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Joe is a former financial advisor and media representative for American Express and Ameriprise. He was the “Money Man” at Detroit television WXYZ-TV, appearing twice weekly. He’s also appeared in Bride, Best Life, and Child magazines, the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Detroit News and Baltimore Sun newspapers and numerous other media outlets.  Joe holds B.A Degrees from The Citadel and Michigan State University. 

Increase Your Financial Stability by Taking Advantage of New Spending Habits

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Not so long ago, every business was tightening its belt to get through one of the toughest financial storms the world has seen in a while. It seemed like every market was affected by this financial maelstrom. Spending habits appear to be on the mend, so now is the time to take advantage. Knowing the best way to benefit from the switch in spending habits allows you to make the most of a good situation. Here are a few ideas that can help you to get the most out of this new dawn in consumer spending.

Learn Where People are Spending Their Money

Consumer spending has recently grown by as much as 7 percent in one month. This is the highest growth in a decade which doesn’t appears to be slowing down. But you need to know where people spend their money to take advantage of the trend. Even though the Internet is a prime location for spending, many people still prefer to shop in person. They get to pick up the items they’re looking at rather than simply reading about them. As a business owner, you need a good barcode printer from a  premium company like Shopify so you can put price tags on everything in your store.

Don’t stop with selling in your store. Since so many people prefer to buy both in brick and mortar stores and online, you can take advantage of this by linking the two (check out our post “Starting Something New: How Online Commerce is Changing the Modern Retail Store“). Realize that many people will check out your store in person and then purchase online. By making your products available in both locations, it’s possible for you to double down on the opportunity to sell. The people who prefer to purchase online can look at the products in the store and still purchase online. Take advantage of this by moving items you no longer want on your store floor to your website.

Offer As Much Information as Possible

Your goal is to market to those with disposable income, which means you have to be smart in how you target them. The wealthiest individuals are not as prone to make impulse purchases, so selling to them with forcible techniques may backfire, as reported by Bank Rate. Giving your customers the hard sell will cause them to turn away from your products instead of getting them to take action. A better plan is to provide as much information as possible so customers can make their own decisions about making a purchase. When you provide information, be cognizant that the act of buying something is really a search for a solution to a problem. If you present your products as an intelligent solution to a problem, customers will be more likely to make a purchase. The information you present should be both in the store as well as online. In fact, many business owners have taken the approach of providing kiosks within their stores that are equipped with a computer connected with the website. This bridges the gap for interested buyers, and they can continue to learn and buy even after leaving the store.

Utilize QR Codes to Capture the Growing eCommerce Market

The eCommerce market is at an all-time high in terms of popularity. Mobile eCommerce sales will top $638 billion in 2018, according to a report from Goldman Sachs as recently reported in Business Insider. This massive growth is something you can take part of when you take advantage of such technology as QR codes. Your customers can scan the codes using their smartphones and instantly see your site and everything you have to offer. By allowing your customers to discover your website through their smartphones, you encourage buying even after they leave the store. If you have a responsive site, they’ll be even more likely to keep using it on their phone, because they will have all the access they would have if they were using a desktop.

Advertising through Social Media to Increase Sales Online and in the Store

Social media is one of the most important marketing tools any business can utilize. Facebook alone commands attention from more than half a million people. If you set up a social media presence and connect it to your website as well as your regular store, you’re more likely to take advantage of the massive growth in online sales, according to CNBC. The trick is to not present your social media as an advertisement. Remember that everyone on social media is there to have fun. If you make sure your social media site has a personal feel, customers are more likely to trust your company and want to do business with you. Create posts providing information about your business, your products and anything interesting related to your industry. If you create posts that connect with the individual’s preferences, your sales and your financial stability will grow.

 

Why are students using payday loans?

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 Money Elizabeth

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There appears to be a rising trend that shows that more and more students are taking out short term loans.  Research by the National Union of Students (NUS) shows that up to 46,000 undergraduates are using what they term high risk debt (which includes payday loans, cheque cashing and doorstep loans).  They suggest a number of reasons for this which relate, in the main, to funding their living costs and fees. .

