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There’s an individual who comments on The Simple Dollar (and a few other personal finance blogs) who identifies him- or herself as “Minimum Wage.” This person is singularly focused on the issues of low wage earners, and while his/her comments can be frustrating, sometimes Minimum Wage is really effective at pointing out how some advice simply isn’t appropriate for people in that situation. What good is portfolio advice to a minimum wage earner? What good does it do to talk about how to buy a $200K+ house when you’re making $7 an hour? Not much.

I know where Minimum Wage is coming from. I grew up in a household with a far below average income, and while we may have done all right for ourselves, I grew up around people who existed in true poverty. Thankfully, I was able to take advantage of the great opportunities that life offered me - and the great foundation that my parents gave me as a person - and was able to find a better, financially healthy life where I could raise my children without a regular sense of necessity underlying day to day life.

But what can a person do if they’re in Minimum Wage’s situation? Here are the ten things I would do if I found myself only able to earn minimum wage.

1. Go rural.
It is far, far easier to make a living on minimum wage in a rural situation. There are many small towns where you can find a room to rent for $100 a month and a small apartment to rent for $200 a month. Yes, these really exist - I see them fairly regularly when I get out in the more rural areas of Iowa. Even better, these areas often have lots of jobs for minimum wage workers - I see lots of help wanted signs around these towns and notices inside of town halls and gas stations looking for workers.

2. Don’t drive.
A car is a giant money suck. There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it, if you’re working minimum wage, your car is killing you. Ditch the car - get whatever cash you can from it. Then choose a place to live where you can get to work by foot or by bicycle. In a small town, it’s pretty easy to reach any other place in the town (and many places in the nearby countryside) on foot or by bicycle, and it’s something that people often do to cut corners.

3. Find the free stuff.
In towns of any size, there are resources available for the impoverished, from free dinners at churches to food giveaways to soup kitchens. The library provides free entertainment in the forms of books, music, and internet access. There are parks, recreational activities, and countless other things even in the smallest of rural towns. Look around for the free stuff and use it - it’s there for everyone to utilize. When you must spend money, be as frugal as possible. Ramen is very cheap, filling, and full of carbs, for example.

4. Don’t be proud.
Pride often keeps people from walking into a soup kitchen. Don’t let it. That kind of pride is an obstacle ground into you by a life in a consumerist society. People who are there to help you want to help you stand on your own two feet - give them that opportunity. Look for every opportunity to help you with your situation, from consulting to WIC to Medicaid to welfare (regardless of my political feelings on it, it’s definitely a resource someone in that position should use). If you don’t know where to start, start off by asking a pastor or a clergyman for help.

5. Minimize your required commitments.
Repaying debts? Call the debtors and explain your situation and ask for an abatement. This won’t get rid of your debt, but it can minimize your requirements for the time being. If you have children that you simply can’t support, look for opportunities to help you with that burden - your family is a great place to start, for example. Don’t saddle yourself with burdens heavier than you can carry or you’ll do nothing but collapse. You don’t become strong by carrying 500 pounds of weight on your back - you become strong by learning how to carry ten pounds, then adding more as you go along.

6. Take every side opportunity you can.
There are all sorts of little opportunities to make more money if you pay attention. Doing things like helping someone shingle a roof for $10 an hour cash is an opportunity you can’t let pass by. Free meals? Take them. Twenty bucks for helping an old man clean out his garage? Do it. Ask around for odd jobs and other small-scale moneymaking opportunities - perhaps even get started on your own “handyman” business.

7. Minimize your possessions.
There are a lot of reasons for doing this. The biggest one is that the more stuff you have, the more money you’ve wasted. Also, fewer possessions mean that you need less room to live. For a while, all of my worldly possessions (clothes included) fit in a single Rubbermaid tub - and that made it extremely easy to actually live in someone’s living room for a while.

8. Make a steely commitment to succeed.
Even after you’ve done all of this, it still takes some serious commitment to make all of this work. You can get yourself in a position where you’re not spending more than you make, but it takes commitment to stay there. Remind yourself every day that you’re not going to waste money and that you’re going to spend less than you earn this week - and this month - and this year. That’s the one way you can get ahead.

9. Save automatically.
So what do you do when you are making more than you’re spending? Take that extra money and put it into a savings account. But just doing that every once in a while won’t cut it. Keep most of your money in a checking account, then go to the library and use the internet access there to set up an online savings account with a big bank, like ING or HSBC. Set up an automatic savings plan there to withdraw $10 a week from your main checking - or maybe even more. Then walk away and forget about it. What will happen? After a year, you’ll have $530 or so in the account. If you’ve put in more weekly, you’ll have even more.

10. Educate yourself.
While you’re putting yourself in a better financial place, spend your spare time educating yourself. Take classes at the nearest community college and work towards some kind of degree. If you need to, transfer to a state university - if you’ve been working on minimum wage for a long time and are actually making strong progress towards a degree, they will help you big time with paying for it. The key is getting started - see what your local community college has to offer.

