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A carpenter uses a set of house plans to build a house. If he didn’t the bathroom might get overlooked altogether.

Rocket Scientists would never begin construction on a new booster rocket without a detailed set of design specifications. Yet most of us go blindly out into the world without an inkling of an idea about finances and without any plan at all.

Not very smart of us, is it?

A money plan is called a budget and it is crucial to get us to our desired financial goals.

Without a plan we will drift without direction and end up marooned on a distant financial reef.

If you have a spouse or a significant other, you should make this budget together. Sit down and figure out what your joint financial goals are…long term and short term.

Then plan your route to get to those goals. Every journey begins with one step and the first step to attaining your goals is to make a realistic budget that both of you can live with.

A budget should never be a financial starvation diet. That won’t work for the long haul. Make reasonable allocations for food, clothing, shelter, utilities and insuranc*e and set aside a reasonable amount for entertainment and the occasional luxury item. Savings should always come first before any spending.

Even a small amount saved will help you reach your long term and short term financial goals. You can find many budget forms on the internet. Just use any search engine you choose and type in “fre*e budget forms”.

You’ll get lots of hits. Print one out and work on it with your spouse or significant other. Both of you will need to be happy with the final result and feel like it’s something you can stick to.

Have you ever noticed that the things you bu*y every week at the grocery and hardware stores go up a few cents between shopping trips? Not by much…just by a little each week but they continue to creep up and up.

All it takes for the price to jump up by a lot is a little hiccup in the world wide market, note the price of gasoline as it relates to world affairs.

There is a way that we can keep these price increases from impacting our personal finances so much and that is by bu*ying in quantity and finding the best possible prices for the things we use and will continue to use everyday… things that will keep just as well on the shelves in our homes as it does on the shelves at the grocery store or hardware store.

For instance, dog food and cat food costs about 10% less when bought by the case than it does when bought at the single can price and if you wait for close out prices you save a lot more than that.

Set aside some space in your home and make a list of things that you use regularly which will not spoil. Any grain or grain products will need to be stored in airtight containers that rats can’t get into so keep that in mind.

Then set out to find the best prices you can get on quantity purchases of such things as bathroom items and dry and canned food.

You will be surprised at how much you can save by bu*ying a twenty pound bag of rice as opposed to a one pound bag but don’t forget that it must be kept in a rat proof container.

You can bu*y some clothing items such as men’s socks and underwear because those styles don’t change, avoid bu*ying children’s and women’s clothing, those styles change and sizes change too drastically.

Try to acquire and keep a two year supply of these items and you can save hundreds of dollars.

Rebates have become increasingly popular in the last few years on a lot of items and certainly on electronic items and computers. Rebates of *$20, *$50 or *$100 are not uncommon.

I’ve even seen items a*dvertised as “fre*e after rebate”. Do these rebates come under the hea*ding of “too good to be true”? Some of them do and there are “catches” to watch out for but if you are careful, rebates can help you get some really good deals.

The way a rebate works is that you pay the listed price for an item then mail in a form and the bar code to the manufacturer and they send you a refund thus reducing the price of what you paid for the item except with a time delay of several weeks.

Rule #1. Rebates from reputable companies are usually just fine.

You can be pretty sure you will get the promised rebate from Best Bu*y, Amazon or Dell but you should probably not count on getting one from a company you’ve never heard of. If you really want the product and are OK with paying the price listed then bu*y it but don’t count on actually getting therefund.

Rule #2. Check rebate expiration dates.

Many times products will stay on the shelf of a retailer after the date for sending in the rebate offer has expired so check that date carefully.

Rule #3. Be sure you have all the forms required to file for the rebate before you leave the store.

Rebates will almost always require a form to be filled out, a receipt for the purchase and a bar code.

Rule #4. Back up your rebate claim.

Make copies of everything you send in to get your rebate including the bar code. Stuff gets lost in the mail all the time and if the rebate is for *$50 it’s worth the trouble to back up your claim.

Hey folk, please answer these questions truthfully:

1.) Does your spouse or partner complain that you spend too much money?

2.) Are you surprised each month when your credit card bill arrives at how much more you charged than you thought you ha*d?

3.) Do you have more shoes and clothes in your closet than you could ever possibly wear?

4.) Do you own every new ga*dget before it has time to collect dust on a retailer’s shelf?

