Nearly everyone looks for ways to keep your phone bill down. Since almost everyone has a cell phone, it is quite likely that most people are spending more then they should to maintain that phone. If you were to look at your bill it is likely that you could look at it right now and immediately find charges for services that you do not even use. The consulting industry uses a term, scope creep, that means a project slowly grows out of control. For most consumers this is what happens with their bill. Over time we add services in the form of extra lines, minutes, or data and our bill creeps up to a higher and higher amount until it is eventually out of control. If you want to get your bill back under control you should consider some or all of the following tips.

Ways To Keep Your Phone Bill Down

Watch your minutes - One of the biggest expenses for any cell phone owner is going over your minutes. If you consistently go over your minutes it is probably worth investing in a plan that gives your more from the beginning. There are also some free tools available that will let you know what your usage is and warn you if you are close to reaching your limit.

Consider a prepaid phone - If you do not use your phone a lot and do not want to shell out the money every month to maintain it you might consider a prepaid cell service. These services allow you to pay for only what you use and can be significantly cheaper then a traditional phone with equal service from a legitimate carrier.

Get rid of the insurance - Unless you have a very expensive phone and are particularly hard on them insurance is usually not worth the investment. It can cost about $200 which is not a great investment on a phone that is typically less then $500.

Look for discounts - Most carriers have ways to keep your phone bill down through employee discount programs. In some cases you might be entitled to a discount through the company you work for, or in cases of small businesses through their suppliers. You may wind up saving upwards of 20% on your bill.

Avoid buying ring-tones - Yes, they are cute and can make the ring of your phone a bit less jarring, but they are quite simply a cost that can be eliminated.

Double check your bill - There are online services that will evaluate your bill for a small fee. They can then tell you how to save money. Typically the reports can show consumers how to save hundreds of dollars each year based on their actual usage.

Swap SIM cards - If you break a phone prior to the expiration of your contract you might have to pay a steep price for a new one. But, if you have other phones under the same account you can instead replace an older one, getting a lower price on the new phone, and simply swap out the SIM card from the broken phone.

Negotiate - When your contract expires you can negotiate to get a better deal. Since plans are typically cheaper as time goes on it is likely you can do better then your previous contract. Just make sure you get the same or better services.

Reconsider unlimited plans - Unless you have a texting addicted teen under your account odds are you do not really need an unlimited plan. While most of us like having them because they relieve us from worry about overages we probably don’t need them. Look at your actual usage to determine what your actual needs.

Combine you and your spouses plans – If you are living together and are not sharing a cell phone plan you are probably wasting money. Combine into one account and you will easily save lots of cash each month.

Do not cancel a contract - If you want to switch carriers mid contract it will cost you a lot of money. Instead look to one of the online services that link up people like you with people who are looking for a cell contract. That way you help someone else and get out of costly fees.

Finding ways to keep your phone bill down is a great way to cut household expenses. You can then use that extra money for more fun things like going on holiday or to pay off other bills.

This article was written by William Eve, a regular personal finance writer for Home Loan Finder, a 100% free mortgage comparison and application service. Visit the Home Loan Finder website for more great ways to save money and the most competitive investment loans and first home buyer loans on the market.

Every year, thousands of families struggle to find financial aid to help pay for their children’s college tuition. This is no major shock, considering that a single year of college can cost up to tens of thousands of dollars. While most scholarships are privately funded, the 529 plan is supported by state or government institutions. At its core, the 529 plan simply assists families in saving for college. It is broken down into two categories—prepaid and savings plans. If the family chooses the prepaid plan, it pays for the expenses of living at a college ahead of time. If it favors the savings plan, the family’s money goes into investing money, generally into investments. 529 plans must be applied to in order to be gained.

There are a number of advantages to using a 529 plan. First of all, the one who pours money into the fund is the one who ultimately controls the withdrawals. The recipient, the college student, has no say. Thus, reckless prospective college students cannot pull out random amounts of cash to pay for iPods or shopping sprees instead of saving up for their education. Another key advantage is that when you receive money from a wise investment, the government offers heavy tax breaks. Basically, any money you make is yours to keep. Finally, keeping a 529 plan is effortless. Upon choosing either a savings or prepaid plan and filling out the correct type and quantity of forms, you can pretty much do whatever you want; the 529 plan does not demand that you repeatedly come back to maintain it.

Disadvantages of the 529 plan come mainly when one does not use it. If unused, the earnings resulting from a 529 plan become subject to roughly a 10% penalty from the government. Also, the tax cuts on the earnings will drop, and they will be taxed normally. If you want to prevent these losses from happening, you should transfer the funds to a younger relative who intends on going to college.

