successful or “living the life.” This opinion based on shoes.

Clothing plays the same part as the car and house. It gives the people around you the room to think you are either poor or well off, or maybe if you’re like me, you just don’t care what people around you think. But that last option is not really an applicable option. You are either well off or not, all depending on the shoes you wear, the jacket you have, and the pair of jeans you put on before you head out.

I am not saying that buying clothing is a bad thing. It is a necessity and I understand that. BUT it can become an unhealthy buying habit to always feel the need to buy that new style that is out. Clothes are important, but not that important.

Personally, I only buy clothes when I need them. And even then, I’ll hold off and see if it even really needs replaced. I do not buy clothes out of want, that is a dangerous place that is easy to get caught up in.

“But people will look at me funny!”

“I don’t have any clothes to wear!” She screams, as she stands in front of her overstuffed closet.

Maybe she is forgetting that it does not matter what people think about her. The only opinion that matters is her own, especially when it comes to using debt, or getting into debt, or not being able to save money each month, because she feels the need to buy a new outfit every time she is out. She is also forgetting that she just needs to wear clothing to go out, it does not REALLY matter if they are new or the latest trend.

“Just put on those jeans, that shirt, those shoes, and off we go,” her husband says, calmly.

This could also be an age quandary or a maturity level issue. Either way, don’t go into debt, or keep yourself from saving money each month, just to buy clothing.

Dave Ramsey’s favorite line applies here perfectly: “If you will live like no one else, later you will live like no one else.”

Hold off on buying all the new trendy clothes now, and later, when everyone else cannot, you will be able to dress the way you would like.

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Dec 1
The Red ribbon is a symbol for solidarity with...

Image via Wikipedia

All it can take is one drink, one night, one party, ONE MISTAKE, and you could be affected for the rest of your life. Not just with bad memories, or no memory of it at all, but with HIV/AIDS. This is a reality, and one that you should not ignore. Get yourself checked out if you think you, or someone you know may have been infected. It is real and now is the time to act!

Additional links are listed below that include information and other helpful advice:

Don’t waste anymore time, if you or someone you know could be infected GET TESTED!!

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Nov 30
On Tap For This Week
icon1 Aaron & Lindsay | icon2 Review | icon4 November 30, 2008| icon3No Comments »

Every Sunday, we will give you the posts that we have scheduled for each day of the coming week. Be sure to grab our RSS feed and sign up to receive posts in your e-mail inbox!

Monday: Bloggers Unite - World AIDS Day
Tuesday: Redefine The American Dream pt. 7 -The Clothes You Wear
Wednesday: Handling Your Household Finances
Thursday: Free Christmas Event - Bass Pro Shops
Friday: Lower Gas Prices Mean Extra Gas Money
Saturday: The Weekend Review

In the meantime, check out the FREE TOOLS we have made available to you or drop us a line just to say “hi” or to tell us what you would appreciate reading here.

Aaron & Lindsay
Where You Are Now writers

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Nov 29
Weekend Review - I’m Stuffed Edition
icon1 Aaron & Lindsay | icon2 Review | icon4 November 29, 2008| icon32 Comments »

Wow, what a Thanksgiving! We went to four different homes yesterday, all family visits, and ate at every single one…I’m STUFFED!!

I will be the first to tell you that my mother in-law can cook! Whenever we are over at their place for dinner I feel like I eat like a king, she’s that good. Everything Thanksgiving she serves an appetizer that is a new dish she has never tried herself, so it always add a little mystery to it. This year was Butternut Squash Soup. FANTASTIC!

“Please sir, I want some more!”

I would have been happy with just the soup for the meal, but we did not stop there, of course. It was a great day, and we were able to see all of the family we wanted to see. It truly was a Happy Thanksgiving, and I hope yours was the same.

Before I take anymore of your valuable time, here is a recap of the articles we had this past week:

A Positive Attitude is Worth More Than the Amount

“Ohhhhh,” you respond. “So if I tell myself that a payment is better than no payment I will slowly but surely chip away at the debt and eventually have it paid off?”

“That’s right,” he says as he turns and walks in the other direction, his super hero cape flapping in the wind.

Redefine The American Dream Pt. 6 - College Pt. 3

He knew what he LOVED and he did that! So, after high school, college was the choice for him. He wanted to further his knowledge in the recording business and since graduation has grown in his talent even more! College was for him, and it is good that he went. College was not for me, and it is good that I did not go. I’m doing fine in life and so is he. Two different paths, one destination.

Service Review - Tweet What You Spend (TWYS)

Feel like you lose track of how much you have spent during any given day? Never fear, TWYS is here! They’ll send you alerts when you start to get close to your spending limit. That way you know that you should not make the next purchase if you want to stay under your pre-set limit.

Be Thankful Today - HAPPY THANKSGIVING

One of the main reasons Americans save 0% of their income and spend $1.20 for every $1 they make is because they are not thankful! Be content with what you have and I promise that you will see more money in savings and less in debt.

