Successfully managing your money comes down to one thing–control. For all the things we talk about here at The Dough Roller from retirement to investing and taxes to credit cards, financial freedom and sound money management come down to whether you control your money, or whether it controls you. As I’ve often said, the good news is that sound, wealth-building money management is simple. The reality check, however, is that managing your money, while simple, is not always so easy.

Two things make managing money difficult. The first is that for most of use, we always want more. We often see contentment not in who we are or what we do, but in what we have. The result is constant pressure we put on ourselves to have more. The second thing that makes controlling our money difficult are the endless issues and options when it comes to money. How much do we save for retirement and where do we invest it? How do we track our spending each month. Should we buy or rent a house? How much life insurance should we buy? The financial decisions we are called upon to make can feel overwhelming.

While no single article can cover every money management issue, in this Easy Guide to Money Management, we’ll look at 10 simple and easy to follow tips and tricks to help us better manage our money.

Money Management Tips and Tricks

1. Track spending by using a debt or credit card: I hate keeping track of everything I spend. I’ve tried in the past, with good intentions and a fancy spreadsheet or money management software. But I just don’t keep up with it. So now I use a debit or credit card for virtually everything I buy. Everything. If I use a credit card, I pay it off in full every month (and earn travel rewards or other rebates along the way). And at the end of the month, I have a complete record of everything I’ve spent.
2. Keep track of your net worth: Determining and tracking your net worth is one of the most important financial management steps you can take. Your net worth is simply the value of everything you own less the amount of all your debts. It’s net worth, not income, that determines true wealth and financial freedom. And it is key to remember that a monthly budget is closely tied to net worth. What happens with your monthly budget, whether you spend more than you make or make more than you spend, is reflected in your net worth. Make more than you spend, and the extra income ends up in either increased savings or decreased debt. Spend more than you make, and your debt has to go up. I’ve tracked my net worth on a simple spreadsheet for years, but you can use money management software such as Quicken or Microsoft Money if you want.
3. Start investing today: I started investing as soon as I graduated from college. I did not wait until my school loans or other debt was paid off. It was not a lot of money at first, but even a little adds up over time. And don’t get twisted over where to invest your money. Picking sound mutual funds in a well diversified portfolio is a snap. Here are some articles to get you started:
   • How to pick your first mutual fund
   • How to Evaluate a Mutual Fund
   • How to Invest in Mutual Funds
   • Asset Allocation–An Easy Way to Invest
4. Prepare for periodic expenses: Car insurance, life insurance, Christmas and other gifts, car repairs and the like never come at a convenient time. So be prepared. I recall how free it felt when I set aside 1/6th of my semi-annual car insurance bill each month so that when it was due, I had the money to pay it. It takes discipline to manage your money this way, but it is definitely worth the peace of mind. And if you are looking for an a place to stash your cash at good interest rates on savings accounts, check out these online savings accounts.
5. Save for emergencies: Whether you save three months, six months, or even one month worth of living expenses, save for emergencies. Otherwise, you’re living paycheck to paycheck, and there is nothing more liberating than realizing you can survive for some period of time without earned income.
6. Diversify your income: I don’t care how much you make from your job, having a steady stream of additional income from another source is liberating. I get my multiple streams of income by making money blogging and real estate investing. There are many ways to earn a second income. Just pick one and get rolling.
7. Buy a home and live in it a long time: I know that with falling real estate prices, many now claim that renting is the way to go. But long term ownership of real estate can build substantial wealth; renting never will.
8. Take advantage of free money: In my research for The Dough Roller, I’ve run across hundreds of ways to save money. And I’m particularly fond of money saving tips that do not require me to sacrifice anything. I take advantage of 0% balance transfer credit card offers; I buy store gift cards at a discount; I bought my last car on the Internet from a dealer 500 miles a way and had it delivered to my home; and I look for ways to lower my utility bills. I’m not frugal; never have been. But I also don’t pass up a good offer when I see one.
9. Give to a good cause: Whether it is your church or some other charity, give some of your money away. What’s the point of all this money management fuss if we do not do something meaningful with at least a small portion of our income.
10. Take advantage of the internet: The internet provides a wealth of tools to help manage your money. I’ve already linked to online budget tools above. But think of all the things you can do via the Internet in relation to money management: access your checking account, view your investments, apply for a credit card, get a mortgage, check the value of your home, check the value of your boss’s home, prepare and submit your income taxes, find money saving deals, comparison shop, and the list could go on forever.