If you choose to invest on your own, you will receive no governmental penalties for not using the money. The downside is your money will be subject to normal taxation. If the idea of investments does not appeal to you, and you are willing to search for a good amount of time, you could always take the scholarship route and earn enough money to pay at least part of your way through your college career.

The path to become a CEO is not straightforward. Some college courses try to delve into the idea but only individuals who have successfully navigated their careers to this lofty height can expound on what it takes. Those who have managed to achieve this top position have offered several recurring ideas for anyone who wants to follow in their footsteps.

Take the hard jobs that no one else wants
Anyone can take the easiest tasks or the jobs where there are no challenges. But taking on high visibility, difficult projects will give you an edge. Not only will it make you a go-to person for the company, it will put you right in the mix of core business functions at critical times. If the company knows they can depend on your willingness to do whatever it takes, it will show the resoluteness and relentless work ethic that a CEO needs.

Passion
The path to become a CEO also means having passion, for your product or business. People will follow passion, and passion cannot be manufactured. We all have something that drives us, whether it is making a better product, having the best customer service or just a competitive business fire. Finding a way to let our natural passions fuel our work is the only way to become successful. We must strive to be the best at what we do, and the work required to accomplish that can only be found with a keen interest in our work.

Relationships
We must also always treat people with respect. Abraham Lincoln once famously said “nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” This means when you are placed in charge of a project or team, it’s time to work harder than ever to make sure that the people on the team are all getting heard and respected. It’s only natural to want to be in the limelight, but truly great leaders know that winning big is only accomplished by a team. Treating people poorly never works in the long run.

Networking
Networking is the one key skill that must be cultivated over a lifetime and will start to pay dividends, even if those results don’t come for years. Always keep in mind how you can help others, and how you can connect other people. When the time comes and you need help or a connection, you will find it incredibly easy to have people return the favor without even having to ask. Maintain relationships, no matter how trivial they seem.

Creativity
Be creative. Never be afraid to ask “why not”. Too many companies fail because they cannot change their ways, even as their markets dry up and the product landscape changes. Consider how companies will push on relentlessly with projects just because they’ve already sunk so many resources into it, even it it’s doomed to failure.

Why we want you to be rich by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki is one of the best personal finance books I’ve ever read. I say that because it made me think in deeper and more meaningful ways about my plans for the future and how to reach my personal finance goals.

I took pages of notes from this book and I’ll try to summarize what I think were the best parts for you here. You can buy this book from Amazon here: Why We Want You To Be Rich. Here are my favorite parts from the best chapters in the book.

Investing to win

You hear a lot from frugal bloggers that the key to financial success is to live below your means. I decided long before reading this book that i’m completely against that idea. Living below your means is the easy slow way to growing your net worth, and its a very limited approach. The better way is to increase your means!

Robert and Donald both believe that increasing your means is the way to create wealth, and common sense agrees. Trump talks about having a winning attitude and being stubborn to the point where you never give up because you see the victory. The fear of the unknown is what keeps so many people stuck where they are. I know it has kept me from trying new business ideas.

Choose your battlefield

Not everyone is meant to be a business owner, CEO, or high net worth investor. Some people don’t want to be those things, and some people just don’t have the skill set to be in those positions. The book makes a great point, that is ok. You have to know yourself well enough to decided what you can and what you want to be. The four categories come from Robert’s Cash flow quadrant book. The are employee, small business owner, big business owner and investor. Which are you now, and which do you want to be. The book narrator asks some great questions to help you figure out where you want to go and how to get there.

Saver or Investor

Robert says that savers do not use leverage to increase their cash flow. This chapter goes deeper into leverage, what it is and how it can help you. Do you work hard for other people, or do other people work hard for you? Are you being leveraged or do you leverage others. The same goes for money. Are you using other people’s money as leverage to increase your cash flow or are you putting yourself in debt and increasing someone else’s cash flow.

Trump says that money is like a talent, it doesn’t do any good to keep it to yourself. It needs to be nurtured and developed. It takes time, hard work and practice. Fear drives savers, freedom drives investors.

Two things you can invest

Time and money. People lose money because they do not invest their time. Trump talks about learning to invest your time like it is money. You can invest your time in a financial education that will give you an advantage in the money game. Education give you control, and control is an important part of successful investing.

