Here is How to Save Your Family: Part 6

You might be asking; what is going on now in society that I should be concerned with?
Where should I live?

With the collapse of the housing market, it may look like a good time to buy a house. But with the changing labor market, a house may be a rope around your neck. There was a time when you bought a home and you lived in the same area most of your life. Now, you may live in Harrisburg, Pa. then get laid off. The next job you take may be in Richmond, Va. You might live there for a few years before you are transferred to New York City. With the way houses sell today and the movement of employees; you may have to rethink that idea of a house as a status symbol.

If your spouse agrees, one of you may have to stay at home and raise the children in one location. You can work in several Cities while your spouse stays at home. If that is the case, then buying a home in a good school district may work for you.

Another way of living that you might want to think about is communal living with your extended family. You can buy a large house. Your sisters, brothers, or cousins can form a non-profit corporation. With houses cheap, you may buy a 6 bedroom home in the name of the corporation.

You also may want to consider buying two or three houses. You as members own the house(s) through the corporation. You all set up rules for paying expenses, maintenance, mortgage, and etc. This may solve the problem of a baby sitter and house sitter.

Living on Credit

In a deflationary period and let know one tell you different, we are in a deflationary period, you don’t want to create debt. Credit cards are the number one problem when it comes to consumers becoming critical debtors. Even with today’s relatively low interest rates, it is not a good idea to live on credit. Credit Card interest is not low.

Interest rates vary widely. Banks make money on many other fees that interrelate with interest charges in complex ways (since they make a profit from the whole combination), including transactions fees paid by merchants and cardholders, and penalty fees. Banks make money if customers borrow over the established credit limit, or for failing to make a minimum payment on time.

Using 2005 figures, credit card loans that are secured by real estate can be as low as 6% to 12% in the U.S. Typical unsecured credit cards have interest rates between 7% and 36% in the U.S., depending largely upon the bank's risk evaluation methods and the borrower's credit history. I have found that most middle and lower class consumers use credit cards with rates between 12% and 36%. Most of the time, it is knowledge of the credit card market and the condition of the consumer that creates the high consumers credit card rate.

Visa and Mastercard often offer a grace period with no interest until the due date, which makes them more popular for use as liquidity accounts, which means that the majority of consumers use them only for convenience to make purchases within the monthly budget, and then (usually) pay them off in full each month. So you can use these credit cards to keep track of your purchases and use this to help in making your budget plan. I would only spend money using a credit card that I know can be paid back in total when the bill comes.

Budgeting Yourself

Corporations, Governments, and people like you have several things in common. They have an income and create expenses. You have assets such as a cars, bank accounts, and clothing. Most people have liabilities such as credit card debt, mortgages, and Utility Bills.

If you want to increase your chances of being homeless in this depression, live from paycheck to paycheck. In this depression, it is likely that one day someone will come to your workplace and tell you that you no longer have a paycheck coming in. If that is the case then what will happen with the ongoing expenses that the mailman brings you that continues to come into your home? I had seen people that have never been without a job for more than 3 months, go without jobs for years. I was without a job for 2 years then got into a labor job for 6 months just because I needed something to do. From 2001 to 2008, I did not have a steady job in my field of work.

My budgeting goal from 1971 to 2008 when I was planning and managing a family was to: 1) get out of debt, 2) pay cash for everything, 3) pay off the house, put money away for my children’s education, and 4) save 10% of my paycheck. No, I did not have money to travel around the world, go out every week, and buy a bunch of junk. But later in my life, my way of life saved me from bankruptcy. It put one daughter through college graduating with no debt. The last time I had a mortgage was 1992 and the last time I had a car payments was 1981.

In these times where no one’s job or income is safe, you have to have something to fall back on. Without a budget with built in savings accounts, you will have nothing to fall back on when the real bad times come.

http://www.ehow.com/how_2046135_create-household-budgetcreate-household-budgetcreate-household-budgetcreate-household-budget.html

Here is a website to get you started on budgeting.