StockScouter - Quantitative but Intelligent Analysis : Business Intelligence applied to Stocks

StockScouter takes Data Analysis with Gradient Analytics and adds intellectual facets to pick top 10(top 50) stock picks.

These stock picks assure you a gain of around 25% by following a sure buy and sure sell strategy having duration of six months.
Means, you just need to buy the top picked stocks, hold them for 6 months period, and sell it.
That easy. and You will be getting on an average 25% return. That can triple the amount invested along the 6 years.

You can decide your budget, and divide it between the stock picks and purchase them, hold the stocks for six months and sell at the end. The only thing is that you have to have faith and courage to do it at the given time. Sometimes, you may find that stocks are rewarding you and you start loving them. But, then stick to the StockScouter picks and its strategy.

If you want to find out why StockScouter strategy should work and what are the current picks, read the complete story here.

The Debt Reality

Between 1997 and 2007, 8,815 American companies worth $1,302,946,906,459 were acquired by foreign countries, sending U.S. wealth and opportunity abroad. Just today the Economic Policy Institute reported that real wages for American workers are declining: From 2003- 2007 median U.S. hourly wage dropped more than 1%.
The average American in 2005 had a -1% savings rate, the lowest since the great depression, and a product of an economy that continues to squeeze the middle class and allow the flight of its best companies overseas.



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Money for life: The hidden costs

A modest proposal: Make the sellers of variable annuities tell people how much they're really paying for their investment.



NEW YORK (Money Magazine) -- If you'd like to help thousands of people who are saving for retirement (and maybe even yourself), I have a suggestion. Tell the Securities and Exchange Commission to get off its duff and pass rules improving the disclosure investors get about variable-annuity fees.


The SEC has been mulling this issue for more than two years now. But when I called the agency for a status report recently, I got no hint as to when - or, for that matter, if - new rules might see the light of day. That's a shame. Because judging from the e-mails I get, only a tiny fraction of the investors who have some $1.4 trillion sitting in variable annuities know that they're paying more than they would to invest in regular mutual funds.

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Recession Probability in USA!!

THE employment statistics and the bond market are combining to send out a warning that has been heard only rarely in the past two decades: A recession is coming in the United States.

The two charts show the double warning. Both charts warned of an economic downturn before the 1990 and 2001 recessions, and they are doing so again.

Read Complete Story from NY Times

My Conversation with Money

The next time you walk down the street, ignore the sound of traffic and look around -- you will hear money talk. And the sound will be deafening.
Yes, wealth has a language too.

Spend, invest, loosen your purse strings
Look at the billboards, newspapers, shops, and malls.

When you go to the mall, what is it saying to you? "Come step in. I am so pretty. Feel free to open your wallet!".

Think again; is it really the mall inviting you? It’s not the mall; it's money, which tells you to give as much as you can. It's also claiming a stake on your unearned money; by enticing you to pay in installments.

License to spend
Look around some more. There's a company out there asking you to give it money to expand via an IPO. A mutual fund is enticing you by promising to grow it for you. Look at stores, which offer a promotion. And look at all transactions taking place around you, in general.

Money talks all the time
You earn well, and think you can afford it all. You're a member of a gold or platinum club. Basically, you were being flattered. And you gave into this flattery.
You spent that money and lost an opportunity to create wealth while someone on the other end has added to his wealth. So, while your money is asking you to spend or accumulate wealth, ultimately, you choose what you want to listen to.

When you spend, someone else makes money
The idea is simple. You earn money and spend it on some service or product. That service or product provider spends it and consumes some other service or product. Cycles of transactions happen. As a result of these transactions someone becomes wealthier than others.
This is not to say that you should not consume what is essential and sometimes even what is luxurious. That is necessary and important but it is also a fact that there is obviously no equilibrium. Someone there has a better business model or service capability. The rule of life is that the best person wins. Get the logic?

Microsoft/Walmart/Verizon was not built in a day...
Here begins your journey of listening to money. There's a three-point action agenda ie desire, strong desire and unflinching desire.
You must have the desire to do something. and it can’t happen because I am telling you or because you decide that from tomorrow you will increase the desire meter in your mind.

