Jason Butler, Author at Dinks Finance

About Jason Butler

Jason Butler is an Atlanta native, as well as businessman, blogger and teacher. Not only is Jason a prolific flipper, marketer, writer and side hustler his number of years in higher education and student support have given him expert knowledge in understanding the economics of the student loan industry.

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Investing in DRIPs

Posted on September 21, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler 3

I recently wrote an article on ways that you can invest in the stock market without that much money. I have another way that you can invest. Have you ever heard of Direct Investment Plans (DRIPs)?

DRIPs

DRIPs are a direct investment account that allows you to purchase shares in companies without the help of a broker or financial intermediary. DRIPs have been around since the 1960s. A lot of businesses offer DRIPs. These plans allow you to reinvest the dividends to buy more shares of the stock. There are general advantages to investing through DRIPs.

Cost Effective

Many people want to invest, but they lack the funds to do so. With DRIPs, you don’t need a large amount of money to get started. You can start investing in DRIPs by owning just one or two shares. Seriously, that’s all you need.

Long Term

DRIPs allow investors to buy stock and hold on to it. As a result, the investors start to think long term and often invest in small amounts of money on a regular basis. Several companies offer the option to make periodic DRIP investments through automatic debits.

Low Transaction Fees

DRIPs have lower transaction fees than other investment opportunities.

Let’s say you have $500 to invest. If you were to purchase shares in the S&P 500, you’d be looking at a transaction cost of $50.00 through Vanguard. Fifty dollars on an investment of $500 is 10 percent. You would immediately lose 10 percent of your investment if you directly purchased your funds through a brokerage account. On the other hand, an equivalent investment in a DRIP security would cost you maybe 8 – 10 dollars. As you can see, DRIP plans are generally a lot cheaper than traditional transaction schemes.

The company whose shares you purchase pay for the management of DRIPs. They do that because investors to customers and executive managers prefer a wider shareholder base to reduce equity volatility and to limit the influence of large institutional stock owners

When you invest in DRIPs, make sure that you know the number that is needed to enroll. Many of the plans only require one share. Check with the company beforehand concerning stock requirements for enrollment so that there are no surprises when it comes time to join the program.

Some people get burned and lose a lot of money as investors. They buy the wrong stock sell it at the wrong time. Beating the market rarely works. DRIP investing can help you with your discipline. You have some diversification. Some of your stocks could be doing great, while others aren’t. Remember that you are not in a get rich quick scheme. You are investing in stocks. It usually takes a while to make any real money.

Since your DRIPs are diversified, you won’t have to deal with all of your investments being in one basket. If you don’t have that much money, but want to start investing, DRIPs is the way for you to go. It will save you money, and it’s a very safe investment.

Have you ever invested in DRIPs before?

Expense Tracking Worksheet

Posted on September 16, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler 1

budgeting tips, tracking expenses, budgeting techniques

The other day I discussed ways that you can review your expenses. Those three ways were to use Mint, use a transaction register and to review your bank statement each month. Those three ways are very helpful in looking at your expenses. There are other ways that you can track your money as well. One very popular way is to use an expense tracking worksheet.

What is an expense tracking worksheet?

An expense tracking worksheet is a worksheet (paper, pdf, or excel) that allows you to track your spending. It’s very simple. There is no wrong or right way to this. When it comes to tracking your spending, you want to see where all your money is going. This is where you start keeping every receipt that you get. You will then need to put the info from each receipt onto your worksheet in its perspective category.

Help you create a budget

If you don’t currently have a budget, your expense trading worksheet will help you get it together. After reviewing your expenses for 2-3 months, you should have an idea of your spending habits. By knowing that information you should be able to create a budget. The key here is to make sure that you still have income left at the end of each month. If you’re in the red each month, you need to work on some of those expenses.

If you’re struggling right now with figuring out where your money is going, an expense tracking worksheet may be just what the doctor ordered. You can create your own with pen and paper or make one with an excel spreadsheet. If you don’t want to do either of those, you can do a quick google search. Quite a few of them will show up. You can download and print that one that works best for you.

