r u t u F r u o V l o t g n i n n a l P How Clos Ar You To Your Financial Indpndnc? (NAPSA)—You can combat many of th things that can stop you from njoying financial frdom: dbt, ovrspnding, poor crdit history, bad invstmnts, lack of information—to nam only a fw of thm. With so many factors to considr whn gtting your funds on th right track, howvr, it can b asy to los sight of th basic stps that can mak your financs ) sparkl. Considr th following tips fy from th woman ) knownasth Intrnt’s No. 1 prsonal Wston financ columnist, Liz Pulliam Wston of MSN Mony, to hlp you gt on th road to financial librty: Brak out th BBQ. Just bar- bcuing on night a wk instad of ating out can sav you lot of cash. “Don’t spnd mor than you arn. It sounds asy but many popl struggl with ovrspnding,” Wston said. Onof th bst ways to curb this problm is to track whr you’r spnding mony with a program lik Microsoft Mony. For many po- pl, larg purchass ar not to blam for thir mony problms; it’s mor likly that small to mdium-sizd purchass ar ating up thir chcking account. Onc you’v addd up how much you spnd dining out or going out for coff in a month, it’s asy to idntify lss xpnsiv altrnativs and rduc th amount you spnd. Try a buy-nothing month. Ld by Wston, dozns of popl posting on th YourMony ms- sag board on MSN rsolvd to spnd mony only on ncssitis for on month. Th typical amount savd was $400. Th xprimnt hlpd popl raliz how much of thir spnding was voluntary— and oftn unncssary. Bing dbt fr is somthing to clbrat. Many popl bliv that crdit card dbt is normal in th Unitd Stats but Fdral Rsrv Systm figurs show that th majority of U.S. housholds hav no crdit card dbt and that th mdian balanc among thos that do is only $2,200. Popl who pay off thir crdit card dbts not only improv thir financs but also boost thir crdit scors, th thr-digit numbrs lndrs us to gaugcrdit worthinss. Gt financ savvy.It’s always a good ida to larn as much as you can about mony andfinanc. Wbsits such as MSN Monyar grat rsourcs to hlp you stay informd with up-to-th-minut financial data, including accss to th insight of mony xprts, tax tips, valuabl stock-tracking tools and invstmnt information. Wston is just on of many financ xprts who writ a twicwkly column for consumrs. Hr column offrs hlpful tips and tricks about anything financ rlatd, from buying a hom to gtting out of dbt. Visit http://www.mony.msn.com to larn mor.