One final tip: don’t give up the dream.
If you’re working a minimum wage job, either you’re very young, very lazy, or very unlucky. All of these can be overcome, but they take time and commitment and a lot of hard work. It’s very easy to give up the dream of a better life when you’re doing this. Don’t. You can succeed and you will succeed if you spend every day taking steps in the right direction. Surround yourself with people who are also fighting to go in the right direction. Don’t be resentful of people in a better situation than you - instead, use them as inspiration and realize that if you keep on the path, you’ll get there too.

Thanks to thesimpledollar.com

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I lent $50.00 on Kiva yesterday. Lending is not the same as Giving, but I still got a warm fuzzy feeling about my $50.00.

What is Kiva ? I took the liberty of quoting them wholesale:

See Kiva

” We Let You Loan to the Working Poor

Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding - not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.

Kiva partners with existing expert microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to outstanding entrepreneurs from impoverished communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entreprenuer on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Child sponsorship has always been a high overhead business. Kiva creates a similar interpersonal connection at much lower costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery. The individuals featured on our website are real people who need a loan and are waiting for socially-minded individuals like you to lend them money.”

There you have it.

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Ready to quantify how much time you waste/ online ? I hope that question didn’t offend you. Let me rephrase that. Are you ready to quantify your time on the computer ? Then read the following article: 5 Tools to Track How Much Time you Waste while Online

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Oil and gold jump to new records The spot price for gold also briefly hit a record above $1,030 an ounce. Oil also hit $109.00. Some say oil will reach $200.00 in a few years. Are you planning to invest in commodities yet ? I’m still learning how…

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Apparently, if your thinking 10 to 20 years in advance the Chinese Yuan might be a good choice… Pay close attention to Craig Karmin’s response to this question/statement: “How worried should we be about the rise of the Euro, I mean the Dollar look weak agaist the Euro.”


Some replies on Yahoo Answers
“Just buy a mutual fund or ETF that invests in Chinese stocks. You will get the benefit of effectively holding the Yuan. D” . Response from Heavy D

I know an indirect way. Buy a mutual fund that invests in Chinese stocks or buy Chinese stocks or buy them both. A rise in the Yuan will translate into a rise in the comparative value of the stocks when translated into U S dollars. Actually, the Chinese stocks will most likely outperform the U S stocks during the next 5, 10 and 20 years so you will potentially receive a double benefit.
Here are a couple of Chinese stocks traded as ADRs: CHL and ACH
Here are a couple of closed end mutual funds currently selling at whopping discounts to net assets: CHN, TDF. Response from muncie birder

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Most Americans have little experience with financing a home, and even fewer have specific knowledge of an FHA Loan, versus various conventional loans. The initials FHA represent the Federal Housing Administration. This government corporation was established in 1934 for the sole purpose of helping Americans fulfill their dreams of home ownership.

A lot of hard working people, dream of owning a family home but simply don’t qualify for the loan or can’t afford the purchase with a conventional bank loan. The FHA is helpful because it caters to people who cannot afford a conventional bank down payment or otherwise do not qualify for PMI insurance. Through an FHA home purchase, the down payment may be as low as just 3% of the total purchase price. Plus most of the closing costs and fees can be included in the FHA backed loan.

The FHA does not extend the actual loan, but rather it insures the loan. Your local private bank may be the actual lender, but that loan if further backed by the FHA, which allows the bank to offer more advantageous terms. Since the rate and terms are set by the actual lender and not the FHA, comparison shopping for the loan is very important.

Some of the more beneficial features of an FHA Loan are the terms which allow a single or multi-parent household to purchase a home. The FHA Loan can also provide options for fixing up your existing home such as remodelling, home repairs or energy-efficient improvements and including the additional renovation costs in the loan. The FHA has provided some excellent avenues middle income or low income Americans.

Traditionally, FHA loans have gone to lower income Americans and have enabled many families to purchase a home they would not otherwise have been able to afford. After all, this program did originate during the time of the great depression when foreclosures were common, and cash was scarce.

Today, the FHA is a part of HUD U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. FHA loans typically offer low down payments, low closing costs and easy credit qualifying.

Important to the mortgage lending process, the potential lender assesses the prospective home buyer for risk. That analysis of the home buyer’s debt to income ratio enables the buyer to know what priced home they can afford. Other factors, such as payment history on existing debts, are considered and used to make decisions regarding eligibility and terms for a loan.

The FHA even offers a Reverse Mortgage. If you are at least 62 years old and live in your home which is paid off then the FHA Reverse Mortgage might be right for you. An FHA Reverse Mortgage allows you to take equity out of your home. It allows the home owner to turn his equity into monthly cash for living. In August of 2007, the FHA even added a new refinancing program to help borrowers hurt by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis. That refinancing program is called FHA-Secure.

Want to experience the joy of home ownership but need a loan? The Federal Housing Administration has been helping people fulfill their dreams of owning a home since 1934. For more information on the this topic you can visit FHA Mortgage Limits page. This page allows you to look up the FHA mortgage limits for your area or several areas, and then list them by state, county, or Metropolitan Statistical Area. You can also learn more at FHA Loan Refinancing.

