I knew the issue of withdrawing money during a down market is real because when the money is taken out of the account it is no longer available to help recover when the market eventually turns positive. In addition, I wanted to know what the best asset allocation would be to weather the storm of a down market.

There are only a few sources in the literature that deal with the issue of retirement withdrawals. These models tend to be extremely conservative. They severely restrict the money you can withdraw in order to be statistically certain that your money will last.

I was looking for a more realistic model for examining the impact of withdrawals on retirement savings accounts. I realize that there are no guarantees of future performance. Nevertheless an examination of past performance and a look at how major market downturns impacted that performance seemed like a prudent approach to understanding how to optimize my withdrawals.

We constructed the Retirement Calculator based on these historical scenarios. We examined the last fifty years of stock and bond performance. The calculator begins with the 1973/1974 market downturn and continues thru the most recent major downturn of 2000/2002. Both of these downturns were significant with stocks falling more than 40 percent.

The Retirement Calculator assumes you were unfortunate and began withdrawing money in 1973 for a period of 30 years. The calculator looks at various asset allocation strategies between stocks and bonds and shows you the optimum asset allocation for managing your money thru these downturns. It shows the optimum withdrawal rate so that your money has a reasonable chance of lasting a lifetime.

The calculator also includes additional features. The inflation factor allows you to adjust your withdrawals to compensate for annual inflation. For those who invest in mutual funds or employ a financial advisor a feature is included for reducing investment performance to account for the management fees that are included in these services.

The Retirement Calculator shows that using just the historical long term average return for market performance can lead to erroneous results. There is definitely an impact from withdrawing money from your account during market downturns. The greatest value of the calculator is that it shows you that you don’t have to live in fear of major market downturns. You can withdraw a significant amount from your savings even though the market is falling.

The calculator shows you that you can successfully withdraw significant amounts from your account by using asset allocation to weather those market downturns.

Robert J. Phillips
Chief Retirement Consultant

Here’s a look at the four rings that land you there.

Ring #1: Credit Cards

Most Americans rack up credit card debt. It’s so easy to whip out the plastic for items like gum on up to Christmas gifts. Once you replace cash with plastic your 401K can dwindle like sand in an hour glass.

The average U.S. household carries $9,840 in credit card debt as of 2007. This is up 25% since 2000. Let me ask you a question. What can $9,840 do for your retirement each year? With the power of compound interest you’d be sitting on top of 7 figures for your golden years! But it’ll never see the light of day if you keep relying on credit cards.

The current financial mess has caused an increase in credit card delinquencies. The American Bankers Association reports that credit card delinquencies rose to 4.51% in the first quarter of 2008. This beat the five year average of 4.4%!

Let’s say you open a 15 year 401K with $9,840. If you make an average salary of $40,000, earn an annual 3% salary increase and invest 5% of your salary, here’s what will happen. With an employer match of 50%, and a 9% compound interest rate you’ll end up with $140,067.78! Stretch that out to 30 years or more and you’ll hit 7 figures for your retirement.

If you’re relying on credit cards during the credit crunch, your hopes of a fat 401K are dying by the interest point.

Ring #2: Pay Day Loans

Okay, okay. I’m as guilty as the next retirement hopeful on this one. If you haven’t fallen into this little trap, don’t follow in my footsteps. It took several months to get out of this and I won’t be back.

The Center for Responsible Lending reports that the pay day loan industry sucks $3.4 billion out of our wallets each year. Did you know 91% of pay day loans goes to folks who take one out 5 or more loans per year?

When you need some quick cash it’s easy to run down to your local loan shark, I mean pay day loan center. On the surface everything seems fine. You hand over your banking and employment information and they hand you cash. It’ll be conveniently taken out of your account on pay day. But in reality you’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Guess what? You’re Peter!

This is how the cycle worked for me. I’d get a pay day loan for $800. The fee cost me $95. Yes, I had real cash in my hand, but the $800 plus $95 was coming out in a week. The money got me by, but things came up and I needed more money. With loans and fees ranging from $595-$895 coming out of my account, it caused a “loan roulette.” With creativity and patience that money could’ve went to my 401K.