So there is a list of 10 easy money management tips. Do you have other tips to help readers take control of their money? If so, share our ideas in the comments below.

Update: Here are some money management tips sent in by other bloggers. If you have more, send me an email at dr [at] doughroller [dot] net, and I’ll add them here with a link back to your blog:

1. Patrick from CashMoneyLife gets right to the point with How to Become A Millionaire.
2. Gather Little By Little has some great tips on Surviving a recession – what you need to do now.
3. David from My Two Dollars offers 10 Websites Where You Can Manage Your Money Online For Free.
4. Bob from ChrisitanPF offers 10 Free Household Budget Spreadsheets.

Welcome to the Best of April 2008. Here you�ll find the best articles, posts, tools, resources and news about money, finance and investing from the past month.

News & Analysis

Subprime Mortgage Squeeze Causing Rise in Foreclosures

A New York Times’ article described the impact the subprime mortgage crisis is having on foreclosures in some areas, using this graph to depict the problem (click on graph to enlarge):

Clinton’s Earn $109 Million

The Clinton’s released their tax returns through 2006, which show that they earned a cool $109 million. Here’s the breakdown from a WSJ article:

Unemployment hits 5.1%

Unemployment hit new highs in recent times, rising to 5.1% as this chart depicts:

From Capitalism to Socialism: 101

I got this snippy comment the other day (I love snippy comments). I followed the link and found my way to The Wastrel Show. Very entertaining.

Who Owns the Car Companies? (UPDATE)

Check out this infographic to see the complexities of the auto industry.

Smart Spending

BookMooch

Exchange books online for free.

How To Clean Your Entire House The Natural Way For Mere Pennies.

This is definitely a post to bookmark if you’re looking to get rid of all the chemicals in your house and to save some money at the same time.

10 Ways New Parents Overspend On Their Newborns

Here are some great money saving ideas for soon to be parents. And a belated congrats to Pinyo over at Moolanomy!
Handling My Finances in a Slow Economy

Most believe we are now in a recession, and Single Guy Money explains some of the steps he’s taking to weather the storm.

9 Tips to Save Money on Your Next Computer

Having just purchased a MacBook Pro, I can really relate to this article, particularly the suggestion to buy a refurbished computer.

When Times are Tight: 168 Frugal Tips to Make Your Dollar Stretch

You can tell that spending less money has really been on the minds of the M-Network blogs. Here’s a great list of money saving tips, and yes, there really are 168 of them.

Money Tools & Resources

Kiyosaki�s rich dad, poor dad: a book review

Rich Dad, Poor Dad–you either love him or. . . well, you don’t. Check out what Plonkee thought of the book.

The Financial Freedom Ratio: A Better Way To Measure Your Net Worth?

Here’s a great way to evaluate your net worth.

5 No-Nonsense Ways To Retire Your Debt Quickly

Posted at Prosper’s blog, The Digerati gives us some great tips to climb out of debt.

Laddering CDs at ING Direct

Jim at Blueprint discusses a great tool for laddering CDs at ING Direct.

A Peek Inside Vanguard�s Portfolio Watch

As a Vanguard fan and shareholder, this was a good tool to learn about.

BuyUCoffee

Let me just say that I report the news, what you do with it is up to you. Here’s a dating service where you set the price you’d accept to go out with another for a cup of coffee.