Microsoft/Walmart/Verizon was not built in a day. It took long years of unflinching desire, persistent effort and consistent reinvention to turn it into the company it is today.

That feeling of desire will come to you naturally, wait for it because if you really want it and work persistently toward it, it will come to you on its own.
And when it does, it will call for groundbreaking hard work. Too many people shy away from hard work.
Consider what will make you the best doctor, lawyer, manager or CEO in the world? When you crack this, wealth will find its way into your home.

- Credit: Kartik Jhaveri, an expert at Financial Planning, is a Certified Financial Planner and a Chartered Wealth Manager.

Need for Building Residual Income

it's important for you to take control of your finances. Implement a stream of money that your household budget hasn't already consumed. Building residual income in alternative ways is a great way to start this.
Residual income is income that is generated from somewhere other than your primary source of income. Residual income occurs after the effort to generate the income has already occurred, such as purchasing real estate for rental properties. Purchasing the rental property is the event that has occurred to generate the residual income, which is the actual rent that is being paid to you for use of your rental property. And it didn't even take away from your day job!
Be sure not to confuse residual income with linear income, a term that is often used in conjunction in general discussion. Linear income is generally classified as income that can be calculated using a numerical formula; it is directly related to the number of hours that are invested in creating the income. Having a day job lined up usually qualifies as having a linear source of income; having rental properties as well as a day job qualifies as having residual income as well, or multiple streams of income. This is a good thing!
Building residual income is one of the best things you can do to ensure financial security for not only yourself, but your family and generations to come. It's a way to make sure that, even though the primary source of income may dry up due to illness, lack of work or other issues, money is still streaming into the household. It is income that occurs outside of your primary employment, hence the word "residual".
Building residual income does not always involve work though. There are many ways of doing it, it's really just a matter of how quickly you would like this extra income generated. Stocks and bonds are a source of residual income, as is a savings account that you earn interest on. Normal savings accounts don't usually have an interest rate worth mentioning as a source of residual income, but it certainly is a start!

Investing in Gold Coins

When you have a child, or even before you do, start collecting gold coins. When your child grows up, cash them in to send your high school graduate to the University of their choice. Your child can do the same for your grandchild. Collecting gold coins can make something special for your family. It can make your family special. Even rich and famous. Can it be done? Has it been done? Well, do you recognize any of these family names?
If you have heard of the Adams family, or the Brand family, or the Dupont family, or the Royal Farouk family, or the Garrett family, or the Green family, or the Hopkins family, or the Hunt family, or the JP Morgan family, or the Onassis family, or the Rothchild family then there is a good reason why. They built their fortunes from collecting gold coins.
Take for instance Mayer Amschel Rothschild. He worked in a coin shop, which made the way for the Rothschild's destiny as the richest family in the world. Because it is there that he learned the value of collecting gold coins. That is how he made his fortune. That is how he was able to open a bunch of banks.
People were getting so outrageously rich from gold coins that the government just had to step in and take them away. And the gold bullion and gold certificates too! If you owned them you were an outlaw. If you didn't turn them in you had to go to jail for ten years and pay twice the value of your gold plus ten thousand dollars on top of that. Thanks to the gold confiscation of April 5th 1933 by the Executive Order 6102 of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the government had to build Fort Knox to hold its enormous collection of gold!
The people of our land of opportunity have been denied this most lucrative investment for forty-one years until... the last day of December 1974. That is when President Gerald R. Ford signed the bill authorizing private ownership of gold. Happy days are here again! Gold is legal again!

