Funny how circumstance ccan reshape your life in an instant. You know those times in life when life changes and you need to be quick on your feet.

First off let’s examine two crucial reasons why you would want to use a hardship letter in the first place…

1) Many time especially in the most recent of times people are requesting that their mortgage company let the home owners “short sale” their homes to avoid foreclosure or ask for a mortgage modification.

2) To ask your bank or credit card company(s) to consolidate or negotiate your debts for a more comfortable payment plan.

3) Other typical financial hardship letters include: requests to a college or university to reduce their admission fees due to special circumstances, appeals to a hospital or medical care provider to reduce their billings for compassionate reasons, or, a request to an insurance company to cover the costs of an unusual medical procedure or treatment, and others.

So I found this article this morning and I wanted to make sure that you had these tips at hand to guide you through any raging waters you may be experiencing in your life.  Or if you are in the financial services arena you can use these ideas for your clients as well.

http://www.writinghelp-central.com/write-hardship-letter.html

I am sure you will find these tips useful and beneficial to you.

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Funny how when we look at money, financial affairs and wealth we often overlook some of the most simple things. For example what about cutting back on items or finding ways to save on the purchases of the items or services, I read this article in Readers Digest a couple of months ago. I knew the information was very timely and will still be 5, 10, even 25 years down the road.

 When principles are followed and used as a rule of thumb per say the foundational principles are definitely the key to success both short term and long term. As with any system duplication, processes, and standardized rules apply. If you don’t set yourself up for success you’re never going to obtain it.

 Just real quick I remember when I was down and out I couldn’t do the right thing when I knew what it was. Stupid foolish pride, stubbornness and a rebel without a cause was literally keeping me and my family away from total financial freedom and the success we both needed and deserved.

 I have emphasized over and over the importance of planning, organization and action; this is where it all stemmed from. Because of my failing myself and the constant at war with my 3 most feared altered egos. The addict, the victim and the ego all fighting and vying for total control over my thoughts and actions. The victim says why why why, the addict stay addicted to the drama and chaos taking place while the ego fronted the attitude of nothings wrong this is fine just keep on doing what ever it is you are doing.

 Take these words well and obied by them, study my every word in that last paragraph to see if you have any symptoms of the above mentioned personalities. Are you dealing with the addict (physical or mental addictions), the ego or the victim to circumstance and looking for reassurance. Let’s make it clear these three villains are out to destroy your progress and your dreams for the future if you let them.

 With that let’s jump right to the chase here are the 29 tips to help you save money. If you know of others please leave them below. After we get to 100 comments with additional cost cutting measures I plan on making a special report featuring the best the top 50. They might not even be from the article I read. They could be yours.

 TAXES

1.  Forget the short form: Most tax payers – 65 percent of us, to be exact just take the standardized deduction. But you may save money by itemizing expenses. Things like out of pocket health care expenses (including some for job searches), and charitable donations are just a few of the items you may be able to deduct. Fill out the long form (IRS 1040) if your total deductions are greater than %5450.00 (standard for 2008 for single person) or $10,900(for a married couple filing jointly), you’ll save money by itemizing when you file.

2. Your children should file a tax return – The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) doesn’t care how old they are. If they earn more than $5,450 in a given year. (wages/interest income), they have to file – even if you claim them as dependants. If they make less than that they still need to file because they will get back all of the monies their employer withheld. Help them with t he paperwork. It’s a great learning experience possibly earning them some extra cash.

3. Avoid the tax refund, You may feel giddy knowing you’ll get a check from the IRS this spring, but you shouldn’t. Getting money back means you’re essentially lending money to the government interest free It’s better to have the cash in your account than lending it to Uncle Sam. So if you’ve been getting big refunds or have had a big life change such as (marriage, having a baby, a divorce, a radical increase or decrease in income), adjust your withholding allowances on your W-4 form. You can do than now for your 2009 taxes by visiting irs.gov. Use the withholding calculator to determine the correct figure for you. Then print out s new W-4 form, fill it out and give it to your payroll department.

4. Avoid the “Rapid Refund” programs – Yes yes yes avoid them at all costs or temptation, sure they all sound great. After all, what can be better than getting your money fast? A tax – prep chain might try to get you to agree to one of these “instant” or “anticipation” options. Don’t take the bait (it’s a trap). It’s not a refund; it’s a loan at a very high interest rate. The average for 2008 was 123%. File your refund electronically even if it’s with a tax chain the IRS will deposit your refund directly into your account within a week or two. Such a better deal for you the tax filer.

