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The stock market has had it’s largest decline in 12 years, and news agencies seem to report more layoffs every week. You might be finding yourself checking your stock investments daily, if not hourly, and your not sleeping well at night. How can you relax when financial news is constantly changing each day and you’re concerned about your families financial well being? What if your company is the next major layoff? My family is dealing with a layoff situation now and the news changes each week for us. We are not going to just sit back and hope for the best, but take action and enjoy what we have right now. I want to preface that this is not a list of ways to forget about your financial situation, but ways to refresh your mind and body and possibly relieve stress.

Here are some ways we are dealing with financial stress:

1. Exercise. Get out and go for a jog or run. I love taking my dogs out and giving them a good run. It helps them relax and allows me to think about something else besides money or finances.

2. Talk to a friend. Find a friend who will listen and see if they want to grab a coffee or just chat on the phone. Be upfront with them if you’re not looking for financial advice, just someone to listen. Call your parents or grandparents and find out what is going on with family news. I’m sure someone is having a baby or getting married. Some good news will be a welcome change.

3. Read a book. Find a book you put down and still need to finish. Visit your local library and re-read a book from your childhood. Stay away from magazines or newspapers during this relaxing period. Ask a librarian for a book recommendation if you can’t seem to find anything.

4. Be a kid. Do something you loved to do as a child. Ride your bike, ride a skateboard, roller blade, or roller skate, just do something fun.

5. Take your kids to the park. If your children are still young, run around and follow them on the jungle gym. I love to ride down the slides with my kids and they love to see a big guy try and fit on the metal slide. Build a sandcastle or play hide and seek.

6. Make something for dinner you haven’t had for years. Maybe you have a fond memory of fish sticks and french fries or piggies in a blanket for breakfast. Make a meal for your kids or friends and invite them over to experience your food memories. You might find a friend who shares a similar memory.

7. Watch a favorite movie. If you have a favorite comedy, watch it. I love 80’s movies and they always make me think about high school or old friends. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is a favorite of mine.

8. Build something. Work on a project you’ve been putting off for a few months. I’m sure you have a list or know someone who has a list for you already. Build a dog house, bird house, or some shelves for your garage. Paint a room or paint a chair. Working on projects makes me focus my energy on the task at hand.

9. Donate your time. Visit a local homeless shelter or offer to assist at a local animal shelter. Working with animals can be extremely relaxing and will probably benefit both you and the animal.

10. Take a nap. If you’re working 40+ hours a week and running your kids around on the weekends or evenings, try and fit in a power nap on Saturday or Sunday. Just 30 minutes could leave you refreshed and able to take on the new work week.

Again, this is not a list of ways to escape financial stress or financial obligations, but some ideas to help you take back time for yourself. In case you are interested in ways to take control of your finances, I’ve also written articles talking about eliminating credit card debt and establishing an emergency savings account. Spending a little time each week for yourself and your family can help you focus on your finances and work situation. After a power nap or watching a favorite movie, you might just find that you are energized and refreshed.

What are some ways that have helped you cope with financial stress?

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photo credit: superfem

The economic recession is causing families to become displaced and also has the potential to make up to 1 million dogs and cats homeless too. The ASPCA has researched the economic trends and is forecasting that an alarming 500,000 to 1 million dogs and cats could become homeless and need rescue. It makes you think if pets are going to be one of the silent casualties of this economic slump. What can we do to stop this trend? These dogs and cats were part of someones family and now they are left for a new family to come in and adopt them. This could also be an opportunity for you to help a friend or neighbor before they surrender a pet to an animal shelter. Would you be willing to step in and help for a few weeks? Maybe you are the one losing a home and you don’t know what to do.

Here are some guidelines provided by the ASPCA:

1. Check with friends and family to see if they can watch your pets until you find permanent housing. Can a neighbor take in your pet until you get back on your feet?

2. Be sure to check with your landlord and get documentation that you can have pets in your new building. You wouldn’t want to sign a lease and find out pets are not allowed.

What can you do to help?

