Your Tip of the Day

by Bob Osgoodby

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In this Issue

** Tip Of The Day –  Annoying Message

** Something to Think About by Jan Tincher - Dream your dream

** Food For Thought by Dr. Kevin Nunley  -  Make Your Web Site Deeper

** Quote of the Day

** A Little Levity – Medical Alert Bracelet

** The Dollar Stretcher by Gary Foreman – Can We Live on One Income?

** Stress Matters

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Welcome

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still
Tip of the Day

Annoying Message

When you start Windows, and get an error message saying that it can't find a file, if you click OK, everything seems alright. How do you get rid of that annoying message?

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Probably what has happened is you've uninstalled something that normally loaded when you started Windows. The program is gone, but there is still a reference to it floating around somewhere. When you get that message, write down the file name for later reference.

The easiest way to get rid of it is to use msconfig. Click your Start button, Run. Type in "msconfig" (no quotes) and hit OK.

Click the Startup tab and try to locate the program that is causing the error message. Usually if you look at the end of the "Command" column you can find the file name that Windows claims it can't find. Once located, just uncheck it and hit OK.

If you can't see the end of the command line, you can expand the size of the column - Just hover your mouse over the boundary between the columns and drag it over.

Make sure you pay attention to what you're unchecking (write it down) so if you uncheck the wrong item, you can go back and re-check it if necessary.

Once you're done, reboot and see if that error message is gone.

Bob

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Something to Think About by Jan Tincher

Dream your dream

Plan your dream, then watch your dream turn into reality. See your future right before your very eyes.

Some people like to put their dream in a basket, then send it on its way. They forget about it.

Well, guess what? If you forget about something, you aren't giving it the proper nourishment that it needs to grow. You aren't attracting it. If you ignore it, it will ignore you. This is how your brain works. Focus on your dream, and watch it blossom with the belief that you are doing all you can do to nurture it and help it grow.

Take control. Plan your dream. WATCH and nurture it as it turns into reality. Remember, if you waver -- it's like taking one step forward, oops, you wavered, take two steps back.

Here is an article that may help: 6 Steps To Making A Big
Change
You will find it here: http://www.tameyourbrain.com/6steps.htm

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Stupid Quotes

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system!"

- Dan Quayle, former U.S. Vice President on the concept of a
  manned mission to Mars

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Food for Thought

Make Your Web Site Deeper

Nielsen, the famous media ratings company, recently told us there has been a big change in the way people browse the Net.

In recent months people are surfing far fewer sites, but spending a lot more time on the sites they visit. You may have noticed this change in your own Internet use. I've seen it in mine.

Instead of finding big lists of web sites and hopping from one to another, I have a small list of favorites I visit often and explore extensively.

This may mean you need to design your web site in a different way. Add more content, more levels, and with additional detail. If someone wants to spend 20 minutes on your site, is there enough to keep them busy?

Frankly, this change in how customers use the web can be a very good thing. It is hard to make a sale when people are intent on getting to the next site. More time spent on your site means more of a commitment to buy.

It also means fewer sales abandoned at the shopping cart. Prospects don't want to walk away empty-handed after spending a big chunk of their valuable time studying your site.

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"See Kevin's 10,000 free marketing tips at http://drnunley.com"

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Trivia

An Octopus will eat its own arms if it gets really hungry.

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Quote of the Day

"Greatness comes with recognizing that your potential is limited only by how you choose,
how you use your freedom, how resolute you are, how persistent
you are - in short, by your attitude."

- Peter Koestenbaum, Philosopher
 

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Grins

Medical Alert Bracelet
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Little Johnny was wearing a Medical Alert bracelet. A man came up and asked him, "What is the bracelet for?"

He replied, "It is to warn people that I'm allergic to nuts and eggs."

"Are you allergic to cats?" the man asked.

Little Johnny said, "I don't know..... I don't eat cats."
 

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"Darn!" the man said to his friend while weighing himself at the local drug store scale.

"I started on a new diet but the scale says I'm heavier than I was before."

Turning to his friend, he said, "Here, hold my jacket."

The scale still indicated that he had not lost any weight.

"OK," he said to his friend. "Hold my Twinkies."

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A father believed that his son was spending way too much time playing computer games. In an effort to motivate the boy into focusing more attention on his schoolwork, the father said to his son, "When Abe Lincoln was your age, he was studying books by the light of the fireplace."

The son pointed out, "When Lincoln was your age, he was President of the United States."

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The minister and his wife place an ad for a butler. Early the next morning a nicely dressed young man appears at their front door. The minister asks him, "Can you fix breakfast by 7:00 a.m. every day?"

"Well ... I guess I can."

"And can you make the beds, dust the living room, do the dishes, cut the grass, and polish the silver also?"

"Gee, Sir, I just came by to see about getting married. But if it's going to be that much work, you can count me out!"

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Medical experts are now saying obesity is a disease.
I'm overjoyed! Tomorrow I'm calling in fat.

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The Dollar Stretcher
by Gary Foreman

Can We Live on One Income?

