How To Teach Your Family About Money by: Jim DeSantis

When it comes to our money and the pleasure it buys, lack of self-control is a common pitfall for most of us. Often, when you come into some extra cash, you have this tendency to rush out and instantly satisfy the irresistible itch to splurge on just about anything you lay your eyes on. It is a "bargain" after all!

Instant gratification is a very costly mistake because many people fail to recognize that they just spent money that may be needed in the immediate or distant future for unseen or unplanned for needs. And, I have news for you, you are not alone.

Only a small percentage of the population have balanced family budgets and have savings for a rainy day. The majority are operating with maxed out credit and unbalanced family budgets.

The saying: "nothing lasts forever" is true, especially when it comes to material things. The stuff you were thrilled to buy right now will eventually fade, break down, or rust away. Only with patience and self-control can you plan for the important things that your family will need in the future. Money spent on feel-good-stuff today robs your family of their financial future. The real thrill is having money in the bank!

The future financial success of your family starts with a determined effort to manage your spending and savings.

First, you need to accumulate a financial cushion that will serve you well in emergencies. Once that cushion is in place, you can start saving for future needs like the kid's braces, education, their first car. All these and more require smart planning and self control.

If you now understand the strong connection between self control and spending, the next question you will ask yourself is: "How do I start using self control and be a role model for my family?"

There are 3 primary ways you may have never been taught that are relatively easy to follow. Once your family members see how much extra money you are accumulating, they will want to follow your lead. These steps are not complicated and they will work financial miracles for you. As you use them, they will become part of your lifestyle and will give you a great feeling of personal power over your cash flow.

Here they are:

1. Resist the "itch!"

This may be obvious and may be the hardest to adopt. You have become used to instant gratification. It's a habit that must be broken. You need to ask yourself if you really need that new "thing" in your life or if you can do without it. Will your life change dramatically for the better if you buy "it?" You will find that the answer is almost always "No!" You will be proud of yourself if you resist the "itch!"

2. What are your needs? What are your wants?

Make a list of the things you "need" just to keep your household operating smoothly. These get priority because they eliminate stress. Pay for your needs first, always! I am talking about food, clothing, shelter, transportation, education, and medical care.

Now make a list of "wants" and decide which of these you can truly do without and which of these will actually make your life better. Plan for those that will improve your life and start saving for them so you can pay cash! Dump the rest.

The rule here is simple: Do not buy something you do not need today that will steal money from the things you need to buy in the future. It's all about having the money available when you need it. Money you spend on today's "want" may be money you must have for tomorrow's "need."

3. Who is your financial guru?

We all know someone in our family that has their financial act together. They have all their needs covered and they seem to have all the material things we would like to have but cannot afford. Have you wondered how they pull it off? Well, ask them and listen to their advice!

If you are too embarrassed to ask them, seek out a person who can serve as a guide for you and adopt a financial lifestyle that they recommend. This can be a financial counselor from your local bank or credit union or a non-profit organization in your community.

These 3 steps just scratch the surface. Get help and self control will become second nature before you know it.

The Summer Family Cleaning Routine by: Tara Aronson

This summer, with work, kids, and outdoor pursuits all competing for your attention, cleaning house understandably may not be a priority.

Yet with the kids home for the summer, chances are you'll have more messes to clean than usual in the months ahead. 

How can you keep the peace and some semblance or order in the dog days ahead?

Life runs more smoothly when there is shared responsibility for the housework. Simple efforts like putting dirty clothes in the hamper can shave precious hours off your weekly cleaning time. 

Best of all, almost everyone in the home can contribute in some way to make life simpler during the carefree days ahead.

Head Off Housework This Summer

-- Keep clutter to a minimum. Having lots of stuff around leaves plenty of places for dust and allergens to collect. Encourage kids as young as preschoolers (ages 3-4) to put dirty clothes in the hamper and put away playthings after use.

They can also help keep their rooms neat and, with supervision, remove unbreakable and blunt-edge items from the dishwasher.