Cash Flow - A bird's eye view

Cash flow planning is projecting your future cash inflows from sales, services, and loans, and comparing them to your future cash needs (suppliers, salaries/wages, loan payments, taxes, etc.). The difference between the two is your net cash flow.
Why is cash flow planning so important? Cash flow planning can help you identify problems down the road, and fix them before they occur. It can also help you make decisions such as should I attend that conference I’ve wanted to attend, should I buy the new computer I’ve been wanting, or do I need to work extra hard this month to avoid a cash deficiency next month?
The first step in planning your cash flow is knowing where you spend your money! Solo entrepreneurs need to have a good grip on both their personal and business spending, as most solo entrepreneurs rely on their business income to meet personal finance goals (i.e., pay the bills!). So, you should track both your personal and your business spending, although I recommend that you keep them separate (that’s a topic all by itself).
What’s the best way to track your spending? You can use pen & paper, spreadsheets or a software program. The best method for you is the method that you will actually use on a regular basis.
You should project your spending for at least the next 12 months so that you include annual and other periodic expenses. If you are experiencing a cash flow crisis, you should track & project your cash flow on a weekly basis, instead of monthly.
If you are an existing business, you can project your cash flow for the next year by reviewing your expenses for last year. If you are a new business, you will need to estimate your start up costs in addition to regular operating expenses.
Start up costs include inventory, legal expenses, advertising, licenses & permits, supplies, and many more costs that you may not have thought of. To research startup costs you should contact your local Small Business Development Center, contact a SCORE counselor, join groups of similar business owners, and read as many books or articles you can find on the subject.
To improve your cash flow, you should:
1. Complete the first 3 steps. You have to understand cash flow planning, track your cash flow, and project your future spending needs before you can improve your cash flow.
2. Create best and worst case scenarios and create appropriate responses to both scenarios. For example, if your best case scenario is to increase sales by 50%, how will you use the profits? Will you put the profits back into the company by investing in new equipment, training, etc.? If your worst case scenario is a drop in sales by 50%, how will you continue to cover your monthly expenses? By planning for the best and worst case scenarios, you’ll be ready for any situation.
3. When estimating your future income, realize that some people will pay late, and account for that fact in your projection.
4. Charge what you’re worth. Many businesses, especially service professionals, under-charge when they are first starting out. This is a great way to go out of business. Make sure you are charging what you’re worth, and remember you’re in business to make money, not to give your expertise away for free.
5. Watch your business spending. Focus on the value the item brings to your business, and avoid lavish spending (i.e., do you really need the fastest, newest computer available?).
6. Don’t hire until necessary. Consider using virtual assistants or temporary employees before hiring permanent employees.
7. Give incentives for early payment for products and services. On the flip side, chase down invoices the minute they’re late. Charge interest or late fees to encourage timely payments.
8. Update your projection regularly. Your cash flow plan will change frequently as your business grows. You may want to update it weekly when you first get started, then switch to monthly once you’ve got a good handle on your cash.

The guaranteed way to increase your richness

Basically, to be a Millionaire, we can conclude every of the strategies into two categories. One is the short route, and the other is the long route. The guarantee way is through the long route, unfortunately, almost everyone of us here don't have the patience to go in this route. However, as for the short route, the time taken will be short, maybe 5 years, maybe 3 years. But this route is much more challenged. There are many strategies you can use to be a Millionaire in this short route, you can climb the Millionaire Mountains of your choice.

Now for the long route, it is the surest and easiest way to be a Millionaire. However, by using this route, you will need to wait for a long long time, only then your dreams will come true. Maybe it will take up to 10 years, 20 years, some even 50 years. The problem here is, do you have the time to achieve this? Ok, how can you achieve this? Let me explain. Let's say if you save $1 everyday, then one month you will saved $30. Now, study the chart below :
How $1 Per Day Grow Into $1,000,000
% Interest...............Number of Years Required to Reach One Million
3% .............................147 Years
5% .............................100 Years
10% ............................56 Years
15% ............................40 Years
20% ............................32 Years
Now, you might say, but we need to find an investment that yield at least 10% if we want to be a Millionaire in our lifetime. Yes, you are right, we need to find investment yield of 10%, but the bank only offers us around 3%. So how can you achieve this?
The answer is very simple, let's say if you want to follow this route, you've got the time and patience to make this happen, but you don't dare to take the risk for 10% investment yield. You just need to remember this, in fact, there is not necessary must have at least 10% investment yield, all you need to do is to raise the money that you need to save. Save as much as you can every month, be it $10, $50, $100 or $300. With the right interest rate and given enough time, everyone can be a Millionaire. This proved that everyone, if start saving and keep compounding the money from a young age, everyone can be a Millionaire.
The long route is not what we want here, we want to make money in a faster method, not just sitting and wait for 50 years. It's been proven that with the right strategy, with constant action plus a burning desire, we can be a Millionaire in a short time. But when you're creating rapid wealth, why don't you save your money every month and keep compounding it? We take the short route and the long route at the same time, it's easy and it's simple to save and compound your money. It can be automatically deducted from your bank account. Pay yourself first everytime you get your paycheck, put some amount of money to your investment account every month once you received your paycheck. Then only spend what you have as you wish. And bear in mind of this, don't spend more than what you earn.