Thinking

A lot of this book is about teaching you how to think. There is a section where they compare a saver vs investor mentality and how they would each answer these questions. As I think about business ideas and goals I find myself answering these questions from time to time with negativity. Next time you have an idea, notice how you respond to it:

I can’t do that — vs — How can I do that
To risky — vs — How can I reduce the risk
I can’t afford it — vs — How can I afford it

Changing those negative statements into questions will change your perspective and open up huge windows of opportunity.

My second week in the shoemoney system was another good week. I still have not learned anything directly from the system, but I did take a few things that I heard and try to think of new ways to generate money. And so I’m off to a good start with my new ideas and I’ve earned my first commission from Azoogle, ShoeMoney’s CPA company of choice.

I don’t mind telling you how I earned the income because I didn’t learn these tips directly from the program. I’ve been reading and learning more about PPV advertising, which stands for pay per view. I recently bought a e-book called the PPV Playbook that explains how to make money with the program and I implemented the steps in the book to generate a commission.

I encourage you to get a copy of that book if you are interested in generating lead commissions through advertising. The book lays out the steps you need to make a profitable campaign.

So Shoemoney System week 2… If you are a newbie then the first two weeks are great training for you. If you have some experience, the first two weeks will be slow, as expected. I’m hanging in there for the weeks to come where I’ve heard we are going to learn about ebay arbitrage and more advanced affiliate offerings. Stay tuned.

This post is meant to make you think. It’s not going to be a checklist of items for you to do to increase your income. I’ve found that book and articles that make me think are often the best sources of income.

There is no money in copying what other people are doing unless you can improve on it or do it at a new location. When it comes to the Internet there is only one location, online. Creativity and problem solving are keys to building income online.

There are three basic steps to take when trying to create wealth. Increase cash flow, pay off bad debt, and find opportunities to Increase cash flow. In the end its all about increasing the amount of cash coming in at the end of every month. Let’s take a look at each step.

Step 1: Increase cash flow

The idea of increasing cash flow is exciting, but I think most people will get stuck at the question “how can I increase cash flow?” You can increase your pay at work, take a second job, or learn how to make supplemental income. I’ve come up with ways people can earn supplemental income and I created a list of 30 ways people can make money online. If those ideas don’t seem appealing then I think it’s important to spend time thinking about what can be done to earn extra money. I’ll also recommend two books, each of which have helped me tremendously.

Never Eat Alone – By Keith Ferrazzi
Why We Want You To Be Rich – By Trump and Kiyosaki

Step 2: Pay off bad debt

Step 2 is simple, pay off debt that is not being used to generate positive cash flow. For example pay off your car loans, student loans and credit card loans. But don’t pay off anything like a mortgage on a rental property that is generating income. Using debt as leverage to increase income is good, but using debt on things that don’t make you money costs you money.

Step 3: Find opportunities to Increase cash flow

When you have increased you cash flow and paid off bad debt there will be a surplus of money at the end of each month. That money needs to be reinvested into new creative ideas that will produce even more cash flow. Do you get the idea here? Take that cash that is generating income and put it right back into the same type of ideas that are increasing cash flow now.

The more ways we find to increase cash flow, the faster we will become wealthy.

According to Forbes, there are over 1000 billionaires in the world. Donald Trump happens to be one of them and he wrote a great book a few years ago on how to think like a billionaire. I recently got listen to the book on CD and there were a lot of great points that I plan to implement into the way I approach business and money.

Your Home

Where you live and how you take care of your home affects the way you see and think about yourself. So to start thinking like a billionaire does, you need to live in a home that reflects your ambitions and goals. If you aren’t planning on moving soon then doing day to day maintenance on your current house is a must. Letting little problems go gives them a chance to turn into big problems and takes away from living your best.

Thinking this way about your home is a big part of thinking like a billionaire because it will translate into the way you approach your business. Trump explains how important it is to be in the details of your business. Letting one problem slip through the cracks can make a big difference later. Your life philosophy needs to match your business philosophy.

Be Your Own Brand

The foundation of thinking like a billionaire starts with where you live, but the rest of this mindset comes from the way you approach your work. There are a lot of other great foundation idea on how to approach yourself and your job.

You are your own brand. If you own a business or work for yourself you own the brand of yourself and you need to approach your work that way. If you work a 9-5, you should approach your job as if you are your own business and you work for yourself.

Momentum

One of my favorite parts of the book was on momentum. I’ve noticed that momentum is what makes a difference in completing projects and making them successful. When a big idea or deal starts to lose momentum it often fails or never gets completed. You have to keep the momentum moving on your next big idea. If you let it lose steam it will often fall apart and never get completed.

