Sunday, February 26, 2012

Budgeting for an Irregular Income



Budgeting for an Irregular Income

By Keith Bunn Jr.
February 26, 2012


One of the things I hear the most is, “I don’t know what I’m going to be bringing in month to month, how do I budget for that?” If this is you, you need a budget more than anyone else.
If you just have an irregular income coming in and nothing else, what you need to do is sit down and write up a list of what you would spend your money on in any given month. Once that’s done, figure out what is the most important on your list and place a 1 next to it. Then think if you just had one more dollar to put somewhere what would you spend it on, and then place a 2 next to that and so on down your list.
Now before you get started, there really is a priority for at least the first 5 items on your list and that would be what we like to call the Four Walls and the Roof. And those are…

1.    Food.
2.    Shelter.
3.    Utilities.
4.    Transportation.
5.    Clothing.



Most people make enough money to where they can afford those 5 categories. From there you finish up your list from most important to least important, but you HAVE to start with those 5 categories each and every time you re-write your list each month.

Now if you have any amount of regular income coming in from your spouse or second job mixed in with irregular income, you always start by budgeting with the regular income first and then move into the irregular portion once your regular income is spent as described above. By doing and sticking to these simple lists of yours, you’ll be well on your way of controlling your irregular income.
As with all my blog posts, and social media posts, I welcome any comments and feedback on the topics I write about. It is the only way you and I will learn more about ourselves and each other, so ask away!

 “If you define yourself by your stuff, you'll feel good when you have a lot and bad when you don't.”  -Max Lucado-

Checkout my website, Facebook, & Twitter pages as well.
www.cavusfinancialcoaching.com , http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cavus-Financial-Coaching/120347681380181 , and https://twitter.com/#!/Cavuscoaching

Sunday, February 19, 2012

What do you do if you’re robbed…






What do you do if you’re robbed…


By Keith Bunn Jr.
Originally posted: February 19, 2012
Re-posted: June 17, 2013 


We all know about the little cartoon guy above, a typical bank robber. You see and hear about them all the time on the news, as well as, the car thief and shop lifter, but did you know that the number one Blue Collar crime in the U.S. is rarely mentioned on the news and the odds of you knowing the thief are pretty good if it happens to you? The number one Blue Collar crime is Identity Theft. 

It’s not only the number one Blue Collar crime in the U.S., it is the fastest growing crime also. The problem is, it’s such a silent crime that no one really knows about it until it’s too late. So what can you do to protect yourself against I.D. theft? Unfortunately, there isn't anything you can do to prevent I.D. theft from happening to you, however, you can freeze your credit (FICO) score as a deterrent. So IF a creditor looks up your credit score before giving you a loan or an open line of credit, they won’t be able to see anything and they will not be able to give you what you’re asking for. This will be inconvenient for you if you are still going to use credit, but if you have decided you are never going to borrow money again, this shouldn't be a problem.

What to do if your identity is stolen

If you discover that your identity is stolen, the first thing you need to do is place a temporary fraud victim alert on your credit bureau reports and you can do that for free online at the following links... Experian, Equifax, & Transunion.

The next thing you need to do is call the police and get a police report. Now this is where most people refuse to follow through and pay what they legally do not owe. You have to tell the police who stole your identity if you know, and that’s what most people don’t want to do because a good portion of the time it is a relative of some sort that has stolen their identity and they don’t want to get their relative in trouble. But if you do follow through, and you give up the thief’s name, it is out of your hands on what the authorities will do with that information. When you get a copy of the police report and give each of the credit bureaus a copy, that will make the temporary fraud victim alert permanent. If you don’t give them a copy, the fraud victim alert will only stay on your credit bureau 90 days. 

The next thing you need to do is call the fraud victim division of all the creditors where your I.D. was stolen and provide them with all the information, including a copy of the police report showing that your I.D. has been stolen. Now they may act like you are trying to get out of paying a bill, so don’t let them pressure you into paying something you don’t owe. 

The bad thing is, if you've had your I.D. stolen, you now have a new hobby if you don’t have identity theft insurance that assigns a counselor to you, like at Zander Insurance does, to clean up the mess for you. On average, it will take you 600 hours to clean up this kind of mess. In 2008 alone, 15 million people had their identity stolen, so this is a big deal. 

