The Good Nurse
The Million Dollar Nurse
Every year we promise ourselves to eat healthy, exercise more, or have better work/life balance. Others aspire to bigger goals like running a marathon or getting that big promotion. While some of us are just trying to cut back on our fast food addictions.
No matter how big or small our resolutions, we’re convinced this is the year we make a change for the better.But what about your finances?
Are you like some people that start the year off trying to spend less and budget more, however what sometimes happen is that we fall back into our same old routine which results in us living paycheck to paycheck.
It All Starts with You
One of the most important things to becoming The Millionaire Nurse is to have respect for small expenses which over a lifetime add up to big money. I want you to be aware of how your money is spent, not just the big ticket items like a home or car, but the day today budget busters that are out to mess with your financial planning.
The ability to be a Millionaire Nurse is within you. It does, however, require you to learn to cultivate the right habits. You want to learn proper financial thinking that results in results. On the other hand, in this age of Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and the blogosphere world, why reinvent the wheel? There are many money saving suggestions published daily, many of which are great-why didn’t I think of that-stuff. This information is intended to give you a taste of how you can get started on your journey from Financial Intensive Care to Millionaire Nurse Hall of Fame.
Pay Yourself First
When unexpected expenses occur and we don’t have an emergency savings account, we tend to make financial decisions that turn into financial mistakes. Some of these mistakes may include taking out pay day loans which have incredibly large interest rates and opening credit cards, with their high fees, which just adds more debt to the pile when you are trying to get out from under your current debt load. These financial decisions makes no sense!
The Millionaire Nurse emergency savings account should be separate from your “building wealth” savings account. It should be like the doors with alarms at emergency exits labeled-Emergency Use Only-opening this door will result in an alarm and the financial police will be called! If you have a spouse, an emergency meeting is required before you remove money from your “ESA” (emergency savings account). You should agree on the amount of money to be removed as well as how you are going to replace it before the next emergency occurs.
How much should you put in your “ESA” depends on where you are in your transition to Millionaire Nurse status. If you have a lot of debt, in addition to your home, then a small emergency fund-from $500 to $2000 will suffice. This should be done before you start to work paying down your debt. If you have no significant debt and are building wealth, then your emergency fund should be more substantial, in the range of 3 months or more of your monthly household expenses. This will handle any unexpected household bills, as well as cushioning more major unexpected stresses like a prolonged illness, or layoff in the family.
Plug Up the Leaks in Your Money Bucket
Make sure you know exactly what it costs at your bank for bad checks, overdraft protection, and ATM fees. Make sure you understand your banks’ policies for deposits and withdrawals. When you write three checks, the bank may withdraw the largest first, leaving you with three bad checks, and the resultant overdraft/bad check fees, rather than the first two checks that may have been smaller, and would have cleared, leaving you with three fees/penalties instead of one.
The average charge for an overdraft now is about $35. It doesn’t take long for these fees and penalties to add up to real money. When you are struggling to get out of debt, it hurts to have to pay these charges, so be aware of what they are, and don’t do it. You can also make sure that your bank is competitive when it comes to these fees and penalties. Go to www.bankrate.com for a great website that allows you to compare banks, fees and interest rates on various savings plans, CDs and checking accounts.
Be an Energy Super Hero
Energy costs, as we all know, are soaring, both home energy bills, as well as gasoline/transportation costs. How can we decrease our expenses in this category? At home, the least sexy, but frequently by far the most cost effective, is good ole weather stripping, caulk, insulation, and foam to stop our hard earned money from fleeing the house through cracks and crevices.
Many experts say we can decrease our energy bills 20% by making the home more “tight.” Oldies but goodies also include programmable thermostats, ceiling fans, (remember to reverse them in winter), slow flow shower heads, and hot water heater blankets. Also don’t forget those new generation light bulbs-CFL’s and LEDs. Remember many appliances now have Energy Star ratings that confirm energy efficiency and may provide tax breaks, when you have to buy a new one. www.energystar.gov.
High tech software is available to help you manage home energy use. Public power utilities offer energy efficiency and demand response programs to encourage customers to use electricity wisely, lower their energy use, and to reduce peak load. The American Public Power Association will work with smart power meters to help you decide what is using the most energy in your home-the first step in lowering energy costs. It is already in use in over 3 million homes across the country. Early adopters estimate a 10-20% savings on home electricity bills. Check out www.publicpower.org/topic/smart-energy-use to see how they can help you discover where your household may be losing energy.
