Create a personal finance spreadsheet to stay on top of money matters

As adults, one of the huge challenges we face today is how to balance a budget. We need to be able to create our own personal finance spreadsheet, and this is one of the first and foremost steps that you need to learn before you can tackle this challenge ahead of you.

You can simply start with a format and with just a few details, then you will be well under way to a life of financial organisation which will allow you to be more secure regarding money matters in the long haul.

Several methods are available with regards to creating your own personal finance spreadsheet. Making this decision on what method to use depends largely on your attitude and personality towards money matters.

A lot of people want to keep a record of their finances in Excel or some other related computer programme. This is excellent and definitely a great way to be organised while keeping a good personal finance spreadsheet which is even up to the level of the professionals.

Benefits

The programme Excel is simply amazing because it will allow you to do work from one clean template. So basically, you have a huge degree of control over your own personal finance spreadsheet because you can input data in whatever way you want.

A lot of us still do not have any idea on how to use the Excel programme. However, this is really quick and easy. All you really need is a few moments to master the programme and you will come out with great results.

Another programme you can use is something like Quicken which will also allow the creation of personal finance spreadsheets.

This programme is one of the best of its kind and is highly recommended for someone who is really serious about how to keep track of his money, both in his funds coming in and going out. In using Quicken, you will be able to create personal finance spreadsheet which will be even better than your accountant's. Those who really want to keep an up to the minute record of personal spendings will surely enjoy the idea of having a sound budget.

Since we do not like to spend more time on the computer than we have to, you really do not want to go home, and then get to work on your personal finance spreadsheet at the computer.

Thus, you can use an old fashioned pen and paper with regards to making a budget. Budget records of good quality are sold at office supply stores for those people with more traditional needs and wants.

One last thing to keep in mind regarding personal finance spreadsheets is that it is like a partnership wherein you have to keep the communication lines open.

No matter how great your own personal finance spreadsheet, it will not act as your clairvoyant. You still have to communicate well with your partner in this endeavour

FREE CALLS TO INDIA

You can now make free international calls to anywhere in the world.

You can use 1-800-FREE411 service to make calls irrespective of where you live

How to use 1-800-FREE411 to make free international calls from USA

1) You need to call a toll-free number, so if you call from Landline its a free call for you. Mobile calls could be charged.

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3) Call 18003733411 from your US Landline/Mobile. The operator will greet you with a welcome message and ask you to select one of the FREE411 service. The Last option is Free Call. You don't have to press any number or key to select but instead say FREE CALL loudly in your phone. This voice message will be read by their server and you will go to next step to actually make a free international call. Now they will run a short ad about 5 secs. When the ad stops, you can start dialing your international number in countycode+citycode (if any)+phone number format. Please do not press # or *, its not required. The call will be automatically placed to the desired number. The operator prompts your call is getting connected. Once connected you can talk for upto 5 minutes and then your call is disconnected.

To use 1-800-FREE411 from outside USA.

1) FREE411 service toll-free number is based in USA. All you have to do is to make a call to this toll-free number using one of the free calls to usa services like callingamerica , icall etc.

The best however is Yahoo Messenger-Voice. Yes, not many people know that Yahoo Voice can be used to make unlimited toll-free calls to any toll-free number in USA from anywhere in the world and you do not need a yahoo voice paid account.

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3) Now The operator will greet you with a welcome message and ask you to select one of the FREE411 service. The Last option is Free Call. You don't have to press any number or key to select but instead say FREE CALL loudly in your phone. you will go to next step to actually make a free international call. Now they will run a short ad about 5 secs. When the ad stops, you can start dialing your international number in countycode+citycode (if any)+phone number format. The call will be automatically placed to the desired number. The operator prompts your call is getting connected. Once connected you can talk for upto 5 minutes and then your call is disconnected.
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VOIP IN UAE - TRA in talks with Etisalat and Du

Good news mostly for expatriates in UAE

The United Arab Emirates' telecom regulator is in discussions with the country's two service providers to introduce VoIP, or voice-over-protocol services, Mohamed Al Ghanim the director general of the telecom regulatory authority said in an interview in Dubai.

