Simple. There are 2 types of buyers, and they are:

1. the one who only accept the best. This kind of buyers will search for all options, compare the prices, and spend so many hours just to find a pair of shoes, for example. This kind of buyers is commonly called the maximizers.
2. the second type is satisficers, who often think that good enough is enough. They have standards, but if what they’re looking for qualifies for those standards, they buy it. Sometimes these standards take form in maximum price tag, durability, etc

The difference is that in most cases satisficers save more time when purchasing or buying something. When they found something that is great, they refuse to spend more time to find the best.

The problem with maximizers is that they often not as happy as satisficers. A research found that:

• Maximizers are more likely to regret their purchases despite the fact that they have (in theory, at least) come closer than Satisficers to making the best decision.
• On the flip side, Satisficers generally feel more positive about their purchases. They know they’ve made a choice that met their expectations.
• Maximizers enjoy positive events less than Satisficers, and they don’t cope as well with negative events.

In general, I agree that when you are faced with too many choice, there’s no choice at all. It is proven scientifically since researchers has found out that when an employer increases the number of options for retirement savings, the likelihood that employees will actually save for retirement goes down. This means that if you give a consumer a handful of options, he’s happy. He feels in control of his life. But when there are dozens of choices available, he’s all at sea.  Perfection is actually a moving target and in the end you better make a solid decision today than perfect decision next week.

In order to be happy with “good enough” stuff and decrease the stress of maximizers, there are a lot of tips that you can try. Some of them are:

1. Don’t sweat unimportant decisions. Did it really matter which hair gel I selected? Of course not. I should have just picked one in the first ten seconds and called it good enough.
2. Limit your options. If you’re faced with overwhelming choices, arbitrarily reduce the field. When shopping for a new bicycle, for example, restrict yourself to a certain store or a certain brand.
3. Learn to accept “good enough”. If you’re a Maximizer like me, it can be tough to make the leap to the land of Satisficing. But remember: The perfect is the enemy of the good. You’ll be happier if you accept a good option and stop looking for perfection.
4. Stick with what you know. Schwartz argues that unless you’re dissatisfied with a product, you should stick with what you always buy. Don’t be tempted by “new and improved” options. Habits make people happy. (My research shows that this last fact is true in many ways.)
5. Don’t second guess yourself. Once you’ve made a decision, stick with it. Buyer’s remorse can nag at your heart. Ignore it. Be decisive.
6. Embrace restraints. Schwartz argues that it’s possible to learn to love limitations. Limits give us boundaries. They eliminate uncertainty. When we know our boundaries, we can focus on thriving within them.

Remember the golden rule: some choice is good, too much is not.

A vehicle can sometimes be an important role in our work. Therefore it is understandable that purchasing a vehicle can be a rational choice. But of course you all already know that purchasing a vehicle can be a major purchase… Before you decide, take a look at these tips and information which may help you in determining what vehicle may be right for you:

1) First and foremost, how much money do you have to spend for a vehicle which will fit comfortably within your budget? That’s right! Can you afford to add a monthly payment to your budget for a vehicle? If so, how much can you afford to spend without creating problems with your finances. Think about it, and make the decision which will be right for you.

2) After you make the decision to purchase a vehicle, determine what you will be using the vehicle for. This will assist you with deciding on the type of vehicle you may want to purchase. For instance, do you have a long commute to your job? You may want to purchase a vehicle that gets good gas mileage.

3) Do your research on the vehicle you want to purchase by using the internet as a resource. This is by far your greatest source for getting the best price on the vehicle you want to purchase. For example, a source you may want to consider viewing, would be www.edmunds.com. At that particular website you can get information on the dealer’s invoice pricing. This will assist you in negotiating the price of your vehicle with the dealership you’re considering purchasing your vehicle from. In addition, you may want to also consider checking out www.cars.com and www.pricequotes.com to assist you in securing pricing information for your next vehicle.

4) Get your financing before you make your vehicle purchase! That’s right, get pre-approved. By doing this, you’ll be in the driver’s seat when you’re negotiating your vehicle purchase with the seller for the vehicle you’re trying to purchase. You’ll want to research the best interest rate you can get. A great way to do this is also via the internet. Some of the websites you may want to consider checking for vehicle finance rates are: www.bankrate.com and www.eloan.com.

5) Make sure that you check your credit report and FICO score prior to applying for your vehicle finance loan. You want to ensure that you know your credit history and score so you’ll be in a better position to negotiate your interest rate with your prospective lender.