Trump had lot’s of other great things to say about loving what you do and developing a passion for your work. He talks about loving what you do so much that you do not want to take a vacation because you’d rather be working. It’s probably rare that most Americans will find this kind of work to be passionate about but we all know that it’s easier to be successful when you spend your time working on something you love.

The Day to Day

So Trump lays a solid foundation about how to think to achieve billionaire status, but then he let’s you have a peak into the way he actually thinks by taking you through a normal couple of weeks in his life. It was very interesting to see how he lives and approaches his work. A lot of the things Trump thinks, says and does just wouldn’t make sense unless you were a billionaire and they can’t be applied to everyone.

Overall I took away a lot of great points on business and life, and how the two need to be joined together to reach millionaire, or billionaire status. You can pick up the book online at Amazon.com. Just do a search for the title. The full title is: Think Like a Billionaire: Everything You Need to Know About Success, Real Estate, and Life.

Internet marketing is the what advertisers do to promote products available online. For many people internet marketing is a full time job. For others its a part time business they use to supplement their income. Many people are finding their way into part time product promotion because its easy to get into and you can earn good recurring income.

Promoters are paid by generating visits, leads and sales for the product they are promoting. The learning curve can be fierce though. Many people have a hard time figuring out where to get started. It does take hard work, but there is a lot of information out there that can help you get started.

Enter Shoemoney, a experienced online businessman that has made a fortune promoting products online. Fortunately for us, he has put together a free training program to help new marketers get into the business. He has put together a free 12 week Internet marketing course that will help you get into the business.

The 12 week program breaks down as follows:

Week 1 – The Beginner’s Guide To Internet Marketing
Week 2 – Affiliate Marketing 101: Everything You Need To Know To Start Promoting Products
Week 3 – Market Research: How To Crush Your Competitors And Discover Hot Niches
Week 4 – Introduction to Pay Per Click
Week 5 – Advanced Pay Per Click
Week 6 – SEO Tips, Tricks, and Tactics
Week 7 – Content Creation: How To Create Articles That Attract Users And Increase Sales
Week 8 – Marketing: How To Use Social Media To Spread Your Brand
Week 9 – Make That Cash: 10 Ways To Monetize Your Site And Increase Profitability
Week 10 – Testing & Tracking: How To Optimize Your Site & Make Sense Of The Figures
Week 11 – Building Your Team: How To Network With Others And Find Long Term Partners
Week 12 – Launch Day: How To Kick Start Your Business And Manage Your Projects

Sign up here to get started: 12 week Internet marketing course

I’m right where I expected to be after my first week with the Shoemoney System. I’ve been through just about all the material that is available to me so far and I have watched each training video as it has been released.

One privileged so far is that I was accepted to the Azoogle network. I applied for this affiliate network before but because I didn’t have CPA experience I was denied. I was surprised to find myself in what felt like a job interview with the Epic Advertising company. If you sign up for the Shoe System Azoogle will automatically accept you into their network.

That’s a big plus for me because Azoogle has some of the best offers you will find. I haven’t started marketing any of them yet, but I’m planning to get started soon. I’ll be posting my progress with this system.

Speaking of CPA and other affiliate offers, I also recently read the PPV Playbook and signed up for their coaching program. There is a ton of information for me to absorb, but I’m hoping to educate myself and then take what I learn and turn it into more income.

My experience with the Shoemoney System so far has been positive. It has met my expectations and it has me excited about the future. I haven’t really learned anything, but I did find a few great places to go for inspiration and further reading and I’m excited to see that we are starting with affiliate marketing so soon.

I’m just coasting through the system for now and I expect it to be that way for the next 3-6 weeks. I’m OK with the slow pace because I still expect it to pay off for me down the road.

If you are new to the making money online game, the education you receive in the Shoemoney System is worth your time and money.

If you are a full time employee there is a good chance your company offers a lot of benefits that you are not taking advantage of. When you apply your HR rep tells you about all of the wonderful programs, discounts and benefits you will have. They all sound great but once you start working it’s easy to forget and you end up missing out on what you could be using to your advantage.

Volunteer Leave:
If you like to volunteer you may be able to get paid time off to work at your charity. Volunteer leave is usually limited to one day a month but that is one day you can spend away from work helping the people that need your time the most.

Tuition and Training reimbursement:
If you have a tuition reimbursement plan and you are in school then I’m sure you are taking advantage of it. If not, shame on you.

