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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FOFA implementation date not set in concrete

The Federal Government has given itself an escape clause on the implementation date of the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.

In an explanatory note accompanying the second tranche of the legislation, Treasury and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will “devise an implementation strategy”, according to the notes.

“There will be an appropriate implementation period,” the note says. “The ba


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Five new ETFs will be offered by fund provider Direxion

Savings Accounts and Money Market Rates provided by 30 November 2011 Fund provider Direxion announced recently that it will soon offer five new exchange-traded funds (ETFs), with two of them becoming available in December and the others becoming available in January.

Direxion All Cap Insider Sentiment Shares ETF and Direxion Large Cap Insider Sentiment Shares ETF, which are both based around stocks chosen from different Standard & Poors indices, will start trading in December, according to Reuters.

Andy ORourke, director of marketing at Direxion, informed the media outlet that both of the funds that will start trading in December will take long positions in stocks being purchased by fund insiders and short stocks being sold by these same officials.

The fund provider will then offer three ETFs in January which are based on reacting to volatility. The new financial instruments will increase their allocation to cash when the volatility in the underlying indexes surpasses a threshold level and put more money back into equities after falling below this threshold level, the media outlet reports.

ETFs can benefit investors by giving them easy access to diversification with low fees.
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Real Estate News by the Numbers: Week of November 19 – November 25

A quick rundown of the important real estate news from the week of November 19 – November 25, by the numbers:

4.97 Million Existing homes sold in October on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis. The number of sales is in October up 70,000 from September.

3.3 Million Number of homes listed in October on a seasonally adjusted annualized basis. The number of listings in October is a two percent drop from September and represents a 8.0 month supply of homes.

45 Months Amount of time it will take to clear the nations shadow inventory according to S&P. Its an improvement from 3 months ago, when the supply was at 47 months.

28% Amount of home sales that were either foreclosures or short sales in October. The number is a 30% drop from September.

11.2% Drop in home mortgage applications in a two weeks span. Applications dropped 1.2% in the week ending November 18 and 10% the week before. The index of refinancing applications fell 4.0 percent and the refinance share of total mortgage activity dropped to 75.9 percent of applications from 77.3 percent. It


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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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