Personal Finance 101: Comparing Debts and Developing a Debt Repayment Plan

Here’s another post on getting out of debt. Having control of your debt is critical to financial independence, so take note.

Building Your First Budget

And while you’re climbing out of debt, you might as well build your first budget. JD talks about the 60% solution, which I read and followed years ago. It’s a great starting point if budgeting is new to you.

And then you can go right to building up your emergency fund.

Articles & Studies

10 Can�t Miss Ways To Kickstart Snowflaking

I’ve mentioned snowflaking before, and it’s a must-read if you’re looking to tackle your debt. It represents one of the most important aspects of sound money management–recognize that the little things we do with our money, in the long run, determine whether we ever achieve financial independence.

What�s Wrong With Being in the Middle Class?

Mrs. Micah asks a thought-provoking question about being middle class.

10 Good uses for a credit cards

I laughed when I read this article. As some one who regularly uses credit cards and carries around quite a lot of credit, I always enjoy hearing a different perspective.

Making Money Online

If you make money online, whether blogging or something else, you’ll find these sites and articles of interest:

Google PageRank Explained

Cool Infographs is, well, cool. It’s a great site, and this article about pagerank is. . .cool.

May 2nd, links, free templates and a game

I’ve mentioned Self Made Minds before, and it is a must-read. In this article they link to new WordPress theme by Revolution that is worth checking out.

Now More Than Ever: 50 More Excellent Blog Designs

I can only assume everybody online, whether they are interested in making money or not, reads Smashing Magazine. Here is another installment in a series of posts highlighting some of the best in blog design. They haven’t chosen The Dough Roller yet, and I am confident they never will.

Are the Keyword Research Tools Accurate?

Court’s Internet Marketing School is a must read, period.

Optimization Tips for Adsense

Here’s a great post on optimizing Adsense.

Welcome to the Best of March 2008. Here you’ll find the best articles, posts, tools, resources and news about money, finance and investing from the past month.

News & Analysis

New five dollar bill put into circulation
The new five dollar bill entered circulation on March 13 ,2008.

Opensecrets.org
A guide to the money in U.S. elections. Want to know how much the 2008 presidential candidates have raised and spent so far? Open Secrets can tell you. Who says you can’t buy an election?

Top 10 cheap green cars
A list of the top 10 “inexpensive” hybrid cars.

Emerging Credit Score
Experian launched a credit scoring system for consumers with little or no credit history. To develop the scoring model, it uses data such as demographics; internet, catalog and direct-marketing purchases and payment; trades, inquiries and public records; property and asset records; telecommunications and utility data; and; industry specific and custom scores.

Business Week’s Top 50 performers
Business Week announced its annual list of the 50 top corporate performers. Coach was #1, up from #2 last year.

Money Tools & Resources

Wide Open Wallet: 50 Awesome Open Source Financial Tools
A list of free, open source software to help you manage your money.

The Excel Magician: 70+ Excel Tips and Shortcuts to help you make Excel Magic
I recently ran across this helpful list of tips and tricks for Microsoft Excel.

40+ Alternative Income Ideas and Resources
Here’s a list of 40 ways to make a second income.

Get Your Stimulus Payment!
Here’s a tool to help older Americans who are not employed but received income determine if they are entitled to a stimulus rebate check. The AARP also as an article on this topic–Advisory About Economic Stimulus Payments

Smart Spending

Tightwad Tuesday: Homemade Laundry Detergent
Want to make your own suds? Here’s how.

MyMoney.gov
I ran across this site recently and thought you might find it of interest. It has links to numerous articles about budgeting, spending, investing, and so on. Here’s one of the links that’s interesting–Beginner’s Guide to Financial Statements

Gasnearu
Here’s a nifty tool to save you some money in the face of rising gas prices. This website claims to know where you can buy the cheapest gas. Just plug in your zip code, and it brings up a list of filling stations near you listed by price from lowest to highest.

Smart Moves To Lower Your Health Care Costs
Some good tips on how to make the most of your health care dollar.