Technorati Tags: Money, Personal Finance, Saving, Investing

The Secret of Making Money in the Stock Market

The stock market is a proven wealth builder and can and should benefit all participants. It is only fair that each one of us should be entitled to a piece of the action.
One thing these traders know is that the market is not an issue of trial and error but a fully quantifiable market by any fundamental Mathematics. You see, when we went to school we learn about the Standard Deviation in probability and statistics. This Standard Deviation is Mathematics and is quantifiable in modern science. Standard deviation was introduced by Mathematician Karl Pearson in 1893 although the idea was by then nearly a century old. This is the single most important idea that should explains all those mysteries, myths and legends you hear of in stock market.
Everything on this planet has properties and, or, characteristics. A stock, just like you and me, has properties and these properties are quantified by calculating the Standard Deviation of the stock. It varies from stock to stock. Our brains are lazy and what we can not understand we turn to astrology which gives our brains a rest. Rather than use planets in signs of the zodiac and financial astrology, or imagining of the latest rumors, invest that time in the study of probability and statistics. If its not you to study, who should? Probability and Statistics is that study that has to do with tossing a coin to get a tail or a head. And as simple as it may sound, tossing a coin and getting a head for only two consecutive times is an extremely very difficulty thing contrary to what our lazy brains would want us to believe.
Standard Deviation is all about vibrations. Vibrations is like in music, vibrations in a string, water vibrations, earthquake vibrations, light and electromagnetic vibrations. The stock market is like vibrations too. For the price to move it must vibrate. The stock spends a lot of time vibrating in a neutral sideway range which unfortunately we do not like. We want the stock to go to the roof the next day after we have bought it. Vibrations are waves. Waves have crests and troughs and travels from one price to another. One crest is often followed by a second crest which is followed by a third crest and so on and so forth. Every crest is separated by a trough to create an alternating pattern of crest and troughs.
Like a bouncing tennis ball, a lower bounce than the previous bounce means the ball is coming to a halt. In the stock market, strength is quantified by series of crests where each crest exceeds the highest point of the previous crest and weakness by series of troughs where each trough goes lower than the lowest point of the previous trough.
People out there will tell you to trade in the direction of trend and they go further to say getting the trend is easy: do this and that. Contrary to the believe that determining the stock's trend is easy, in real time this is very difficulty and you can not have a probability of 100%, otherwise each one of us would be a winner in the market. Some investment advisers and the media are either oblivious and always bullish or immoral, merely giving the public what it wants. It ’s only a question of, is it this group of stocks or that group, this sector or that sector?
Back to crests and troughs. Whenever two crests meet up with one another they produce a bigger crest which is constructive, and, whenever a crest and a trough meet one another they tend to cancel each other producing a smaller trough or crest which is destructive. If you have ever wondered why carpenters saw the wood in the directions of the grains rather than up against the grains, wonder no more - these guys find it easier and the bundles they produce are sliced clearly leaving a smooth surface with minimum defects.
A bigger crest or trough is made up of smaller troughs and crests. How many of the smaller ones makes the bigger trough and crest is the puzzle that will make our lazy brains consult astrology. Lets leave that as it is because the market moves yoyo up and down, so we comfort ourselves.
The real forces that move the markets are the moving averages. They are a measure of accumulation of strength and weakness over time due to news, economic growth reports, manipulation, fear and greed. There are many moving averages just as there are different types of traders. It is through the dynamics of the moving averages that there are crests and troughs. The bad thing about these moving averages is that they only tell us about what happened rather than what is happing.
One of the most successful trading tool since time immemorial is multiple moving averages crossover, and the acceleration in all averages is either positive in all averages or negative in all averages that you are using. If the acceleration in averages is positive, you go long, and if the acceleration is negative, you go short. This really is multiple time frame where you trade using the shorter trend but only if the longer trend supports it.
Good trading requires you to have safety measures upfront. Always make sure that every trading position that you open has a corresponding stop loss order, repeat, every position that you open has a corresponding stop loss order. I can repeat this until breakfast tomorrow. Trading without stop loss orders is like driving an automobile with faulty breaking system. Every now and then check to see if your stop loss orders are still active. If your broker's system fails, when it come back it may come without your stop loss orders. These stops are not free. It is among those fees that should keep your broker in business and you should grandly pay him even if your stops are rarely used. And why not? And talking about brokers, get yourself a good and inexpensive broker. There are many out there. A broker who charges more than $1.0 per 100 shares of stock is expensive and if you are paying more than that, then you will develop fear of exiting trades as you contemplates the broker's commission you are to incur. A good broker should embrace modern technology and you should promote them because if its not you, then who? And never get married into certain stocks. A company and its stock are two very different things. A stock that is not making money for you is not a thing. Throw it to the dogs.