Let’s use this same formula for $595 being invested yearly. With employer matches and compound interest, your 401K will rake in $106.393.03 after 15 years!
Stay away from this path of quick cash. Just like a casino in Vegas the house always wins.

Ring #3: Check Roulette

The banking industry has been working on a hot scheme for the past ten years. It’s called the “overdraft fee.” Banks offer clients the convenience of covering bounced checks. It’s supposed to cover essentials like a car or mortgage payment. But the fees can add up. Most fees range from $20-$50. But the scheme works in favor of the banks. They’ll pay a large ticket item like your rent. Then smaller checks for gas, clothes or a night out on the town will bounce. The bank “comes to the rescue” and pays these items for a fee.

You’re responsible for the amount of each check bounced and the overdraft fee. You might be able to get away with this for awhile. But unexpected expenses come up. When you’re writing checks hoping they’ll be covered by the bank, it’s called “check roulette.” Sometimes the ball lands in your favor. And other times it won’t.
Banks don’t have to tell you how often their fees go up. They can also give your account a “false balance.” This is when the overdraft protection limit is higher than the actual balance. It looks like you have more money than you really do.

Constant overdraft charges can snatch $4,000-$6,000 a month from your account. In the end your 401K has less money to make it grow. Using the formula above your retirement will be worth $118,795.68.

Risk your money on your 401K rather than check roulette.

Ring #4: Overspending

If you don’t understand money or how to manage it, this trap is easy to fall into. Have you ever asked yourself why you spend money? Do you do it to feel better? Or do you believe you deserve something “special?” There’s no doubt you’ve work hard for your money. Blowing it on things that won’t help you enjoy your golden years is not worth it. To find out if you’re overspending, carry a small notepad and pen for a week. Every time you buy something write down the cost. When I first did this I discovered I was spending $25 a week on snack food! Think of what $100 into your 401K can do for your retirement.

Ring #5: Debt

That’s right my friend, the big “D”! America is carrying $2.6 trillion in consumer debt. If you’re drowning in debt having enough money to enjoy retirement won’t happen. There are plenty of sad stories of those who can never retire. Instead they have to hold down a job to make ends meet. How do you wrestle your 401K money from this 5th ring?

First, start paying yourself. No one has worked harder for your money than you. Have $25-$100 per paycheck automatically sent to a savings account. When it reaches $5,000, roll 10% into your 401K. Its money you won’t see until “Retirement Day.” While you’re leaving it alone your 401K will grow.

Second, get a reality check. Sit down and list out your monthly expenses. These will include your mortgage, car payment, groceries, utilities, etc. Find categories where you can save money. When we realized we were blowing $150 a month on tanning and gym memberships, we got an apartment with both at no charge.

Third, make a budget. If it weren’t for our electronic check register, we’d be financially blind! A budget is a warning sign to not go over the edge. It’s okay to set aside some “mad money” for fun activities. But budget for it. A budget keeps you from overspending.

Fourth, get all the help you can. I hesitate to recommend debt relief agencies. Some are as predatory as pay day loan centers. There are many good books on the subject. If you’re looking for something radical, I’d highly recommend “The Total Money Makeover”, by Dave Ramsey. He has a hot plan for getting out of debt fast! Another great read is “Money, Everything You Need to Manage Your Personal Finances Wisely”, by Peter Sander, M.B.A. Read as many books on debt management and personal finance as you can. And of course you can always read articles on our sites.

Escaping the 5th ring of financial hell will ensure a fat 401K for your retirement.

Clyde McDade is a Financial Copywriter. He can be reached at accelcs@comcast.net.

The amazing thing is that there are many places online that can use your love letter writing skills. The avenue that you choose to display your skills and make money out of them will depend on the amount of time you have , your technical abilities, talent and whether you work is your own or from famous love story and poetry books. So based on these factors you can take the following recourses to make money from your love letter writing skills.

Writing a love letter is not difficult. Once you gather your thoughts and follow these simple steps to express the way you feel in a love letter you will know how to do it.