6) To buy or lease what should I do? Good question. That will depend on what you will be using your vehicle for. You’ll need to determine the pros and cons of leasing or buying. You’ll want to think about the number of miles you’ll be driving per year, money you have for a down payment, how long you want to keep the vehicle and anything else you can think of. To help you decide whether or not you should lease or buy, you may want to do some research by using the internet and visiting such websites like www.smartmoney.com. . Websites like this, can provide you with detailed information on whether or not you should lease or buy your next vehicle.

So, you can see how important it is to do some research before your purchase your next vehicle! You’ll be in a better position with the information you have obtained when you’re ready to make your purchase. You’ll be glad you got the information before you attempted to purchase your vehicle. You’ve probably not only saved yourself lots of time, but, more importantly you’ve saved yourself money and have become more educated as a consumer about purchasing a vehicle in the long run!

Now I guess that’s it. The things you might want to consider when deciding to purchase or buy a vehicle, like cars…

Nocita Carter is a writer that designs websites providing informative tips at finance tips

You see, sometimes life is full of surprises. Some surprises are nice and good, but some other is not as we expected. In our financial life, there are some unexpected events -or shall we say, surprises- that can be troublesome. For instance, medical emergency situation happened at you or your family. In this kind of situation, people often need a financial help; and one of the answer is from a loan.

Obtaining a loan, whether it is for a new vehicle, unexpected medical bills, or for another personal reason, seems like it should be easy enough. Unfortunately, there are many individuals who do not know where to go to obtain a last minute loan. If you are in need of a last minute loan, you are encouraged to take a minute and consider your options. Acting on impulse may help you out in your current situation, but it can turn out worse for you in the long run.

Here are some places that you need to prioritize when you are looking for a last minute loan:

Bank

Bank should be your first priority when looking for a last minute loan. I know that many people is not that keen in applying loan is their bank, since most traditional banks take up to a week to approve a loan. If you regularly do business with a local bank, you are encouraged to fill out a loan application there and actually speak to a bank employee. You may find that after explaining your financial situation, your bank may put a rush on your loan application. It is a proven fact that many banks will go out of their way to assist one of their regular customers.

Online quick loan

Now if you have tried to find a bank that can provide you with a quick loan, then you can go and try to find what online lenders can do for you. Online lenders can easily be found by performing a standard internet search. To fill out a loan application, you will need to provide important personal information. You are encouraged to know who you are dealing with before giving out this information. When searching for an online lender, you will want to make sure that their website is hosted on a secure website.

Similar to local banks, you may find that online lenders differ in the amount of time it will take to process a loan application. Even if you need to have the money in your hand before the expected date of approval, you are still urged to fill out an online loan application. The dates provided by most lenders are only estimates; therefore, you never really know when your loan will be approved.

The biggest mistake that many people make is obtaining a fast cash loan, otherwise known as a payday loan. These loans can easily be obtained online or at a storefront location. Once approved, you will often receive your money the same day. The only problem with fast cash loans is that you are often bombarded with fees. If you need to obtain a fast cash loan, it is important to familiarize yourself with these fees upfront. Doing so will ensure that you know how much money you will have to repay in the end.

Another option that many individuals do not even think about is making alternative payment arrangements. If you need money to pay your utility bills, rent, car payment, or medical bills, you are encouraged to speak with the individual or company that you owe money to. You may find that your bill collector will give you a small extension before making a final attempt to collect the money.

Joe Kenny writes for the Credit Card Guide, offering views on credit cards in the UK, visit them today for some great 0% balance transfer offers and start clearing credit card debt today.

Before reading the article, it is recommended that you read the Part 1 about the benefits of spending less than you earn and Part 2 about How to spend less than you earn

So here is a guide on how to increase your income:

• Stop wasting your time. Especially at work. The terms “time is money” is true; but you can get more than that. There are many things you can do rather than just wasting your time. Just checkout the list under, and you’ll see why you really shouldn’t waste your time.
• Improve the transferable skills (skills that can be used in almost any career path). One of the popular transferable skills is public speaking. If there’s any opportunities to do so, then do it and speak your mind in front of public. Another example is the time management; and you can learn to build an effective time management scheme such as organizing and filing your paperwork, Brainstorming ideas, etc. Other examples of transferable skills are setting the standard procedures of your work, take charge of a work project etc. All of these things push you towards developing skills that are genuinely useful no matter where you’re heading in life.
• build a strong network and relationship with many people as you can, and try to give a bigger portion to the relationships in your field. This can be done by simply sending emails to people you’ve interacted and keep up with what they’re doing. If you have an opportunity to connect people that can help each other, do it immediately, without hesitation. Share what you know and be valuable to others.
• Start a side business. Turn a passion you have into money. Don’t know what that could possibly be? Think about it carefully and I might post interesting ideas to start a side business for you
• Finally, stand out at work. Speak up at meetings. Show empathy for the problems that others have. Take on only projects you can handle, but do them well. Get to know the support staff – and treat them well. Don’t burn bridges when you move on – make an extra effort to maintain good relationships when you leave. These little things add up to a huge difference.

