While I must bow to my wife as the true queen of frugality, I’ve learned quite a bit along the way about how to bargain to get the best prices out there on several things.  I’ve bargained on medical bills, cars, appliances, furniture, electronics, advertising, job offers, and a ton of other things too.  While bargaining doesn’t always equal saving money, it should most of the time.  Similarly, if you are bargaining with someone who will have an ongoing relationship with you, it will set a precedent that you expect the best price and save you headache going forward.  So what are some of the best ways to get a bargain?  Here are a few tried-and-true methods:

• Remember that the first number loses – If you are interesting in buying something, make the person selling give you the price instead of providing them an offer.  If you start with a number, they’re of course going to go higher.  If you let them offer a number, you can either take it or offer lower.  If you give the number first, you lose.  Let me explain.  When I was getting ready to purchase a car several years ago, I had cash in hand, but my budget was VERY limited.  The asking price for the little car I liked was $5,995.  They offered it to me at $5,000.  I countered with $3,400 and ultimately got it for $3,800.  I would have never dreamed I would have gotten the car (worth about $5,000) for that little and so if I’d made a reasonable offer, I would have offered $4,500 and probably paid $4,800. My guess is that forcing them to make me the offer saved me $1,000 or so. [Read more…]

I never tire of seeing you guys meet your goals.  As a financial counselor, I thrive on seeing people who have lost hope gain a new insight and ability to beat their debt.  I love watching a family who has no clue what’s going on with their money decide to change and start to take control of their finances.  I am energized by the man or woman who realizes it is more important to be debt free and have money in the bank than it is to have lots of unnecessary stuff.  But the one question that I’m constantly asked is HOW?  How do you accomplish freedom from debt?  How do you save up and pay cash for a car?  How do you go to college and avoid student loans?  Almost no one asks why – they already know the why.  So let’s talk about the how.

Post by Barry Myers

The banking industry has gotten a bad reputation, and it is mostly for good reason.  If you choose the wrong bank, you’ll pay ridiculous fees and get very little in return.  But that’s not how it ought to be.  While I’ll stand up and bash a misbehaving bank right along with you, I want to spend a few minutes sharing five ways you can get the best out of your bank – or how you can evaluate your banking options with other companies if you aren’t so in love with the bank you’ve got now.

1. How safe is my money?  Banks are probably THE SAFEST place to put your money.  You may not earn a lot of interest, but your money is pretty darn safe.  In the U.S., the government guarantees up to $250,000 through the FDIC (banks) and NCUA (credit unions).  So while you might be tempted to keep it under your mattress, your cash is a heck of a lot safer in your local bank.
2. Can I access my money online and in person?  I check my online banking almost daily.  I’m a nerd.  What did we do before it?  This option is convenient, almost real-time and FREE. But equally important to me is getting to see real people at my bank.  In a world where purely online banks are common, I’m sticking with brick and mortar institutions.  More on that in #4.
3. Do I get a free debit card/ATM usage?  I don’t use a credit card.  I don’t have a credit card.  But I can still rent a car, buy things online, pay at the pump for gas and just about anything else I want when I roam around with my debit card.  I love my debit card.  Cut up every other piece of plastic in your wallet and start using your debit card immediately.
4. Do they know who I am?  If the people at the bank know you, it makes things a LOT better.  Banks often have staff called “relationship managers” and they’ve started referring to you as “clients” rather than customers.  Why?  Because they recognize if you build a relationship with them you’ll stick around.  This works both ways.  Most of us have one or two branches of our local bank that we visit because they’re convenient.  Make an effort to get to know the people there.  Skip the drive thru when time allows and go inside.  Ask the teller how he/she is doing, etc.  Go back to Business Relationships 101 and build from there.  If you don’t have a bank where this is possible, find one.
5. Can I get a loan?  I don’t encourage debt in any form.  I just don’t like it because it adds risk to your financial equation and that’s just not cool.  But I realize most people (myself included) couldn’t buy their first house or car without help from the bank. 
   

Because I don’t want to write a book on the subject, I’ve kept my tips fairly short.  However, I know there are lots of other benefits out there to help you make the most of your experience.  If you have a few banks in your area that might fit the bill, you should consider interest rates and other benefits.  In other words, you may need to do a bank account comparison before you decide on the right bank for you.  Notice I skipped over things like interest rates, minimum balance requirements, etc., etc.  With a bank, that stuff is secondary to me.  But don’t avoid those details!

What about you?  What are some ways you get the most out of your bank?