Here is how:

1. Clear your desk and your mind of distractions. If you love someone enough to craft this letter, he or she deserves your full attention.
2. Place a picture of the one you love in front of you.
3. Put on your favorite music.
4. Take out your best letter writing stationery and pen.
5. On another sheet of letter paper, make two lists: a) the unique qualities you love about him/her; b) your hopes for the future together.
6. Personalize the love letter salutation. “Dear ___ ,” or “To my darling _____,” are both fine.
7. In the body of the love letter, begin by telling him/her what you think makes him/her so special. List at least three different qualities of the one you love in the letter, ideally emotional, physical, and spiritual ones.
8. In the following paragraph of your love letter, share your hopes and dreams for the future you can have together.
9. Personalize the closing of the letter. “I will love you always,” “Loving you forever,” “My heart is yours,” are all good possibilities.
10. Avoid thinking about what you don’t want or don’t have. Since you create your own reality through your thoughts, beliefs, and expectations, focusing on bad stuff just attracts bad stuff to you.
11. By focusing on the positive, you’re just plain going to have a happier brain. Regular consistent love letter writing keeps the creative juices flowing, not just on paper but in real life. This ritual deliberately focuses your attention on what you love, and through the law of attraction creates more of the same, more of that good stuff.

There are any content banks online that will be happy to get a hold of your romantic writings. A content bank is nothing but an online library that has articles, writings, books etc from various writers. When a webmaster, magazine or newsletter editor is looking for suitable content he/ she may sift through the writings available at content bank and then buy the one that they may find appropriate. If you would like your work to be displayed at a content bank you will need to register with them. One such popular content bank is Constant Content. Once you register with them they will hold the love letters for you and display them to interested buyers but you can only get paid when the rights of your work are transferred to the buyer. This particular content bank has a very good record of selling love letters so you may want to consider registering with them.

The other option is to launch your own love letter website. Don’t worry about the humongous cost of setting up a website because you can host a site these days for less than $10 a month and this fee includes free software that help you to design the sites. Once you have your website in place you can use it to offer visitors a sample of your work, by letting them read a part of the love letters just to whet their appetite and offer to sell the letters for a price. You would be surprised at the number of takers you can get. There are other ways to increase the popularity of your website this includes, blog and forum posts, article marketing, SEO etc. You can also make money with your love letter writing site by registering with Google Adsense so that each time somebody clicks on one of the ads displayed on your site you make money out of it. You should also consider offering your services for custom written love letters

The third way is t go to revenue sharing sites like Xomba or Hubpages. These sites allow writers to submit any or every written content. They will not only display your work but will also take care of placing the appropriate ads on the page. The money made when a visitor clicks on one of the displayed ads will be shard by the site and the writer. So using a revenue sharing site is a good way to have your work displayed without spending a dime for it and yet make money even if you don’t get takers for your love letters.

You may also want to consider starting your own love letter writing blog. There are several sites that let you have your own blog. Once you have a considerable fan following you could use it to generate profit through affiliate marketing. Over all writing love letters to make money qualifies as one of the hippest online money making opportunities.

There’s a considerable assortment of strategies you are able to adapt, from paid advertising to affiliate marketing. Even so, just about all of these methods require payment. All the same, there are methods to advertise your website plus boost your web traffic without expenditure. Publishing articles is among the better website promotion strategies you are able to employ and they can be really potent. You might ask,How could writing articles help better your web traffic? Here are the top 7 ways in which it can assist in exploding your business.

1.Contact many people

When you compose expert articles, it would be a pity never to share them. You are able to place your articles on your website or you can submit them to different web sites for example e-zines and online publishers. Through submitting your articles to these places, you get exposure not just for your ideas but also for your site. Just include a hyperlink back to your website or include selective information in the resource box. By this, you acquire exposure and free advertising. Submit your articles to hot e-zines and capitalize on their popularity. Further web sites which find your article relevant might also hyperlink back to you. Therefore, you boost your link popularity, which constitutes one of the most vital strategies in cyberspace. Many people are searching for data online and by meeting this need with your expert article, you might gain the benefit of extra exposure and much more web traffic.

2.Free Advertising

Submitting your articles to other sites gives you a chance to advertise your website without paying exorbitant fees. Though you should keep away from marketing terminology in your articles and keep them helpful and of value to your readers, you will be able to include your web site link in the resource box. Additionally, by creating an article relevant and informative to your readers, you’re creating a great impression for your site, which can in the end result in a visit and maybe a purchase. Good quality content within an article is far better and more powerful than a couple of lines of advertising space. You’ve a very special chance to presell your product and/or service to your potential client.