By making cleanup the precursor to a fun activity, such as a day at the beach or lake, and by helping your child master the tasks, you can make cleaning an enjoyable, confidence-building activity.

-- Wash up. Have everyone in the family wash hands with soap and warm water regularly to help stay healthy and keep dirt and germs off household surfaces.

-- Stop dirt at the door. Even your little stomper can wipe shoes on entryway rugs or mats to protect floors and carpets, and to catch dirt, dust, pollen and other allergens brought in from outsides.

-- Dry out. Leave shower doors and curtains open after use so shower walls can air dry. Older kids and adults can use a daily shower spray on walls and shower curtains to keep mildew from growing. If mildew can't get a toehold, you won't spend a single sunny day scrubbing it away.

-- Quick cleanup. Promptly clean up crumbs and other food scraps after preparing or eating food. You'll need to help your littlest family members, but grade-school-age kids, preteens and teens can do wipe duty on their own.

-- Don't buy it. Resist the urge to reward your kids for their housekeeping help - compensation tells kids a task is above and beyond the call of duty.

Instead, let younger children know specifically which chores you expect them to do, and let the satisfaction of a job well done provide its own reward. Let teenagers know they are contributing more to the family and learning skills that will help them in life.

-- Treat clothing stains promptly.

Family Unity Through Traditional Family Games by: Andrew Low

Do you want your family to spend more time together? Is a deeper family relationship on your wish list? Does this dream seem unattainable?

Many families spend much of their weekend time going to a variety of sporting events, while television and the internet provide much of their weekly entertainment. With all these activities, there doesn't seem much time to build family unity.

A desire for quality time with our children is wonderful for building healthy family relationships. A key way to achieve this is simply to spend lots of time together. Often, quality time arrives unannounced when we are sharing everyday events together that have been designed to promote unity, such as a weekly famly games night for the whole family.

On a personal note, our family attempts to set apart every Wednesday night with a special meal followed by an hour or two of family games. We play many traditional games; some old favourites and some new ones. There are many commercial games such as Monopoly®, but there are so many simple games you can play with nothing more than a few dice of a deck of cards.

Earlier this year, we played a simple game for the whole family which only used one die (you have one die but two or more dice). The aim of Pig is to be thr first player to reach fifty points, and it can be played by any number of players. A player throws the die and adds the number of spots shown, throwing again and again until they either throw a One or decide to end their turn. A player who decides to end their turn keeps their score and can add to it next turn. Anyone who throws a One cancels their score for that round.

It was very amusing to see the different strategies of two of my sons. One played carefully and stopped if he got to ten points in a round while the other tried to score the full fifty points in every round. He would often score over thirty points before throwing a One and crashing back to zero for that round. We had so much fun watching them that we decided to continue to 100 points. At the end of the game, neither son actually won!

Many other activities are useful in building good family realtionships, but family gameshave the advantage of allowing the whole family, no matter what their age, to participate together. It can be a source of great fun and amusement to see a six year old beating an older brother or sister, or even an adult. As the game proceeds, the players may also be learning life skills (such as reading and counting) as well as social skills like conversation and how to win/lose graciously. While this is happening, they will learn to be part of the family as well as learning to enjoy each other's company. And that's what family unity is all about.

Save The Family Home by: Robert Buford

Foreclosure!Are you in sHOCK?The majority of Americans are in shock because of their situation with their mortgage, the excessive surprise interest hike on their credit cards and a myriad of expenses. Shock is a system designed by a "74" year old credit expert, author and speaker that has seen how banks, credit card companies and others take advantage of you.It is ludicrous to think that someone would charge $3,000 - $5,000 to modify a loan when in fact with the information that we extract with our proprietary questions to your lender,it will cause them to do the calculations to modify your mortgage at a price and with a reduction of principal that you can afford. This is a service that lenders do for FREE.

In most cases, your bank DOES NOT want to take your house back,You CAN get your house back yourself WITHOUT resorting to an expensive foreclosure prevention service orloan consolidation. The fact of the matter is that the process to stop bank foreclosure is not that complicated.

