There is an age old question the face many peoples minds everyday, should I rent or buy? Although the below infographic won’t make up your mind forever it is a good reference for information on both trains of thought. Enjoy the graphic, maybe you will learn something on the way!

From: Home Insurance Blog

If you’re a chronic spender like me, listen up.  It turns out that taking out multiple lines of credit and racking up colossal mounds of debt isn’t good for your credit score, or your personal finances in general.  Who knew?  In all seriousness though, problem credit spending is something many Americans are all too familiar with these days.  Sometimes, there just aren’t any other options to get by.  Often though, we’re simply too careless with our spending and budgeting.  Here we offer three ways to practice better credit management that should hopefully keep you from finding yourself up to ears in debt:

- Don’t Open Multiple Credit Lines

If you’ve already got two or more credit cards, chances are you should stop right there.  Especially when it comes to reward cards from specific retailers, opening multiple lines of credit can be burdensome and even dangerous.  While they may claim to offer awesome rewards and perks, they usually won’t do much in the way of boosting your credit score; these cards are easily forgotten about, and as such, are not very useful for common day-to-day purchases.

It’s much wiser to stick with one or two main credit cards to keep your bill payments under control and easy to monitor.  Having to worry about multiple cards won’t do you any favors in the sanity department either.

- Pay Balances in Full

Although it’s fairly obvious, it’s surprising how hard this practice can actually be.  Paying your balances off in a timely, consistent manner though is the best way to maintain a high credit score.  If you have an especially large outstanding balance, getting it paid off as soon as possible, in full, is another great way to boost your credit score as well.  If balances are left unpaid, they’ll not only hurt your credit score, but will accrue greater interest over time, making it that much more difficult to get out of that financial hole.

- Use a Prepaid Credit Card

If you’ve got numerous outstanding balances on other cards, a change in your credit approach once you’ve paid these off may be in order.  Using a Green Dot prepaid Visa credit card, or other similar prepaid card, is a great way to ensure that you don’t end up in a terrible financial situation.

With a prepaid card, you are able to maintain a line of credit while also building your score without having to worry about creating an outstanding balance as you can only spend what you put on the card.  Another benefit to a prepaid card is the lack of interest rate, instead users just pay a $4.95 maintenance fee a month.  Otherwise, there are no other fees associated with the card allowing you to build your credit without having to worry about high interest rates, overspending, or calling creditors.  In other words, this is a great training credit card for anyone who may have experienced irresponsible spending in the past.

No matter your financial situation, practicing and maintaining good credit habits is something we should all strive for.  The unfortunate reality of credit cards is that they’re easy to use and just as easy to abuse.  By heeding these three tips, and in researching some other great ways to practice safe credit usage, you can make sure you stay on top of your finances and out of messy, stressful debt troubles.

There are many reasons that can explain why we aren’t on top of our investments or acting responsibly with our money. Perhaps we can’t manage to restrain our spending. Perhaps our investments were poorly-chosen. Perhaps we’re already struggling to make ends meet with what we have.

Of all these possible reasons, none are more common, overlooked, or simple to rectify than one standard problem: many of us don’t think about our investments on a daily basis. While we certainly take pains to curb our spending and are aware of the investments we have out there, we don’t regularly remind ourselves of the realities. We don’t regularly think about our long-term finances on a day-by-day level.

In addition to making our funds seem more tangible, having a daily interaction with our money can also confer more practical benefits. It can reassure us and make us feel more in control. It can give us a means of self-assessment by which we analyze our spending on a micro scale. It can, furthermore, provide us the ability to know where our investments stand and to change them if they are faulty.

How can we achieve this daily element and accomplish these goals? Here are a few tips:

-Find a good online banking service. Managing your money on a daily basis requires, first and foremost, having a bank capable of providing the information you need in a quick, painless, and comprehensive manner. For this reason it is important to seek out the best online banks so as to insure that your finances are always at your fingertips.

-Invest in index funds. Many people don’t know how to follow their investments or interpret the ramifications of any changes that may occur. For these people – as well as for anyone who wants daily management to be as easy as possible – index funds always present an excellent option. By investing in an S&P 500 index fund, for example, you can make it easy for yourself to track the fund in the paper, on television, or on the radio.

-Make it part of the routine. Ultimately, no matter what tweaks you make, doing something every day requires incorporating it into your routine – and personal finances are no exception. Whether you check your accounts every morning at work or every night at bed, having a consistent routine is often the best way to insure responsibility going forward.

These are just a few of the ways you can go about taking more responsibility for your finances on a daily basis. While doing so is not difficult or time-consuming, it can nevertheless provide real long-term benefits for your peace of mind and your bottom line.

A small business owner is only as good as his or her employees. If you run a one-person website or affiliate marketing business and have no employees, then there you go—you are your only employee. But most small business owners have employees, perhaps even a small team, and they are dependent upon them in order to keep things running smoothly. For many employees who work at small business, the possibility of growing with a company is enough to keep them motivated.

