Do you remember when your parents gave you your first piggy-bank and told you to save for a “rainy day”? I must have been 6 or 7 years old at the time. And I still can remember what a good feeling it was when I had more money at the end of the week than at the beginning.

I was always proud of myself when saved a bit of my pocket-money rather than spend it. But unfortunately, as we grow older, the drive to saving money gets less and less. This is due to several reasons:

For one, our needs do get bigger, especially when we start our own family and have kids. Unless you are extremely disciplined by nature, there won't be much money left at the end of the month to be put into your “Rainy Day Fund”...

Secondly, the society we live in these days teaches us “instant gratification” rather than “save for a while and then get what you want” - and with all those nice “BUY NOW, PAY LATER”-offers that we all get in everyday, it is very easy to fall into the trap.

But, there is an old saying which still holds truth: hope for the best, but plan for the worst. No matter how careful we are, there's always the chance that things will go wrong in an expensive way: your car breaks down, your roof starts leaking, or your company "restructures" you out of a job.

Therefore, even in our instant-gratification society, a “rainy-day-fund” IS NOT wasted money. It is in fact money well spent. And if you don't need it because things keep going well for you: EVEN BETTER STILL...

There are three things you need to know about rainy day funds: how much to save, how to save, and where to save.

When calculating the amount of money you need to put aside for your rainy-day-fund, there are a few expenses to consider:

• housing expenses (e.g. rent, mortgage payments, maintenance, heating-bills, necessary insurances etc.)
  
  
• food expenses
  
  
• transportation (car / public transport etc.)
  
  
• old debt
  
  

Those are your basic expenses – anything else does not need to be taken into the account for your emergency fund. As a general rule, you should aim to put enough money to one side to be able to cover your expenses for three months. And be under no illusion, once you have done all your calculations, it will still be a lot of money you are looking at. But don't panic – you don't need to stop eating just to tank up your emergency fund. Even a few hundred dollars can help you get through most emergencies, such as an unplanned car-repair or a medical bill. Over time you can gradually increase your savings to cover even a long-term lay-off.

Build your savings over time

Okay, so you have a few hundred dollars in the bank. How do you grow that to a few thousand? There's really no trick: you just spend a little less than you make every month, and put the money aside so you don't spend it. Small changes can make a big difference over time.

Here are some suggestions on how to lower your expenses so you can save more:

• Review your mobile phone plan to make sure you're not overpaying for data, text messages or long distance
  
  
• Pay your credit card bill in full every month so you don't have interest charges
  
  
• Switch to a cash-back rewards credit card, and save the money you get back
  
  
• Try working out a monthly budget and stick to it
  
  
• If possible, try to put a fixed amount aside every month (even a small amount like 10 to 20 dollars a month). Remember: The important thing here is to GET STARTED. Once you have taken this step, you are on the right track...Should you have more money left over at the end of the month, leave half of the extra-money in your bank-account (for unforeseen expenses) and put half into your rainy-day-fund.
  

At the end of every month, add up what you've saved. Success will motivate you to save even more. And the longer you stick to your new financial policy, the more money you will have in your emergency-fund. Should you be lucky without any emergencies or “rainy days”, just leave the money in your account – AND ENJOY YOUR RETIREMENT.

A new approach to serving one of the oldest and most basic needs of even the smallest business community, a home-based secretarial service can satisfy the entrepreneurial needs of even the most ambitious woman!

This is a kind of service business with a virtually unlimited profit potential. Third year profits for businesses of this type, in metropolitan areas as small as 70,000 people are reported at $100,000 and more. It's a new idea for a traditional job that's growing in popularity and acceptance.

As for the future, there is no end in sight to the many and varied kinds of work a secretary working at home can do for business owners, managers and sales representatives.

For most women, this is the most exciting news of things to come since the equal rights amendment. Now is the time to get yourself organized, start your own home-based secretarial service and nurture it through your start-up stages to total success in the next couple of years.

Our research indicates little or no risk involved, with most secretarial services breaking even within 30 days, and reports of some showing a profit after the first week! All you need is a PC or a laptop, the appropriate software (use Open Source Software to keep your costs down), a phone, a fax and off you go.

As mentioned earlier, you can start almost immediately from your kitchen table if you've got the laptop all set up. However, in order to avoid fatigue and back problems, invest in a typing stand and secretary's standard typing chair just as soon as you can afford them. Watch for office equipment sales, especially among the office equipment leasing firms. You should be able to pick up a new, slightly damaged, or good used computer stand or desk for around $20 to $25. A comparable quality secretary's typing chair can be purchased for $50 or less.