3.Earn top SE Ranking

Produce a new web page for your article on your website. Optimise your article to make it SE friendly. Employ top-ranked keywords and Meta tags that can give your site a high SE ranking. When you upload your new webpage to your server, search engines will spider through it and you will be able to get an increase in SE ranking. Remember that search engine optimized content is a really useful strategy to get a top rating in search results.

4.Increases Link Popularity

Rather than searching for other websites who would like to set up reciprocal links with your website, you are able to just submit an article to one other website, don’t forget to include a hyperlink to your website within your resource box. Once these sites pick out and publish your article, you automatically acquire a link partner. Attempt to find as many link partners as you are able to. Link popularity is among the factors applied by search engines in deciding SE rankings. Make your article specially helpful and appealing, therefore more websites will be pleased to publish it.

5.Optimize your web site for better SE rating

From creating your web site keyword rich, you can significantly improve the SE ranking of your web site. Remember the keyword density is one of the most significant elements that SEs apply when deciding the search engine ranking of web site. Nevertheless, you should at all times offer relevant, usable and appropriate information. Keep away from the temptation of overusing keywords merely to acquire a high ranking as this might put off many internet surfers. Relevancy plus quality is always the most crucial thing to think about whilst writing articles and it will be twice as valuable to your web site if you create these articles SE optimised.

6.Builds a Good Impression and Reputation

By composing first-class, original and relevant articles, you not only get your web site exposure but you are also making a good impression on your visitors. Encouraging additional people to visit your web site and do business with you by building an impressive reputation by your articles. Be viewed as an expert in your area and you will in the end acquire more clients enthusiastic to do business with you.

7.Raises your credibility by references and testimonials

Your articles are bound to receive feedbacks and testimonials once you publish them in e-zines and on free article websites. Record these positive feedbacks and remarks and employ them as promotional material on your website and/or within any of your advertising campaigns. Your credibility can be significantly enhanced by this feedback, because it will make a great impression on your visitors in addition to your present clients. In this extremely competitive world, first-class credibility and trust might be the only things you require to draw in fresh clients or make loyal supporters out of your existing clients. Original, valuable and relevant articles are all important tools that you should employ to improve and explode your business

The first thing is for you to run your own website. It’s imperative for you to own your own website when looking at affiliate marketing as your paid work.

Secondly, prospective clients in the first place go to sites where they can search and sometimes buy the products that they were looking at and for this reason it is much easier for them to remember a simple URL that you are using rather than a clumsy affiliate link and from that URL you can just direct to your prospects to the affiliate page that is on your website.

Another thing to remember is to have your own advert. Often affiliates marketers publish the same ad being used by other advertisers. In which case, you could email the owner of the affiliate program requesting permission to make your own ads. This way, people may not be as immune to the advertising, as sometimes seeing the identical adverts time and time again, may just make your potential clients skip over your advert all together. Besides, your main aim is to draw in or encourage people to click on and read your ads and then be interested enough to click through your website.

The next step is to have some products of your own that are exclusively available via your site. When you have your website running, it’s useful to have a few products or services which your clients can’t locate on other affiliates web sites. You want your clients to keep on returning to your web site and the best means to do that is to deliver something on your web site which they can’t locate from other people.

Being an affiliate marketer you must then decide on a certain market section where you are able to get either potential leadership or at the least a solid challenger role.

I know there will be some out there  who will not believe me when I say they pay so well,as for some,they do not.What many do not understand is that BidVertiser ,like almost all 3rd Party Ad sources,have different “feeds”or levels if you wish,and an ad clicked on your site may pay you much more then the same ad clicked on my site.

Bidvertiser on the other hand has their own client base and can be is more fair than that;in fact from what I can determine,they have a minimum of eight levels of pay,and perhaps more.

