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We all know that getting married these days is going to set you back a fortune. Whether you want a small do or a massive do you are going to end up paying a big fortune. Even if you don’t opt for a horse drawn carriage to a castle hotel, the costs soon mount up. This is why people now ask for money instead of gifts for their big day.

There is a lot of costs involved when getting married.
1) Buying the perfect dress and suit
2) Organising and booking reservations
3) Catering
4) Transport
5) Flowers

But this does not stop there, because even after the wedding you have to pay for the honeymoon and anything else that comes along with that, including spending money, eating out and the transport around the destination and too and from the airport.

So I know now is the best time to look at getting married, as we already know we are in the midst of a big credit crunch, therefore one niche that will be suffering is the wedding sector. People will definitely be pulling back from getting married at the current time, but I feel that is totally the wrong decision to make, because now in my opinion is the best time to get married.

With companies struggling, everywhere has lowered their rates and you could in fact get married for around 40% cheaper than usual. With the flux of weddings abroad you could also get a good deal on getting married in a different country as flights and hotels have also been dramatically lowered. In fact there are more places to get married than ever before, as lots of hotels and venues that previously did not offer marriage services, have opened their doors to happy couples in order to benefit from additional revenue streams.

So the credit crunch is not all bad, for some people marrying with no costs is a dream come true.

Technorati Tags: budget, low cost, Marriage, recession, weddings

If you are looking to get your finances in order or reduce your debts then you have to get back to basics and the best place to start is with a household budget. The concept for a household budget is to work out how much money you have in comings versus what is being spent and how you are spending it. You can then look for areas to make changes to reach your goals.

Follow these simple step by step instructions to creating a budget for your household.

1: Calculate Your Incomings: This should be quite simple. You need to calculate your typical incomings per month from all sources pay checks (after tax), bonuses and dividends from any investments. Don’t just consider your pay for the last month, you should bear in mind occasional payments such as bonuses or dividends from investments and then work out the average value of these per month (over the course of a year).

2: Calculate Your Outgoings: Calculating your outgoings is a little bit more complicated as you spend money in far more ways than you earn it. Go over your statements for your bank account and credit cards for the past few months and figure out how much you have in outgoings each month and where it is going. Transactions from debit cards or credit cards may be easier to keep tabs on but it’s hard to see where cash withdrawn from ATM’s has ended up. It may be a good idea to keep a spending diary with you for a couple of weeks to take note of all your cash spending. Hopefully you will find your typical outgoings are lower than your incomings but often this is not the case. If you find your outgoings are higher than your incomings then you are pushing yourself into debt each month and need to take action to reverse this trend.

3. Classify Your Outgoings: Once you have worked out all your outgoings it makes sense to classify them together into categories such as groceries, utilities, clothes, entertainment, loan repayments, travel and so on. Doing this will let you see where most of your money is going.

4: Sort out the essentials, the nice to haves and the not required: Now you can see where your money is going then you need to decide what can be changed. There may be some expenses on there that you feel cannot be changed such as rent or mortgage payments, insurances and so on. If you need to make large cutbacks then perhaps even these items could be reduced by downsizing your home. Assuming however that you are not looking for such drastic measures then you need to find other places to make changes. You can reduce your monthly bills in lots of ways such as becoming more energy efficient around the home, switching utility companies, using VOIP for calls via broadband or cutting out pay-TV packages. Common areas for cutbacks are reducing your entertainment and shopping expenses for items such as dining out, buying music, clothes and so on.

5: Make Goals: You should now have figured out what you are spending and where you can make cut backs. You need to make sure your monthly budget not only gets you through the month but also puts you in a better financial situation each month. Two ways in which this could be done is by reducing debts or increasing your savings. If you are in debt then the goal should be to get out of debt as soon as possible. Set goals for how much you want to pay off per month and build this into your budget. Once you have paid off debts then the focus can become on saving money each month via a high returns savings account. You will find that when you make regular payments the interest will start to accumulate with high interest savings account products. Your goal shoudl eb to improve your financial situation every month and prioritize debt reduction, savings and investments to reach your goals faster. There could also be other uses for the money such as investing it in shares or managed funds.

6: Keep Yourself in Check: Make sure you keep reviewing your budget and looking for areas where you can make further trimmings and savings. A budget is not a survival plan, it should help form your long term financial roadmap to keep your debts down and investments on the up.

Article provided thanks to www.compareyourbank.com.au a consumer finance comparison site including online savings accounts. Visitors can then apply online for any featured products direct with the banks.

Technorati Tags: budget, budgetting, credit card, debit cards, high interest savings account, household budget, money, saving money, savings account

The Covered Call / Buy-Write Strategy For better or worse, most investors purchase stocks with the intent of holding their shares for an extended period of time.

We do this mainly because the media and industry professionals have drilled into our heads, year after year, time after time, that it’s best to buy and hold. The recent bull market phenomenon also fueled this mindset because the ‘buy and hold’ strategy worked extremely well - for a while.