While you're shopping for things you'll need, be sure to pick up a chair mat. If you don't, you may suddenly find that the carpet on the floor of the room where you do your typing, needs replacing due to the worn spot where the chair is located and manoeuvred in front of the computer. You'll also want a work stand with place marker and a convenient box or storage shelf for your immediate paper supply. If you plan to do a great deal of work during the evening hours, be sure to invest in an ad just able "long arm" office work lamp.

When buying paper, visit the various wholesale paper suppliers in your area or in any nearby large city, and buy at least a half carton - 6 reams - at a time. Buying wholesale, and in quantity, will save you quite a bit of money. The kind to buy is ordinary 20 pound white bond. Open one ream for an immediate supply at your computer, and store the rest in a closet, under your bed, or on a shelf in your garage or basement.

In the beginning, you'll be the business - typist, salesman, advertising department, bookkeeper and janitor - so, much will depend upon your overall business acumen. Those areas in which you lack experience or feel weak in, buy books or tapes and enhance your knowledge. You don't have to enjoy typing, but you should have better than average proficiency.

Your best bet in selling your services is to do it all yourself. Every business in your area should be regarded as a potential customer, so it's unlikely you'll have to worry about who to call on. Begin by making a few phone calls to former bosses or business associates - simply explain that you're starting a typing service and would appreciate it if they'd give you a call whenever they have extra work that you can handle for them. Before you end the conversation, ask them to be sure to keep you in mind and steer your way any overload typing jobs that they might hear about.

The next step is "in-person" calls on prospective customers. This means dressing in an impressively professional manner, and making sales calls on the business people in your area. For this task, you should be armed with business cards (brochures also help...), and an order or schedule book of some sort. All of these things take time to design and print, so while you're waiting for delivery, use the time to practice selling via the telephone. At this stage, your telephone efforts will be more for the purpose of indoctrinating you into the world of selling than actually making sales.

Just be honest about starting a business, and sincere in asking them to consider trying your services whenever they have a need you can help them with. Insurance companies, attorneys and distributors are always needing help with their typing, so start with these kinds of businesses first.

For your business cards, consider a free-lance artist to design a logo for you. Check, and/or pass the word among the students in the art or design classes at any nearby college, art or advertising school. Hiring a regular commercial artist will cost you quite a bit more, and generally won't satisfy your needs any better than the work of a hungry beginner.

Be sure to browse through any clip -art books that may be available - at most print shops, newspaper offices, advertising agencies, libraries and book stores. The point being, to come up with an idea that makes your business card stand out; that can be used on all your printed materials, and makes you - your company - unique or different from all the others.

I might suggest something along the lines of a secretary with pad in hand taking dictation; or perhaps a secretary wearing a dictaphone headset seated in front of a computer. You might want something distinctive for the first letter of your company name, or perhaps a scroll or flag as a background for your company name.

At any rate, once you've got your logo or company design, the next step is your local print shop. Ask them to have the lettering you want to use, typeset in the style you like best - show them your layout and order at least a thousand business cards printed up.

For your layout, go with something basic. Expert typing services, in the top left hand corner... Dictation by phone, in the top right hand corner... Your company logo or design centered on the card with something like, complete secretarial services, under it... Your name in the lower left hand corner, and your telephone number in the lower right hand corner...

Everybody that you call on in person, be sure to give them one of your business cards. And now, you're ready to start making those in-person business sales calls.

Your best method of making sales calls would be with a business telephone directory and a big supply of loose leaf notebook paper. Go through the business directory and write down the company names, addresses and telephone number. Group all of those within one office building together, and those on the same street in the same block. Be sure to leave a couple of spaces between the listing of each company. And of course, start a new page for those in a different building or block. Now, simply start with the first business in the block, or on the lowest floor in a building and number them in consecutive order. This will enable you to call on each business in order as you proceed along a street, down the block, or through a building

You'll be selling your capabilities - your talents - and charging for your time - the time it takes you to get set up and complete the assignment they give you. You should be organized to take work with you on the spot, and have it back at a promised time; arrange to pick up any work they have, and deliver it back to them when it+s completed; and handle dictation or special work assignments by phone. You should also emphasize your abilities to handle everything by phone, particularly w hen they have a rush job.