Some highlights from their research show:

  • the weekly cost of student accommodation has nearly doubled in 10 years (£60 – £118);
  • 50% of students worry about meeting basic living expenses like rent and utility bills;
  • over third of students receive no family financial support.

These stats show it is not a typical student lifestyle being funded via a payday loan, but the essentials.

So worried are the NUS about the risk of spiralling debt problems in the student , that they are calling on a ban of all payday lenders from advertising in student magazines, student residences and on campuses.

Payday loan giant Wonga took the unprecedented step of not advertising to students last year and removed all pages from their website in 2012 that could have been construed as targeting students. This has not, however, currently stopped other companies trying to.

Students themselves, has also taken a novel approach and launched their own “payday loan” company specifically for the student market. Unlike normal lenders they have a number of interesting features:

  • no rollovers;
  • a 10 day grace period – in case of student loan problems;
  • a fixed cap of interest – you can never owe more than 50% of what you borrowed;
  • a lower rate of interest.

So even the students themselves see that there is a need for access to short term finance, and they feel they are able to offer a more competitive and student friendly service themselves.

What does the industry say?

The Consumer Finance Association, which represents some of the main payday providers, said students would need to be in regular employment to qualify for a loan from a reputable lender, and that simply banning advertising in campuses would not remove the issue.

The new financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), has issued new regulations for payday lenders which came into force in July and include:

  • restrictions on the number of rollovers (ie.how many times a loan can be extended);
  • wealth warnings on ads;
  • more rigorous testing on affordability.

The aim is to remove the less than reputable loan providers from lending.

Other options for help

Students are being advised to think carefully before logging on and applying for a payday loan.  There are a number of alternatives students could look at first.

Some universities have access to learning funds where students can apply for funds if they are struggling to pay for their studies.

Other finance products such as an 0% credit card or 0% student overdraft may help cash strapped students in the short term and means they are not actually having to pay back interest on the borrowing.

Credit Unions are another source of low cost small term finance loans – more information is available here: http://www.findyourcreditunion.co.uk/home.

The Bank of Mum and Dad could be an option before turning to a payday loan for students. Or, those that live close enough can lean on them in other ways to help reduce their living costs.  Asking for a loan or moving back home to keep debt down is not a bad idea.

Summary

As you can see there are a number of reasons why students are turning to payday loans and why it is a worrying trend in some people’s eyes.  That said, payday finance is not the only option available to students who need a short term injection of cash.

About the author: Emily Green is a freelance personal finance writer living in Hong Kong. She loves travelling and is planning to relocate to New Zealand within the year.

5 Reasons You Need to Solve Your Credit Issues NOW

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I know it isn’t easy. Climbing out of debt was one of the biggest struggles of my life.

But I did it, and looking back toward that ugly black hole, I can tell you there are some things I wish I would have done better. I could have shortened the process.

However, when you’re staring at a stack of bills and wondering what to do, it’s difficult to think about strategy, isn’t it?

Bridge at Free Financial Advisor

There are so many reasons why you need to solve your credit problems, but the five biggest, in my mind are these:

  1. Studies show that the real money can’t be made until you’re able to focus long term. When I had mountains of debt I had to think about how to get food on the table tomorrow instead of how to grow my business. There’s no mystery why my business started growing quickly when it did: I’d finally climbed nearly out of debt and began attacking my income streams strategically instead of tactically.
  2. You’re stuck in pointless meetings and negotiations. I spent so much time keeping my creditors at bay that I don’t know how I found time to make my payments.
  3. Sleep becomes difficult, and it’s hard to unwind. Even during family excusions, I felt the weight of our debt. Every time we bought ice cream or went for a bike ride, my thoughts were on how guilty I felt either spending money or enjoying myself.
  4. You have to search high and low for money. To solve credit problems right now, I had to turn to whomever would give me money. In the UK it might be someone like Wage Day Advance, while in the US, if it weren’t a relative, I’d have few resources. You don’t want to be begging people or taking wage advance loans forever.
  5. Repayment terms are aggressive and can create a debt spiral. At some points I was taking on new debt to pay off the old ones. By focusing on my debt hard and working to climb out fast, I finally was able to say goodbye to financial difficulties and nearly immediately said hello to financial success. You can be as aggressive on your end as creditors are on theirs. Check out this story from Wisebread – Taming Your Debt, Aggressive Repayment Strategies.