Whether or the not the ‘buy and hold’ strategy is still the most efficient way of investing remains a topic for discussion. However, it is still the strategy that most investors are comfortable with and tend to follow.

The first strategy we will discuss is a hybrid of the buy and hold strategy, one that provides for better and more consistent returns a large majority of the time when compared to naked stock ownership alone.

When we buy a stock, there are three possible outcomes. As we discussed before, two of these scenarios are typically negative and only one outcome is typically positive. If the stock goes up, that is good. If the stock goes down, that is bad. And if the stock does not rise or fall, that is also unsuccessful.

To briefly recap, not only do you have a loss in opportunity cost (the money invested in your stagnant stock could be making you money if somewhere else) but also, you have incurred commission costs on both the way in and way out. So, in this case, only one of the three scenarios provides a positive return.

We will name the three possible scenarios as the “up” scenario, the “down” scenario and the “stagnant” scenario. By employing the covered call or “buy-write” strategy, you can change the outcome of the scenario profile so you have two positive potential results instead of only one.

Employing the covered call or “buy-write,” we still have the “up” scenario as a positive result, but now the “stagnant” scenario will also produce a positive result since we collect a premium and the third scenario, the “down” scenario will not be as negative.

Thanks to the covered call strategy, now two of three scenarios end in a positive result and the third has a result that is less negative.

Let’s take a more in-depth look at the covered call strategy and its construction. There are two components of the covered call strategy, the stock component and the option component. The stock component consists of a long stock position (you own stock). The option component comprises of selling one call per every one-hundred shares of stock owned.

Remember, one option contract is worth one hundred shares of stock. So for example, 1000 shares of stock equals 10 call contracts or 200 shares equals 2 call contracts.

The following table displays a few more examples of the correct construction of buy- writes.

Please take special note that the ratio of stock to calls must be exactly 100 shares to 1 option contract.

The philosophy behind the covered call strategy is not complicated. It means using a long stock position combined with a short call option to build a positive flow of extra income, as, for example, a person would buy a home and subsequently rent it to pay the mortgage.

Another analogy is that of the insurance company. An insurance company receives premiums month in and month out. Over a period of time, this constant stream of income easily builds to a point where it outweighs any pay out the insurance company may face, even for catastrophic events.

The constant and reoccurring collection of option premiums works better if done over longer periods of time (for example, one year.) That time frame allows the odds to play into your favor.

Now let’s talk about the odds. There have been several studies done on the topic of premium buying versus premium selling. The goal of the studies was to determine whether it is better to buy options or sell options.

Recent studies have found that selling the premium was the correct trade 78% to 83% of the time. That is a very high percentage and is worth taking advantage of when a good opportunity presents itself.

The covered call strategy takes advantage of the fact that an option is a depreciating asset because its extrinsic value goes to zero at expiration. The process by which an option’s extrinsic value dissipates is called time decay.

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Technorati Tags: budget, budget 2009, day trading, online options trading, options trading, paradigm shift, wealth building

Webster’s Dictionary defines the term strategy as “ 1 a) the science of
planning and directing larger scale military operations, specifically (as
distinguished from TACTICS) of maneuvering forces into the most
advantageous position prior to actual engagement with the enemy b) a
plan or action based on this. 2 a) skill in overseeing or planning, especially
by adopting stratagems b) a stratagem or artful means to some end. When using a definition of investing in the market, we need to pay specific attention to the words “maneuvering into the most advantageous position prior to actual engagement” and the words “skill in overseeing or planning especially by using stratagems.” Choosing a stock or group of stocks is simply 1/2 the battle. Making the most from the adopted opportunity is the other half. This is the point where your strategy comes in. The wrong strategy even when applied to the right opportunity can
produce added to risk, reduced profits and even possible loss.
Hence, knowing and applying the appropriate strategy is critical.
The choose of an investment opportunity from those offered typically depends on the type and style of research the trader prefers and feels necessary. This selection procedure or “investment selection protocols,” is a checklist of various types and bits of information that are preferred by the individual investor. These pieces of data can consist of charts, indicators, oscillators, fundamental analysis, news or even tips. Every investor has their own investment selection process. As an investor, once you finish this procedure and select your investment opportunity, your strategy does the rest. Inherent in the selection of the stock is expectation. Each investor has a various expectations for any chosen opportunity. Hence, a strategy must be adopted which best meets those expectations. The appropriate strategy will be the strategy thay allows for the maximum possible profit with the lowest risk and the best potential protection that can be afforded. Click Here And Just Supply Your First Name And email To Get Free Reports Including Candlestick Secret Trading Strategies. In Addition, Look At A Home Study Course

Technorati Tags: budget, budget 2009, day trading, online options trading, options trading, paradigm shift, wealth building, work from home