Articles and Studies

Iraq by the Numbers
Here’s a chart showing whether Iraq is better off now than it was five years ago. You be the judge.

Source: Via Cool Infograhics

1 marshmallow or 2? A study on the benefits of delayed gratification
Delayed gratification is a key to financial success (and stockpiling marshmallows).

A Practical Illustration of the Power of Snowflaking
Behold, the power of the snowflake. Here’s a great example of how to make a big difference in your finances with small amounts of money.

How I Earned $4,100 Without Working – The Beauty of Passive Income
Passive income is the holy grail of financial freedom. Here’s how one blogger netted $4,100 for doing “nothing.”

A Surprisingly Large Number of Things can be Lived Through
This is a good reminder of how good most of us have it as compared with others throughout the world, and that even with difficulties, you can prevail.

10 Ways To Reduce Clutter And Clean Up Your Act
Boy do I need to study this article!

Uncommon Lifestyles and the Truth About the 4-Hour Workweek: An Interview with Tim Ferriss.
Here’s an interview with Tim Ferriss, which ties in nicely with Tim Ferriss� 4-Hour Work Week: Fact or Fiction

The Case Against Roth 401(k)
Here’s an interesting take on whether you should invest in a Roth or Traditional 401(k). I think several good points are made here that are worth considering. Source: My Money Blog

2008 Social Security Trustees Report
I’ll let the report’s summary speak for itself:

Annual cost will begin to exceed tax income in 2017 for the combined OASDI [social security] Trust Funds, which are projected to become exhausted and thus unable to pay scheduled benefits in full on a timely basis in 2041 under the long-range intermediate assumptions. For the trust funds to remain solvent throughout the 75-year projection period, the combined payroll tax rate could be increased during the period in a manner equivalent to an immediate and permanent increase of 1.70 percentage points, benefits could be reduced dur�ing the period in a manner equivalent to an immediate and permanent reduc�tion of 11.5 percent, general revenue transfers equivalent to $4.3 trillion in present value could be made during the period, or some combination of approaches could be adopted. Significantly larger changes would be required to maintain solvency beyond 75 years.

Study: Payday Loans Cause More Bankruptcies
In last month’s “Best of. . .” article I included a link to a study performed by George Mason University suggesting that payday loans can actually help certain people in financial distress. Now Vanderbuilt has released a study showing a correlation between payday loans and bankruptcy filings.

Photo Credit: Wolfgang Staudt

News and Analysis

• Are payday loans actually good for us? An Experimental Analysis of the Demand for Payday Loans (45 page pdf file) written by a team of researchers from George Mason University takes an eye-opening perspective on the subject:

Abstract: The payday loan industry is one of the fastest growing segments of the consumer financial services market in the United States. The purpose of our study is to design an environment similar to the one that payday loan customers face. We then conduct a laboratory experiment to examine what effect, if any, the existence of payday loans has on individuals’ abilities to manage and to survive financial setbacks. Our primary objective is to examine whether access to payday loans improves or worsens the likelihood of financial survival in our experiment. We also test the degree to which people’s use of payday loans affects their ability to survive financially. We find that payday loans help the subjects to absorb expenditure shocks and, therefore, survive financially. However, subjects whose demand for payday loans exceeds a certain threshold level are at a greater risk than a corresponding subject in the treatment in which payday loans do not exist.

• Experian files lawsuit against LifeLock

Experian, one of the big three credit bureaus, sued LifeLock in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. LifeLock is a company that promises, for a fee, to guard you against identity theft. One of the things it does to accomplish this is to place a fraud alert on your credit files every 90 days. Experian claims this constitutes false and misleading advertising and fraud, presumably because fraud alerts were intended to protect consumers who believed their identity had been stolen, not to protect against future possible identity theft.

• Selected Major Indexes

This article lists the returns of some of the world’s major indexes.