Debt doesn’t need to be a black hole. I often told myself as I was climbing out of debt that even Donald Trump had been bankrupt. It’s funny that I’d hold up him as a beacon of hope, but at the time, “the Donald” was a guy that had resurrected himself successfully after some really hard times. I vowed to do the same, and on a much smaller level (thank god!) I’ve done it.

Resisting Temptation: 5 Smart Ways to Use Your Tax Refund

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By trusting instinct and intuition, the right decision can become obvious from the wrong one. But desires are hard to resist. Now that your tax refund is sitting in your account, don’t let temptation overrule a smart monetary choice, and follow what your financially responsible gut tells you to do. Use five percent of your refund for a fun purchase, and feel good about investing the remaining 95 percent in any of the following:

Build Your Savings

The broken record singing “build your savings” is as tiresome as the one saying “eat a healthy breakfast.” But really, build a savings. Ideally, an emergency fund should support three to six months worth of necessary living expenses. Last year about 49 percent of employees lacked a personal safety net, according to Forbes. Use your refund to establish a savings account, and then use an app such as Saving Made Simple to help make saving a financial habit.

Get Reliable Transportation

“Car maintenance avoidance” is a real syndrome. It stems from the fear of taking your car into an auto repair shop for a brake check and coming back with 10 other costly repairs. Cushioned with your refund, a brake check shouldn’t be so daunting.

Proper maintenance helps improve the reliability, safety and longevity of your vehicle. Brake pads, rotors and tire replacements are worth the cost. After an inspection, you may even decide that buying or leasing a new car is a better investment than a repair spree. For example, use a $2,000 refund for a down payment to reduce monthly payments. A higher refund used as an initial down payment while signing can also leverage a better lease deal.

Improve Your Credit Score

Your credit score is a measurement that indicates whether you’re a good candidate for a mortgage, a loan or a credit card. The score also helps lenders determine the interest rate to charge you. A higher score provides you with better rates and more favorable terms.

Consider using your tax refund to pay off a credit card and substantially reduce your debt; it can boost your credit score, explains The Nest on Budgeting. Improve your credit by keeping the account open and lowering your credit card utilization rate, which is how much you charge/owe (outstanding balances) vs. your total available credit limit. The lower your utilization rate and balances, the higher your credit score. A utilization rate of below 20 percent is good and an average of 7 percent is best, according to FICO.

Pay off Debt

A tax refund can serve as a negotiation tool to achieve a settlement with a debt collector. Improve your financial management by offering the creditor an upfront lump sum in exchange for a smaller amount owed. Negotiate a lump-sum payment, and you could cut your debt significantly. While bargaining, exert power and hold firm. Know your rights and be aware of fictional scare tactics. Nolo, an online small business and legal website, offers a collection of articles on how to negotiate with creditors, handle tax consequences and strategize negotiations.

Make a Career Investment

Invest in your education and complete online courses to increase your future earning power and employee marketability. Expanding your skill set and advancing your education can also help you land a promotion or change careers.

Make sure that you choose a career that has a positive outlook in the future. For example, those who earn a Master of Administration degree will have multiple career paths available for them with each of them expected to experience significant growth in the coming years. These careers also pay very well, making it more likely that your investment will pay off in the end. Once you have your MBA, you can pursue jobs as a marketing manager, financial analyst, operations manager, or an IT expert, giving you a number of different options within an organization.

Last year, U.S. News & World Report broke down the cost of an online class. Writer Devon Haynie found three-credit courses that ranged between $935 and $1,320 for out-of-state students, and one community college class cost about $515. Also, university online courses cost between $300 and $400 per credit hour. While researching your options, also look for in-state colleges and apply to scholarships to keep costs even lower.

5 Mistakes I Made Building My Business

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I don’t know if I’ve told my first business story on here. I owned a disc jockey company for ten years.

That was where I learned how to do everything wrong.

Sometimes, getting it wrong is okay, as I wrote recently on my personal blog, Stacking Benjamins. (Read: Messing Things Up? So Am I….And I Like It).