Technorati Tags: Markets, Money

Do you want to be wealthy finally?

some of the wealth demons that could be keeping you from getting rich. Here are the big players; 1. Fear 2. Indecision 3. Laziness 4. Bad Patterns 5. Arrogance 6. DisappointmentWealth Demon One: FEARPlaying it safe has screwed more people out of their dreams than any other factor I can think of. I have seen people with no talent that bring nothing outstanding to the table excel and make a big name for themselves through nothing more than sheer guts. They just have no fear of rejection, failure, success or in other words they just keep on coming like a determined dog after a bone. When you want something so bad that all obstacles are merely interesting puzzles to be figured out and not mountains of woe, you are on your way.Chances must be taken because fortune favors the bold. People that play it safe are the mainstream of society. This is the way things run from day to day. People wake up, go to work, pay the bills, and the machine of society keeps on churning in a predictable and easy to manage way. Most people like it that way. For the rich and those that are about to become very wealthy, the right chances taken every day are exciting and can be very rewarding. When you feel fear, you are in the right territory. Fear keeps the mainstream middle class society in their place and leaves the loot for you and I to enjoy. Leading us into the next point, remember that fortune favors the bold, not the stupid. There is a big difference.Wealth Demon Two: INDECISION –THE PUPPET MASTERStocks are going to crash, the real estate bubble is about to burst and your mattress is the only safe place to keep your money. Unless your house starts on fire, so you better bury some money in the back yard too. The puppet master demon will keep you chasing your tail with doubts. These doubts will keep you from committing to any particular stream of income opportunity. Diversification is fine if you have enough resources to allot a fair amount to each, but it you never take the chance of putting a large amount of your eggs into a central money investment you will never get the big payoffs. Better yet, lets move onto point number three. That's laziness and if you stop being lazy, you can learn how to invest without using much of your own money at all.Wealth Demon Three: SLOTH –THE RULER OF LAZINESSGetting rich and making a ton of cash isn't really that hard. Its not hard once you learn a bit about how it all really works. Guess what though? You cant learn the system if you don't get off your butt and do some learning. Shut off the T.V., get off the couch and go to the library. Find the books you need to learn the system of wealth and money. Find the book that answers the questions about money that have you stuck where you are now. Beating laziness becomes easy once passion bites you. Once you get a sniff of what is possible, Sloth wont have a chance.If you don't know where to start, then start general. Pick up a title that looks interesting and while you are reading that book, see where you get stumped. Is it the part about no cash down mortgages or is it the part about no load mutual funds? Wherever you are short on the I.Q. of wealth and money, get proactive and get the ammo you need for your upcoming battle.