Video Tutorial - Tracking Your Goals

If you have a savings account and if you have goals for multiple categories within that account, then this spreadsheet is for you. Categorize your savings account, keep track of where you are at with your goals, and see it all in one place. Another easy to use spreadsheet brought to you by Where You Are Now.

10 Ways to Earn Extra Cash This Holiday Season appeared at the 40th Money Hacks Carnival hosted by Steadfast Finances, “Thanks for hosting!”

Tomorrow Lindsay and I are going to put up our Christmas tree, which we still have to find a place for in the family room of our apartment. Wish us luck!!

Hope you have a great weekend!

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Nov 28

If you have a savings account and if you have goals for multiple categories within that account, then this spreadsheet is for you. Categorize your savings account, keep track of where you are at with your goals, and see it all in one place. Another easy to use spreadsheet brought to you by Where You Are Now.

RSS and Email subscribers, I cannot promise that the video below will work in your readers or inboxes. Come on over to the site :-)

Download here.

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Nov 27
Thanksgiving meal

Image by echobase_2000 via Flickr

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I hope that you all have a great day today with family and friends, but most importantly, I hope that you take some time to be thankful for what you have!

One of the main reasons Americans save 0% of their income and spend $1.20 for every $1 they make is because they are not thankful! Be content with what you have and I promise that you will see more money in savings and less in debt.

That is all for today. We’re off running around visiting with Family and eating a lot of food, I hope you are too!

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Nov 26

TWYS Logo

How many of you lose track of the cash you are spending? *raises hand*. How many of you wish there was a quick and easy way to track the cash that you are spending? *raises hand*. What if I told you that there was a service out there that did just that? AND what if I told you that it was a sinch to use? Would you check it out?

Good. Me too, and I did, 30 days ago. This is a review on the cash tracking service Tweet What You Spend (TWYS).

What is Tweet What You Spend?

TWYS is a cash tracking service that uses the micro-blogging service Twitter (not sure what Twitter is, check out Twitter In Plain English). TWYS allows you to send them a direct message with information about your cash purchase and will store that information online in your personal “journal”. From there, your purchases are grouped and totaled for instant access to your spending habits. You can also export the information collected to CSV or Excel with the push of a button.

Tweet What You Spend Key Features

“No need to keep the receipt! Enter transactions at the point of sale through your mobile phone using Twitter” - How simple is that? Don’t worry about keeping the receipt, writing down the purchase information, or using some other method that requires more than two hands. Simply pull out your phone, send a direct message to TWYS (ex: “d twys groceries 35.00 food”) and off you go. Your TWYS journal on their website does the rest!

“Categorize your cash spending through drag-and-drop controls in your secure Cash Journal” - Don’t know how to catagorize a purchase right after you made it, or feel like you put it in the wrong catagory? No sweat. They have easy to use drag and drop features in your journal that allow you to easily change the catagory so that it is correct. And to go along with the easy to use interface, TWYS will do all the math behind the scenes so you don’t have to worry about correcting anything. Just drag-and-drop!

“Set daily spending limits and receive alerts to your mobile phone when you near them” - This one is awesome. Feel like you lose track of how much you have spent during any given day? Never fear, TWYS is here! They’ll send you alerts when you start to get close to your spending limit. That way you know that you should not make the next purhcase if you want to stay under your pre-set limit.

“Export your Cash Journal to CSV or Excel” - Doing the 30 Day Challenge? Here you go! Scratch the old way of doing things (taking the information from receipts, random pieces of paper, and notes on your hand and putting it into the excel spreadsheet that I built for you) and let TWYS do all of the input and output for you. All you have to do is track all of your spending with their service for 30 days and then export that information to CSV or Excel. It grabs the purchase, amount, catagory, date, time, and other information to help you take a closer look at your spending habits.

How Can TWYS Help You?

As humans we are natually terrible at managing our money. We need reminders, spreadsheets, computer applications, accountants, and websites like this one to keep us in line with our money. Take some of the pain away from doing this and use TWYS to track your spending! Never lose track again and always know how much you spent on what. From there, trim the fat!

New Features Planned for Tweet What You Spend

Below are some of the planned Tweetwhatyouspend improvements, which you can also find under http://news.tweetwhatyouspend.com.

  1. Custom categories - ability to define your own custom spending categories. (ADDED THIS WEEK!)
  2. New cash journal views - see your cash spending broken up by selected week or month
  3. Joint accounts - combine more then one Twitter account into one cash journal view so that you can see group or family spending habits

My Thoughts After 30 Days

As I try do with any service I review, I used TWYS for 30 days before I wrote this review and came to my conclusion of the service.

Well, as someone who is on Twitter all day I found this service to be awesome. I use Fuelfrog on a regular basis to track my fuel consumption and have always been on the outlook for a service that was integrated with Twitter and allowed me to manage some aspect of my money. When the co-founder of Twitter sent out a message about Tweet What You Spend I could not resist but look into it. I signed up and started using the service that very same day.