Foreclosure is a very simple problem with a very simple solution. The people who stop bank foreclosure are the ones who are able to find the solution and then take action accordingly.

Once you know the solution, you can literally stop bank foreclosure in days or even hours. In some cases, all it takes is 2 sheets of paper and a phone call.

Banks lose money too when a typical subprime foreclosure going through. Lenders stand to loss $30,000 to $50,000 when they have to foreclosure a property according to Duke Olrich, founder, president and chief executive officer of DRI Management Systems in Newport Beach, Calif.

Therefore, banks are willing to help you in stopping foreclosure constructively, they are on your side, believe it or not. They are devising a survey for potential foreclosure households to fill and try to figure out how is it possible to help you.

You're probably either behind on your mortgage payment, or worried that very soon you will be.Unfortunately, in America today, your situation is VERY common. In fact, it's all too common. Foreclosures in the United States are currently at an all time high, and are predicted to get even worse.The key to stopping foreclosure is to act NOW. The sooner you take actions, the more options you'll have available to you.If you lay down for the bank and allow yourself to submit to the foreclose, not only will you be forced out of your own house, but in the span of just a few months, it could cost you your life savings, your retirement funds, your credit, and other family assets, not to mention your dignity.The only way to avoid losing EVERYTHING and avoid the pain and suffering that you and your family will endure during the foreclosure process, is to educate yourself by learning the tricks that the mortgage companies don’t want you to know.

Although sometimes it doesn't seem to be the case, the majority of lenders prefer not to go all the way with the foreclosure process and the reason is simple: Lenders are in the lending money business and not the landlord business. They would much rather see you bring the loan current and stop the foreclosure sale. So with that in mind, now is not the time to panic. There are several ways to get help with your situation and many options for you to consider.Contact your lender. Telephone first and then follow up with letters. This will ensure that you have written proof and a timeline of your communication.

You might want to approach a Loan Modification - A revision of the terms of the loan. Usually, the revision consists of an interest rate reduction. Other revisions can include fixing a rate that was originally variable, changing the length of time in which the loan is to be repaid, or reducing the principal balance (not done very frequently). How the lender determines the terms of the modification depends on a number of factors, most notably the borrower's financial profile and ability to repay the loan.This is most likely the most favorable to a borrower in these economic times since no one really knows for sure how long it will take for things to get better.

While you are wating for the modification to be worked out, you would probably want to stop the foreclosure proccess with a

Forbearance - An agreement in which the borrower promises to stay current on the mortgage going forward, and agrees to a repayment plan for delinquent payments and accrued fees. Primarily used for borrowers with only a temporary disruption of income and wants to get the loan caught up again.This will stop the proccess long enough for you to get the forebearance in place.

A foreclosure is the most damaging event your credit status can encounter, worse than bankruptcy. A foreclosure on your credit record will negatively impact your ability to borrow money for many years. Obviously you want to avoid this at all costs,in addition to the fact that you most likely have many personal reasons for wanting to keep you home.

The foreclosure process as applied to residential mortgage loans is a bank or other secured creditor selling or repossessing a parcel of real property (immovable property) after the owner has failed to comply with an agreement between the lender and borrower called a "mortgage" or "deed of trust". Commonly, the violation of the mortgage is a default in payment of a promissory note, secured by a lien on the property. When the process is complete, the lender can sell the property and keep the proceeds to pay off its mortgage and any legal costs, and it is typically said that "the lender has foreclosed its mortgage or lien". If the promissory note was made with a recourse clause then if the sale does not bring enough to pay the existing balance of principal and fees the mortgagee can file a claim for a deficiency judgement.

Obviously,this proccess is a lot more complicated than the average home owner can understand given the fact that the proccess has been developed over the years by members of the legal profession.Fortunately for the majority of the home owners in trouble, there is a publication called "Foreclosure Defense Secrets" that will give tou all the ammunition you will need to go up against the lenders and feel confident in your success.Simply go to the following web site to get all the information you need to make an informed decision.