QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Now I will tell a strange truth, the reason for which I know not.  When I ceased to pay out more than nine-tenths of my earnings, I managed to get along just as well.  I was not shorter than before.  Also, ere long, did coins come to me more easily than before.   Surely it is a law of the Gods that unto him who keepeth and spendeth not a certain part of all his earnings, shall gold come more easily.  Likewise, him whose purse is empty does gold avoid."-- From "The Richest Man in Babylon" by George S. Clason

SAVING MONEY WITH PROMOTIONAL CODES

A big part of any investment program is finding extra cash to invest.  So looking for ways to save on your everyday purchases becomes almost second nature.  One great way I've found for saving money is promotional codes.  Any time I make a purchase over the internet, before I go to checkout, I do an online search for a promotional code to see if there are any available discounts. 

As an example, I recently needed to reorder checks for my checking account.  Like most people now days, I make a lot of payments electronically and don't use many written checks, but I still keep some on hand to use when needed.  At any rate, I go to the check printers website, pick out my new checks procede to checkout and when I get to the part where they ask if I have any discount or promotional codes, I opened a second window and did a search on the internet.  Turns out, in this case, there were several.  The one that worked best for me was a buy one box and get a second box for 49 cents.  So I saved almost $15 on my order and have at least a two year supply of checks.

You won't always find a discount or promo code for everything you buy, but it only takes a minute or two to search, so it's well worth the effort.  The amount you'll save will vary, but I've managed to save hundreds of dollars on online purchases and have even found discounts that can be printed out and taken to local retailers for savings on in store purchases as well.  The greatest part of all this is, the money you save makes it that much easier to reach your savings and investment goals.

MAKING MONEY AS THE MARKET TUMBLES

Contrary to what we saw last year, it looks as though most investors are following the old adage, "In May, go away." With market experts predicting a 15% to 20% correction, many are fleeing stocks in favor of cash. While I'm not selling and have no plans to sell anything anytime soon, I am letting my cash from dividends build up in my money market accounts. It does seem to help you keep your nerves to have some cash on hand when the market goes into free fall.

This is one of those times I like to be in the position to buy. When the market finishes its' tumble and begins to level off, I like to jump in and pick up shares of companies that I believe are normally out of my price range, but would otherwise love to own. You don't have to pick the exact bottom to make money, you just come in as near the bottom as possible. This puts you in a great position for capital gains as the market begins to recover. As a bonus, if you're a dividend investor, you get to earn cash while you wait for stock prices to go back up. This time around, I'll be looking to up my stakes in Johnson & Johnson, Clorox and Campbell's Soup Co.. I may come up with some additional stocks that I'd like to get in on, but for now I'll be concentrating on these three.

Since starting my new job, I've managed to cut my expenses to the bone and am finding it easy to set aside extra money for cash savings as well as continued investments in my regular stock portfolio and my IRA. It strikes me as really odd that I make so much less than I used to, but I'm saving as much or more. I guess when you finally get the hang of managing your cash flow, it's almost irrelevant how much you make. You always manage to pay yourself first and keep right on building wealth. It's taken me a lot of years to get to this point. Sure wish our school systems had provided financial education when I was growing up. Could have saved me a lot of time and a great deal of money.