There are all kinds of ways to save money while going green. In fact, regardless of which is your primary goal (going green or saving money), you will find they complement each other nicely.
Here are some ways that going green can save you money.
Household Cleaners
If you ever stop to add it all up, you probably spend a significant amount of money on household cleaners, from toilet bowl cleaner to sink scrubber. There are concerns that the chemicals used in many of these cleaners are unhealthy, and, in the case of bleach and other substances, potentially carcinogenic.
As you green your lifestyle, it only makes sense to stop buying and using commercial household cleaners. You can make your own natural cleaners for a fraction of the cost, which saves you money while being green.
For example, baking soda made into a paste with water makes a good sink and bathtub scrubber, and can even be used to clean an oven. Combined with borax, a little liquid soap, and peppermint essential oil, baking soda becomes a cream scrubber.
Inexpensive white vinegar and water make a good floor cleaner for hardwood. Add a little lavender essential oil to the vinegar and water and wash your windows.
Personal Care Products
Beauty products can cost a great deal of money, and some of the ingredients are dubious. In fact, substances like parabens, found in many cosmetics, have been implicated in cancer. It's considered green to use natural personal care products, but that can be even pricier. Making your own is far less expensive and just as natural and healthy.
For a creamy, moisturizing cleanser for your face, mix 2 tablespoons of Greek yogurt with 1/2 teaspoon sweet almond oil and 1/2 teaspoon honey. To make an exfoliating cleanser, add ground, dried beans, ground nuts, or sugar.
Instead of spending a lot of money on shampoos and conditioners, mix 1 teaspoon of baking soda in a cupful of warm water and pour that over your head as a shampoo. Apple cider vinegar (2 teaspoons per cup of warm water) makes an effective conditioner.
In this article we have discussed some great ways you can save money while going green. So next time you go shopping, why not try some of the recipes mentioned in this article and see the results for yourself.
By: Randy Dehetre
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Planning Your Retirement - Low Risk
Retirement - the word means many things to many people. For most, it signifies freedom; freedom from the constraints of having to go to work somewhere five days a week and the necessity of living your life around the 40 hours per week you need to earn income. It means you now have the ability to do what you want, when you want, whenever you want. It also means that your reliable or steady income source from your job will be gone
So, let's say you're retired now. You can travel the world, devote more time to your interests and spend more time with family. Sounds like the prefect life, no? It can be, but one thing that does not change once you've entered retirement is the need for an income. You're still going to need to live, and the fact that you are no longer required to go to work Monday through Friday is likely going to emphasize the need for a reliable income source - you'll now have an additional 40 hours of living per week that you can fill any way you please and chances are, anything you can fill that additional time with will likely require money to do so.
Planning ahead is of course the only logical course for retirement. Securing your finances should be one of three goals any retiree should be looking at. The other two objectives are keeping your income growing and avoiding unnecessary financial risks. The first thing we'll look at is securing your finances.
The more you know about investing and the potential impact that different decisions can have on your invested capital, the better off and secure your financial plans for retirement will likely be. Retirement investing can vary drastically. It is feasible to invest in stocks, bonds, precious metals (gold, silver), oil, annuities and 401K. Playing the stocks or investing in bonds, while very worthwhile, does require an extensive amount of knowledge in order to understand exactly what you're doing and where you're potentially putting your money. This is compounded by the fact that fluctuations in the market are well beyond your control - there could be no worse feeling than seeing your money dwindle or completely vanish and knowing there is absolutely nothing you can do while it happens. Investing in precious metals is definitely a strong option as precious metals are exempt from capital gains taxes and have shown a strong tendency to rise in value during times of economic uncertainty due to war, inflation, deflation and dips in the stock market. Speak to your financial planner if this sounds like an option you may be interested in.
The other strong retirement investment option is annuities.