 CHECKING AND SAVINGS 

1. Make sure your free checking accounts are really free – Many banks advertise free checking, you need to ensure that it really is. Read the fine print, if the minimum balance is steep such as thousands of dollars, in some cases – look for a bank with no minimum requirement. This could easily save you $100 or more per year. Bankrate.com is a good site for comparing accounts. (Also stop wasting the $1.00 – $3.00 per transaction at other banks ATM’s)

2. Bank Online – It’s so easy to pay your bills, transfer funds, save automatically and have the ability to keep track of it all. Using these will definitely help save you both time and money as well as protecting your credit score. In fact I wrote an article about automating your investing and credit scores that uses this very same principle. http://ryanwegman.com/blog/?p=274 The other benefits are safer transactions, reduced exposure to identity theft.

3. Keep your money in super safe places – You need to set your sights on amassing a minimum of six months of contingency funds; for the simple purpose of protecting you from job loss, sudden injury and setbacks that happen when you least expect it. So where’s the best place to keep it.? FDIC insured bank savings accounts, CD’s, and money market accounts are stillthree of the most secure places. (Uncle Sam increased the limit it will insure to $250,000 per account until December 31^st 2009. Money market funds that invest in treasury bills are super safe, too, but they have very low yielding. Internet banks and credit unions tend to pay higher interest rates,before you make the switch you need to go to fdic.gov to check if these banks you are reviewing have the same FDIC government insured guarantee. Also Series I bonds, or I bonds which are just as safe and are guaranteed. These I bonds are also guaranteed to keep up with inflation and they are free from state and (possibly federal tax if you use them for college costs). The downside is you cannot redeem them for at least a year and if you cash in before 5 years there is a small penalty. Other areas are corporate and tax-exempt money market funds, these are a bit riskier. You can view yields at cranedata.us

 DEBT

1. Cut up your extra credit cards – DO NOT CLOSE THE ACCOUNTS!!! sure it’s proactive and smart to reduce the temptation to splurge by destroying your credit cards. However if you actually close them you will damage your credit score. This is due to the way your credit scores are derived with amount of available credit to your existing debt. Did you know that the average American family has approximately 9 credit cards. You can widdle it down to 2 or 3 active cards and use the others every quarter to keep them open and active.

2. Pay your bills ontime – Just one single late payment could increase your future interest rates dramatically on future loans and your existing credit card accounts. Just one missed payment can lower your credit score as much as 100 points. This inturn starts a chain of events that basically show lenders that you are a higher risk customer. Shopping for credit such as auto loans, credit cards or mortgages could cost you as much as one full percentage point more. Equaling a potential cost of tens of thousands of dollars in interest payment. Be sure to set up your automatic bill payments to ensure you are never late on a payment again.

3. Paying an extra $10 a month – Paying a little extra principle towards reduction accelerates your payoff reducing your overall time in debt. Most American families carry a balance of $2000. The exception are the 10% – 15% carry balances around $9,000 or higher. If you were to only pay just the minimum payment in this scenario it around $224.00 that’s required on the $9,000 balance every month, it would take you 31 years and over $13,000 in interest payment to pay it off. If you added just a simple $10 to your payment making it $234 until you paid off the balance would save you $8,900. The debt would vanish in 5 years. (check your balances using the calculator on bankrate.com)

4. Put your savings to work – Many people that have credit cards debt usually have a stash of cash away in a bank account. People argue that they don’t want to use their hard earned savings to pay off debt. (I agree with this philosophy however when I was shown the math I saw a light). Here’s where it makes sense to keep your money in the bank, is the bank paying a higher interest rate than what the credit card or loan interest rate is charging? Paying off a credit card with an interest rate of 13% is equivalent to earning 13% interest on your money after taxes. There are no savings or investments that guarantee that type of return.

5. Pay more on your mortgage – You may have heard this because interest payments are tax deductible, even though a mortgage is a good debt. Even if you are getting a tax break you are still paying interest. The longer you have a mortgage the less of a tax break you get. The sooner you pay off your debt the better. Here’s a simple way to see how long it will take to create you a debt free lifestyle http://yourdebtfreedate.com/258571 register for a free debt elimination plan.

6. Reduce your credit card interest rate – it may be time to get a little assertive and nervy with your creditors and credit card companies. If you pay your bill on time and you’re not late and your credit card company is still raising your interest rates or lowers your limits, call the companies 800 number ask for the retention department and explain that your thinking of taking your business elsewhere. You want to get a reasonable rate if they aren’t willing to negotiater source a new company that offers $0.00 transfers and lower interest rates. Banks are still motivated in spite of the recent credit crunch you may have heard about.

7. Get your credit report for free – Each and every year you are allowed 1 free copy of your personal credit report from each of these three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion) every year. A word of caution here most of these companies are actually trying to sell you credit monitoring services and other things you actually don’t need to buy. You will automatically signed up for these services when you order the free credit reports.  