Thinking Like a Financial Planner

Even if you do not think you are a financial planner, you better start thinking like one fast. In the United States, there is an approximate of 5.6 million people who are either self-made millionaires or financially independent. And what is so hard to believe about that statistic, you ask? This is because that is only about 5% of the American population.
The remaining 95% of the American population (we're talking about 106.4 million people here!) are not only not rich, but most of them are facing financial disasters, either owing to poor financial planning or foolish spending!. This is why you should start thinking like a financial planner. Financial planning is not so complicated, and it can make a huge difference in your life.
As the saying goes, "failing to plan is planning to fail". Much of the same can be said if you do not plan your finances well, it does not matter if you are a high earner, you still need financial planner skills, to keep you form harms way and to ensure that your life will be financially secured.
The fact of the matter is that financial planning Is Not An Option, most of us need to think ahead today, and you should practice your financial planner skills right away to enjoy the money you make today in the future.
The basics of financial planning is to keep all your finance in order, this is very basic advice, alright. However, more often than not, we would rather concentrate on other things in life such as health, studies, work and more.
Think about the things you want to achieve in life, and how you are going to get there, financial planner always set his goals and puts some order in his thought before starting to actually put the wheels in motion. Financial planning can include buying a house, paying for your children education and thinking about a retirement fund.
Financial planning will help you use your current pay check and your saving to start working on a program that will give you peace of mind on the financial level, a financial planner will plan a budget according to every household’s expenditure budgeted and a savings plan drawn up, this will help you spend your money wisely and effectively.
A financial planner will consider having savings invested in an investment vehicle that pays higher returns than the normal bank account, it will add in some muscle to your savings and help you reach your financial goals in a shorter period of time.
By starting your retirement planning now (not later!), you can gauge how much money you will need to maintain your current lifestyle and where this money will come from. Many people, especially those who have just started working, always put their retirement planning on the back burner for reasons such as “I just started work” and “Oh, I am still young”.
Many, however, fail to realize that by starting early to save for retirement, you will be able to save and invest more due to the magic of “compounding interest”, provided that you invest your savings wisely. Maybe you do not have to wait until the age of 65 to retire. For all you know, by the age of 40, you might have already reached your financial independence and do not have to worry about getting up early to clock in or work until late hours because there are deadlines to meet.

Technorati Tags: Finance

Does Debt Consolidation Service Work?

If you have applied for a credit card, which you got it the following month. You involved yourself into equity speculation and you lost big. You applied for more credit cards and you are just paying the minimum sum each and every month. The interest is killing you and you are in an absolute financial mess. Well, from a personal financial management point of view, individuals are experiencing these are facing bankruptcy.
However, there is this miraculous solution that has been showed on TV as well as on papers that seems so convincingly that this is your only chance. Well, it can be a chance as well as a bottomless pit. Do you think a finance company is going to you solve your problem for charity. Needless to say, nobody in the right mind is going to lend you such a hand without some tradeoff involved. Because by putting your leg into this solution, although it holistically centralized your debts into one single debt, it does cost some money, which is substantial enough to make you way poorer than, you already are. Why let someone manage your debts for a price.
Debt consolidation solution offered by finance company may not really work, as it is just another service to earn your money, thus making you a few thousand of dollars poorer. However, you can actually try to take a loan from banks or finance company by mortgaging your house as a form of collateral for paying off the other miscellaneous debts that incur comparatively high interest. This is just one way, which you can take and not paying any consolidating planning as well as solution that even a kid would probably understand.
Well, if you do not have a house, approach your creditor to work out a way to repay your debt. Chances are, they are going to work it out with you, because it is just not cost effective for them to issue that letter of demand through lawyers, which could cost more than the money, you owe them.
As you can see, there are many other alternatives that you can actually take instead of debt consolidation service. But the most prudent thing to note is never get yourself in such mess. Take debt consolidation as a form of last resort.