Establish your fees according to how long it takes you to handle their work, plus your cost of supplies - work space, equipment and paper - then fold in a $5 profit. In other words, for a half hour job that you pick up on a regular sales or delivery call you should charge $10...

Another angle to include would be copies. Establish a working relationship with a local printer,  When your clients need a sales letter or whatever plus so many copies, you can do it all for them.

Only make copies on the very best of dry paper copying machines, and only for 50 copies or less. More than 50 copies, it'll be less expensive and you'll come out with a better looking finished product by having them printed on a printing press. When you furnish copies, always fold in your copying or printing costs plus at least a dollar or more for every 50 copies you supply.

By starting with former employers and/or business associates, many businesses are able to line up 40 hours of work without even making sales call. If you're lucky enough to do this, go with it, but -

Start lining up your friends to do the work for you - girls who work all day at a regular job, but need more money; and housewives with time on their hands. You tell them what kind of equipment is needed, and the quality of work you demand. You can arrange to pay them so much per hour for each job they handle for you - judging from the time you figure the job would take if you were doing it; or on a percentage basis. I feel the best arrangement is on an hourly basis according to a specified amount of time each job normally takes.

Whenever, and as soon as you've got a supply of "workers" lined up, you turn all your current assignments over to them, and get back to lining up more business. If you're doing well selling by phone, and your area seems to respond especially well to selling by phone, then you should immediately hire commission sales people. Train them according to your own best methods and put them to work assisting you. Your salespeople can work out of their own homes, using their own telephones, provided you've got your area's business community organized in a loose leaf notebook style. All you do is give them so many pages from your notebook, from which they make sales calls each week.

Even so, you should still make those in-person sales calls... If for some reason you get bogged down, and can't or don't want to, then hire commission sales people to do it for you... Generally, women selling this type of service bring back the most sales... And for all your commission sales people, the going rate should be 30 percent of the total amount of the sale... Point to remember: Sooner or later, you're going to want to hire a full-time telephone sales person, plus another full time person to make in-person sales calls for you - Eventually, you want workers to handle all the work for you, and sales people to do the selling for you - So the sooner you can line up people for these jobs, the faster your business is going to prosper.

Later on, you'll want a sales manager to direct your sales people and keep them on track, so try to find a "future sales man ager" when you begin looking for salespeople.

Your basic advertising should be a regular quarter page ad in the yellow pages of both your home service telephone directory and the business yellow pages. You'll find that 50 percent of your first time clients will come to you because they have an immediate need and saw you at in the yellow pages, so don't skimp on either the size or the "eye-catching" graphics of this ad.

A regular one column by 3-inch ad in the Sunday edition of your area's largest newspaper would also be a good idea. Any advertising you do via radio or television will be quite expensive with generally very poor results, so don't even give serious consideration to that type of advertising.

By far, your largest advertising outlays will be for direct mail efforts. You should have a regular mailing piece that you send out to your entire business community at least once a month. This is handled by sending out 200 to 500 letters per day. For this, you should obtain a third class postage permit or else these postage costs will drive you out of business.

Your mailing piece should consist of a colorful brochure that describes your business. It should explain the many different kinds of assignments you can handle - a notation that no job is too small or too large - and a statement of your guarantee. Do not quote prices in your brochure - simply ask the recipient to call for a quotation or price estimate.

It's also a good idea to list the background and experience of the business owner, plus several business testimonials and/or compliments. You could also include a couple of pictures showing your workers busy and actually handling secretarial assignments. The most important part of your brochure will be your closing statement - an invitation, indeed - a demand that the recipient call you for further information.

All of this can very easily be put together in a Z-folded, 2-sided self-mailer. Again, look for a free-lance copywriter and artist to help you put it together. Once you've got your "dummy" pretty well set the way you want it, make copies of it, and either take it or send it to several direct mail advertising agencies. Ask them for their suggestions of how they would improve it, and for a bid on the cost if you were to retain them to handle it for you. Listen to their ideas and incorporate them where - and if you think they would make your brochure better. And, if one of them does come in with a cost estimate that's lower than your independent, "do-it-yourself" costs, then think seriously about assigning the job to them.

This is definitely the most important piece of work that will ever come out of your office, so be sure it's the very best, and positively indicative of your business. This will be the business image you project, so make sure it reflects the quality, style and credibility of your business - your thinking, and your success.