5.) Do you bu*y things you didn’t know you wanted until you saw them on display in a store?

So, if you answered “yes” to any two of the above questions, you are an impulse spender and indulge yourself in retail therapy.

You know, this is not a good thing. It will prevent you from saving for the important things like a house, a new car, a vacation or retirement. You must set some financial goals and resist spending money on items that really don’t matter in the long run.

Therefore, Impulse spending will not only put a strain on your finances but your relationships, as well. To overcome the problem, the first thing to do is learn to separate your needs from your wants.

A*dvertisers blitz us hawking their products at us 24/7. The trick is to give yourself a cooling-off period before you bu*y anything that you have not planned for.

When you go shopping, make a list and take only enough cash to pay for what you have planned to bu*y. Leave your credit cards at home.

If you see something you think you really need, give yourself two weeks to decide if it is really something you need or something you can easily do without. By following this simple solution, you will mend your financial fences and your relationships.

Have Fun.

More often than not I have watched people join a investment planning, receive a camera-ready circular and are expected to know what to do with it. While the financial consultant of the investment planning knows exactly what to do, most of your customers do not. What may seem like common sense to you is not as understandable to others who purchase it.

Every investment planning you sell should come with an instruction sheet. Just like any product you purchase will come with an instruction sheet.  It just makes good business sense to include an instruction sheet or booklet with anything you sell.

Guess what? This sheet or booklet can be used to YOUR advantage. By explaining step-by-step how the investment planning works, what it’s goals are, the benefits of working it and what steps to take in order to work it properly, you can offer different options to your customer to help them. If you supply camera-ready circulars, you could offer to print copies, supply pre-printed envelopes and mailing list names for an additional price. This is called “back-end” sales.

And if you don’t provide these items, you can find a wide range of mail order dealers that can. Hook up with a good supplier who will reduce their prices slightly so you can make a profit and send orders directly to them from your “back-end” sales. This little bit of extra money is what helps your investment planning become more financially solid.

One problem that so many investment planning fail is because they are not managed and
structured properly. Remember the old saying: “A 3-legged stool is not easily broken?” It’s true. The more “branches” you have in a investment planning that generates some cash flow the better. DON’T get this confused with nickel-and-diming people to death. Just give them the product they pay for and offer them extra products they can purchase that compliments what they already have.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make when you are the Prime Source of any investment planning is to promote the investment planning your dealers are also promoting. Instead of it bringing in more money it has the opposite effect _ it destroys the investment planning!

Let’s say that Melanie joins Jeff’s investment planning. Jeff is the Prime Source and provides Melanie with a camera-ready circular with her name on it. Melanie begins printing and mailing the circular in her own mailings but one day she spots Jeff advertising his own circular in a tabloid. What does Melanie do? She STOPS mailing her circular.  Why? Because Jeff looks like a greedy dealer who is after all the profit. Jeff is only giving Melanie 50% when people respond to her circular and Jeff gets 100% if people respond to his circular. Also _ Melanie does not want to be in competition with Jeff and drops out of the investment planning. It’s not fair to Melanie.

And what happens to Jeff’s potential income when all his dealers see the circulars with his name on them? You got it _ they all drop out. Now what happens to Jeff’s income? Right again _ it drops considerably!Instead, Jeff should pick out a few of his dealers who are trying their best to make money with his investment planning and offer to mail pre-printed circulars for them free of charge. Remember that Jeff is making money from every sale generated by his dealers, so by promoting his own product he is still making money. Besides _ if he helps his dealers make a few dollars, what will his dealers do? That’s right _ they’ll keep participating in Jeff’s investment planning and most of them will re-invest the commission money they make into printing and mailing more of them.

Also, when they begin to make a little money, they will tell everybody they know what a wonderful investment planning Jeff has. And guess what? Jeff will get more dealers promoting his investment planning _ which means more money for Jeff in the long run. Jeff’s a success because he made his dealers a success.

And finally _ Jeff’s reputation will be escalated because all his dealers will know he’s an honest guy to do business with. Guess what? Jeff’s business income increases! Not just because of the investment planning but because people are interested in other things Jeff sells.

It’s only good business sense to help your dealers by providing them with tips and information to work your investment planning. Sure, there will always be people who buy into your investment planning and not work them _ but you’ll lose a lot more money if you step on their toes and become their competition! Be wise!