• Art (169)
• Asian Sites (447)
• Automotive (286)
• Books & Print Media (280)
• Clothing, Shoes & Accessories (2626)
• Computers (547)
• Electronics (700)
• Entertainment, Recreation & Leisure (650)
• Financial & Professional Services (522)
• Food & Drink (504)
• Gifts (888)
• Health & Beauty (667)
• Health & Fitness (956)
• Hobbies (159)
• Home & Garden (1425)
• Miscellaneous (289)
• Office (330)
• Online Services (964)
• Pets (222)
• Seasonal, Holiday & Parties (132)
• Shopping (315)
• Sports & Athletics (449)
• Telephone Services (108)
• Toys & Games (215)
• Travel (702)

Tossing Aside: Are you wasting money and not realizing it?

Wasting money is something the average American does quite a bit, but the harsher of reality is that they don’t even realize they’re doing it or they think how they’re spending their money has some rhyme or reason to it.

In actuality, they’re just throwing money away and sit in amazement as to why they can’t save.

Being wasteful, to some, is arguable. If you can justify the spending or answer the “why,” then why not keep doing what you’re doing?

The real issue is that more than 50 percent of the population doesn’t have a savings account, no reserve fund and are lacking big time in the retirement part of their saving, if they have a retirement account at all.

That would suggest two things: you’re not saving at all or you’re not doing it properly. The “at all” part means you aren’t budgeting, nor are you paying attention to what you spend or how much you make and letting those two work together in harmony to equate to money saved.

The “not doing it properly” focuses more so on how you spend, and if you’re really being as smart with your money as you see it. Most people believe, when you poll a 100 random individuals, that they are smart with money. They want more of it, but can’t figure out how to do it without blaming a lack of income.

The trick is knowing how to spot waste with one quick glance.

Think about that cable bill, your gym membership or the food you buy at the grocery store and then throw away because you’re always ordering out.

If you want to know if you’re wasting money in a less tangible way, what about focusing on bank fees and interest rates, the latter being quite substantial when you think about just how much debt you have and if you’re credit cards are working hard against you. A $4,000 credit card debt at 20 percent interest will take you 23 years to pay off if you do the minimum payment of around $50 per month. You’d have to pay $230 per month to have that $4,000 translate into $7,000 total paid, versus the alternative, more than $20,000 if you keep on the minimum track.

Knowing if you’re throwing money away might be harder to spot then you think because you’re so used to doing it in some instances (such as the interest rates or the bank fees you get sporadically).

The closer you look, the more money you can save just by being diligent and not taking for granted just how easily you can miss out on saving.

Sum Day: How to dole out lump sum retirement

Saving money is the ultimate goal in that you, of course, want to have money set aside for emergencies or anything that comes up that you aren’t accounting for, such as a car repair or home renovation that becomes necessity.

But often overlooked, particularly by the 30 something crowd, is the idea that saving money goes beyond cutting out your cable bill, spending less money on clothing or shopping and not eating out for lunch and dinner all the time.

Those make sense when you’re talking about short term saving as far as that savings account, a fact that eludes most of the population (roughly 50 percent).

This is more about a retirement plan, specifically one that includes such things as a 401K, IRA or pension plan.

The pension is something that is particularly interesting in that you’re faced with a dilemma of sorts financially if you should take the payout as a lump sum or over the course of a longer period of time.

Conventional thinking would tell you that your pension is something you’d want to incorporate on a monthly basis for a variety of reasons. You could easily piece together a budget knowing that you have a number in mind of what you’ll be getting as far as payouts are concerned, such as $1,000 a month means more when you’re trying to figure out how much you have left to pay on your house, mortgage wise or what credit card or debt you have leftover as you think about calling it quits from a working standpoint.

That said, the better option is taking the pension as a lump sum, mostly when you consider the combination of having a 401K or another source of income as a result of retiring and doing so smartly.

When you think about taking your pension in a lump sum, you have to consider that you have much more flexibility with the spending and those large chunks of debt you have will no longer hinder you as you continue to pay on it and the interest for months at a time. That said, you can’t do that to the point that you’re out of money with one fell swoop, thus leaving you with not enough money to retire comfortably and you’ll find yourself having to rethink going back to work.

Decisions abound for certain when it comes to how you want your payout, but the smart money seems to be on the choice that gives you the most financial control possible for a future that won’t include worrying about money as you retire.