The deadline for Etisalat and Du to agree on infrastructure sharing is the end of this year, he said.

Consumers will see a drop next year in internet charges as a result of the agreement, Al Ghanim said.

MAKE FREE CALLS TO INDIA during Diwali

Many VOIP Providers are offering free calls to India or cheap calls to India during festive season of Diwali.

LD VOIP Provider is offering 1 hour of free calling time added to your account on October 14th If you are a existing India LD user.

Now for all those who are not using India LD can register at India LD and could win a free 1 hour free calling account during this diwali promotion.
IndiaLD is giving away 10,000 accounts that each have an hour of free calling. You can use this special 1 hour account to make calls to India or any of the other 27 countries including in this India LD plan.
These accounts will be given out on a first come first serve basis starting on 10/14/09 and will be good for 14 days or until all the minutes are used up.

You can signup at India LD Today.

Free International Phone Calls with Zenring

You can make free international calls with Zenring

For Mobile to Mobile calls, you and your friends need a landline and need to buy Zenpals. Connect the Zenpal to the USB port of your PC and the other end to your landline. Your friends should do the same. Then you start mobile calling each other.

Zenring does not charge for the calls. You may have to pay your local phone company for the local portion of the call. The international portion of the call is free. In many cases the full call can be free.

You can also do PC to Mobile calls. The mobile side will need to connect a Zenpal to the USB port and the home landline.

Zenpals can be purchased from www.zenring.com. Login and click Store. Use Paypal or Credit Cards. You will receive the Zenpals in 7-10 business days.

visit support section in the website www.zenring.com for detailed information

Google offers millions of Dollars

Building a real time, user-reported news service might sound utopian but the idea is one among the 16 that could end up getting millions of dollars from internet major Google.

The company has shortlisted 16 ideas that has the potential to help the most number of people and up to five of them, would receive funds worth $10 million.

According to information available on its website, the project is a "call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible".

The 16 ideas such as building a real time, user-reported news service and making educational content free online, were shortlisted from thousands of ideas submitted by people from different parts of the world.

Going by the website, the firm would give $10 million to fund the implementation of as many as five ideas. As per descriptions available on the website, the user-reported news service would help people find and report timely, important local information.

"Implementation of this idea would involve creating a system that enables ordinary citizens to easily report news that's happening around them, from meaningful local events to important global stories," the website said.

Other ideas include creating genocide monitoring and alert system, promoting health monitoring and data analysis and building better banking tools for everyone.

The public can vote on these ideas till October 8.

EQUITY INVESTING - POINTS TO REMEMBER

The key objective of any kind of investment is optimizing wealth creation. This essentially means the rate of return should surpass the rate of inflation. Else, the actual value of investment made diminishes in net worth.

There are essentially two types of instruments for investment - equity and debt. Though debt instruments or other fixed income instruments like income funds, bonds etc offer consistent returns they may be outdone by inflation in the long run

. The known remedy to make capital surpass inflation is to invest in equity instruments. This helps investor grow their capital much faster and will help beat inflation inspite of sharp periods of decline. Equity investment refers to the buying and holding of shares of stock on a stock market by individuals and funds in anticipation of income from dividends and capital gain as the value of the stock rises.

Here are the top four factors in your 'points to remember' list.

1. Choose stocks based on the performance of the company

Collate historical data of the company in which you are planning to invest in and check their profit graph. They should be a minimum cap of around at least 20-25% on the returns from the capital invested by its shareholders.

Checking long term helps you assess the true value of the company while a shorter term of 6 months could just be a reflection of market mood rather than the solid foundation the company is based upon.