Your brochure should be on 60-pound coated paper, in at least two colors and by a professional printer. The end result is the Z-folded brochure - Z-folded by the printer - with your third class mailing permit indicia showing on the cover side. This cover side should be flamboyant and eye-catching. You want your mailing piece to stand out in the pile of 50 or 60 pieces of other mail received by the recipient.

When you're ready to mail, simply take a couple of cartons of your brochures to an addressing shop, have them run your brochures through their addressing machine, loaded with your mailing list, bundle them and drop them off at the post office for you. This takes us back to the planning on how to compile your mailing list. I suggest that you begin with Cheshire Cards by Xerox. You type the name of your addressee on the cards, maintain these cards in the order of your choice, take your boxes of cards to the addressing shop whenever you have a mailing, and there+s no further work on your part. The addressing shop loads their machine with your cards, prints the address on your cards directly onto your brochures, and gives the cards back to you when the mailing is completed. A mailing of 100,000 brochures, via this method - generally could be completed and on its way in one 8-hour day.

In essence, you'll want to solicit business with a regular routine of telephone selling, in-person sales calls at the prospective client's place of business, media advertising and direct mail efforts. All of these efforts are important and necessary to the total success of your business - don't try to cut corners or spare the time or expense needed to make sure you're operating at full potential in these areas! In addition to these specific areas, it would be wise for you to attend chamber of commerce meetings, and join several of your area civic clubs - you'll meet a great number of business leaders at these meetings and through their association, you will gain a great deal of new business - and even help in many of your needs.

Once you're organized and rolling, you can easily expand your market nationwide with the installation of a toll free telephone and advertising in business publications. Perhaps you can add to your primary business with a "mailing shop" of your own - the rental of mailing lists - specialized temporary help services - telephone answering services - and even survey work...

The "bottom line" thing to remember in order to achieve total success, is planning. Plan your initial operation through from start to finish before you even think about soliciting your first customer. Get your operational plan down on paper - itemize your needs, estimate your costs, line up your operating capital, and set forth milestones for growth.

Set profit figures you want to be realizing 3 months... 6 months... l year... 2 years... and 3 years from your business start-up date. Learn all you can about the "support systems" involved in operating a profitable business - planning, a dvertising, selling, bookkeeping, and banking - and continue to update your knowledge with a pro gram of continuous learning. Do your homework properly, and there's just no way you can fail with a Home-Based Secretarial Service.

1. Be clear about what you want to achieve. Putting your goals in writing, helps to keep your thoughts straight. Then prioritise your individual goals. Start with whatever is most important to you and work your way downwards. This way, you can make sure that you will get what you really want.
   
   
2. Focus on objectives, rather than activities. Your most important activities are those that help you accomplish your objectives.
   
   
3. Try setting at least one major objective each day and achieving it. While you are still getting used to the “new rules”, set small, easy to achieve targets. The sense of accomplishment will act as a major motivator to you.
   
   
4. Start writing a scheduled diary or record a time log periodically to analyse your daily habits. Use your diary to identify bad time-habits and ban them from your life (both privately and professionally.
   
   
5. Always keep your objectives at top-priority and analyse all your activities accordingly. Find out what you do, when you do it, why you do it. Ask yourself what would happen if you didn’t do it. If the answer is nothing, then stop doing whatever it is. You will be surprised by the “surplus” of time you suddenly will have available only by getting rid of unnecessarily used-up time.
   
   
6. Eliminate at least one time-waster from your life each week.
   
   
7. Plan your time on a weekly basis and write out your schedule. Ask yourself what you want to have accomplished by the end of the week and what you will need to do to achieve those results.
   
   
8. Have a to-do list ready for every day by the beginning of the week. Be sure it includes your daily objectives, priorities, and time estimates, not just random activities. And don't forget to leave yourself enough time every day for “the unexpected”. If you plan your days too tightly, you will put yourself under unnecessary stress – your goal is to master time-management, not to take on more than you can manage.
   
   
9. When planning your day, try to put the activities you are not too fond about higher-up in your hierarchy of things-to-do. By accomplishing those, you will boost your motivation – and find it even easier to keep going because whatever comes next, you don't mind that much anyway.
   
   
10. At least in the beginning, make sure to schedule EVERYTING you want to (or have to) get done till the end of the day. Remember that things that are scheduled have a better chance of working out than things that are unscheduled.
    
