CALLING ALL MY FELLOW VETERANS

If you are an honorably discharged veteran, you may be eligible for a new, lifelong benefit that may save you money. Effective Veterans Day, November 11, 2017, qualifying veterans may begin to make purchases on the online military exchanges.  All you have to do is complete a form verifying your service and that your discharge was honorable. You can then begin making purchases online which may be sales tax-free and may also be free of some shipping charges. Go to www.shopmyexchange.com for complete information about this program and the forms you will need to complete.

Easy Ways to Save on Everyday Expenses in Retirement

In our last post, we reviewed an online course entitled "Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning" offered by the University of California at Irvine.  The course was an in depth study of almost all aspects of financial planning.  However, it is probably too advanced for most people. On the other hand a course offered by the Khan Academy is much more down to earth. www.smartmoneyhabits.com. Through a video, Easy Ways to Save on Everyday Expenses, it offers a number of ways you can save money on your grocery bills, cable and telephone bills. Most of the tips  we all have heard before, but it is always good to remind ourselves how little things like shopping with a list, using coupons, signing up for rewards or loyalty cards can all add up to big savings.

In addition to the Easy Ways to Save on Everyday Expenses video, several other videos are offered.  One fascinating one to me was the one entitled The Time Value of Money.  The video offers a cogent explanation of this sometimes elusive concept. Let me know what you think.

Overall, for most people, this is the course I would recommend if you are trying to get your personal finances in order.. It is quick and easy to understand and does not require a lot of prior knowledge. Shop Amazon - Perfect Gifts for Mother's Day http://astore.amazon.com/notjustforboomers-20

How Boomers Can Save Money in Retirement by Studying the Fundamentals of Personal Finance

We boomers all think we know more about money issues than we really do.  So maybe, we need a little help with our finances..  But who wants to go to a financial planner?  Even those who charge by the hour and do not take commissions can still cost you a pretty penny.  Money Magazine recently recommended two online courses to give you the fundamentals of financial planning. I thought I would test drive those for you and give you my impressions of the two courses.

First up is the course entitled "Fundamentals of Personal Financial Planning" offered by the University of California at Irvine. This no credit, no-fee course is available online at http://ocw.uci.edu/courses/course.aspx?id=12.  This course is not intended to replace a professional financial planner, but to help to give you a better understanding of financial planning. According to the course description, "The course was created to help those who cannot afford extensive planning assistance better understand how to define and reach their financial goals. It provides basic understanding so informed decisions can be made. The course can also be seen as a reference for individual topics that are part of personal financial planning."

The course is quite comprehensive, covering some 22 different topics from preparing cash flow and net worth statements to determining how much you will need for retirement.  If you are truly interested in planning your financial future, this is certainly a good place to assist you with your planning.  However, it does make certain assumptions that beginners may not be familiar with.  I think it is geared more towards the person with some general knowledge of the principles of personal investing who wants a refresher course.

In a future blog I will discuss another financial planning course from the Khan Academy. www.bettermoneyhabits.com.

How to Save Money Buying a Car and House and Everything Else

The Guidelines to Saving Money When Making a Purchase

1. Establish reasonable goals resulting from solid preparation.

2. Listen in order to understand the other party’s position and interests.

3. Always be polite and avoid showing your emotion.

4. Never make the first offer or bid against yourself.

5. Work through impasses.

6. Hold people to their representations

Establish reasonable goals through research

I sometimes think that this is the most important aspect of preparing for any negotiation. Before you can begin negotiating you must know what it is you want. Often people have no clear understanding as to what they would like to accomplish by the negotiation. They may well have some vague idea about what they would like, but have not established in their heads where they want to end up. Nor do they have any plan on how to get there even if they do have some goal. Such vague notions and lack of preparation will almost surely mean that you will not reach your goal.

There was a folk song that was popular in the 1960s that became the unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement, "Keep Your Eye on the Prize." It sounds simple enough. Nonetheless, this is exactly what you need to think about each time you negotiate: What is the prize you hope to receive through the negotiations? What is it that you really want? The late Stephen Covey in his popular self-help book, "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People," identified the most important of his habits for a successful negotiation: "begin with the end in mind."

 

That is what I am asking you to do each time you begin a negotiation: "begin with the end in mind." Every time you are engaged in a negotiation, and as we will discuss, you are probably engaged in some form of negotiation many times every day, keep this principle in mind. If you do, you will be more successful in those negotiations. Why does this formula work? Because, if you keep your goal in mind, you are more likely to negotiate in a way that will facilitate the accomplishment of that goal. It does not matter whether you are asking for a raise from your boss or discussing where to go to dinner tonight with your spouse. These are negotiations and having a firm goal in mind will enable you to achieve that goal. Sometimes people are afraid to express that goal to the other party. That can be a major source of frustration. Who hasn’t stood outside with their co-workers deciding where to go to lunch and no one speaks up until finally someone does and then you end up going someplace you hate. Believe it or not, that is a negotiation and you just lost it.

 

How do you decide upon your goal? Let me suggest that one way of doing so is to do your research and plan out what you want to say and do. Let me give you a few examples. Let’s say you are interested in buying a new car and you want to make sure that you get the best price. When you go into the car dealer’s showroom, you will see the sticker price on the side window of the car you are interested in. As you know, that is really just the beginning price; it is not the price you should pay. You will soon be entering into negotiations with the salesperson and perhaps the manager. You want to be prepared; you want to know what the best price you can expect to get for the car you want.

 

One way to find out is to research the price paid by the dealer so that you know how much the automobile has been marked up in price. Two excellent sources of that information are Edmunds.com and Consumer Reports magazine. Edmunds will show you what other people are paying for the same car you want to buy. Consumer Reports, in addition to its yearly car issue and periodic reviews, has an online product that for about $14 will give you a printable guide for the exact car with options you are interested in buying. It will show you not only the cost of the vehicle to the dealer (what he paid for it from the manufacturer) but also the costs of any accessories and packages available for that model.

 

Armed with that information, you can confidently go into the dealer, present your research and ask for the best price based upon the cost to the dealer. Now, the dealer will complain that he will not make a profit if he sells you the car at his cost. Certainly, he is entitled to some profit. Your research also should have taught you that frequently the dealer will receive certain incentives from the manufacturer that are not shown anywhere. That may be the only source of profit he needs.  So don’t be shy about asking for the car at the dealer’s own cost. Who knows, you might actually get the car at that price. In any event, as a result of your research, you have established your goal: get the best price from the dealer. And you have used that research to get that price.

 

This same strategy can be employed when buying a house or a new television as well as many other products. For example, when buying a house, before making an offer, you should research the real estate records  for your county (some of these are available online, so start there) to determine the price paid by the seller as well as research the price recently paid by buyers of comparable homes. Now, your agent may say that she has done so, but I suggest you do your own research. It is your money and no one has a greater interest than you in making sure you do not overpay for your dream home.

 

When buying appliances such as televisions, a good practice is to go to one of the big box stores such as Best Buy or Target, find the product you are interested in, noting its price. If you then go online and check on Amazon, eBay or similar sites, you can determine the price others are paying for that same product. Of course, you can purchase the item from Amazon if the price is lower; or, as an alternative, take your research to the big box store and ask that they either meet or beat that price. You will probably be surprised how often they will make the sale at the lower price. You have established your goal through research and will probably reach that goal.