Money Questions and Answers

What You Can Learn About Investing From Building A Pinewood Derby Car

All across America, boys and their fathers are building a Pinewood Derby Car for the Cub Scouts. My son is no different. We actually just put the finishing touches on building a Pinewood Derby Car. And, last week when he was racing it at our local Pack meeting, I got to thinking about all of the lessons that you could take away from building a Pinewood Derby Car and apply to the world of investing.

Here are a few things about investing that we all can learn from building a Pinewood Derby Car…

How Building A Pinewood Derby Car Is Like Investing

A Great Car/Investment Starts With Research

I was blown away by looking at some of the other Pinewood Derby cars that were at my son’s race that weren’t optimized to be as fast as possible. It only took me a little time and effort to Google and find where to put the weights on the Pinewood Derby car to get it to be the fastest car possible.

I also bought a book to ensure that my son didn’t miss any steps in building his car, polishing the wheels, sanding the axles, and the like that would help when building a Pinewood Derby car and making it fast. The same thing is true with investing A little research can go a long way. There are so many resources available to investors that can help you find great stocks or mutual funds to invest in. You should start with

The same thing is true with investing A little research can go a long way. There are so many resources available to investors that can help you find great stocks or mutual funds to invest in. You should start with site like Google Finance or Yahoo Finance when you are researching investments.

It Takes Hard Work To Get It Right

Wow! I had no idea how hard building a winning Pinewood Derby car would be. There was a lot of sanding, painting, cutting, chiseling, and the like that had to go on to make that Pinewood Derby car a winner. It was worth it to bond with my son, but man wow!

The same can be said about investing too. If you are investing in individual stocks especially it can be a lot of hard work keeping track of all those companies and what they are doing in their industries. People with normal day jobs are at a disadvantage to other people like analysts and money managers who watch stocks and certain industries for a living. That is all they are doing day in and day out. It can be worthwhile for the rest of us but hard work nevertheless like building a Pinewood Derby car that wins. Click here to learn more about Motif Investing

Teamwork Is The Best Approach

It is hard for this dad to take a step back and hand the saw over to my son and let him take the reins building his Pinewood Derby car. But, it was and should always be a team event between the boy and his parent. Not only are you teaching him and providing him with a sense of accomplishment, you are also there as a backstop and a somewhat subject matter expert when he really needs help.

Too many people try to go it alone without the help of a financial planner. Either people think that they do not need help, can do it themselves, or can’t afford to hire a financial planner. These arguments, of course, are extremely flawed. Everyone could benefit from a little help from teammates now and again, and help from a financial planner is no different.

Easy Ways To Save Money Right Now Without Even Thinking

by Hank Coleman

Stopping yourself from spending money and wasting money is often not as hard as you think. We often psych ourselves out of saving money because we think that it has to be harder or more elaborate than it really needs to be.

But, the truth of the matter is that there are tons of easy ways to save money right now without even having to think about doing it. Here are some of my favorite easy ways to save money without having to think about actually saving money.

Write Your Savings Goals On Credit Card Sleeves

Paper sleeves on your cards But, I am a huge fan of using credit card sleeves to control your spending. Sounds kind of counter intuitive, right? I write directly onto these card sleeves that come with your ATM cards, the plastic key card from hotels, and other cards that you collect. There are even a few in Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace kit.

Plastek Cards even makes custom sleeves too. These card sleeves are easy ways to save money without even realizing that that is what you are doing. It is sort of like tricking yourself into saving money and not spending it on frivolous things.

It is very hard for me to reach for a credit card or my ATM card if I see one of my family’s financial goals, like a summer beach vacation, written down right there on the card sleeve and staring right back at me every time I reach into my wallet.

Carrying Your Loyalty Cards With You

I am also very bad at carrying the grocery store loyalty cards and other store loyalty cards. Instead of asking someone around me to borrow their card or making sure that I’m carrying the loyalty card before hand, I typically continue with the purchase anyway, missing out on the deal or coupon associated with using the loyalty card.

Like coupons, this one bad habit alone costs me probably $100 or more every year. There are so many loyalty cards that stores give to their customers now. There is no excuse not to carry your favorite store’s card and save.

It is one of the easiest ways to save money without having to think about it. You just hand over your card. There are even applications on your smartphone that you can download to help you keep track of all the loyalty cards as well if you forget to carry the physical ones.

Five Of The Most Important Tax Deductions You Can’t Forget

by Hank Coleman

April 15th will be here before you know it. If you are like me, you may be dragging your feet on filing your income tax return. There are many income tax deductions that you may inevitably qualify for, but you do not want to miss them. Make sure you pay the taxes you owe but do not pay more than you must. In 2009, more than 45 million Americans itemized deductions on their tax returns to the tune of $1.2 trillion dollars of savings and deductions. But the real question is: how many income tax deductions did we miss? Did we claim all of the deductions that were owed to us? Or, did we miss a few that could ultimately … Read more

How To Get The Correct Insurance For Your Business

by Guest Contributor

rebuilding your home with insurance Insurance is crucial for property, one’s life and business. It is prudent to ensure that your business is protected against any unprecedented loss of any degree. Getting your groove back after a loss is easier when you are insured by a reputable insurance company.

Businesses face various types of risks on a daily basis. The risk usually depends on the type of business involved. For example, a public service vehicle might be involved in an accident while a bank gets robbed. As much as these risks diverge in degree, they all have policies that can cover you in case of a loss.

Most business owners have their businesses insured. Unfortunately for some, this has been very expensive causing a lot of consumer discontentment. It is surprising the number of people who pay for wrong insurance policies.

It is common to find people saying that they are not enjoying the full benefits of their insurance policy and the premiums are not worth the financial strain at all. Poor research is the root cause of all these complaints, though coupled with other issues like mis-sold insurance. Being mis-sold insurance for your business is forgivable because some companies have specialized in conning people.

However, ignorance is absolutely unforgivable. You ought to do ample research before paying for an insurance policy. Most people are misguided by the fallacy that a cheap insurance policy is the best. You must ask yourself if what you are paying for is the correct insurance for your business.

Should You Buy No Exam Life Insurance

by Guest Contributor

This is a guest post by Jeff Rose who is a certified financial planner and blogs at GoodFinancialCents. If you would like to write an article for Money Q&A, please visit our Guest Posting Guidelines page. If you have ever considered buying life insurance online, you may have come across advertisements that claim, “Life insurance with no exam”, or “How to get your life insurance fast by avoiding a medical exam”. We get quite a few people that contact our office inquiring about these life insurance products. If you’ve ever consider going the no exam life insurance route, it’s important you weigh these considerations before you do so. Who Needs No Exam Life Insurance? If you are in good health, have no time … Read more

Getting Cash For Annuity Payments Can Make Life Easier

by Guest Contributor

money-roll-03-26-09 Many individuals are seeking cash for structured settlements received as a result of winning a lawsuit. While they are grateful for getting timely annuity payments, the amount of money received every month is not enough to cover expenses and pay down medical bills. They find they need additional funds and wonder if there is any way they can get cash for annuity payments through settlement buyers.

Reputable structured settlement buyers will offer quotes or bids on the value of the remaining payments of any annuity. Through competition, they will offer top dollar for any valuable structured settlement annuity payments and provide a lump sum of cash when the offer is accepted.