    
11. Set time limits for every task you undertake and take enough time to do it right the first time (then you don't have to go back over it = TIME SAVED). It sometimes works out better to spend 5 more minutes on project drafting it out and thinking of all possibilities than get stuck into it straight away only to find that, by rushing it, you have overlooked something crucial.
    
    
12. Develop the habit of finishing what you start. Don’t jump from one thing to another, leaving a string of unfinished tasks behind you.
    
    
13. Make better time management a daily habit. Set your objectives, clarify your priorities, plan and schedule your time. Do first things first. Resist your impulses to do unscheduled tasks. Review your activities.
    
    
14. Take time for yourself—time to dream, time to relax, time to live but never spend time on less important things when you could be spending it on more important things.
    

1. 1) Most telephone sales calls are made by legitimate businesses offering legitimate products or services.
2. But wherever honest firms search for new customers, swindlers will be looking as well. Phone fraud is a multi-billion dollar business that involves selling everything from bad or non-existent investments to the peddling of misrepresented products and services. Everyone who has a phone is a prospect; whether you become a victim in the end is largely up to you.

2) There is no way to positively determine whether a sales call is on the up and up simply by talking with someone on the phone.
No matter what questions you ask or how many you ask, skilled swindlers usually have answers BEFORE the question is asked. That is why sales calls from people or organizations that are unknown to you should always be checked out before you actually buy or invest. Legitimate callers have nothing to hide.

3) Phone swindlers are likely to know more about you than you know about them.
Depending on where they got your name from in the first place, they may know your age and income, health and hobbies, occupation and marital status, education, the home you live in, what magazines you read, and whether you've bought by phone in the past. Even if your name came from the phone book, telephone con-men (and women) assume that, like most people, you would be interested in having more income, that you're receptive to a bargain, that you are basically sympathetic to people in need, and that you are reluctant to be discourteous to someone on the phone. As admirable as such characteristics may be, they help make the swindler's job easier. Swindlers also exploit less admirable characteristics, such as pure greed.

4) Fraudulent sales callers have one thing in common: They are skilled liars and experts at verbal camouflage.
Their success depends on it. Many are coached to "say whatever it takes" by operators of the "boiler-rooms" where they work at rows of phone desks making hundreds of repetitious calls, hour after hour. The first words uttered by most victims of phone fraud are, "the caller sounded so believable..."

5) Perpetrators of phone fraud are extremely good at sounding as though they represent legitimate businesses.
They offer investments, sell subscriptions, provide products for homes and offices, promote travel and vacation plans, describe employment opportunities, solicit donations, and the list goes on. Never assume you'll "know a phone scare when you hear one." Even if you've read lists of the kinds of schemes most commonly practiced, innovative swindlers constantly devise new ones. The problem there is that new schemes are thought out on a daily basis worldwide. If a figure could be put on the actual number of fraud-schemes around, it would be a horrendously high one. Plus the “training” those people get is being “perfected” at a similar rate to the invention of new schemes – so guess YOUR chances against them...

6) The motto of phone swindlers is, "just give us a few good 'mooches,'" one of the terms they use to describe their victims.
Notwithstanding that most victims are otherwise intelligent and prudent people, even boiler-room operators express astonishment at how many people "seem to keep their checkbooks by the telephone!" Sadly, some families part with savings they worked years to accumulate on the basis of little more than a 15-minute phone conversation - less time than they would spend considering the purchase of a household appliance are the actual choosing of one.

7) The person who "initiates" the phone call may be you.
It's not uncommon for phone crooks to use direct mailings and advertise in reputable publications to encourage prospects to make the initial contact. It is another way swindlers imitate  the perfectly acceptable marketing practices of legitimate businesses. Thus, just because you may have written or phoned for "additional information" about an investment, product, or service does not mean you should be any less cautious about buying by phone from someone you don't know.
Always remember the old rule: If something sounds too good to be true, it USUALLY IS.

8) Victims of phone fraud seldom get their money back – or, at best, no more than a few cents on the dollar.

Despite efforts of law enforcement and regulatory agencies to provide what help they can to victims, swindlers generally do the same thing other people do when they get money: they spend it! The other problem is that, in most occasions, those people are virtually impossible to trace: A postbox here, a hired part-time secretary there (who probably does not even know who she works for) and so on. Those kinds of people have kept hundreds of lawyers busy for god knows how long. Apart from using fraudulent business-practises, they are also banking on the fact that, at some stage, you might run out of money to pay your lawyer – or the actual sum involved just is not worth spending a fortune on prosecutions.