Keep that rule in mind: spend less than you earn. Each move you make to maximize the gap between what you earn and what you spend will put you in a better place in your life.

Like this article? State your ideas or questions below. Any ideas much appreciated.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… CY: wait… I: wait… YCat: wait… I: wait… Top: wait… I: wait… L: wait… C: wait…

Before reading this part, please do visit my previous post that talked about the benefits of spending less than you earn

So now we are going to talk about how to actually spend less than you earn. And here are some tips/guides on how to do it:

• Check your monthly required bill. Do you really need this stuff? Can you replace this service by doing something that will bring you more health? Ask yourself these kind of questions for things related to your cell phone, premium cable, or unlimited text message.
• Diligently, keep tracking your spending. The simple process of writing this down every expense will make you think twice about the unnecessary ones. At the end of the month, take a careful look at them and ask the same question: do I really need these? Do these really contribute to the value of my life?
• Carefully look at your routines. Are there things in your routines that cost money? Trimming $1 from your daily spending saves you $365 a year.
  Switch to a bank that respects you. No interest at all on their checking accounts. Tons of fees for ATM use. Draconian overdraft policies. A tiny interest rate on savings accounts. Monthly usage fees of all kinds. All of these things are a waste of money.
• Go green! Going green can be a solution to cut your spending and increase your money!

So now we move on to the next level: how to increase your income

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… CY: wait… I: wait… YCat: wait… I: wait… Top: wait… I: wait… L: wait… C: wait…

If you’ve read many rules about finance, then you should come to the same basic rule as this one:

Spend less than you earn.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is that simple. But why are there so many people who are buried in debt or simply living from paycheck to paycheck?
There are several benefits you gain by spending less than you earn.

• You start treading on the path to omitting your debts. By spending less than you earn, you have enough money to pay your debts. The debts decease to exist, cutting down your monthly bills and frees you from worries!
• You begin to save. Now you have enough money to save. It will save (literally) you in times of emergencies (like job loss), and give you room to enjoy having the control to your future and old age.
• You are happier. With fewer debts, emergencies covered, retirement planned, there’s much less to worry about. Like old saying: no worries, no disease. Okay I made that up. It’s true though. It will make you happier for sure.
• Now you have opened wider possibilities that were closed to you. Now you can choose to move on to other things you like to do for living, or maybe chase your dreams! You have more freedom. Doesn’t that sound good?

So our next stop is: How do you actually can spend less than you earned

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… CY: wait… I: wait… YCat: wait… I: wait… Top: wait… I: wait… L: wait… C: wait…

Shopping is our daily activity. We often to go to grocery store more than once a day; to buy this and that stuffs. So here’s what I used to do when I went to a store, whether it’s a grocery store or mall. I went to the store to buy something that I need, but I ended up buying things that I thought I need or things that comes with special offers such as discounts.

So the interesting thing here is that those things aren’t so expensive; if I see them individually. But when I got to the cashier, I’m often surprised by the amount of money that I had to pay.

So I noticed that there is something wrong here. And here’s how to say it: we made many decisions during our time in the grocery store; and it is often about whether we can save 1 dollar or spend 1 more dollar.

Here are the typical situation:

“There is a discount on the meat, should I stock it up?”

“Which one, the big tomatoes can or the smaller one?”

But in the end, I (and maybe some of you) is forced to admit that we are not a smart buyer….

Today I will propose a step-by-step solution to this problem, so that me and you won’t excessively spend money in stores:

1. Make a shopping list before going to the grocery store. This is important to reduce the number of decisions you have to make.
2. Make a specific list of things. If you are used to buy juice (such as V8 Fusion); write the size of it on your list, to prevent you from buying the larger one.
3. Mark items that you’re not simply searching for the cheapest version of. So for other items, find the cheapest. Remember, even a dollar counts.
4. The most important thing is this part. You have to stick to the plan. Stay firm and hold tight to the shopping list. Do not purchase things outside the list.