Debt Consolidation, Finance, Money

Calculating Debt - To - Income Ratio

Avoiding or Reducing Debt has always been a priority.

When we go to a bank to borrow some times they say that our debt ratio is to high. Basically what they mean is that our debt payments are more then 40% of our income. When the banks are calculating debt ratio they take in to consideration your credit cards, loans and credit lines. If you have mortgage with other bank and not add it to the total Then your calculation will not be accurate.
We can calculate oour ratio like this
Debts
1) 5 %of all credit cards available credit
2) 5%of all Credit lines available credit
3) Monthly mortgage payment
4) Monthly loan payments
5) Any other debts .

Add all this up and add up all your monthly income and then calculate your percentage of debt to your income if it is near or more then forty do not borrow any more.
Also add your insurance to this because it is also a fixed payments that way you have an exact figure of your debts.
Banks calculate your debt ratio similarly but it may not be a correct picture because you may not be using your credit cards or you line of credits at all so this is not providing you with an accurate picture. Hence remember one thing if you are not using your credit cards cancel them keep only one or two cards same goes for credit line keep only the one with low interest rate close all others.

Could A Family Live On A Single Income Source?

Many families dream of having one parent stay at home to raise the kids. The idyllic picture of having mom (or dad) home, taking care of the kids, cooking great meals, keeping a beautiful home, is hard to resist.

It's also incredibly difficult financially.

However, in many cases it can be done. And with practice the sacrifices you make may not seem so bad. You will probably take fewer vacations, and they'll be simpler. You will probably eat out less often. You will probably buy fewer things. If you and your family can live with that, you will probably be able to cope.

Provided that you can make the remaining income stretch to cover your necessities. You need to look at this to make an informed decision. Here are some steps to take.

1. Collect 3 months' worth of pay stubs from the person whose income your family will be relying on. Use this to calculate your average monthly income.

2. Collect 3 months' worth of bills. If you like, you can separate this into more or less fixed bills, which are things such as rent/mortgage payments, water bills, electrical bills and so forth, versus other expenses such as groceries. In any case you need an average of what you are paying out every month.

3. Subtract your average monthly expenses from the average monthly single income. Will it work?

If not, don't despair. There are often areas you can cut. When you have two incomes it is easy to spend more than you absolutely have to.

You can start with monthly bills. Do you really need cable television? What about having both cell phones and landline phones? Perhaps your family could get by with just one or the other.

Now look at the other things you spend money on monthly, but don't come in the form of bills. Can you cut that grocery bill down? Do you tend to buy more clothing or new electronic gadgets you don't need? What bad shopping habits do you have? Can you give up Starbucks?

Try to work out a budget that will work with the money you would have as a single income family. Then before you are actually a single income family, try living on it. Put the extra into savings. It makes a nice cushion for if things don't work out and for when those extra bills that you really can't plan for hit.

It takes time to learn to live on a single income. It is very possible for many families. It takes planning, both in terms of finances and in terms of what is expected from each person, but it is highly doable. And having the ability to have one parent there for the kids is just a delight.

Technorati Tags: Money

Smart Money Drives the Financial Markets

A speech from a former syndicate trader, Tom. Would like to watch more videos of this person. That provided awesome knowledge piece on trading and investing.

Technorati Tags: Finance, Investment, Trading

About This Blog - Money Fetches Money

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I have created this blog to post few notes/details while learning about finance. I have read the Robert Kiyoski's world best seller book "Rich Dad Poor Dad". Ah! That's an entire topic that can generate few more blog posts. The book tells all about what the rich does and how it different from what a poor does. Well, That book and many others teach one thing for sure..."Money that we already have is one of our many resources" and we need to make that work for us. as we apply our resources to our business. Another thing that I learnt is we should be concentrating on all our executions so as to we increase our assets rather than liabilities. For example, a car purchase increases liability where as a home purchase brings us liabilities too, but it makes us a big asset.

Well, here on, I'm planning to read and learn about Credit Scores and Credit Reporting, Savings Accounts, CDs, Mutual Funds, Bonds, 401K Plans and other plans, Tax Saving techniques and lot more...