Dear Dollar Stretcher, I have been very interested in gathering information on living on one income. Although others have helped me with suggestions on saving and even investing, I still haven't come across methods to calculate actual costs of working. Could you please advise me on ways to determine these costs?
Thanks!
Karen J.

Karen is not the only one asking this question. A lot of families are wondering if they could make a go of it on one income. And it's not just moms who are electing to stay at home. More dads are getting into the act, too. But one of the key questions for these families is 'can we live on one income?'. Let's see if we can't help them create a framework to make a decision.

The first step is not surprising. You'll need to know your current income and expenses by category. If you use a budget you probably have the required info. Otherwise, you'll need to set aside some time to go through your check registers, credit card statements and your earning statement from work that shows your income and deductions. Figure out your income and expenses for the year. That will be your starting point.

What we're going to try to do is to take your current income and expenses and make adjustments to both that would occur with the loss of one income. Once you've done that, you can see if you have enough income to cover expenses. If possible use a one year period. That way you won't forget annual expenses like property taxes.

Let's start with the income. That's the easiest. We'll be reducing income by the gross income of the stay-at-home partner. The key here is to remember that we'll be using gross pay. That's your pay before taxes and the other deductions have been taken. We'll consider those deductions in a moment.

Next we'll get into the meat of Karen's question. How much will expenses go down? Naturally that will depend on your family. So we'll try to give you tools to estimate the answer for your family.

The first expense that will be lower is your taxes. The most exact way to calculate how much lower is to work through an income tax return at your new income level. I know that most of you won't want to do that. The next best thing is to take the amount of money that was withheld from your pay for the 'retiring' person during the year. Unless you had to write a big check or got a large refund in April, that will be a reasonable approximation.

The next expense is the trickiest one. That's insurance. You will save any money that had been deducted from your paycheck. So count any money deducted from your salary as a reduced expense.

But you'll be losing any coverage you had. So decide whether you'll be adding 'family' coverage to your spouse's plan, finding a separate plan or paying the bills yourself. You might need to shop around to check out competitive rates. You'll need to add that cost to your current expenses. It's possible that insurance could cost you more than it does now.

What about auto expenses? At the very least you'll use less gas if you're not driving to work every day. You might get a low mileage discount on your insurance. If only one person is leaving the house each day, you might even be able to survive with one auto. Or if that's not feasible, could you get by with one car that's older to avoid a car payment. The things to consider with your auto are the payments, gasoline, maintenance, insurance, and parking/tolls. Remember, even if you don't have a car you might still have savings by eliminating bus fares or contributions to carpools.

Daycare is an obvious area of savings if children are involved. And it's not just the check you write to the daycare provider. They might require disposable diapers whereas you'd be willing to use the lower cost cloth ones. You'll need to think about your daycare situation and to recognize the areas of savings.

Grocery expense will almost certainly change. But it can be difficult to estimate by how much. If you eat out often to save time you'll want to keep track of what you spend that way. As a rule of thumb it costs only about half as much to eat similar foods at home. So if you spend $20 per week ($1,040 yearly) in restaurant food, you should be able to save about $500 when you have the time to cook at home.

Even if you do cook all your own meals, you're likely to find some savings. The time to use coupons and shop sales can save you 15% on your food bills.

You could save money on clothing. Even if you don't 'dress up' for work, you'll probably still save some. It's not uncommon to the stay-at-home partner to save 50% of what they've been spending on clothes.

You might also be able to save on dry cleaning and laundry service. Obviously, this will vary widely depending on your lifestyle. And any outside laundry services are likely to be eliminated.

Lunches at work are another expense that will be reduced. For those who bring lunch the savings might be fairly small. Perhaps just the cost of a daily drink or break-time coffee. Even a dollar a day is about $250 a year in savings. For those eat in the company cafeteria or a local restaurant the saving can be significant. Just $5 a day for fifty weeks a year totals $1,250.

Another, often overlooked area is the amount spent on workplace gifts, cards and cakes. In many workplaces, it's not uncommon to be asked to contribute on a frequent basis. Think of the requests during the last month and you'll begin to get an idea of how much you can save in a year.

Finally, you'll want to look for savings that could be unique to your family. Some children are especially prone to colds they pick up in daycare. Avoiding those doctor bills would provide savings. Another family might be prone to 'treat' themselves for surviving their busy schedule. Perhaps with a slower family pace those treats wouldn't be purchased.

At this point you should be able to adjust your current income and expenses with the changes. You might be surprised at the results. Many families find that the second income is all but consumed with expenses that come with a second job. But the only way to know for sure is to work through your own income and expenses.

Ultimately, Karen will find that there's more than just income and expenses to making this type of decision. But, whether her family decides to try to live on one income or not, it's foolish to make a decision without considering what would happen to the family budget. We hope Karen finds the answer that's right for her family.

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Gary Foreman has worked as a Certified Financial Planner and currently edits The Dollar Stretcher website http:www.stretcher.com You'll find hundreds of free articles to help you save time and money. Visit Today!

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Stress Matters

Enjoy happiness and the root of happiness, your well-being.

- Dr. Rae

~ Need help with this "Weekly StressTip"? Invest in yourself, contact The Baum Group at www.YourStressMatters.com/contactus.htm ~

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Copyright - 2009

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