So there, Hopefully this post can help you saving some money at the grocery store. Every single penny counts

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… CY: wait… I: wait… YCat: wait… I: wait… Top: wait… I: wait… L: wait… C: wait…

Whether you consider yourself as a shopaholic or not, shopping is always one nice activity to do for every one especially for woman. Either they are teenager or housewives but shopping is always something heaven for them. They do need the product or not, is not really a matter. They could really afford it or not, that also another problem but one thing they want to know is that how to get that product to be theirs.

Sometimes when we shop we tried to be wise and tried to be as selective as we can. We would think that we are smart enough when we do that until we re-count it again what we have bought and brought to home then we will be forced to admit that we are not really that smart actually. You may be asking yourself should you buy this brand or that brand.

(more…)

Yes. Maybe that’s the answer from many people. While there are numbers of personal finance articles that recommend us to save some money by skipping our cup of coffee or a simple brown bag lunch or see a movie, some of us might not understand yet why should you bother to skip those things that “contribute” to your quality of life.

Some of us might still think that if we arrange our life so that major expenses are not consuming all of our income and then some, we can actually eat lunch out once awhile, buy that cup of coffee, or see a movie. Quality of life goes up dramatically. At that point, if you want to save on little things also, it becomes a choice, rather than a constant necessity just to survive.

But wait a minute. In my opinion there’s one thing that need to be considered from the story above. Some of us tend to immediately tie events that involve spending excess money (”eat lunch out once awhile, buy that cup of coffee, or see a movie”) to quality of life. In other words, the ability to participate in a consumer economy is directly tied to quality of life in this quote.

I know that, for a very long time, I felt that way, too. I felt like my life was better if I had the freedom to go out to eat whenever I wanted, buy a video game whenever I wanted, or go out to a movie whenever I felt like it.

Today, I feel differently. While I might enjoy the experience, I no longer feel like a meal eaten out raises my quality of life at all. Instead, the things that bring what I would call “quality” into my life are experiences with my family. A quality experience is eating a homemade dinner with my children at the dining room table. A quality experience is a nap on a lazy Sunday afternoon curled up next to my wife. A quality experience is a picnic at the park or watching my son’s soccer practice.

I believe that tying quality of life to consumer purchases is a personal, conscious decision – one that often results in financial trouble. If you judge your quality of life by the things that you purchase, then you feel worse when you spend less and feel better when you spend more. This situation runs entirely contrary to healthy personal finance management.

A financially healthy mindset, in my opinion, derives quality of life from things that can’t be bought. The source of that quality can vary greatly from person to person, of course, but the real key is that your quality moments in life are wholly unconnected to spending money.

Not there yet? Look for the things in your life that fill you with joy that don’t involve spending money, then work on putting those things front and center. Once you find sources of quality that are separate from spending money, it becomes much easier to cut your spending drastically – and doing that can provide the foundation for a great future.

[via]

It is common for us to spend some time reviewing our personal finance situation once a month. We usually get our current balances on all our debts and assets examined and included carefully and then we do other bunch of things to measure and determine our financial standing in this world.
We usually call the difference between my assets and my debts at the end of the month as our net worth, but guess what? That is NOT our net worth really is…

For many people, net worth simple definition is the sum of one’s assets minus one’s debts is a good financial indicator, but it’s far from what I would call “net worth.”

As I take a look down my list of assets, I see things like our home, our savings and checking account balances, our retirement accounts, and so on.
But are those really all of our assets?

I view our close family and friends as major assets. These people help lift us up through thick and thin. They provide great friendship and social situations when times are good, and are there for encouragement (and more tangible help) when times are bad. Certainly, they’re an asset in our lives.
I look at our health as an asset. We’re all in good health. My wife and I are able to earn money because of our good health.

There are many other things in my life that are assets, too, that don’t show up on a balance sheet: our extended social network, the body of knowledge and education that my wife and I can draw on, our talents – these are all assets that can’t be truly quantified, but they all contribute significant value to our lives.

The same type of thinking continues as I move down to the debt part of the balance sheet.

I’m indebted to a lot of people for things they’ve helped me with in life. If called, I would gladly help any of those people with virtually anything they asked for.

I feel a great deal of spiritual indebtedness to the people and things in the world around me. I feel as though it is my responsibility to do what I can to make the world a better place.

I owe quite a bit of time to various groups and responsibilities – and, as you know, time is money.

To put it simply, my real net worth is more than just a sum of financial assets and debts. Compared to the wholeness and beauty of life, one’s financial net worth is just the beginning.

[via]