INSURANCE 

1. Shop around for auto insurance – Utilize the Internet and phone to secure several independent quotes. You’ll also want want to ask about lesser known breaks. Example if you children are grown and out of the house, they may be able to receive a substantial discount if they insure their cars through the company you use. One of the best places to start shopping your rates is carinsurance.com

2. Sign up for FSA – Many employers offer flexible spending accounts as a way to set aside part of your salary for health care and child care costs. The accounts are able to pay for everything from band-aids to orthodontic work with pretax money, which translates into an approximate discount of 30 percent, depending on your tax bracket. Word of caution plan carefully if you don’t use all of the money in your FSA you loose whatever is left.

3. Keep grown kids on your health insurance policy – If you are going to wind up giving your child money for coverage it’s usually cheaper to keep them on your policy as long as possible. In some states the age limit is up to 26, whether they are in school or not. (New Jersey will give you until 30) Some states require proof of single, have no children and are living in the same state as you. Visit statecoverage.net for state eligibility and also even if your state doesn’t mandate coverage your insurance plan may; call your human resources department for details.

4. Hold off on that long term coverage – With the onset of rising health care and extended nursing costs many people in their 40’s and 50’s decided to purchase long-term-care insurance coverage in order to lock in a rate. It’s true that the premiums go up as you age, although the increase isn’t as much as you might think. According to data collected by America’s Health Insurance Plans; a 65 year old may end up paying $126 more per year than a person aged 55. If you looked at the overall cost over 10 years it would equate to $19,000 on the coverage even though the person wouldn’t typically need it until age 83 or so. Depending on your health the best time to buy is between 60 and 65.

5. Sign up for disability insurance – This will help to protect your income in the event you become unable to work for a long period of time. Ideally you would have enough to cover 60% to 70% of your salary. If your company doesn’t provide this much coverage you may want to source out additional coverage. It can be costly, but it’s worth it if you can afford it. Visit affordableinsuranceprotection.com or unum.com

6. Think twice about life insurance – If you don’t have dependents you may not need it. If you do have childre3n or other dependents you’ll probably be better off with term life insurance, until, say, your children are grown and can take care of themselves. It’s less expensive than whole life insurance or other types of policies that build up value until you die or cash them in. Many agent will recommend to you that these whole life and other policies build up better value tax free but these same policies come with very high fees. You would be better off putting that money towards your IRA or 401(k) plan. Compare rates at term4sale.com

7. Write your will – No one like to think about dying, you need to. Wills don’t have to be fancy contracts that lawyers slave over. It’s a simple written record of whom you want to entrust your estate and children to when you die. You can create a simple boilerplate will, sign it in the presence of a witness (usually two people who aren’t named in the will). Nolo.com is a legal publishing house provides a good boilerplate copy for around $25. This template is valid in every state except Lousiana. Also make sure your beneficiaries are on your life insurance policies, bank and retirement accounts too. Also make sure these accounts are up-to-date. 

RETIREMENT 

1. Contribute to your company’s 401(k) – If your company matches funds, SIGN UP. This is free money to you yes I said FREE Money. A typical company will kick in 50 cents for every dollar you save, up to 6% That’s an immediate 50% return on your investment, you can’t get that anywhere. As the facts stand one in three American’s are not taking advantage of this benefit. Just with the matching funds you can double the size of your 401(k) in 20 years, even if the stock market remains flat. For a family making $44,000 your contribution may be as low as $33/week. You won’t even miss that money on your paycheck due to the pretax benefit.

2. Put your retirement ahead of college savings – Sure you want to take care of your children’s college needs however because of the tax breaks and th3e flexibility of these accounts, you are much better off contributing to your 401(k) or IRA accounts and then taking out loans for college. Many people don’t realize that the contributions you place into a Roth IRA are able to be withdrawn free of penalty at any time. This is very different from the college savings plans, called 529’s, that smack you with a significant penalty if the money is not used for college. Most schools don’t count the money in your retirement accounts when assessing how much financial assistance you’ll require for college. Once you’ve maxed out your retirement accounts then you can search out information on college savings plans.

3. Say no to company stock – Think of big companies such as Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns and Enron. All of these companies were once on top of their game, when they went under, many employees were left without jobs, retirement accounts were overloaded with junk company stocks. Basically people got screwed. You already have a huge stake in the company since you depend on it for your paycheck; don’t risk your retirement money as well. If your employer offers company stock as a 401(k) option do not take it. If your offered company stock as part of your matching plan sell them as soon as it’s allowed and switch some of that money into another type of investment.

4. Don’t worry about social security – Don’t worry even though you have heard the stories about anyone 35 and younger will not have social security benefits. Even in the middle of our economic chaos. Social Security will probably pay you 65% – 80% of your current promised benefits. With some fairly modest changes such as raising the retirement age or increasing payroll taxes for anyone earning over $250,000 per year – the system can be shored up for decades. Make sure your saving enough so you don’t have to rely on the system for your entire retirement income.