2. Strike the right balance and stick to it
a) It is essential to take a very disciplined approach towards your stock planning.

b) Be prepared to stumble over unexpected bumps when you start out or for that matter be prepared to be surprised from time to time as the volatility of the market is such.

c) The best results await those who participate in the long drawn out game that last well over a number of years to the tune of 10-12 years to be precise.

d) Strike a balance with your stocks, don't accumulate too many and then again don't invest in too little. A moderate diversification should be the key factor in striking this balance, i.e. perhaps say about 15 should be a good way to diversify for someone who wishes to stay invested in the long term.
e) Understand the companies you are invested in and also keep a tab of the trading volumes of a particular stock purchased. This will help you estimate the percentage of active participation in that stock and is also a test of its liquidity quotient.

f) Have a secure allocation plan in place, consult the experts and avoid temptation to buy too much into one single company.

3. Keep a tab and consistently evaluate the investments

Be in touch with every change that happens with regards to your stocks. During the lean times there might be good opportunities thrown up for the grabbing. Don't lose sight of those if it makes investment sense for you. Figure out how you buy low at such points in time.
Keep track of the stock worth in order to determine if key elements that prompted you to buy the stocks in the first place are still secure in place or if your earlier expectations have been undermined.

Keep track of the prices on your finance worksheet and subject them to a quarterly and yearly review. This will help you reassess and reallocate according your current risk capacity.

4. Errors are an individual's portals of discovery
Your experience with stocks may be a mixed bag of both good and bad. Store away good pointers from the things that worked for you and learn from the bad experiences in perfecting your investment skills. Begin the exciting journey of making your every penny count!

Godrej plans IPO for low cost housing in next three months

Godrej Properties Ltd, controlled by Indian billionaire Adi Godrej, plans an initial share sale in the next three months to fund low-cost housing projects.

Godrej Properties will sell a 10 per cent stake in the IPO, Godrej said in an interview in Mumbai yesterday. The company also plans to sell a 3.5 per cent stake to large investors before the IPO, he said.

Cheap mortgages and accelerating economic growth in the world's second-most populous nation are attracting home buyers in India, which has a shortage of 24.7 million housing units.

Godrej Properties is planning to build homes priced at as little as Rs1 million (Dh75,976), the chairman said.

FREE CALLS TO INDIA

Freecall2India are offering totally unlimited free calls to India and 70 other destinations without any registration or credit card requirement or other obligations.

Just dial the access number and you are connected, no password, PIN, security code, caller ID

HOw to use this service
1) Call the local access no.
If you are calling from
USA dial 631-763-1059
UK dial 0844-880-2451
For more access numbers visit the website

2)Select the language you want to use
3) Dial the destination Number in format Country code + Destination number (e.g. “919491234567”) without 011 or 00
You call will be connected instantly without any delay or Advertisement
No ads or call delay
Calls from UK to India costly because of access number.Don't try this from UK
No Registration required at anytime.

Call quality may or may not be that good.It is free so we cannot complaint.
Average call may last from 8 to 10 minutes or may be more.

FREE SMS to UAE, Kuwait, Saudi, India, Singapore, Philippines & Malaysia

You can send Free SMS to UAE, Kuwait, Saudi, India, Singapore, Philippines & Malaysia

Register an account with 160by2.com.

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ex: 601xxxxxxxx

SENSEX AT 15 MONTHS PEAK

Positive domestic and global cues pushed Sensex to the best closing mark in 2009, which was also its highest point in 15 months.

The index gained 2.09 per cent on Monday at 16,016.32 points, which is its highest closing point, going as far back as June 2, 2008. In fact, Sensex has almost doubled since it hit the year's low in March. For the current year, it is up 66 per cent.

More than the numerical addition to the indices, what has become of even greater value, according to traders, is the long and sustained rise to this high point, with hardly any blip in between. It also signifies a positive long-term investor sentiment, especially as the Oil India IPO today was subscribed with alacrity, within just 30 minutes of opening.

Sensex ended the day with a gain of 327.20 points or 2.09 per cent after touching an intra-day high of 16,035.50 (low was 15793.27 points).