1. Adopt a dog or cat from your local shelter.

2. Contact your local animal shelter or animal rescue center and find out if they need any donations. Many would offer to take blankets, dog toys, or even bags of food, and cat litter.

3. Consider becoming a foster parent for a homeless dog or cat. Your local animal shelter might be full and need a good home to temporarily place an animal. Be sure to notify your local shelter if you have existing dogs or cats to insure that the new foster pet would be a good fit.

What should you consider before adopting a dog or cat from an animal shelter?

1. Love. Can you give your new pet a ton of love and affection? Your new pet will be so excited to find a new home that they will want to love on you all day long. Be prepared to give lots of petting and belly rubs.

2. Time. Do you have enough time to dedicate to exercising a dog? Some breads like Labradors or Border Collies require several hours of exercise a week. Can you commit to taking your new dog for a walk and getting plenty of exercise.

3. Space. Will your new pet be living in your home? If not, do you have a secure fenced in yard for your pet? Do you have enough shade in the summer and access to water for the pet?

4. Money. Besides the basics of food and water, do you have the ability to care for a pet that might need medical treatment and vaccinations. Many shelters and clinics offer discounts for adopted pets, so be sure to check before you adopt. Consider putting some money aside for incidentals like dog blankets, toys, and yearly checkups.

5. Vacations. Where will you put your pet if you take a vacation? Will you plan on taking the pet with you or utilize a local dog sitter? Be sure to spend some time and research your options and find a reputable person to watch your new family member.

6. Existing pets. Be sure that you consider your current pets when deciding whether to adopt. Make sure you discuss your current pets with the animal shelter.

7. Family. If you are adopting a pet for your children, make sure they are old enough to care and help with the daily duties of having pet. Don’t assume that your son or daughter will take care of the pet. Communicate with your spouse before making this big decision.

Have you adopted a pet from an animal shelter? Would you offer to help a friend or neighbor that might have a homeless pet?

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Can Mint.com solve one of my personal finance goals for 2009? I’m a little late with one of my goals for 2008, so it’s now become my new 2009 goal. Finding a free or relatively inexpensive software program to track personal finance transactions and establish a budget for my wife and I. Since transparency seems to be the catch phrase of 2009 with banks and financial institutions, I thought it would be important to focus on this same issue with family finances. I seem to be the keeper of passwords, bank accounts, and financial records, so it was important to find a way to share this info efficiently with my wife. It also helps that she has an iphone for work and has access to one of the coolest applications ever.

Yes, Mint.com has an application for the iphone that allows you to see your daily net worth and track your spending plans. It’s actually killing me that I don’t have an iphone right now, so I’m trying hard to justify why I need one. One word, I don’t. Can I afford $70 a month for cell service? Yes. Should I spend $70 on cell service? Nope. When can I purchase an iphone? When I create another stream of passive income that nets at least $70 a month.

Time to put the iphone out of my mind for now. Mint.com has the ability to track all of your bank accounts, investment accounts, credit cards, car loans and more. I was even surprised to see my paypal account and Prosper.com account could be linked to Mint. The most powerful part is the ability to track daily transactions through credit cards and bank accounts. Mint will even give you suggestions for saving additional money on credit card offers or higher interest rates through savings accounts. This is how Mint makes money on this service, and it’s an option that you don’t have to accept. I’m perfectly happy with one of my banks, but I could choose to open an HSBC account and earn slightly higher interest. Is it worth jumping from bank to bank, chasing higher interest rates? It could be.

I did have one major issue when trying to link my ING Orange account with Mint. I kept receiving an error message that an invalid username or password were used. I finally reset my 5 personal questions on ING, answered them, then saved. In a separate web browser I answered the same 5 questions on Mint in the same order and pressed enter. Success, finally the ING Orange account was linked to Mint.

I’m still working on establishing a budget through Mint and creating user defined categories for transactions. Many of the categories I had on my Excel spreadsheet can be utilized on Mint. Easy to create custom categories for things like 529 savings plan or Preschool tuition.

What do I wish Mint had? More reports for financial planning. Reports that showed future growth of savings at current interest rates or growth of my retirement account. I realize this can be done on other investment sites as well, but would be nice to have in one place.

