Top 10 Ways to Uncover Extra Money

1. Start a Home-Based Business: The average home-based business owner can save between $4000 - $15,000 per year in taxes even without turning a profit in their business! This is because as a home-based business owner, you can convert many of your personal expenses that you are not able to deduct, into business expenses and now deduct them. (See "Why start a Home-Based Business" Article)

2. Adjust Your Federal Tax Withholding: If you consistantly get a tax refund each year, you should adjust your W-4 withholdings. It has been estimated that the average American Household receives a $1600 refund each year. That's an overpayment of $133 per month. If you over pay, you are giving the government an interest free loan. And Uncle Sam won't even thank you.

3. Get Rid of Mortgage Insurance (PMI): If your home value has gone up, you may not need to pay PMI anymore. Most lenders don't require PMI when your loan is less than 80% of your home's value. You'll need your house appraised to document it's increased value.

4. Know Where Your Money is Going: Most people don't really know where their money is going each month. Many times, just knowing where you are spending money is all it takes to start saving money. If you don't have a grip on how, where & how much you are spending, it is extremely difficult to have a plan to save money. You can very easily nickel & dime yourself if you don't get control of this area. (See "Where did all my money go?" Article for some great hints & tips on conquering this problem!)

5. Buy Term Life Insurance: Unless you are 70 years old or older or have a medical condition that disqualifies you from purchasing term life insurance, you will possibly save hundreds of dollars per month by having a Term life insurance policy vises a whole life, universal life, or other such policies. The money you save each month by having term verses whole life could be just the pay raise you need! Unethical insurance sales people really try to push whole or universal life because they earn HUGE commissions each month that you pay your policy. In all fairness though, just because your agent tries to sell you a whole life policy doesn't mean they are unethical, but if they insist after you have insisted on term life, that would be a major RED FLAG.

6. Cancel Credit Life Insurance: Think about this...You are buying insurance - and the bank is the beneficiary, not your heirs. Credit life only protects your credit from being ruined if your die and guarentees the bank that they will get their money. The heirs are still responsible for the loan amount owed at the time of your death. Yes, the insurance policy will make payments so that you don't have late payments, however your heirs will still have to pay that back. Plus, the company (agent) that sold you the policy makes a big fat commission. But worse still, you pay way too much for the premiums and, if you finance the insurance into the loan - you're paying interest on the premiums. If you want insurance to pay something off if you die, get a decreasing term policy from your insurance agent. It's a lot cheaper. Credit life policies are pro-rated so you are entitled to a refund of the unused portion. When you drop the coverage on your loan, watch your payment drop! Of course, always make sure your new insurance coverage is in place before dropping the old policy.

7. Cancel Extended Warranties: Like most forms of insurance, warranty policies are never likely to be needed by the person paying for them. If it was likely that your car, stereo, TV, or other product would have any of the troubles covered by the warranty, THEY WOULD NOT SELL YOU THE WARRANTY. Cancel all extended warrenties from which you can get a refund. The mathematical fact is that you will NEVER receive enough in "free" benefits from warranties to pay you back for what they cost. You'll be dollars ahead by not buying any warranties and covering any unexpected repairs yourself.

8. Cut Your Phone Expenses: Do you use all of those extra features that are dramatically increasing your phone bill each month? Most people only use one or two, many people none at all, yet they continue to pay for those extras every month. If you don't use them why pay for them? Make sure that your dedicated lines, such as lines used strictly for internet or fax not have the extra features. Lastly, always examine your phone bill for accuracy. Phone companies consistantly make mistakes...it's up to you to catch it.

9. Reduce or Eliminate Long Distance Charges: Long distance providers are becoming more and more creative in their marketing schemes, so you really have to be very careful when choosing the best service for your needs. You should look for a provider that offers the lowest per minute rate you can find; bills in 6 second increments; does not charge a connection fee & does not charge a per month fee. If the provider varies from any of these items, then you can find a better deal. Many money savers are totally dropping their long distance companies and are either using cellular phones because they have free long distance or are using prepaid calling cards. I personally use my cell phone (no LD charge) for long distance when I have a signal and not roaming & use the Costco calling card for the rest. The Costco calling card, at the time of this writing is 3.5 cents per minute.

10. Plan Ahead: Creating a plan of how you will spend your money is probably one of the most powerful money saving ideas. It has been said, "If you don't have a plan to succeed, you definitely have a plan to fail". If you don't have a plan of how much money you have to spend in each area of spending, you will almost always spend more than you have or needed to. Creating a good workable budget is a great way to plan ahead!