Money Anybody? How to catch up your finances in a pinch.

The are stories of layoffs and recession and healthcare and foreclosures and banks and bailouts... Thats all find in the idiot box, but what it comes back to is, "what is that going to do to my pockets". In college I took a part time job, and mapped out what I'd go without and what I'd place on layaway ( like late summer layaway to have my winter semester clothes paid for and out on time), tithing to my church with offering and utilities and luxury utilities (Cell Phone, PDA, IPOD with Itunes and Raspsody accounts). To make the long story short a couple of months of eating only cafeteria food and only luxury, a cellphone, bargain hunting and even getting intimate with the GoodWill store, afforded me my entire home studio (audio and visual production) which I flipped into a business, and better dates than the movies and Apple Bee's. "Sushi anyone?".

Times are different now, I'm married, head of a corporation and four, count them, four bumblings buzzy in and out of my bedroom, kitchen, bathrooms, home office... They tend to be everywhere. As I see the news and look at my son and daughters, I'm humbled by how great they feel I am, I'm always looking into financial savvy conversations to sync my approaches with cutting edge ways to cut some edges, when wages, economy and the chips are just plain down...

For instance I got myself (because when we're not in trouble my wife is a partner, otherwise my fault), into a small financial tight that was embarrassing. Two wage earners suddenly faces with all these bills. This was my approach and I am looking for some clearcuts:

We listed our bills and amounts; wrote necessary and unnecessary; and sorted both necessary and unnecessary. Furthermore, we sorted urgents, for some reason everything was urgent! So we scratched urgent and just went by due dates, past due and how many days. Starting with the necessaries we divided what we'd payout to bills, "gotta eat and feed the kids", "gas for the cars, yes CARS", for two weeks. After doing the poker deal of the cash after living expense deductions we had enough to pay most monthly recurring bills off for the month. The one thing that stuck with me from my days roaming Indiana University of Pa's campus, specifically the teachings in the Eberly Business College (Plug), is that Companies are in business to make money. Financially speaking, The Return of the money if more imporatant than the return on the money". With that said...

We started taking cash from the unnecessary piles to maximize the payments on the necessary (i.e. $123 for Sprint Unlimited for my BlackBerry became $82, sending the extra $41 over to our Credit Card with a minimum payment of $28. Still paid $41, credit score and interest on debt, and Sprint gave me an interest free spending limit which I had not maxed out on services and ringtones and wallpapers ;), you dig?). Two payment cyles in this manner set us up to have a positive in the checking account and a lot more going to savings. Adjusting what we ate, found a box of recipes at a yard sale $2.00, saves 50s and 100s from being broken due to fast food (kitchen and family bonding time is a bonus)...

I believe if people could see that the recession begins and ends with you then... for instance the Credit Card is only for travel and travel is only for emergencies or vacations, once or twice a year. I'm a CEO I do things like that. Please feel free to be as informational as I was when you drop your tidbit off...


Brother Buck