Without a budget and the right spending management tools do don’t really know how much money you’re really spending, do you? While the electronic age is making it easier to accomplish tasks, it’s also forcing more and more people into a downward spiral when it comes to their finances. Sure, having access to your money with a quick swipe of a card, whether it’s a debit card, check card or credit card, is great but it make keeping track of your spending much more difficult. Convenient spending, monthly access fees & service charges add up to one devastating reality – overspending, and through our experiences haven’t we all found that when you overspend once, it’s easier to do it again, and again, and again?

According to a recent article on CityNews.ca, more then 25% of Canadians are carrying $10,000 - $40,000 in credit card debt alone, and as Julie Sturgeon of BankRate.com points out “Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 now boast the second-highest rate of bankruptcy…”

The question is, what can be done? How do we prevent ourselves from overspending, then relying on family, friends, loans and credit to climb out of the hole? The answer (simple, yet not easy) is to budget, keep a close eye on your incoming and outgoing money and live within your means.

Always easier said then done, isn’t it? I came across an inspiring story on MoneySense.com entitled “How we paid off our house in three years”. This couple, Perry and Tiffany Goertzen worked hard, saved hard and reaped the rewards. Now, I know the specific route that they took may not be an ideal situation for most (ie: working multiple jobs consuming 90% of your day) but their story shows that with some determination, dedication and a plan (okay, a lot of determination) it is possible to achieve financial freedom.

I could tell you to save 10% of your paycheck, repeat the key elements to living within your means or tell you how building a budget, but that would be redundant wouldn’t it? There’s only one real secret to managing your money, discipline. It’s all about knowing what you want and focusing on it. If you want to buy a house and you need to save $20,000 for a down payment, wait before you buy that digital camera because;

a) the digital camera will still be there next year, and

b) it’ll be much more gratifying to take pictures of your new house.

Set your goal, build your budget, make a plan and get what you want. The Money Case will get you one step closer to your dream

Are you one of the hundreds of thousands out there that get goose bumps when your phone rings? I can’t think of anything more unsettling than worrying that the person on the other end of that phone is about to ask me for money that I don’t have.

I remember talking to a friend of mine about a year ago who was in financial disarray. He was young, about 26 and in a state that was less then manageable. He wasn’t blowing all of his money on frivolous items, and he wasn’t a spend freak. He just couldn’t make ends meat. Now, he was a hard working guy, he just couldn’t find enough work to keep the food on the table, the rent paid and the car payments up-to-date.

I sat down with him and offered whatever help I could. I’ve been using the Internet to earn an extra income for years and I’ve got enough knowledge to help out (I think). I offered to build him a small web page and showed him where he could get good advertising to monetize his traffic. He created a useful blog site (hosted for free on Blogger) and used my advice & experience to acquire useful advertising.

Over the last few months he has been able to make a little extra money to help out his situation. Here’s what I suggested:

• Create a blog. Blogs are great because unlike an online store you can have fun writing about whatever you like, you don’t need to sell anything, and you can make a free one on blogger.com (there are other sites too, Wikipedia has a good list of host blog solutions)
• Know you legal rights as a blogger. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a great resource for Blogs and the Law
• Write about what you know.
• Keep your site active. Try to write ever few days.
• Find quality advertising.

After completing these steps, one thing always leads to another. Soon enough my friend started “out blogging” me.

Here’s a list of some of my favorite advertising sources (aka publisher networks):

Oh, by the way. In case you’re unfamiliar with some of the advertising terms:

PPC – Pay-per-Click, you earn money when someone clicks on the ad.
CPL – Cost-per-Lead, you are paid a commission when someone signs up on the advertisers site.
CPA – Cost-per-Action, you are paid a commission when someone initiates an action (such as a sale) on the advertisers site.
CPM - Cost-per-Mille, you are paid per 1000 advertisement banner impressions. (for example: if the CPM is $1, you will be paid $1.00 for every 1000 banner impressions)
PPP – Pay-per-Play, you get paid when an audio ad is played on your site.

NetAudioAds. This is new to me and I love it. NetAudioAds plays a short 5 second ad every time you page loads (with a 3 minute delay to returning viewers so it doesn’t get annoying)

AdBrite. Another very good PPC and CPM network.

Commission Junction. One of the largest CPA & CPL networks online.

CanadianSponsors. Canadian focused CPA/CPL network.

CPA Empire . One of my personal favorites. Lots and lots of CPA & CPL programs to promote.

Rocket Profit. Another good CPA/CPL network. Great costumer service too.

Bardzo Media. Bardzo is a good CPM network.

So, earn some extra cash and have fun doing it.

That four letter word that haunts at least 90% of us. Let’s face it, no one likes to owe anybody anything, but for some reason we’ve all allowed ourselves to be sucked in to this, sometimes, not so pleasant predicament. When I was 18 years old, for some unknown reason I decided to apply for a credit card. Could you imagine my delight when I was approved for $500? I didn’t have a job (at least one that paid more then $100/month) and I was just finishing high school, but the bank didn’t care. I guess they assumed that if I didn’t pay my credit card bill, my parents would. After about 3 months, I was invited to join a wonderful 18.5% program from another bank. Wow, my spending power was $1,500 before I new it. Needless to say, I spent it, I spent it like it was my money. I started to notice better offers - 0% financing for 12 months, no payments for 18 months, etc., etc., etc. By the time I was 21 I had accumulated somewhere around $30,000 in credit cards, department store cards and store credit. That’s just under $1,430 for every year of my life and on top of that I also had my student loans. Realizing that I had a problem, I decided to cut up all of the plastic. And started to focus and find a way to climb out of the stressful hole that I’d fallen into. (more on this in the up coming week)

Years have gone by since then and I’m now, completely free of credit debt. In fact, I refuse to use plastic at all. Paper is the only way to go, that’s for sure! I like to think about my financial past as the most valuable life lesson I have ever learnt. It taught me about myself, money, responsibility and reality.

While I was creating The Money Case I was constantly thinking about my personal financial past and I tried to implement features that I think everyone should be using everyday to keep their finances in check.

Everyday countless numbers of people are asking themselves the same question, “Where is my money going?” The reason they don’t know is simple. It’s because they don’t have a budget. Let’s face it, unless your money is literally falling out of your pocket you’re not really loosing your money, you’re just mismanaging it.

After spending countless hours hunting the internet and talking to my colleagues I’ve came to one conclusion: in most people’s eyes, budgeting is a hassle. Everyone knows (or should know) that the key to financial freedom is just to simply manage your money so why doesn’t everyone have a budget. I know at first glance the thought of creating a budget to be as grueling as cleaning the gutters, but it doesn’t have to be.

I created The Money Case as a tool to encourage everyone to budget and to show the world that budgeting doesn’t have to be a painful experience.

Take a few minutes to look around The Money Case and I can assure you, you’ll have more money in your pocket as long as you know where you’re spending it, everyday.