But it took lots of mistakes for me to learn. The problem was that I was hard-headed and didn’t change quickly enough. Over the years of being a business owner I’ve learned a few things:

1)   I didn’t change directions quickly enough. Often I’d make changes only after someone told me several times they didn’t like something. I always treated the first person who told me they didn’t like something as an outlier. Now I treat the first person who tells me they have a problem as honest and forthcoming, something I’m learning most people aren’t when it comes to telling businesses what they love or dislike. (I love this piece at CreditUnions.com: Change Before You Have To, Or….Change NOW)

2)   I borrowed too much money and from the wrong places. When I was behind on my bills and chasing money, I didn’t pay enough attention to the terms of the loan or the interest rate. I just knew that I was in a cash crunch and needed money fast. Big mistake. That one cost me that original business and probably made it so I had

3)   I didn’t have a repayment plan. Whether it was for installment loans, credit cards, or otherwise, I didn’t have enough foresight or business knowledge to focus on cash flow and what bite that loan was going to take out of my hide. Instead, I’d have rosy projections in my head. Then, when something didn’t happen the way I’d hoped, I’d be behind the eight ball, hoping to get out of trouble.

4)   I didn’t focus on keeping overhead low. I had a storage unit, a truck, hired DJs and gave them paid training sessions that were goofy, fun and expensive. I dreamed about “company outings” that were lavish and celebrated the fact that we were awesome at our jobs. All of this cost me money that I couldn’t afford. I should have been much more frugal about the entire operation.

To some degree, I still am not frugal with my operation. I spend money on professional products….but only those that’ll help me get ahead faster. Different than in the past, those products I’ve already tested for to make sure that I really need them. In the next month, I’ll be purchasing Scrivener (to complete my book), a pre-amp for our podcast operation (Stacking Benjamins), and arms to hold microphones for OG and I. (If you saw “the basement” (my office), you’d know how important this last one really is).

5)   I didn’t learn the basics of building or running a quality business. Sure, I read lots of magazines like Success and Inc., but I focused on the “fun” areas like creativity in business and having a fresh, new take on business than on how to build a stable, well-honed operation. It wasn’t until I read the E-Myth many years later that I saw the sexiness of having a straightforward, well-oiled machine.

Last summer I wrote about the magical company Cherry Republic. What I find fascinating about that firm is that, to the outside observer, they have all of the customer service in place that I loved when I began my business, yet they had the marketing and operational support to make this a reality instead of a cheap pipe dream like my disc jockey company.

What I Learned? Start With The Fundamentals

My view of how a quality business is built has changed dramatically over the years. I’m much more inclined to rely on systems and on smart business practices than I am on the sexiness of just customer experience and low prices. It isn’t that price and experience aren’t important. On the contrary, I only think that you can have a great experience and a good price point if the basic building blocks of your operation are sound.

Money-Saving Tips to Help You Live Like Royalty (or Close to It)

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The perfect accessory to any outfit is an overstuffed wallet. And we don’t mean a receipt-crammed pocketbook, either. If your charmed lifestyle is siphoning just about all of your paycheck, it’s time for a change. Don’t worry, no penny-pinching required here—just a few smart financial adjustments. You can have your stilettos and matching handbag, too.

Take Control of Your Household Bills

Pat yourself on the back for setting up those monthly automatic payments. But, if you’re relying on the “set it and forget it” method, you could be losing money on miscellaneous fees or account errors. Start by taking a thorough look at your itemized bills. With highlighter in hand, mark any miscellaneous monthly charges and usage fees. Then use these tips to remove them and negotiate reduced payments.

  • Cable and Internet: If you bundle services and pay your bills on time, the ball is in your court. Use your customer loyalty as leverage for lower rates. Do your homework and familiarize yourself with competitor offerings. Make mention of the savings you could gain by switching providers. Customer service-minded companies do what it takes to keep valued customers. If not, make the switch.
  • Cell phone: Even if you’re locked in to a mobile contract, you can still shave a few dollars off your bill. Take a few moments to understand your contract. What does your mobile package encompass? Are you paying for 6 GB of data when you only use 3 GB? Lowering your data package can save between $10-$20 per month. Does your plan include unlimited text messaging, or are you paying a bundle in overage fees? Look at your usage history to decide whether to reduce your monthly usage or increase your plan and save on overage fees.
  • Auto insurance: Don’t overpay for car insurance. Try The Hartford’s auto insurance calculator to shop for the best deal. Answer a few short questions, and the site provides you with the best options to fit your budget and lifestyle.