What’s the best feature of Mint? The fact that my wife and I can have access to the same personal finance information in real time is amazing. Total transparency and the ability to have access to this information quickly is priceless. Many hours I have spent trying to manually update our budget spreadsheet and transactions are now available for more family time.

Have you used Mint or another personal finance software for your family budget?

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photo credit: matsuda.yukihiro

You might be surprised to read some of the colleges listed in the latest article from USA Today regarding the Princeton Review top 100 value colleges of 2009. What you won’t find are local city colleges or even some inexpensive state schools that can provide a good education while saving your pocket book. I was interested in reading the article as I wanted to see if a frugal or cheap college education still existed for high school seniors entering college next year. The criteria, as you would expect for the Princeton review takes into account many factors for the study. Faculty and students voted as well as other factors including academics, cost and financial aid programs.

Top 10 Private Colleges

1. Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, Pa.)
2. Harvard College (Cambridge, Mass.)
3. Princeton University (Princeton, N.J.)
4. Rice University (Houston, Texas)
5. Yale University (New Haven, Conn.)
6. Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.)
7. Amherst College (Amherst, Mass.)
8. California Institute of Technology (Pasadena)
9. Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.)
10. Stanford University (Stanford, Calif.)

Top 10 Public Colleges

1. University of Virginia (Charlottesville)
2. New College of Florida (Sarasota)
3. College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, Va.)
4. State University of New York-Binghamton
5. Florida State University (Tallahassee)
6. North Carolina State University (Raleigh)
7. University of California San Diego
8. City University of New York — Hunter College (New York, N.Y.)
9. University of Georgia (Athens)
10. The College of New Jersey (Ewing)

Would you consider your college education to be a cheap or frugal investment? It would also be interesting to see a list of cheap trade schools as many high school students choose a trade rather than a 4 year degree. I guess the Princeton Review wouldn’t create a list of top HVAC or mechanic schools in the report.

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Inspiration to save money doesn’t happen often, let alone through television. I found watching the TLC show Kids by the dozen about the Jeub family to be extremely motivating. The Jeubs live extremely frugal lives and have fun while raising 14 children. I especially found myself amazed watching the family shopping trip where they would buy a shopping cart full of groceries and still spend less than $150 a week with a total household income of less than $40,000. I would hope that the TLC show increased the families income as well as some sponsorships or a possible book endorsement. Wendy Jeub has written a cookbook called Love in the kitchen and sells for $15.96 on the families website here.

Some other frugal tips from the Jeubs show featured a birthday celebration day where they celebrated all of the Jeub children together. This allowed for one giant party where all the children received gifts and had family and friends over for a huge celebration.

The Jeubs also had a family business where they write and distribute a speech and debate curriculum. I was fascinated that one of the daughter’s was interested in working in the family office and learning about business at such a young age. Writing books can be a wonderful source of passive income or residual income. The Jeubs also have a book that I’ll be ordering called Love In The House that explain how they spend less than $600 a month on groceries, frugal ideas like the birthday bash and more.

Are you able to support your family on $40,000 a year? How about if you had a family of 14? What inspires me about the Jeub’s is not just limited to the salary supporting the entire family for all the basic needs, but for much more including:

1. Strong family bond. They Jeub family has struggled through some difficult times and continues to have faith and a strong belief in family.

2. Hard work. Television always has a way of making something seem glamorous, including working on a farm. The Jeubs raise chickens for eggs and mend clothes to make them last for future generations. I can’t even imagine washing clothes for 14 children, as that would drive me crazy. This take more than hard work, but tenacity.

3. Team building. Watching the children work together, whether through home schooling, chores, or working in the family business was priceless. The lessons learned here will last throughout a lifetime and allow them to teach future generations. I really enjoy watching the buddy system where they pair up a younger child with an older mentor.

4. Frugality. How they can shop for 14 children for under $600 a month is remarkable. Is your household grocery budget under $600 a month? I know a few friends that spend more and they don’t have any children. Eating out several times a week would do it for most families.

Did you watch any inspirational television programs in 2008 that helped shape your personal finance journey?

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