What you are paid per click depends on many things,though the first thing is the category of your site.Second and third place are a toss up between design of your site and who owns it.I will emphasize below as most are not aware of this and cost themselves hundreds of dollars a year in the belief they are saving $20.00

All of the advertisers pay considerably less or give lower paying ads to free blogs and other free hosted sites.If your page is unable to obtain page rank,such as Blogspot,or Freeweb (or any other such place) then you are always going to earn less.For anyone who feels that they can not afford their own domain and hosting,perhaps this knowledge will help you change your mind.

A third condition deciding on your rate of pay at BidVertiser,and almost all others for that matter,is the design of your site and the layout of where your ads are located.I see blogs all the time that have a whole screen of ads before anyone can even see the title,others with a huge picture or banner filling the whole screen before you see any ads.

In the eyes of the paying advertiser both are totally wrong and just by those factors the publishers are lowering their epc.(earnings per click)

Proper neat design,with original content on a self owned domain is,for any ad agency, a preferred venue;with BidVertiser it could mean doubling your income.Also,after you first join you may well find your epc rise as they find the right fed level for your traffic,seldom will they ever lower you-unless of course you show signs of fraudulent clicks=.

This is all assuming that your traffic of course is proper,and you do not have any of your ad sites on manual traffic exchanges,or heaven forbid a click exchange such as gimmieclicks.com.(gee what a good name;they would never guess it was a fraud click site.)

Fortunately those sort seems to all but disappeared,as they are self destroying.

It may seem as I have gotten off topic,as this information pertains to all ad sources,however I choose to share it here on BidVertiser because with their many different pay levels they are a perfect example of why those things are of such importance.

Realize that although this idea might not apply specifically to you—at least at the present time—it certainly will apply to many readers. Moreover, even if it does not apply to your particular situation, it is worth thinking through anyway, because you certainly have many friends and associates it does apply to and you will be able to share it with them. I am going to explain this idea to you as if you were a married person with a family to support and you are either the sole breadwinner or an important contributor. Now one of the principal reasons for wanting the amount of money you desire is to provide for your family, and not just in an adequate manner.

After all, you want them to live life to its fullest. Realize, therefore, that as long as you live and are able to follow the plan outlined in this book, you will be able to do as you want with respect to your family. However, if you really stop and think about it, you will very likely agree that you would want your family to live “the good life,” even if you were suddenly removed from the picture—wouldn’t you? Jokingly you might say, “No, who cares if I’m gone.” But this is not a joking matter. This is a very serious matter. Of course you care—I know it and so do you! Now, if you’re alive and healthy, you will create this wealth for your estate. But what if you die or are permanently disabled? Well, our society has taken care of that situation as well; we have “Life Insurance” and we have “Disability Insurance.”

But, let’s get back to your thinking again—you might be saying to yourself, “Life insurance, what a rip-off. This guy Bob Proctor really doesn’t know where he is coming from.” Well, let me tell you, that when it comes to life insurance, I believe I can claim to be an authority of sorts—for I have conducted seminars for the insurance industry for almost ten years, and I have had close to 50,000 people from that industry “go through” my seminars. Therefore, I can assure you, that when I say approximately 95% of the people whom you talk to are almost completely ignorant when it comes to the subject of insurance, I am not “talking through my hat.” Granted, many of these people hold important positions in business and industry, in government, or in the professions, and because of their positions, it would be very easy to just assume they know “of whence they speak.”

But the sad fact of the matter is, many of them are either badly misinformed or completely uninformed when it comes to the important subject of life insurance. Understand this—there is no way to replace your income and create a certain and instant estate other than life insurance; and statistics indicate that although most people are insured, the vast majority of people (at least 90%), are dangerously underinsured. That is to say, when they die, most people leave behind only enough money to pay for their funeral and possibly enough money to cover their family’s living expenses for one year!

The unfortunate part is, that for a relatively small sum of money, these people could have had their financial affairs set up in such a way that if something did happen to them, their financial goals would be reached by their families automatically. Since this book is designed to help you reach a substantial, financial goal, I felt duty-bound to include the information on life insurance. The book could not be complete without it. (Keep in mind there are only two ways to earn money: people at work, or money at work.) You will be happy to know the remainder of this book is designed for the person who is going to LIVE,.