5. Stay away from individual stocks – Despite what you may have heard from your cousin the broker, buying the stock of an individual company is not wise. Essentially you are breaking the golden rule of “never put all of your eggs in one basket”. Plus you are paying broker fees that could easily eat up your earnings. In fact you really don’t need a broker. Instead of buying individual stocks, invest directly into ETF’s*, these are the new age mutual funds. These put your money across many companies at one time allowing you allocation and diversity with one purchase. You only want to do this with money you can invest for the long term.

6. Stick with index funds – You’ll want to go with a special type of mutual fund called an index fund, which buys a little piece of each of the companies that make up the established bench marks like the S&P 500. One of the best kept secrets of investing is that in the long run index index funds perform at least as well as the funds that charge high fees. As of December they had lost less than the average stock fund run by the so called expert. You can find a list of low cost index funds at either vanguard.com or fidelity.com

7. Don’t buy investment products from your bank – None of the products that banks sell are FDIC insured, they tend to cost more than comparable assets you can pick up elsewhere. Banks also charge huge commissions and fees. You would be better of buying from a broker or a company that can provide you with lower fees and sales commissions.

8. Build a portfolio – The typical rule of thumb is to put 50% of your long term savings in stock (I recommend against this) 30% in bonds and keep 20% available in cash. In tough times especially getting the right mix will depend on the risk you’re willing to take. Stocks are more risky than bonds, there are exceptions to every rule such as junk bonds or high yield bonds. Visit financialengines.com which charges about $40.00 every 3 months. This is a great site for calculating the right mix. 

BONUS 

1. Always take care of your health – Eat right, exercise, and get plenty of rest and sleep. For more tips go to readersdigest.com/moneyguide

2. If you are in need of any services mentioned above please don’t hesitate to contact me at ryan at ryanwegman dot com

3. Lastly here are a few resources you could use to power you along. For constant 24/7 advice for money management FDI offers a Money-Trax program, also FDI offers First Class retirement to help you set up your IRA and keep your investing right on track. Earlier I mentioned a debt elimination plan with FDI as well just go to yourdebtfreedate.com/258571

4. Lastly most financial advisors will not recommend real estate for your portfolio. I however am a first hand believer and owner of real estate used for long term capital appreciation and preservation. Visit http://thesecretofland.com and register for your free webinar called Pay Dirt.

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Often times I get asked how do I raise my credit score, now of course the answer may not be the same for every individual circumstance. Although the basic four rules apply to assist in keeping your credit scores in their best possible. score.

Number 1 rule of thumb is to never exceed your threshold of 35% of your available credit limit. For example if you have a limit of “X” let’s call “X” $5,000 and you want to maintain a higher score never exceed 35% of $5,000 and this will ensure you don’t show up with high limit balances.

In this example we used $5,000 for “X” so the formula would be “X” x 35% or for simple math $5000 X 0.35 = $1,750. This ensures your availability of credit is always higher than your used portion of credit. This keeps red flags off of your credit report and shows responsibility of you as a credit user.

The second rule of thumb is to never carry debt for over thirty days of a billing cycle. If your payment is due on the first of the month and you have an outstanding balance you need to pay it too zero.

Don’t just carry the debt over into a new billing cycle, when you do this the credit card companies report negatively on your credit report. This also reduces your amount of available credit for the month so this servers as a double whammy to your credit score.

Third rule of thumb is to always monitor your credit for inaccuracies. Over 70% of all credit reports have some erroneous type of data on them. You can monitor your credit score online through one of the very easy to use services. You’re allowed 1 free credit report per year.

The disadvantage of these free reports is they do not provide you with a credit score you need to subscribe to their credit report monitoring service, this way you can view your score to see if your in the ball park.

Credit score ranges

850 – 740 Excellent

739 – 680 Good

679 – 620 Fair

619 – 580 Poor

580 – 0 Bad

The fourth yet not last or least thing you can do is to protect your self by paying all of your bills on time. Sure this could have easily gone in the first place yet ALL of these tidbits are equally important and they all provide you with positive credit influences.

There are many other factors that are in and out of your control, your creditors actively posting to the credit bureaus, your mail reaching your creditor or debtor in time for monthly processing. How often you try to obtain credit and what type of credit you have.

If you are in need of fixing erroneous errors on your credit report you have the ability to handle this task your self or take control of your life by utilizing a credit restoration and repair company such as CreditTrax who are 100% in compliance with a Fair Credit Reporting Act and laws governing credit repair.

So my fifth rule of thumb is to use professionals with years of proven results. CreditTrax is the leading national credit restoration company who specializes in all areas of credit and identity recovery.

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