Create a Spending Plan

Now that you’ve negotiated your way to extra savings, how will you allocate your new-found cash? Forget budgeting; this isn’t a course on deprivation. It’s about making the most of your hard-earned dollars, so you can enjoy a well-lived present while preparing for a sound future. Have you been eyeing that new Kate Spade handbag, those stunning Michael Kors heels? You can make them yours. Visit LearnVest’s Money Center to determine your financial priorities, set goals and track your progress. Find out what stays (haute couture) and what goes (perhaps your daily coffee run?).

smart shopping at TheFreeFinancialAdvisor.com

Shop Smarter

You’re strong, successful and independent. But when it comes to the latest shiny object, you’re a deer in the headlights. Even the most headstrong females can fall victim to the overpriced trends. Your smartphone provides much-needed guidance to save you from making rash decisions. Download the ShopSavvy app and never overpay on the items you love again. Use the barcode scanner on any product you have your eye on, and the app delivers a list of stores that carry the item. You’ll also see the price points available (both online and in-store) to ensure the best deal possible.

Cash Flow Issues? Fix It Now and Forever

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Here’s a problem: you’re at the end of your money and there’s three days left before you’re paid. Where do you turn?

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Maybe you’ve been there…I was in this situation in my early days as a financial advisor. It was horrible. Here I was, telling people about how to manage their money, and I was sweating every meeting, just praying that they’d sign on the dotted line. One time I even ran out of gas on the way home and had to search frantically for money under my seats.

There are two solution levels: “Right now” and “Never Happen Again”. Let’s tackle both.

Take Care Of The Problem Right Now

Raid the cupboard – It’s time to get creative on your meal plan. In my “broke days,” if I could get through without buying any food, I was golden. That thing in the freezer that I wasn’t sure whether I could still eat it? Time to find out. Those crackers that are slightly stale in the back of the pantry? They’ll go great with the chicken broth I’m using to make a creative soup.

Find alternate transportation – Heading to work? If you live close enough, it’s time to walk or ride a bike. Walking is—of course—free. The bike? You made an investment in it at one time, but it’s good for your pocketbook and your wallet to dust it off. Live too far away? Explore ride sharing options. Hopefully, your new ride-mate will let you pay for gas on Friday….once you’ve been paid.

Explore Ways To Get Cash – God forbid I had an emergency….. if that happened, I’d attempt to borrow money from relatives for a few days, offering them a good interest rate. If nobody bought (near the end of my rope those people were exhausted from continuously loaning me money, although I always repaid them), I needed to find other ways to get cash. When I’d need cash, none of them were especially attractive, so that’s why I always thought about….

Making sure it “Never Happens Again”

The great part about making mistakes is that they allow you to learn. If you fall forward, it’s not quite so painful.

Build An Emergency Fund – On my personal blog, Stacking Benjamins, I talk about automating my savings as my big money “a-ha.” No matter how painful, putting a few dollars away for a rainy day fund is vital. You had to raid the fund? That’s what it’s there for! Now, go and rebuild.

Sell Your Junk – Clutter, whether it’s in your closet or your mind, creates confusion. If you’re going to focus on ways to earn more money, you’re going to need to clean the slate. Use eBay, a garage sale, or Craig’s List to dump as much access stuff as possible. Use that money to fund your rainy day account.

Build a Better Budget – Ask yourself “what went wrong” this time and fix your budget to avoid that the next time. You needed tires for your car? Why isn’t that built into your plan? Your furnace died? Why don’t have you a strategy for that? Sure, you won’t be able to fix every potential problem, but there are always ways to fix your plan so that you’re more prepared next time.