For you to answer this question, it would probably be a good idea for you to decide what you want the money for. But to simply say, “I want the money to live on,” is not good enough. You should realize our society is structured in such a way that the government will “keep you.” In fact, in most places, they will even mail a check to you—you can sit at home and still receive a “living wage.” At this point you are probably saying to yourself, “Oh yes, I know that, but I want to live better than that.” Well, let’s get specific—how much better? Bearing in mind that this kind of an exercise is going to require some serious planning on your part, get out a sheet of paper and draw up a list of all the “things,” or “activities,” that you plan to spend money on over the course of the next year. To assist you in getting started with your list, I have outlined several sample categories below: Food, Rent/Mortgage, Clothes, Automobile, Utilities, Education, Vacations, Recreation, Insurance, Savings. Understandably, these are just a few of the many possibilities; so keep working on your own list until it is complete! And remember, you do not fill in the amounts you are now spending. Rather, you take each item on the list, visualize how you want to live and then fill in the amount of money it will cost you to do so.

For example, you might only go out to a nice restaurant to dine on very special occasions, but you might visualize yourself spending a very enjoyable evening out for dinner once a week, where the service is excellent, the food is even better, and the environment is fit for royalty. How much would that cost? — that is the figure you’re looking for. You could be driving a car that is getting old and is showing signs of rust, but you might visualize yourself driving a brand new car of your choice, that you trade every year or two. How much would that cost? Remember, you do not have a contract to live forever, nor is this a practice run—this is your life and you should be enjoying it to the fullest extent humanly possible! Therefore, you should have the amount of money you need, to provide the things you want, to live the way you choose to live. Let me caution you—it would not be unusual for your mind to be playing tricks on you at this point.

You could be thinking, “This is really crazy. I’m never going to have the money to live the way this book suggests.” I want to remind you, however, that there are many people who do have enough money to live the way this book suggests—and they weren’t born with it—and no one left it to them. They were “Born Rich” in the sense of having the God-given potential to succeed (everyone is), but like most people, they were at one time short of money. Understand that you too can succeed, and you will, if you will only do as this book suggests. As I am writing this, I feel compelled to digress for a few lines, to remind you that you have great resources of talent and ability locked up, within you, just waiting to be expressed. In this vein, I can vividly recall listening to a tape a number of years ago, that Earl Nightingale made on “Attitude.”

I must have listened to that tape literally hundreds of times and there was a part on it where he said, “Now, right here we come to a rather strange fact. We tend to minimize the things we can do, the goals we can reach, and yet, for some equally strange reason, we think others can do things that we cannot.” Earl went on to say, “I want you to know that that is not true. You do have deep reservoirs of talent and ability within you, and you can have the things you want.”

I wouldn’t even want to speculate on how many times I heard that section, without really understanding what he meant; and then one day I heard it, and every cell in my brain seemed to resonate with the truth of what he said. I suddenly realized what he was “driving at” and I knew deep down inside of me, if they can do it, so can I, if I am willing to pay the price. Please understand you too can do it, because what Earl had to say is as true of you as it was of me. But part of the price for you, is to figure out …

From this you will probably have already increased your disposable income a little already.

But perhaps you are still struggling to find enough to pay all your creditors because you still have a shortfall on your budget and need to fill that gap? Maybe your budget is so tight that you worry you will find it difficult to maintain.

Or it could be that you have a little to pay all your debts but you would like to pay more in order to reduce the overall amount of time it will take you to repay them.

Maybe you just want to increase your income a little more in order to ease the pressure or to save.

Whatever your situation let’s take a look at some more options to help raise money or increase your income.
Welfare Benefits
You should begin by finding out if you are entitled to any welfare benefits that you are not currently receiving.

In the UK, for example, If your income is low you may be entitled to Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit that would help with your housing costs.

If you do not live in the UK you might contact your local government, welfare or benefit office, or search the web to see what benefits are available in your area.

You might be entitled to help with your child care costs if you are working. Once again if you in the UK and are working on a low income you may be entitled to Tax credits.

It is worthwhile applying for any benefits that you might be entitled to even of you think that you will not receive very much. When you are working to get out of a debt situation, every little bit helps, believe me.
Employment
Do you have some spare time in the evenings, weekends, or during school hours? If so, an obvious way to increase your income on a regular basis is to consider finding a part-time job.

Or does your current job offer the possibility of overtime, if so, could you do a few more hours?

