{"id":181,"date":"2025-01-03T09:14:27","date_gmt":"2025-01-03T14:14:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/?p=181"},"modified":"2024-12-23T18:03:25","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T23:03:25","slug":"smart-start-in-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/?p=181","title":{"rendered":"Start Smart in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p>Let\u2019s face it, 2024 had been a very challenging year for everyone regardless of income level.\u00a0 As we prepare for 2025, let\u2019s start planning now in order to avoid some of the financial pitfalls encountered in 2024. For example, have you put off creating that emergency fund?\u00a0 Start planning now so that in January 2025, you\u2019ll have a game plan in place.\u00a0 Other things to think about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Check your withholding allowances on your pay statement.\u00a0 Don\u2019t give the government an interest free loan.\u00a0\u00a0 Use the free calculators on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bankrate.com\/\">bankrate.com<\/a> to assist you.<\/li>\n<li>Plan to pay more than the minimum on your credit card.\u00a0 This will help you avoid excessive interest fees.<\/li>\n<li>Develop the monthly budget. Start early and do it every month.\u00a0 Soon it will become a habit.<\/li>\n<li>Start using the personal finance software.\u00a0 A great choice is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mint.com\/\">mint.com<\/a>.\u00a0 This free software allows you to track your finances and even provides a weekly summary.<\/li>\n<li>Learn and start investing. My personal favorite is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sharebuilder.com\/\">sharebuilder.com<\/a>. This investing site is very user friendly and also has a section on investor education.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are just a few of suggestions on how to start the New Year on a financially sound basis.\u00a0 What are some of the other financial techniques that you will employ?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-182\" title=\"j0442969\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/j0442969.jpg\" alt=\"j0442969\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" \/><\/p>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Let\u2019s face it, 2024 had been a very challenging year for everyone regardless of income level.\u00a0 As we prepare for 2025, let\u2019s start planning now in order to avoid some of the financial pitfalls encountered in 2024. For example, have &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/?p=181\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,40,41,4],"tags":[6,39],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education","category-investing","category-personal-finance","category-savings","tag-personal-finance","tag-savings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":591,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fcallc.biz\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}