The Importance Of A Budget Other business owners need to know their sales levels in terms of dollars and how hard they need to work to make the budget work. Sound familiar, goals and budgeting is very much tied together. The closer you come to the goals you have set for yourself, the closer you will come to achieving the budget amount you need. You'll know you are on top of your business when you can tell your accountant that you need to sell 3.25 items per day in order to make your budget work and meet your financial goals. [More] Building Wealth by Paying Yourself First The way I save money, is by paying myself first. I have automatic deductions come out of my bank account on the 15th and 30th of every month, which I put directly into a mutual fund for safe keeping. I take a small portion of my pay check, roughly 10% and put it away. This may not seem like much, but over time it adds up. In addition, with mutual funds you will have the benefit of compound interest on your side. You should EASILY be able to achieve 8% interest on average in a good a mutual fund, often times more. That's $800 a year on $10000! [More] Using Sector Funds to Construct Diversified Mutual Fund Portfolios The wide selection of sector funds available provides you with the ability to take advantage of changing market conditions and continually optimize the risk-reward characteristics of your diversified portfolio. To employ this approach effectively, you need to understand and follow the dynamics of the individual sectors. You must also be able to make informed decisions on sectors to select and sectors to avoid. At the end of the day, you should be right more often than wrong with the sectors you select. [More] Bookstore Rewards Can Pay! It seems you can’t pay for a coffee or a magazine at either Barnes & Noble or Borders without getting an offer to join their member programs. But do they actually save you money? If you shop at Borders, do sign up for its rewards program, if only because it’s free. However, you must pay attention [...]. Leverage and the Stock Market If you default on your home mortgage, even once, the lending company can take away your house even if you have met your monthly obligations for years. The major disadvantage to using leverage in the stock market is that you can lose much more then j.