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A guest post by Mark J. Smith. Want to be a guest writer on Financial Dominance ? Contact Marcel

People may fail to properly plan for their retirement needs because they focus exclusively on money. Retirement goals aren’t just financial. Knowing the lifestyle you want during retirement is the beginning of a successful wealth management plan. Do you want to tour in an RV, live in a beach house, or move closer to your children and grandchildren during retirement? By starting at the beginning—writing down and sharing your retirement goals with your financial team—you will ensure a completely customized retirement savings plan.

With a retirement goal set you are now ready to determine funding and should consider the following factors:

• In the past thirty years the average life expectancy increased from 73 years old to nearly 80. (Center for Disease Control) We need to plan for seven more years of life than our grandparents did.
• The U.S. inflation has increased 2.57% in the last seven years. (Inflationdata.com) When you retire the cost of living will be higher and each subsequent year of your retirement will require more money to maintain the same lifestyle.
• You can’t depend on Social Security to sustain you during retirement–even for necessities. We recommend that your Social Security checks be used for things you want in retirement, not things you need.
• Delaying retirement savings could hurt you more than you think. If a 25- year-old saves $4,000 per year for 10 years and has an eight percent annual account interest rate, at age 65 her retirement account will total $640,120. Waiting until she is 35 years old and saving the same amount annually with the same interest rate for 30 years, her account will total $408,534 when she is 65. Waiting 10 years to start saving for retirement causes a loss of over $200,000 in this case, even though she saved for 20 extra years! This hypothetical illustration is not intended to reflect actual performance.
• Mortgage vs. savings – Because of the compounding nature of a liquid investment portfolio as compared to the equity in your home, you may ultimately net more money by increasing your savings first than you would if you chose to pay off your home and save afterward. We typically recommend that your net worth consist of approximately 25% in home equity and 75% in retirement savings. Of course, each person’s situation is different.
• Retirement cash flow is a major concern. Make a list of things you will need in retirement—housing, food, insurance, transportation and healthcare. Then make an additional list of things you want to have in retirement—a second home, entertainment or providing charitable donations. Fund at least some of the things you want, in addition to all of the things you need.

Other factors may contribute to a retirement age, including what investments you have made, the stability of your investments, and the sequence of your investment returns. Please contact a financial advisor if you have questions about your retirement planning.

Mark J. Smith CFP®, CPA/PFS, CIMA®, was named one of the top 10 financial advisors in the U.S. by Registered Rep magazine; named the top-ranked independent advisor in Colorado and number 22 in the U.S. by Barron’s; and the Winner’s Circle, an independent advocacy organization, named him one of the top financial planners in the country. Visit www.mj-smith.com for more information on Mark J. Smith and his Colorado-based firm. Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC.

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This comment by James Turk caught my attention.

“When you look at a currency crisis, and there have been dozens since the end of the Second World War where currencies have disappeared and been completed destroyed. The people who react last are the people in the country where the currency is being destroyed. It’s a natural thing to have happen because your being paid in the currency, your spending that currency and your think everything is going to be well.”
Take a look at the videos and judge for yourself. Grab a handful of salt since the videos were created by Al Jazeera, but don’t stick your head in the sand.

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I enjoyed reading Pinyo’s 35 Common Sense Rules for Investing

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Being perpetually in debt seems to be a way of life these days, as I am sure many of you are aware. Credit cards are usually the main source of debt because they are so convenient to use and difficult to keep track of, but did you know that there are ways of using credit cards to reduce your debt and save money? Take a look at the tips below for an idea of how you can do just that!

1. Compare credit cards to obtain the best deals. There is a variety of credit cards out there that offer interest free deals, including balance transfers. If you compare credit cards then you could find a deal of anywhere up to 15 months interest free on balance transfers and save on the interest whilst giving yourself a chance to clear the debt in that space of time.

2. If you have to make a big purchase and do not have the money for it then you could also tap into interest free purchase credit card deals. These deals are often similar to the balance transfer ones in that you get a certain period of time to pay the credit card’s balance off before interest is applied, thus saving you money and reducing your debt. Again, compare credit cards to find the best deals.

3. Finally, there is a whole host of reward credit cards out there that offer cash back offers and various reward points. This can save you money and earn you a little bit back on your purchases, but some of the reward deals are incredibly poor so, again, you have to compare credit cards to find the better ones.

I’m sure that you can see the common theme here – compare credit cards! It is a must if you want to access the best ones. So many of the credit card comparison websites are complicated to use. To solve this problem take a look at About Your Money. The credit cards section is simple to use, complete with a comparison table and a guide to plenty of information. Choose the best ones for your situation, whether you want to save money or reduce your debt.

User submitted ideas

Try to obtain a credit card with lower interest rates than your current credit card and you can then use this credit card to pay off the balances on your other credit cards. By doing this, you are avoiding heavy fees charged by the companies and you are transferring your debts to the credit card with lower interest rates and so, you save money. But some credit cards charge a higher fee for transferred balances and so, you need to make sure that you choose the right card. Also, make sure that you can transfer your balance again to another card in order to save some more money. Use this tip with caution.

Send us ideas on paragraphes how to “Save Money with a Credit Card”.

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