Ask For a Raise – Studies show that most workers could get a raise if they just asked their boss the right way for more money. You’ll need to come armed with statistics and you’ll also need to prove that you deserve it. What do you do if the boss says no? Look for new work. The quickest way to make it up the ladder is to find a new boss who’s willing to pay you what your worth. Often, that’s a much quicker way to more money than settling for little raises at your current job.

photo: Sharon Hahn Darlin

A Four-Step Approach to Breathing Life into the Financial Side of Your Business Plan

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Numbers, figures, decimal points and dollar signs. Those are the key factors that will pop up from the page into the line of sight of the average person who reviews the financial side of your business plan. However, it is important to realize that there is a method to the numerical madness which must be made into a top priority. You can follow several simple steps that will make it possible for you to develop the financial section in a way that will effectively breathe life into your business plan overall.

Understand the Purpose of the Section

Beneath all the figures and calculations that will be reflected within the financial section of your business plan, you need to be able to clearly identify its specific purpose. The purpose and target objective of this section goes far beyond simply showing how much money you plan on spending and hopefully making at some specified point in the foreseeable future. There are actually two separate purposes that are fulfilled by this one section.

Financial Plan Stacking Benjamins

When you search for investment opportunities that are offered by venture capitalists, clever investors or even intelligent friends and relatives, you are going to need to be able to show them this financial reflection and projection. At the other side of the spectrum is the need to benefit from this financial forecast for your own personal and professional needs and expectations.

A well-developed financial plan will make it much easier for you to have a clear and concise perspective of how your business has done, is doing, and will do in the future. Instead of spending a considerable amount of time digging through seemingly endless piles of paperwork and forms, you will be able to have a quick point of reference that is readily available for review whenever the need for it arises.

Differentiate this Section from Accounting Reports

As you are working through the accounting section of your business plan, you have to keep close in mind the simple fact that it is absolutely not like the accounting reports that you generate on a monthly or even weekly basis. Many people seem to forget that there is a major difference between those reports and the financial aspect of your business plan. First and foremost, those reports deal directly with the past (i.e. historical data, past cash flow statements, etc.)

On the other hand, the financial section of your business plan needs to focus more on the future. While it is necessary for your plan to at least address the financial past of your company, it needs to focus primarily on the future. Cash flow projections, estimates, and an overall forecast of the financial future will serve as the major building blocks and core elements of your plan. If you are not able to clearly distinguish between your accounting reports and the financial layout of your business plan, you need to go back to the drawing board and see where everything went wrong.

Create a Solid Sales Forecast

The best approach to take would be to focus on developing a solid sales forecast first before you dive into any other calculations and figures. A general rule of thumb is to simply create a record or spreadsheet that documents your sales projections for the next three to five years. Make sure that you have it sectioned off and categorized so that the person reviewing this part of your plan will easily be able to see everything they need, according to the Small Business Administration. The sales forecast will then make it much easier for all of the other puzzle pieces to fall into place primarily because the sales forecast will serve as a major cornerstone of its development.

Don’t Forget About the Expenses

While you are developing the financial section of your budget, make sure that you do not place too much focus on the green side of your calculations. Watching how quickly your figures will add up can become very mesmerizing and even hypnotizing, especially if you are fairly new to the world of business in general.

However, it is important for you not to allow these figures to cause you to lose focus and drift away. You need to also make room for expenses in those projections by developing a detailed expense budget. Your expense budget should cover everything – fixed costs and variable costs alike. Make sure that you focus primarily on developing a future forecast instead of duplicating your past accounting reports, though.

The Bottom Line

The financial section of your business plan needs to become much more than just figures and dollar signs. It needs to become a clear and concise reflection of the foundation of your business. When developing this section, you will pay tribute to the past by shining a light on where you have already gone. However, your financial plan will actually become a shining beacon that will illuminate the path to success on which your company will travel into the future.

Top Tips for Buying and Running a Business With Your Spouse

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A solid marriage is the first thing you need in order to run a successful business with your spouse, but that’s certainly not the only thing. Partners that share the same visions, goals, outlooks, and can stand each other’s company 24/7 are more apt to make it work. Subsequent steps to success involve a mixture of business sense, legal sense and common sense that can help you reap the rewards of working so closely with someone you trust and love.

Decide on Business Type

Whether you’re buying a franchise, launching a start-up or taking over an established area business, you should both agree on the business type: partnership or joint venture. Your next step is to file the required paperwork to ensure you meet compliance requirements.