But for everyone that is not in school there is still ways to benefit from this plan. Many employers will pay for you to go to training under the same benefit. Free training can help you to advance in your career.

Charitable Contribution Match:
If you give money to charities many companies will match your donations up to their matching limit.

Telecommuting:
Do you want to work from home one day a week? Ask your boss, you may be entitled to cut back on your commute.

Retirement Savings Plan Match:
It’s not just about the 401k match. You might be able to get a match on IRA contributions. There may also be bonuses for you if you contribute a certain percentage each year. Make sure you know all there is to know about your retirement savings plan.

Flex Work Schedule:
This benefit is becoming less available as companies scale back the work force and require current employees to work more hours. If you are fortunate, you may find that you can put in more hours each day and then take every other Friday off.

Child Care:
On site childcare is available at 1/3rd of the top 100 companies to work for. Imagine having your child in day care just a few feet away from where you work.

Tax Deductible Commuting Expenses:
If you work in a big city check with HR to see what they offer. You may find that you can pay for your parking or metro fees with pre tax dollars.

Dental Insurance:
If you have dental insurance, get your free dental checkup every six months. It’s easy to forget, but it’s worth your time.

Everyone needs a plan for retirement. If you’ve never thought about it before I bet you have an idea in the back of your head about the money you will earn over the next 20-30 years of your life and how successful you will be.

Maybe you expect to have such a high income later in life that you won’t have to worry about money. Lot’s of people start out thinking like that and find themselves in a very different situation when they reach their fifties and sixties. Not everyone reaches the point where they are earning a high income later in life. The quality of life they experience after retirement will greatly depend on the plan they had in their twenties, thirties and forties.

So that brings us to the question, what is your plan? I’ve listed below what I believe to be the most common strategies people use to reach retirement. If you are a doctor, lawyer or have a high income in general they plans 1 or 2 might be enough. But if you are a regular guy or girl like me plans 3 or 4 are much more necessary.

Common Plans

1. Work and Save:
Develop a career, work towards promotion and save money. Extra cash goes into a savings account. Some portion of income may go to a 401k or other retirement savings account.

2. Work and Invest:
Just like plan 1 the idea is to work at your career and get promoted. You make sure to contribute to your 401k or IRA and would not miss out on the match opportunities offered by your company. The big with this plan is that the money you save gets actively invested. You buy stocks and mutual funds on your own in an attempt to grown your money. If a investment opportunity outside of the stock market presented itself you would possibly invest in it.

3. Work, Supplement Your Income and Invest:
This is a difficult strategy to balance, but it is one that I promote to all my readers. For most of us, working at our 9-5 job will not produce enough income to pay off our mortgage and build wealth for retirement. Supplemental income produces the income we need to be able to invest and grow towards our goals of financial freedom.

4. Work, Supplement Your Income, Invest and Buy Income Producing Assets:
This takes step 3 to the next level. After you have reached a point where your job and your supplemental income produce enough money you can start to buy income producing assets. These are assets that you pay a fixed price for, retain their value or increase in value and they pay you monthly recurring income. Using this strategy you increase and diversify your supplemental income to help you earn more.

When I first started thinking about my plan for retirement I realized that I was stuck on plan 2. For me, plan 2 wasn’t enough because my earning potential would not get me to where I wanted to be. If you have a high income, or expect to have a high income in the near future then plan 1 or 2 might be all you need. It’s good planning to write down your goals and come up with a plan for how you will achieve those goals.

Tax season is either exciting or disappointing for most Americans. Are you getting a refund, a big refund? You are probably excited. But if April means you owe the IRS they there isn’t much to be excited about.

There are a lot of deductions that you don’t want to miss this year, and you don’t need a CPA to find out what they are. TurboTax has some great information online that will help you get your maximum refund.

The 11 Most Overlooked Tax Deductions
There are some obvious tax deductions listed here but these 11 tips are very helpful. Remember things like reinvested dividends and childcare expenses can be deducted. Their list explains the details about each of these deductions and when you are eligible to take them.

10 Oddball Tax Deductions
These deductions are ones that you are unlikely going to be eligible for, but they are interesting to read. It’s amazing to see what people have tried to deduct and what the courts have let them get away with.

Home Ownership Tax Deductions
If you own your own home you need to review this list of deductions before you file your taxes. Remember that you cannot deduct things like dues to a homeowners association, insurance, appraisal fees or home improvement costs.

New Baby Tax Implications
Everything changes when you have a child, including your taxes. If you had a child this past year make sure you look into the changes having a child makes in your taxes.