Fannie Mae recently announced a new program to assist at-risk borrowers with refinancing and loan workout assistance. “HomeSaver Advance is designed to help qualified borrowers bring delinquent mortgages current and keep their homes. With HomeSaver Advance, servicers can now offer an unsecured, personal loan that will enable a qualified borrower to cure the payment default on a mortgage loan that Fannie Mae owns or has securitized, with fewer up-front costs and generally in less time.” Loans are for 15 years a 5%, with a 6 month no interest/no payment period.

Smart Spending

• Little Steps: 100 Great Tips For Saving Money For Those Just Getting Started

A great list of ways to save money from The Simple Dollar.

• 50+ Frugal Tips, Ideas, and Resources

This is a list of lists from Moolanomy! Fifty-two links to articles with ideas on how spend your money wisely. Some of the great ways to save money include:

• 101 frugal Christmas present ideas;
• What is Frugality and Are We Frugal?;
• 30 Frugal Gift Ideas to Show You Appreciate Someone;
• Ultimate Frugality – The Best Free Software For Windows; and
• 75 Frugal Hacks for Your Home.
• 21 Money-Saving Sites from Around the Web

This article from Get Rich Slowly includes links to sites that can help you save money, such as Fat Wallet:



eBooks and Articles

• Census Atlas of the United States

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the U.S. Census Bureau’s new Census Atlas of the United States speaks volumes about how the nation’s population and housing characteristics have changed over the years. The atlas, with more than 700 full-color maps, is the first general population and housing statistical atlas published by the Census Bureau since 1925.


• The 13 Most Overlooked Tax Deductions

“Years ago, the head of the IRS told Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine that he figured millions of taxpayers overpaid their taxes every year by overlooking just one of the money-savers listed [in the article]. Claim them if you deserve them … and cut your tax bill to the bone.”

• Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement

This publication by the U.S. Department of Labor is a step by step plan to retirement. It includes interactive worksheets that cover such topics as current assets and savings, projected asset and savings, and expenses in retirement. You can also download the fully illustrated 62-page Adobe PDF narrative.

• The Economic Mobility Project (1 MB pdf file)

  The Economic Mobility report , “authored by a team of scholars at the Brookings Institution, is one in a series of major research products that aims to further enlighten the public dialogue on economic opportunity. While it offers reassuring findings in some areas, in many others there is room for concern. By arming the public and policy makers with facts about the status of opportunity in America today, this volume seeks to stimulate and frame the debate about which policies are likely to be most effective in ensuring that the American Dream endures for the next century.”

• Dave Ramsey’s Baby Steps

The M-Network did a series on Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps to Financial Freedom.

• The Real Cost of Homeownership

Here are a couple of additional costs that need to be considered when taking the leap from being a renter to being a homeowner.

This article looks at traditional indexes, including the S&P 500, and considers whether they remain a relevant benchmark against which to compare investment returns.

• The 5 Year Stock Market Rule

Don’t invest in the stock market unless you’re going in for 5 years.

• To Roth or not to Roth 401(k)

“Let’s start with one basic but often misunderstood fact. Although they’re effectively mirror images of each other -with a regular 401(k) you invest pre-tax dollars and pay taxes at withdrawal, while with a Roth 401(k) you invest after-tax dollars and pay no tax at the end -in a pure economic sense there’s really no difference between the two.”

Cool Tools and Resources

• 
  Death and Taxes 2008 Online Poster

Do you want to know how your tax dollars are being spent? This massive online poster tells all.


• Voyant’s @Home financial planning tool

Voyant @Home helps people understand the big-picture impact of life-changing events and their long-term financial implications – from the birth of a child to the early retirement of a spouse.


• Does dollar cost averaging really work? Check out this online dollar cost averaging calculator and find out for yourself.
• The Investor Awareness Index

“The Investor Awareness Index is the only resource that rates the comprehensiveness & effectiveness of a company’s initiatives to generate awareness for its stock within the investment community. The 0-10 rating scale is designed to assist in the investment research process by providing investors with unique insight into a critical element for a successful investment: understanding if a company is doing the right things to generate broad awareness among investors, portfolio managers, and stock analysts.”

