Balancing your checkbook has never been this difficult, and you ask yourself why? Why do you always get a negative balance? Where did all your money go?

 To win in the race for financial freedom you must learn how to spend money wisely. Never spend more than you earn or else even if you work your butt’s off every day with extensive long overtime hours it will be worthless. We all know this but instinct kicks in when a new shoe is out in the market, or your favorite designer had just released her new collection, or when a new mobile phone introducing amazing features is out in the market, we forget this basic concept of saving.

 Here are some lists to remind you of why you spend more than your budget? Review them and check yourself, it is always good to have a recollection. This will often stop you from using your credit cards.

 1. The neighbors have it- Human by nature is never satisfied, it is a constant reason for living. It is what makes people work, move, and act. We psychologically want these needs satisfied. The problem is the more we get something, the more we want something. People have to keep an image of them to feel elated when around people; we don’t want our neighbors to think we cannot afford the same thing right? We have to create an image of success in other people’s mind or else they would think little of you and you don’t want that. So we tend to buy something for the show, but little do we know our neighbors are doing the same thing. Hush, hush and you pretend you don’t know this.

2. Pass up on reviewing your asset – What we don’t know won’t hurt us right? If we don’t look at our financial status, we would never know that we are seriously in debt, and when you don’t know that truth you just keep spending and spending and spending more. In the end you will end up into a ball of twine without even realizing how or when you ended up into so much trouble.

 3. Liquidating your money before receiving it – Yes, people have a tendency to plan ahead, this is good not unless you plan on spending something you don’t physically have yet. For example getting a deal for that dream car you have been salivating with, promising a down payment, to be paid with your bonus. Reminder “Bonus” as defined “is something given or paid in addition to what is usual or expected” which means it is something intangible until you actually receive it. It can be cut anytime by your boss. So don’t put too much hope into it.

 4. Curse of the Credit Cards –Unlike physical money, credit cards have a tendency to fool you into thinking that you are not really spending much. I mean no money is coming out of your pocket so you don’t worry. Until the bills actually arrive, then you realize you have again spend more than what is necessary.

 5. Effective Marketing- One of the main goals of a marketer is to create a scenario of transforming wants into needs. You may not want to get the latest diet pill but it does promise to make you lose 10 pounds for a week right, I mean Isn’t that marvelous without trickling a sweat? You may not want to get a new camera, but the ads say “no down payment, with 0% percent interest” won’t you just love to take a picture of your baby with your new DSLR? These are all effective marketing strategies that marketer had been pulling on us for ages and by the looks of it, it is really effective. They’re selling and were buying.

 6. More money, more fun – The more money we have the more we increase our spending habits this is okay if you can afford it; you deserve to spend your hard earned money. But what if we have less money, does this mean less fun? It’s hard to come by with so little, but wait are you sure you have so little? Cross reference yourself with other people. They can survive with just the basic needs, why can’t you? Less money can still be fun you know.

 7. You have suffered before – You work your way up into the ladder. You started poor almost begged for help to get yourself to good schooling and hard earned luck got you climbing the ladder and you tell yourself this time it will be all about me! This is a common reason why adults tend to spend a lot. They think they deserve more since they suffered more and sacrificed more before they got to where they are now. They forget that a ladder does not always lead you up; it can also lead you down.

 8. I’ve got the power – Money they say can buy power! Oh yes its true, but remember power is limitless, while your money depletes.

 9. Feel good – There’s no feeling better than getting your dream even if we can’t really afford just yet.

 10. Yes or No – Have you always been saying yes, instead of no. Think again, this can lead you to financial burden especially when your kid wants that new toy her classmate has, or your spouse wants those new shoes she just saw on TV and your friends keep bugging you for a night out on weekends. Do you really have to say yes to everything?

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Most people when asked would find a way to pay their mortgage early. Here are some tips that may help you pay off your mortgage earlier than planned.

When getting a new mortgage

Before deciding on a 15 year mortgage consider a 30 year term instead. If you are comfortable making the monthly payment on a 15 year mortgage, then pay that amount but on the 30 year mortgage. Ok I’ll explain. Let’s say you have a 30 year mortgage for $200,000 and the monthly payment is $1,074 at 5% interest rate. However your payment on a 15 year mortgage would be $1,582 also at 5% then $508 a month would be going to principal. Wow, that’s powerful.

To put that into perspective

The Secret Banker’s Rule is such. For every $1 you put towards your mortgage the bank gets $10 if your interest rate is at 5%. When paid before it’s due (i.e. extra principal payment) this gets turned around, reverse compounding. Now you would get the $10 and the bank would get $1. Let’s take this a little further. The $508 a month equals $5,080 in interest savings. In other words, money you don’t have to pay

Paying twice a month

Did you know that by paying twice a month or bi-weekly you actually create one whole extra payment a year.
If you think about it, there are 52 weeks in a year divide into 2 that’s 26 bi-weekly payments which amounts to 13 months. Does this make sense?
This will definitely remove about 6 years off a 30 year mortgage. Also making bi-weekly payments may be easier to cut off your budget as oppose to paying one lump sum to create that one extra payment a year.
The downside to this method is most lenders charge a fee for allowing this payment service, but the fee is nothing if you think of the bigger savings in the long run.
Another way to do it is simply put half of the payment into a savings account every 2 weeks and then make your monthly payment. This will create a whole extra payment at the end of the year.

Add extra payment

Instead of the usual fixed amount paid for monthly try adding an extra principal payment. A certain percentage of the monthly payment when paid extra will work almost the same as doing a bi-weekly payment without paying for the extra fees added by lenders.

Pay in advance

As you can see by the sample above that it’s a huge interest savings when paid in advance.
Knowing that you may want to put whatever little extra money you get as a commission or bonuses towards your mortgage. Now if you would like to find out how you can have the extra money going towards your mortgage without coming out of your pocket you may want to attend our free seminar called Equity Acceleration Program offered by JCC Alliance network.

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