It has been a blast. It is so easy to use and is no more difficult than trying to remember to get a receipt to then enter into our spending plan that we use to make sure we don’t go over our budget each month. And setting it up is easy too! Just login into Twitter, follow TWYS, send them a direct message, click the link in their direct message back to you, and you’re ready to go! Never worry about where your money went again (combine this service with Rudder.com and I see a match made in financial heaven!).

So, if I were you, I would get a Twitter account if you don’t already have one, register with TWYS, and start tracking your money with an easy to use tool that is light weight and fits in your pocket.

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Nov 25

This is part three of mini series on College. You may want to read parts one and two if you have not done so already.

This is also part six on a series covering the American Dream. Read parts one, two, three, four, and five to get the big picture!

Garden Snail Hampshire UK

Image via Wikipedia

Last week we ended the article with a question: What is the best way to do life after high school?

After a week to think about this I’m curious what you came up with! Take some time and leave a comment about what you did and what you recommend.

First, I think that the path after high school needs to be decided by the student. I have a feeling that a lot of the decision making is made by the parents for the student. It is fine for parents to give their advice, but to actually force the student into or out of college is just wrong. My parents were very good at this, thankfully, and did not blink an eye when I said I wanted to go to college or when I said I was finished with college. They were very supportive of the decisions I made and let ME make the decision and suffer the consequences, if any. This is the best way to learn life, if you ask me.

Now, with that out of the way, I think that the best way to do life after high school is by going where you want to go. Do not be afraid to quit, do not be afraid to fall down, and most importantly do not be afraid to pick yourself back up and succeed. Go where you feel led to go. If college is where you feel you should go, go. If the workforce is where you think you should go, go. Life is short, but it is not too short. You have time to make mistakes, and unlike what a lot of our high school students are told, you have time to figure out your life!

Just because everyone else goes to college out of high school does not mean that it is the only way to go. Life is a journey, and a journey that is very unpredictable. What are your passions? What do you enjoy doing? Figure those out, and don’t rush that process, and then do those things! I knew that I enjoyed writing in high school, but when it came time to make a decision for my life after graduation I froze up and just did what everyone else did. Chose a major and go to college. Once there, I knew that it was not for me. So I left before I wasted anymore time and money. Now, almost four years after my high school graduation, I am starting to know myself a little better and I have rekindled the love I have for writing. It was covered up for a while but it coming back to the surface. FIND WHAT YOU LOVE AND DO IT!

For me, college was not a good place for me after high school. I did not know myself well enough to try and focus my major on one particular interest. This is something that I feel takes some time to learn, more time for me and less for others. I have a very close friend who I graduated from high school with. I’ve known him since 1st or 2nd grade so we practically grew up together. While he was in high school he was very focused. He loved music. He could practically play any instrument he picked up, he could record any instrument, and he was AWESOME at both and LOVED both! So what did he do? Well, he built a recording studio in his parents basement!

He knew what he LOVED and he did that! So, after high school, college was the choice for him. He wanted to further his knowledge in the recording business and since graduation has grown in his talent even more! College was for him, and it is good that he went. College was not for me, and it is good that I did not go. I’m doing fine in life and so is he. Two different paths, one destination.

I think the key here is finding what you love and doing it. If college will make you better at something and you have the time and money for it, then by all means, GO! But, if you are like me and do not REALLY know what you enjoy doing when you are 19 years old, then don’t make a hasty decision! Take some time off, work a few jobs, talk to people, and then revisit the college scene if you think it will help you with what you love to do!

The best way to do life after high school, and life in general, is to be patient with yourself.

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Nov 24
Superman

Image via Wikipedia

Say, for example, that you have this huge amount of debt. Well, scratch that. Say you have debt. Period. You would like to get rid of it but you are not making a lot of money. Maybe you are a college student that has a full class schedule and a part time job on campus barely paying minimum wage. This debt seems insurmountable. Your part time job will never get you from underneath it and when you graduate you will only have more debt on top of it, so getting rid of this first debt would be good while you are in college now.

“But I can’t pay it off with the small amount of money I am making”, you say.

“Yes, you can”, he says.

“Really?”

“Yes,” he responds.

“How?”

“By having a positive attitude.”

“But how will that get rid of my debt?”

“Because that positive attitude will make the minuscule payments you make on that debt seem like big chunks for you. Your positive attitude is worth much more than the payments you make, because IT is what encourages you to make the payments, as small as they are.”

“Ohhhhh,” you respond. “So if I tell myself that a payment is better than no payment I will slowly but surely chip away at the debt and eventually have it paid off?”

“That’s right,” he says as he turns and walks in the other direction, his super hero cape flapping in the wind.

“Where are you going?” you shout.

“To help someone else,” he yells over his shoulder as he jumps and begins his climb into the sky.

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