In fact, many workers who are easily qualified to take solid positions at big companies choose to work for small companies because they know their leverage and upward mobility will be greater. Their incentives for hard work are the drive to become one of your executives or chief officers. Other employees need stronger, more tangible incentives, like Roth IRA retirement plans and health benefits. Here’s a small list of what you may be able to offer:

Health care and retirement funds. These are some of the first benefits of a job that an employee will be interested in. The reason why is fairly obvious. Health care is expensive; and retirement options give you life-long security. When you offer it you’re showing your employees that you value them and are willing to make an investment in their well-being for the sake of your company. For employees who need dental or vision care, or other, more expensive medical procedures, having this taken care of can be a great relief and will make them want to work harder.

Stock options. If your company has gone as far as an IPO and are a publicly traded business, offering your employees stock options is an excellent way to incentivize them. They will then have a tangible financial reason to aid in the growth of the company. There different types of employee stock options: ‘incentive’, in which they only pay taxes on the stocks when they sell them; ‘non-qualified’, which requires more taxes for the employee and deductions for the employer; and ‘restricted’, which are shares that can be sold only when the company reaches certain benchmarks.

Software/hardware. If your company works with technology you can receive great discounts on computers and related software. Passing on these discounts to your employees can save them thousands of dollars on equipment. While they should be using their new gear on primarily work-related tasks, for many employees tech swag is a huge incentive for working with a particular company.

These are just three ways to incentivize your employees to do great work for your company. They involve varying degrees of financial investment on the part of the employer, but all of them showcase generosity, professionalism, and a marked faith and appreciation in the value of employees.

More people are using debit cards than ever before and it seems only inevitable that at some point in the future electronic swiping will completely replace cash. This reality can’t come soon enough for banks, who frequently hike fees on debit and credit cards, account balances, and transaction fees to garner larger profits. Yes, don’t forget, banks are for-profit. And remember that when you swipe your debit card and purchase that pair of cheap sunglasses, the $9 price tag isn’t the final price you’ll be paying, and I’m not referring to the tax. Here are three ways banks charge you simply for spending your own money:

Transaction fees—All debit cards charge the card holder small fees when they are used on transactions. The cost of these fees depends on a combination of the financial institution that issued the card and the merchant from whom you are making the purchase. As of 2011, Visa and Mastercard were planning to significantly raise their merchant fees, from 8 cents on a $2 purchase to 23 cents, which is only a cent less than the legal limit. Other companies are expected to follow suit.

Account requirements—Another way banks are able to make a few extra bucks off their account holders is to increase the minimum balance requirements and attach corresponding feeds. CitiBank, for example, has effectively eliminated their EZ checking account option and raised their standard minimum account balance to $6,000. The fee for not maintaining that balance jumped to $15 a month, which is double the previous amount. Their mid-tier account requirements and fees also doubled. This is not an isolated case. Banks all across the company are fiddling with their account requirements in order to acquire new fees.

Debit fee—Perhaps in response to the 2010 Durbin Amendment, which famously limited the fees banks could charge merchants, Bank of America had planned a monthly $5 fee last year for debit card use. The customer backlash from the announcement was so severe that BofA cancelled the charge. Since then at least four more banks have cancelled proposed debit card fees, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Atlanta-based SunTrust, Regions Bank. But don’t expect them to just give up. Analysts say that in the long run, banks will bilk the money they want by instituting higher monthly bank account fees, higher ATM fees, and the elimination of debit reward programs.

Bank account fees are nothing new, nor are transaction fees. But being charged money simply to spend your own money via a debit card is a relatively new invention that deserves to be second-guessed. Account holders should also be vigilant of what kind of checking account they are enrolled in and what fees they are incurring.

We are now in the second decade of the 21st century and launching a small business presents new challenges and new opportunities. The economy is still in rough shape but there are fresh tools and venues at your disposal. So unpack the boxes you’ve hidden away at StorageMart, move into a small office, hire some business partners, and get cracking! No one becomes an entrepreneur overnight; you’ve got to work hard and experiment with many different business models. Start by making sure you’ve thoroughly tested the following methods for promoting your small business:

Blogging—In addition to a website, your small business should also have a blog. On that blog you should post updates about your products and services, as well as anything and everything related to conveying the story and mission statement of your business. Use search engine optimization, marketing, and link building campaigns to make your blog rise higher in page rank and on search engines. Small businesses with active, optimized blogs are much more likely to find core, loyal customers and investors.

Podcasts—Podcasts are becoming extremely popular as they are a good alternative to video content and are easily distributed through Internet radio sites and RSS feeds. Having a podcast for your small business is a great way to position yourself in niche communities and it’s essentially a free form of advertising. Podcasts also reach different markets of consumers that you might not normally be connected to.

Social media—Using social media is a must for your small business. Twitter, Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Pinteres are just a few of the most popular and the list goes on and on and will undoubtedly grow in the 2012. While each social media platform has their advantages and disadvantages, the common thread is the ability to aggressively network with thousands of people and get them talking about your business through clever marketing, discounts, and viral content. Social media is the advertising venue of the 21st century, so not having an online presence with it in mind is tantamount to building your business underground.

The bold new century is upon us and entrepreneurs, small business owners, self-employed professionals, and freelancers all need to be sure they’re utilizing the tools that our patron saints of technology have bestowed upon us. Blogging, podcasts, and social media offer incredible varieties of options and opportunities for people to fight back against the sluggish economy.