Annuities are insurance based products. They pay out an income and are a popular option for those seeking a steady income during retirement. They are simple enough to understand, basically, you purchase and make investments in the annuity. The annuity pays out at a later date, or in some instances, a series of future dates, depending on which type of annuity you choose to invest in. The actual payouts can be monthly, annually, or a lump sum. How much the payments are will depend on whether you have chosen to go with a guaranteed payout, which is classified as a Fixed Annuity, or, you can choose a predetermined payout schedule which is determined by your annuities underlying investments, also known as a Variable Annuity.
A major strength of annuities is that they enable the bearer to save large amounts of cash and defer paying taxes. And, unlike their financial cousins, the 401K and IRA's, they have no cap or limit as to how much you may contribute yearly. All the money that you contribute is compounded without any yearly taxes. As mentioned above, you can opt to have all of the money you've invested paid out at once, or you can set up a schedule that will spread the payouts over time. Spreading the payouts over time is a popular choice as it can be structured to maintain cash flow exactly the same way you did when you were drawing a salary and paycheck - you could segue way into retirement and never skip a beat cash-wise, essentially.
Increasing life expectancies have also bolstered the case for choosing annuities as a part of your financial retirement planning, since the rate of return on an annuity payout will improve as the annuity holder's age increases.
Future articles will delve into how to avoid risks and options for growing your retirement income.
By: Ryan O'donnell
So, let's say you're retired now. You can travel the world, devote more time to your interests and spend more time with family. Sounds like the prefect life, no? It can be, but one thing that does not change once you've entered retirement is the need for an income. You're still going to need to live, and the fact that you are no longer required to go to work Monday through Friday is likely going to emphasize the need for a reliable income source - you'll now have an additional 40 hours of living per week that you can fill any way you please and chances are, anything you can fill that additional time with will likely require money to do so.
Planning ahead is of course the only logical course for retirement. Securing your finances should be one of three goals any retiree should be looking at. The other two objectives are keeping your income growing and avoiding unnecessary financial risks. The first thing we'll look at is securing your finances.
The more you know about investing and the potential impact that different decisions can have on your invested capital, the better off and secure your financial plans for retirement will likely be. Retirement investing can vary drastically. It is feasible to invest in stocks, bonds, precious metals (gold, silver), oil, annuities and 401K. Playing the stocks or investing in bonds, while very worthwhile, does require an extensive amount of knowledge in order to understand exactly what you're doing and where you're potentially putting your money. This is compounded by the fact that fluctuations in the market are well beyond your control - there could be no worse feeling than seeing your money dwindle or completely vanish and knowing there is absolutely nothing you can do while it happens. Investing in precious metals is definitely a strong option as precious metals are exempt from capital gains taxes and have shown a strong tendency to rise in value during times of economic uncertainty due to war, inflation, deflation and dips in the stock market. Speak to your financial planner if this sounds like an option you may be interested in.
The other strong retirement investment option is annuities.
Annuities are insurance based products. They pay out an income and are a popular option for those seeking a steady income during retirement. They are simple enough to understand, basically, you purchase and make investments in the annuity. The annuity pays out at a later date, or in some instances, a series of future dates, depending on which type of annuity you choose to invest in. The actual payouts can be monthly, annually, or a lump sum. How much the payments are will depend on whether you have chosen to go with a guaranteed payout, which is classified as a Fixed Annuity, or, you can choose a predetermined payout schedule which is determined by your annuities underlying investments, also known as a Variable Annuity.
A major strength of annuities is that they enable the bearer to save large amounts of cash and defer paying taxes. And, unlike their financial cousins, the 401K and IRA's, they have no cap or limit as to how much you may contribute yearly. All the money that you contribute is compounded without any yearly taxes. As mentioned above, you can opt to have all of the money you've invested paid out at once, or you can set up a schedule that will spread the payouts over time. Spreading the payouts over time is a popular choice as it can be structured to maintain cash flow exactly the same way you did when you were drawing a salary and paycheck - you could segue way into retirement and never skip a beat cash-wise, essentially.
Increasing life expectancies have also bolstered the case for choosing annuities as a part of your financial retirement planning, since the rate of return on an annuity payout will improve as the annuity holder's age increases.
Future articles will delve into how to avoid risks and options for growing your retirement income.
By: Ryan O'donnell
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