How to Determine Your Holiday Shopping Budget

Our natural inclination when this time of year rolls around is to spend now and worry about it later. After all, it’s the season of giving and who wants to stress about paying bills when you’re shopping for junior’s bike?

Unfortunately, that kind of thinking is what led our country (and a lot of the world) into the current financial funk. And if you’re really honest with yourself, what causes more stress – setting a budget ahead of time for the holidays and sticking to it as much as possible, or spending freely and not really knowing how long it’s going to take you to pay it off?

How do you make a shopping budget for the holidays?

Go back in time.

Check out your receipts from last year (chances are you bought a lot on credit cards, so this is easier than you think) and add it up. Be careful not to overlook things like cards, wrapping paper and any shipping costs if gifts had to be sent. Also, if you


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Black Friday Shopping Tips: How To Get The Best Deals On The Things On Your List

If youre anything like thousands of other people out there, youve been saving up your hard earned cash for months now in anticipation of finding a great deal on that special item on the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday.   Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the day that traditionally retailers books will go into the black for the year, and when they start making a profit.   If the day turns out anything like years past, it will be a day of deep discounts, mobs of people trying not to be trampled and quite a few disappointed people who just barely missed out on the amazing deal on the 50 3D plasma TV.

So how do you make sure that youre not one of the people missing out?  You need to plan your day with military precision, detailing your battle plan down to the smallest detail.

So what do you need to do in order to have a successful shopping trip on Black Friday?  Heres what I do before I even go to  wait in line for the door-buster deals in the wee early hours of the morning.

  • Figure out what you want to buy in advance.  Make a prioritized list:   Dont go out and buy things you dont need just because theyre a great deal.  But if your old 20 tube TV just died on you and youve been shopping for a new one, this may be a good time to buy.   Make a list of the things you want or need, and put them in the order that you need or want them.  Dont buy on impulse.
  • Set a spending threshold and dont go over it:  It can be tempting with all of the amazing deals on Black Friday to buy all sorts of things you dont need or didnt realize you needed until you got to the store.
  • Save up cash for the items youre buying: Because buying things is that much sweeter when you pay in cash!
  • Check for Black Friday deals in advance: Often stores will sell certain items at the discounted Black Friday prices in advance of the actual day.  For example, one laptop I was considering buying was at the Black Friday price online, a week in advance.
  • Visit the stores in advance so you know where the items are:  At some stores on Black Friday theyll just open the doors and there will be a mad rush for the most popular doorbuster items.  If you visit the store a day or two before the sale youll know just where you need to go to find the item youre looking for.
  • Coordinate a battle plan with a friend:  If you are looking for more than one item,  you may need to find a battle buddy, someone who is willing to wait in line with you and make a b-line for item number 2 on your list before it disappears.  If the other deal you want is at another store, they may have to to go that store for you.  Buy them lunch to thank them for the help!
  • Figure out if youll need a voucher/ticket to get a deal:  At many stores you have to arrive super early in order to get a voucher to take advantage of the hottest deals.  For example at a Micro Center I went to on Black Friday a few years back, only the first people in line got tickets to buy a deeply discounted TV.  Find out if this is the case at your store, and if so, make sure to get there early.
  • Dont despair if you miss out.  Some of the best deals dont happen on Black Friday!: If you dont get the deal you had hoped to get on Black Friday, just remember that some of the best deals people get dont even happen on this day.  Case in point -  we bought our 50 plasma TV earlier this year for $580 and not on Black Friday!   I have yet to see a deal that good for the same or a similar TV on Black Friday!

So make your battle plan early if you havent started already, do it today!

One of the most important pieces to having a successful Black Friday shopping trip is doing your research in advance.  You need to scour the all the ads, looking for the best deal on the widget you were hoping to buy.

Some of the best places Ive found to do research for Black Friday include:

  • Fat Wallet Black Friday Forum (my favorite)
  • Black Friday.net
  • Black Friday at GottaDeal
  • blackfridayads.com
  • Black Friday Ads
  • iBlack Friday
  • Black Friday Central
  • Black Friday at Amazon.com

Another cool resource that Ive found for finding the deal on exactly what youre looking for is the Black Friday spreadsheet that someone over at Deals Vista has put together. It has all the deals in one ex


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Tri merge credit report to ensure one’s good credit score

One will often read or hear the term about tri merge credit report when one is going to apply for house building loan. Prior to Bank approve one’s loan; they will first consider one’s free credit scores obtained from three bureaus of credit reporting. This signifies that one’s credit will be verified three times as all three bureaus of credit reporting provide their data separately. There is no relationship between one bureau and another. Their methods of reporting are different and the lender will judge the outcome of the reporting by the three bureaus and consider the average yield. In this way the tri merge credit report is made.

The lender will deny or approve one’s loan requested depending on the outcome of tri merge credit report. If one’s free credit scores are found better, one will obtain the loan as per one’s request or chances are there that one’s application for credit will be rejected. So, if one wants seriously to obtain sanction for one’s loan application, one should obtain one’s free credit scores. One may perform m
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NAB Chief Clyne Receives Whopper Pay Package

Cameron Clyne, chief executive of Australian banking major NAB who controversially passed on just 20 basis points of the 25 basis point cut enacted by the Australian central bank, despite the fact that the lender posted a 19.2 per cent increase in full year net profits on $5.5 billion is in line for a large pay hike.

The lender released its annual report recently which shows the NAB chief received a pay hike of 12 per cent, meaning Mr. Clyne received $8.67 million in compensation during the last financial year.

Mr. Clyne’s total compensation was increased by over $950,000 compared to the previous year, which comprises a base salary worth $2.7 million, and stock worth $3.8 million, and short term cash bonuses worth $2 million.

Mr. Clyne’s contemporaries at ANZ and Westpac have both had their cash bonus components of their compensation packages cut. ANZ chief Mike Smith saw his cash bonus cut by as much as $750,000, whilst Westpac chief Gail Kelly had her short term cash bonus component cut by $460,000. In contrast Mr. Cly


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Why Choose A 10 Year Fixed Rate Mortgage

Do you want to own your house in as little time as possible? This is a great thing to do and the sooner you can pay off your home, the better you will feel. What you need to know is that some people are choosing 10 year fixed rate mortgages in order to own their home as quickly as humanly possible and get out from the payment that they have been bound to for so long. If you want to buy a home in the United Kingdom then I would recommend a 10 year mortgage and there are many reasons why.

One of the things that you need to understand is that the less time you hold a loan from a mortgage company, the less money you will give them. What most people don’t realize is that every month you have a mortgage you will be paying the mortgage company a certain amount just to hold that mortgage open. This is a terrible thing to have happen if you are trying to save money or something like that. Paying off a mortgage sooner than you are required to is a great thing to do and that is one of the reasons why a 10 year mortgage is such a good loan to get.

Something that I would recommend is that you only get a 10 year fixed rate mortgage contract if you know for sure that you will live in that house for at least 10 years. T
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