There are very few times as a financial counselor that I’m going to tell you to NOT pay your bills.  In fact, the Bible is very clear that only the wicked borrow and do not repay (Psalm 37:21).  The verse you’ll hear me yell from the mountaintop is Romans 13:8, which begins, “let no debt remain outstanding…”.  But there are times when paying a bill makes no sense.  Let’s spend some time on that thought today. [Read more…]

Having debt is not a sin.  I’ve been accused of demonizing debt and fear-mongering with my statements on debt, but I believe these criticisms are unfounded.  I’ve seen the nasty side of debt and I’m trying to protect you from it.  So if you are happy with your debt and don’t ever believe it will be a struggle for you, please stop reading and save yourself some time.  You only get 24 hours each day and I don’t want to take the 1% of it or so it might take to work through this article and do what it says.  For everyone else, I think today’s article might provide you some useful insight on debt that is rarely discussed.

One of the things I run into regularly in my counseling is someone who truly can’t afford to pay all his/her bills.  Whether it is a one-time deal or an ongoing issue, it is an issue with many of you out there.  Today I’m going to share my thoughts on how you can prioritize your debts so you can avoid some expensive headaches if (when) something goes wrong.  In other words, we’re going to talk about how to make good decisions if something bad happens in your financial situation.  The simplest way to do that is to help you determine some priorities when it comes to your bills.  Who gets paid if there isn’t enough money to go around? [Read more…]

Let me start this post by saying I’m tired.  I can’t express in words how tired and sore I am.  We’ve been at the task of remodeling our house for a bit over six weeks now and I really didn’t think things would take us this long.  We’ve done plumbing, electrical wiring, drywall, painting, trim carpentry, yard work and just about everything else associated with starting a new career as a contractor (by the way, I am currently NOT for hire…I gotta finish my own house before I can do anyone else’s!).  I’ve spent more time wearing a dust mask and crawling around in the attic than I ever wanted (just a side note: it makes an excellent sauna between the hours of 10 am and 8 pm every day).  Along the way, we’ve maintained our status as cheapskates without sacrificing quality and thought it might help those of you who have a few projects around the house of your own if I shared some of the ways we’ve saved money on this “project” we’re finishing up. [Read more…]

We live in a culture that tells us we deserve things.  We deserve to go on vacation because we work hard.  We deserve to eat dessert because we had a salad for lunch.  We deserve to live in a really nice house and drive a really nice car because we put in a lot of hours at the office.  We deserve a beautiful place to work. The working environment plays an important role in our mental health. It is really stressful to have a long day of work, and a nice place can give us a cozy and peaceful feeling.  This mindset is what gives us the idea that if we want something we should just go get it.  This is also the mindset that allows rent-to-own and title loan places to thrive.  This mindset is a load of crap.  There, I said it.  The mindset of I deserve is a total load of crap fed to us from thousands of different angles and promulgated (yeah, yeah, I know I just used a college word) by every TV commercial and radio ad you’ll find anywhere.  So what’s the truth?  What do we REALLY deserve?  That’s the topic for another post.  Today, however, I’m going to discuss the dangers of rent-to-own and share a story that has captured my heart for months now and motivated me to help people get (and stay) out of debt.

Last week’s post on change being all about deciding to do it went over well enough that you guys even shared some really great stories about how you’ve used my ramblings to give you some direction.  I’m THRILLED to read those types of comments.  Some of you also asked me for some specific things where this mindset could be applied, so I thought I’d take today to tackle that idea through the idea of being “poor” (financially).

I talk to people nearly every day who are struggling to make ends meet.  Financially, things are tight and there is often little hope of things getting any better.  By their very situation, most would call them poor.  I think that’s wrong.  You may not have any money, but you are not necessarily poor.  Poor is a state of mind.  If you are short on cash, that doesn’t mean you’re poor.  If you are behind on all your bills, that doesn’t mean you’re poor.  If you don’t know where your next meal is coming from, that doesn’t mean you’re poor either.  You’re only poor when you admit defeat, sit down and decide you are poor.  This is a very serious (and bad) place to be.  When you are poor, you stop believing in yourself. When you’re poor, you start looking at others and believing they are evil for having more than you do.  When you’re poor, you decide the government (or the church, the community, your neighbor, etc.) owes you something because you’ve been wronged.  In other words, poor is the decision to give up on succeeding financially.  Rather than make this a political statement, which is something most people want to do because it is an easy out, I will say this: Jesus said the poor will always be around (Matthew 26:11), but it is up to you whether or not you decide to be one of them.