2) Boarding Pets in your Home

Yes, animal lovers like to go on holidays as well. If you are an animal lover and have a big enough house that has some room to spare, you could consider offering holiday homes for pets. Since pets are more often than not considered “family-members” rather than just animals, there is a big enough market for pet-sitting and pet-boarding. The advantage is that you can easily try this business-model by offering your service to your friends and neighbors before making any decisions. If you test your idea with pets you already know, you will find out whether or not this could be a sustainable business for you.

There are several different ways of advertising your services.: If you want to offer occasional services for local people, you can put ads in your local newspaper. If you already have done some pet-sitting (or pet-boarding) for friends, you could use them to spread the word of your new business. After all, there is no cheaper advertisement than the good old Word of Mouth. Another place which should attract a lot of interest, is your local vet's practice. After all, that's where pet-owner turn up regularly, isn't it?

How much can you make?

The earning-potential of this type of business is largely dependent on the type of pets you want to board. You should be able to negotiate a price of around 50 – 200 $ per week per animal. If your place is big enough and your advertising is successful enough, you should be able to make quite a good income out of this. If you decide to run a full boarding home for pets, the prices average between 20 – 45 $ per animal per day, depending on what you offer.

What costs are involved?

If you are running a small, occasional pet-boarding service, there are no real costs involved in pet-sitting other than the time you might have to take to walk the dogs you are boarding.

Costs for food and litter (for cats) can be kept low if you ask the owners to give you enough food, litter and other equipment for their pet for the whole time they are away.

For setting-up a proper boarding-home for pets on the other hand, there are a number of cost to consider.

Those might include: The cost of land (if you don't already have it), the construction of the kennels, costs in meeting all legal requirements, employment costs, fees for cleaning, food and equipment for the pets as well as the usual business-costs of administration and marketing.


Given the high costs you could be facing when running a boarding-home rather than a small pet-boarding agency, it is advisable to start the business as a small enterprise before committing any real money to it.

1) Home-Made Jams and Cakes

If you have a passion for baking or home-made jams and chutneys, then this might be your way of making a bit on the side. You can sell your home-made produce either at local markets and fairs or directly to upmarket local tea-shops. 

The easiest way of getting started, is to find the best fairs and markets in your locality and pick out some of your favorite recipes. The initial costs of starting this business can be as low as the costs of the ingredients you need for your first yams and cakes and the fee for your market-stall. You will also have to pay for transport, power, packaging and advertising. If you do not want to put too much money into this at the beginning, try to link up with somebody who already holds a market-stall and try to get them to sell your products (in return for a sales-commission). If you are successful in finding the right partners handling your sales, you should hold onto them even when your business starts growing: The more time they spend selling, the more you have for producing the goods.

As with all food-businesses, be aware that your local health department will sooner or later be interested in your business. Therefore, it would definitely be worth going on a course that deals with hygiene, health and safety beforehand. You can easily find out the costs for those courses in your area using the internet.

There is a wide area of possibilities you can go into when it comes to specialist foods: unusual jams, special celebration cakes, smoothies, home-made ice-cream etc.

Your earning-potential depends as much on the type of produce you sell as on the sales you can make out of it. If you wish to create a reliable monthly income out of this, like with everything else, you will have to put a bit of time and effort into it. On the long run, you will need to think about: a recognizable brand, your own labels, attractive packaging and a workable distribution.

Your marketing options include: Wedding magazines, local pubs, local newspapers, flyers and handouts at local fairs.

If you are hard-working, have a passion for home-made produce and a bit of time at hand, this could be a profitable small business for you.

MONEY MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND... Just think about it ladies, what would our life be like without a good session of "retail therapy" every so often? The only downside to this is that we have to make the money first before we spend it - at least we all (should have) learned that during and after the worldwide financial crisis. Never before was it so obvious that the world was spending more than it could possibly afford. Or, as other people might ask, how much of the money that was "lost" then has really existed (or really represented any real value)?
Therefore, we all have to ask ourselves how we can best use our money to make ends meet or where we can make a bit extra so that we can afford the things we like more easily without having to cut back elsewhere.
Within this section of our website, we will look at the different angles of finances, from the making of it over good financial planning to clever spending.