If you are not earning enough from your current employer, you could consider looking for another position that would pay better. Keep your eyes open for higher paid opportunities and actively search by using the internet, buying newspapers and reading the jobs section, and registering with local job and employment agencies.

Sometimes working as a temporary employee through an agency pays a better hourly rate than a permanent position. Of course, there are downsides to this such as no sick pay, maternity, or holiday entitlements; no company pension (although many of those are not by any means guaranteed these days anyway); and you are not guaranteed to be working every week.

However, I have a couple of friends who work through employment agencies on supposedly ‘temporary’ contracts who do very well, they work almost every week of the year and remain with the same employer for very long terms, so it might be worth considering, especially if you are currently out of work, building a part-time business or not concerned with long-term security.

Would re-training help?

Look for night classes, college courses, or free training days that might give you the qualifications or experience needed to improve your job or promotion prospects.

If you are looking to further your career, change jobs or simply find a job, you could increase your chances of success by visiting the e-Resumes website to learn how best to create a good CV or resume, present yourself for jobs and other tips.

Your Home
If you own your own home and have a spare room, perhaps you could increase your income every month by considering letting it out to help with costs.

If this sounds interesting but you are unsure about taking permanent or long-term lodgers then you could look into the possibility of student exchange programs or short term lets.

Self-Employment
Do you have any skills that you could employ to create a small part-time business (home typing; gardening; babysitting; crafts; coaching or tutoring, etc? Or you could try joining a reputable and established network marketing programme.

Perhaps you spend a lot of time at home and use a computer. How about building a website to help create a passive income source? You could sell your own goods and services or you could make use of affiliation programs related to your passion or hobby to increase your income.

This website was created using SBI which I highly recommend as it not only offers all the tools you require, but it also provides education on all aspects of your website from providing content and building pages to optimization and much more. It also provides a wealth of tools to help you get your website listed, to get the best from keywords and templates. If you are new or inexperienced this is an ideal way to build a professional website and even experienced webmasters use the SBI system.

For more information on SBI click here.

There is more advice and tips on working from home at “Work From Home Advice for You” . Take a look.
Sell Your Unwanted Items
You could raise some cash by clearing out your home and collecting up your unused or unwanted items such as CD’s, books, electrical goods, clothing, extra furniture and furnishings, etc, to sell off.

You could hold a garage sale, advertise in a local shop, sell at a car boot sale, or advertise on a reputable auction site such as eBay.

Of course, unless you are a massive magpie, this will not increase your income on a regular basis, but it could raise a lump sum or two that you could use to towards your debts or savings.

And whenever you have a clear out in the future don’t blindly throw away unwanted items, always think about whether you could raise some cash by putting it up for auction or collect towards your nest car boot sale. I’ve even seen many broken items advertised on eBay for spares and repairs, so you never know - one person’s junk is often another’s treasure.
Other Creative Ideas
If you are really stuck and don’t have many other options here is a slightly more creative way to increase your income, even if it’s only by a small amount - it’s relatively painless and free.

If you have a savings account, preferably with a reasonable interest rate some online accounts give good rates), you could put aside the money for your bills each month then arrange to have your bill payments go out at a set date and make some interest on those bills before you pay them.

For example, the majority of my income comes in early in the month usually, so I deposit my expenses into my savings account and arrange for my bills to be paid at the end of the month.

This means that I am getting interest on that money for almost a month before I pay it out. It may not seem a fortune, but it adds up, so if you leave the interest in there and only withdraw back out the amount you need to cover those bills (or have them paid directly from your savings account if you have that facility) then the interest will also attract interest and over time you could build up a small sum that you would not otherwise have had.

And the beauty of it is that you built this little pot from money that you would normally be putting straight into your creditors’ pocket. Sweet!
And finally…
I hope these ideas to increase your income have whetted your appetite. You may have found something here that is just what you were looking for or perhaps these suggestions have helped inspire some thoughts of your own.

Whatever your own situation I sincerely hope that this series has been useful to you and that you will be able to make use of some of the suggestions to help get your finances back on track and get yourself debt-free.

It may take some discipline and some time but it will be well worth it for your pocket and your peace of mind. Read more tips here