Know which gadgets still use power even when turned off. For those gadgets, like computer speakers, printers, cell chargers, tvs-those red lights are not on for nothing- try out a smart plug-it turns them off automatically after a period of non-use.
The Dreaded Credit Card Debit
It is vitally important to know what is being entered into your credit report. The credit reporting agencies such as Experian, Equifax and Trans Union are only interested in recording your credit history given to them by your creditors in exchange for a fee. They make money off of your credit, good or bad, and they have no personal commitments to you as a consumer to ensure all that is being reported is accurate. You bear the burden of responsibility to ensure that what is on your credit report is accurate and up to date. You have the right to request a free copy of your credit every year by visiting www.annualcreditreport.com.
Credit Card debt is exploding. Until you can pay off all your cards and destroy them, here are tips to help minimize their costs: you want the lowest fees and expenses; no universal default clauses, always pay your balances in full, and if not, make sure your cards interest rates are competitive. Call your credit card company, ask for a customer service supervisor, and request a lower rate or threaten to close the account if they are uncooperative.
Make sure you know your limit. Keeping your balance below 50% of your limit will help your credit score. The average fee for going over your limit is $30. Don’t do it. Fees for late payment average $25, so set up a system at home that will allow payments to arrive well before the due date. They don’t care if your mail wasn’t picked up or if you slept in that day and forgot to pay online. Stop throwing your money away in unnecessary fees!
A great independent site for comparing different credit cards is www.federalreserve.gov/publications.htm. Other sites such as www.creditcards.com and www.cardratings.com can be good for comparison shopping, but be warned, they also have ads and ways to apply for a new card, so be careful-you don’t want to be like a drunk in a liquor store, make sure you are improving your situation, not making it worse.
Home Management
Managing your home requires a significant portion of your monthly budget. This includes the energy and utility costs, but also clothes, food, entertainment, insurance, and mortgage or rent.
When you learning to think like The Millionaire Nurse you can actually discover how to live rich while being frugal. We will show you how to find tips and strategies on budgeting, grocery shopping only with lists, clothing allowances, but for brevity, try blogs that have numerous posts on saving money. Some of our favorite sites are getrichslowly.org.
A great website for ongoing reviews, and recommendations about getting things done in a do it yourself manner is www.lifehacker.com. Warning -this site can be addicting!
Protect Your Tomorrow
Protection should always be the first financial consideration. Before focusing on building your tomorrows, it is prudent to properly protect yourself against what might happen today.
Most people know they need to insure their life, their car, and their home or condo. But they often overlook insuring their most important asset – their ability to earn an income. Your income is the primary source of funding for a lifetime of things, from basic necessities to the hopes and dreams you have for yourself and those you love. The $3-9 million or more you’ll likely earn over the course of your medical career is surely an asset worth insuring.
But what would happen if your income stopped because you were too sick or injured to work? Without a paycheck, how long could you pay your rent and utilities, buy groceries, make student loan payments, etc.? In all likelihood, your life would be thrown significantly off course.
What would happen if you died and were no longer around? What would happen to you family? How would they survive? Who would pay the bills or who would raise the children. Would they be able to attend college? These are some of the questions you'll need to ask yourself.
Before you say this could never happen to you, consider the fact that 1 in 4 of today’s 20-year-olds will become disabled before they retire. And if you’re thinking that most disabilities are the result of freak accidents, you’re in for a surprise. The vast majority of disabilities, about 90%, are caused by various forms of illness including cancer, mental disorders like anxiety and depression, muscle and back problems, and heart disease.
Disability insurance can help replace your paycheck if you can’t get up and go to work. Should disability strike, it pays cash that can be used to keep your household running as well as to help you adjust to your changed circumstances? While it’s common to have some disability coverage through your employer, these types of policies might not be enough. Supplemental coverage – on top of what you have through work – can help fill any gaps that your group-disability policy may not cover.
Getting coverage is not as expensive as you think. Premiums for an individual disability policy typically cost between 1-2% of your gross income. For a nurse making $50,000, that’s less than two dollars a day to protect over 4-million dollars of future income!
As a nurse, you’ve made a significant investment of time and money to build your career with the promise of financial security and the other rewards your profession provides. But should you become too sick or injured to work, that promise evaporates.
Step one on your fiscal fitness journey is to protect your greatest asset, you and your ability to earn a living! Check out how you can get a FREE QUOTE today at www.prestigepromgmt.com/Insurance.html.
Claim Your Free Financial Plan Today and Get Your Financial Life in Order!