• Mortgage Marvel: A tool to help you compare mortgage rates
• The Life Cycle of a Blog Post


It’s interactive, so make sure to click through if you want to check it out.

Source: Cool Infographics

• The cost of gasoline:


Source: The Price of Gasoline

• Boulevard R

An online financial planning tool. Here’s a Youtube video describing the tool

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0pVYVDh6f0&autoload=1]
• The Finwikian: Your Two Cents on Personal Finance — a new personal finance wiki)

A community has grown up around personal finance blogs. As a librarian-type, I felt compelled to organize it into a useful resource. Obviously, no one site will ever capture the multiplicity of viewpoints and experiences found in the individual sites. However, I hope that this one will be valuable for bloggers and for those looking for information.

For example, each blog page links to tables of blogs–such as Personal Finance Bloggers, Tax Bloggers, or Frugality Bloggers. These tables allow you to discover other blogs with similar interests, to learn a little bit about them by visiting their Finwikian pages and then to visit the blogs themselves if you’re interested.

That makes it an excellent tool for writers and readers, you can share your blog with others, you can contribute to pages on other blogs you read, and hopefully you will discover new blogs in the process.

There will be a number of pages on various topics from Dave Ramsey and his Debt Snowball to Credit Card Arbitrage and Peer To Peer Lending. I can’t create them alone; I hope that the personal finance community will join together in making this not just one person’s site and idea, but our site full of our ideas.

I thought I’d end this Best of with a Lending Club commercial I found on YouTube. This goes back to the days when Lending Club was on Facebook only. Trust me, they’ve come a long way. . .

When I started the Dough Roller, one of my milestone goals was to reach 1,000 unique visitors in a single day. Well I’m happy to report that we’ve reached that goal in our fourth month. In fact, we topped 1,600 one day this past week. Thank you! Now on to the best of the best this past week:

M-Network

• Financial Dominance talks about how a yard can be a waste of time and money. And make sure to check out Financial Dominance’s new site design!
• Gather Little By Little responds to a reader’s question about how to include retirement accounts in a net worth calculation.
• Moolanomy has a nice article on basic finance, cash flow and risk management.
• Plonkee money interviews fabulously broke, a must read.
• I’ve Paid For This Twice Already describes how she became an Accidental Investor.
• Being Frugal gives us 10 Questions to Enhance Our Frugality.
• Christian Finance tells us how he organizes his bank accounts (includes cool diagram).
• DebtFREE-Revolution speaks Of Credit Cards and College (a potentially deadly combination!).
• Single Guy Money describes his $1 Million Umbrella.
• Saving Explained gives us 5 Steps for Coming to Terms With Your Financial Situation.

Blogosphere

• Watch Prices Go Up: Interesting Facts About inflation @ The Digerati Life
• Lifestyles of the Rich and Boring @ Get Rich Slowly
• Why my friend invests in an insanely expensive fund and why I don’t @ I Will Teach You To Be Rich
• Seven Pieces of Financial Advice for a High School Student @ The Simple Dollar

Enjoy!

Here are some money management resources I found interesting or helpful over the past week. Enjoy!

• Reader Comment–Should You Share Your Debt Situation With Your Family @ Blogging Away Debt: This article may be helpful to you if your keeping debt secrets.
• 3-6 Months of Living Expenses @ Wise Bread: Here is an alternative view to the question, how much should I keep in an emergency fund?
• The Financial Cost of Happiness: Discovering What’s Important and Discarding the Rest @ The Simple Dollar: This article will help you keep in perspective.
• Prenups: I Do or I Don’t @ Rich Minx: We didn’t, did you?
• Three Ways to Be Sure You’re Paid What You’re Worth @ GetRichSlowly: Always an important topic, and the article includes some interesting links on the subject.

Happy reading.