On the National Stock Exchange Nifty ended the day up by 102.5 points, a gain of 2.19 per cent, to close at 4,782.90 points. Its high point was 4,790 points while the low that it registered was 4,679.30 points.

The star performers during the day were mostly from the mid- and small-cap space, with the BSE Midcap index itself up 2.31 per cent and BSE Smallcap index up by 2.83 per cent.

Tata Motors hit the upper circuit after gaining as much as 11 per cent and Reliance Com was up 6.6 per cent Among the other biggies to break into new territory were ICICI Bank and Jaipraksah Asso., up 6 per cent each, while Sterlite and DLF gained in excess of 5 per cent and Bharti Airtel, up 3.8 per cent.

Among the positive global cues that aided the rally in India were the fall in the rate of unemployment in the US. Japan's Nikkei gained in excess of 1 per cent, while European markets were also in the green.

Free Voip calling to India and other destinations

You can make free voip calls to India with voipuser and flaphone.

First register an account with voipuser. Then register an account with flaphone. Log into flaphone account; go to sip settings and use sip.voipuser.org as the sip server and enter your voipuser username and password.

Now using flaphone's web based sip phone (you don't have to download any thing) you can make free calls to India and other destinations.

Voice quality is also very good.

Try this and post your feedback.

Market tips for financially sound '09

The year 2008 has been quite turbulent for investors. From an all-time peak of 21,206 in January, the BSE Sensex plummeted by more than 50% to 9000 levels in December.

Networth of equity investors has halved. The global slowdown has also had its impact on the job sector, which has added to investors’ woes. Let’s take the example of a cloth merchant.

He bought a stock when it was just priced at Rs 3. Subsequently, the scrip rose to Rs 120 when his financial advisor asked him to sell the stock as it had no intrinsic value.

The artificial rise in the price, however, made him stick to the stock. Now, it’s trading at Rs 12. The biggest lesson the businessman learnt was every asset has a real value.
Kartik Jhaveri, a certified financial planner, says, “Whether it is real estate or stocks, there is a fair value. Some exuberance would have propped up the value of a stock worth Rs 100 to Rs 400 but that doesn’t mean the stock will touch Rs 800 for you to book profits in the future. Similarly, real estate prices move in line with inflation. If you have booked a flat worth Rs 10 lakh, you can expect an appreciation of 8% in a year. Anything in excess would be artificial, which would eventually crash.”

The year also taught you that things that look rosy can actually turn ugly in a short span.

“If you have a steady income, ensure you at least save 30% at all times. If the times are good, you can easily save up to 50% of your disposable income, which can be of help during a contingency,” Mr Jhaveri adds.

Another lesson learnt is to avoid over leveraging. This simply means if you can afford only a 2 BHK, stick to it. Till 2004-05, some banks were willing to finance 90% of the property value.
Now, it’s the borrowers’ headache to foot that expensive EMI at such turbulent times when their investments are underperforming.

At any point in time, a borrower should not borrow in excess of 70% of the house value. If you are planning to buy a house now, the loan-to-value ratio should be still lower at 60:40. That will give you additional flexibility to deal with your finances.

Also, it’s a bad idea to borrow for investing in stocks.

“Restrict your stock exposure to the personal funds you can use as no asset class can appreciate forever. Investors particularly borrowed to invest in IPOs. But investing in IPOs turned out to be the biggest joke in 2008,” says Amar Pandit, a certified financial planner.

Finally, remember what suits your best pal isn’t exactly what you need. If he entered the market around 10,000 and exited near the 15,000 mark after booking profits, you don’t have to adopt the same strategy.

You can build up your reserves now and capitalise on many more bull runs to come. However, the underlying assumption here is that you should stay invested up to at least 5 years to withstand the highs and lows.

Moreover, at such times, you should lock your money in instruments that have the least exit penalty. This flexibility is essential to encash for upcoming lucrative opportunities.