The reason I do this is to give people hope and to try to inspire others. To make them think about their finances, whether they are young or old, so they can win financially.
If you have any questions for me about my posts or about your finances, you can call me at (616) 454-2046 or e-mail me at cavuscoaching@gmail.com. You can also find more money news, facts and ideas, on my Facebook and/or Twitter pages. I'd be grateful if you followed me. Thank you!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

You Have to Blow Your Money!



You Have to Blow Your Money!

By Keith Bunn Jr.
February 12, 2012



One of the things you have to do when you‘re trying to get out of debt is blow some money and this is especially key if you are married. Because lets face it folks, you’re going to blow money any way, you might as well plan on it and put it in your budget.
Having money budgeted to just blow on whatever is like grease in gears. It gives you the wiggle room to do some things. Now this doesn’t mean that you continue to misbehave with your money and buy a bunch a crap you don’t need, but it does allow you to buy a DVD or two, go out to eat once in a while, have a date night with your spouse.
Also, it is a good idea to give yourself some smaller goals to aim for in your overall goal of getting out of debt. To give you an example: maybe after paying off the first three debts you plan on going out to a nice dinner. Not too fancy but better than McDonalds. Each time you reach a smaller goal, make the next goal just a little bigger until you have reached your overall goal of being DEBT FREE. This will help you stay on track and not feel like a rat in a wheel. Just make sure these goals are not too expensive, you’re paying cash for them, and that they are a budgeted item in your budget.
  As with all my blog posts, and social media posts, I welcome any comments and feed back on the topics I write about. It is the only way you and I will learn more about our selves and each other, so ask away!


“If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”
-      Zig Ziglar –


Checkout my website, Facebook, & Twitter pages as well.
www.cavusfinancialcoaching.com , http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cavus-Financial-Coaching/120347681380181 , and https://twitter.com/#!/Cavuscoaching

Sorry...



Due to technical difficulties with our computer, this week's blog will be delayed.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.   

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Are You Cheating Financially



Are You Cheating Financially

By Keith Bunn Jr.
February 5, 2012


Have you ever signed up for a credit card, or a loan and didn’t tell your spouse about it? How about stashing cash and not telling them? If you have, for whatever your reason was, you have committed what is popularly called Financial Infidelity. Why call it that? Because the emotions that surround money issues can be just as strong as matters of the heart and when trust has been broken in your household finances, the emotions that come from that are as if you have cheated on your spouse.
These emotions are both strong and real and they can be felt by BOTH spouses. The ones who have done the deed can feel a strong sense of guilt from hiding this issue and because they know their significant other will be mad and probably not understand why they did what they did. The significant other can feel hurt and betrayed, thinking, “If they have hid this from me, what else have they been hiding?”
The first thing that has to be done if you have committed financial infidelity is tell your spouse the whole truth about what you have done. I know it will be a scary thing to do, but it has to be done. No healing can take place until this is done. If you’re the other spouse, the first thing you have to do is show some grace! I know you feel betrayed, hurt, and all that, but it has to be done. No healing can take place until this is done.
After that is done, you may need to seek out marriage counseling, because at the core of this, this is a break down in the marriage, not in the finances. You BOTH need to find out why this happened and begin the healing of your marriage so this doesn’t happen again. For a short time, the guilty party probably shouldn’t handle the household funds. Only after some time, and once some trust has been established again, can they handle some of the funds. Then when trust is fully established can they have free rein again.
Now one of the reasons this whole mess happened in the first place is because there was no budget meetings taking place. Think about it. If both parties sat down and did a budget together, each of them had a vote on what to do with the money, gave every dollar a name, they both knew how much money was coming in and going out, there would be no way to have this kind of money issues.
Also, during the healing process of both your marriage and money, the one who committed the financial infidelity must have a vote in the household budget meetings. This is also part of the healing process. This will be a difficult time for the both of you but only with time, patience, love, will you get through it.
 As with all my blog posts, and social media posts, I welcome any comments and feed back on the topics I write about. It is the only way you and I will learn more about our selves and each other, so ask away!


"There is no shortcut to any place that is worth going." - Beverly Sills –


Checkout my website, Facebook, & Twitter pages as well.
www.cavusfinancialcoaching.com , http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cavus-Financial-Coaching/120347681380181 , and https://twitter.com/#!/Cavuscoaching