A husband-wife business automatically qualifies as a partnership, or you can take advantage of the Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act that lets you file your business as a joint venture. Partnerships file a single tax return on Form 1065. It assumes all contributions, gains, losses, business decisions and balance of power are split 50-50. A joint venture lets each spouse file his or her own tax return using Form 1040. The joint venture option files the same way a sole proprietorship would, listing individual contributions, gains and losses, according to IRS.gov and SBA.

While the IRS says a joint venture doesn’t usually get you a higher tax return, it does keep Social Security retirement credits separate.

Figure Out Who Does What

Clearly defining your roles and duties can stop potential power struggles before they even start. Decide on each spouse’s title and compile a detailed list of responsibilities and tasks that come with those titles. Make tasks easier for both of you by looking into tools like online accounting software from Quickbooks, which can make handling the books easier for both of you.

Also devise a plan for settling disagreements that involve major business decisions. Set up an impartial board of directors. Make sure each member only has only the best interests of the business in mind and no personal ties to either spouse. Your board of directors can be your go-to source for settling key decisions from a business, rather than a personal, perspective.

Have an Exit Plan

While no one tracks divorce rates for husband-wife businesses, with 40%-50% of first marriages ending in divorce, according to Divorce.usu.edu, an exit plan becomes a must-have plan.

Even if your marriage doesn’t end in divorce, an exit plan can be essential if you two realize that working together simply doesn’t work. A common exit plan strategy is for one partner to sell the business to the other, either as a one-time purchase or over a set period of time. Splitting the business in two is another option.

A third option is to sell the business to an outside party and split the profit. Either spouse may decide to continue working at the business, but neither has the full set of responsibilities that come with being an owner.

Start Saving for Retirement Now (Yes, You) With These 5 Simple Tips

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Six out of 10 Americans don’t use a budget or track their spending, according to the 2013 Harris Interactive Consumer Financial Literacy Survey. This statistic jives with HelloWallet’s report from last October, which found that 60 percent of households are accumulating debt faster than retirement savings. No matter what stage of life you’re in, you need a plan to save for retirement. Start with the following tips:

Schedule Planning Time

As people grow older, they’re more willing to pay attention to their finances. Thirty-eight percent of Americans ages 25-32 say they’re too busy to think about long-term financial goals, and that number steadily declines to 13 percent for those over 66, Northwestern Mutual has found. However, the number who feel too rushed by society’s pace to stick to long-term goals grows from 61 to 75 percent over the same age margin. Together, these numbers paint a picture of an aging population increasingly aware of their urgent financial needs but too stressed out to take appropriate action.

To counteract this trend, make a commitment to yourself and your finances. Set aside some time to review your goals, ideally with the help of a professional advisor. Then get in the habit of taking 15 minutes a week to review your budget.

Retirement planning on The Free Financial Advisor

Steer by Long-Term Financial Goals

Use your long-term financial goals to guide your short-term budgeting. Fidelity Investments offers various calculators and tools to help you estimate how much you need to set aside each month to reach your retirement goals. Wells Fargo provides a worksheet to help you break down your financial goals into intervals of one year, two to five years, and five years and over.

Use a Budgeting Strategy

Yes, you need a budget. Consider following financial expert Elizabeth Warren’s 50/30/20 rule: Put 50 percent of your monthly after-tax income toward essential living expenses, 30 percent toward discretionary spending and 20 percent toward savings and debt repayment.

Pursue Saving and Debt Repayment Strategically

According to financial advisor Dave Ramsey, you should initially put the savings and debt repayment portion of your budget toward a $1,000 emergency fund and paying down your credit card balances before pursuing retirement and other savings goals. When applying this strategy, you can save for retirement faster by reducing your debt obligations. If you receive regular payments from an annuity or structured settlement, consider contacting a company that purchases future annuity payments for a lump sum of cash now. You can then use this money to help repay your debt.

Invest Your Savings Productively

To grow your savings, check if your employer offers a 401(k) plan or another retirement savings plan, and start contributing—especially if it’s a matching plan. If not, invest in a traditional IRA or Roth IRA. After that, the next place to invest is an index mutual fund, suggests the Wall Street Journal.