Have you ever heard of an expense tracking worksheet? Do you use them?

Three Ways to Review Your Expenses

Posted on September 14, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler 3

Good Morning, Dinks! How is everyone today? I hope all is well. Do anyone’s expenses seem to fluctuate each month? For the most part, my expenses stay the same. I know what bills I’m paying, and I usually budget for everything else. Some people have no idea where their money is going. At the end of each month, they are lost when it comes time to review their expenses. They are frustrated because they want to change their situation, but they are not sure exactly how. In the past, I made some financial mistakes. One day I realized that I needed to pay attention to my expenses more carefully. Today, I will go over three ways that will help you review your expenses.

Mint

The first way that you can review your expenses is by using Mint.com. Mint is a free financial website where people can link all of their financial info in one place. I’ve been using Mint for nearly two years now, and I don’t have a single complaint. Mint has a great app that you can download to your smartphone. You can use it to review your transactions wherever you’re at. Several features help you see what your expenses.

One feature shows you your different transactions. It showed you when the transaction happened, and it gives you a brief description. Another feature that I love is that every Sunday, they send a notification to my phone that is titled weekly summary. The summary shows every expense that you had in the previous week. There is also a chart that shows you the spending by each day. That detail will help you if didn’t remember something.

The only thing that Mint doesn’t do is show you expenses that you paid cash for. There is an option for you to go back and manually add them to transaction area if you want to.

Transaction Register

Another way to review your expenses is to use a transaction register. This might be old school to some people, but I still love doing this. It takes less than 20 minutes a day to list the transactions in the register. That’s nothing if you want to make sure that your expenses are correct. Tracking your transactions in a register might take some discipline, but I guarantee you will thank yourself for doing it. To get started, head to your local bank or credit union and ask them for a register. They are free and should have no problem giving you one.

Bank Statement

Checking your bank statements is something that you should often do. It will list transactions including cash withdrawals and card swipes. Your bank statements will show you the truth about your spending habit. If you go over your budget, your bank statement will have that information on there. These days there are two ways to get your bank statements. The first way is to get it sent to you in the mail. The second way is to get it sent to you via e-mail. Whatever way you get yours, make sure you review it. You don’t want to have any surprises.

One Way to Become Creditworthy

Posted on September 12, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler 4

credit tips, credit advice, credit techniques

Many of us are striving to get better credit. For some people, it’s a struggle. They weren’t taught certain things about credit when they were younger. They made bad financial mistakes and are now paying for them by having horrible credit. Becoming creditworthy may take a while for people with bad credit, but it can be done.

Several different factors go into your credit score. Your credit score is also known as the FICO score. That score is calculated and based on your credit report by a formula created by the Fair Isaac Corporation. Your utilization rate plays a significant role in calculating the credit score.

What is a credit utilization rate?

According to Investopedia, the credit utilization rate is the amount of outstanding balances on all credit cards divided by the sum of each card’s limit and is expressed by a percentage. As of my last check, my credit utilization was at 44%. That’s much better than where it was at a couple of years ago. I’m working hard on getting it less than 35% as soon as possible because that’s the number where credit issuers like to see it.

If someone is using 80% of their credit, they are looked at a bigger credit risk compared to someone who’s only using 20% of theirs.

There are a few things about the way FICO calculates your utilization rate that is a little strange. One small loophole can result in you being able to quickly boost your credit score without having to reduce your credit balances.

Instead of measuring your average utilization rate, FICO chooses to measure your score based on your highest usage rate. That is fascinating to me. For example, let’s say you have two credit cards. Both of them have a $2500 limit. On one of the cards you have used 90% of the credit, while you have only used 20% of the other one. In this situation, your maximum utilization rate would be 90%. Your credit score would be negatively impacted. On the contrary, if you used 50% of the credit on both cards your maximum utilization would be 50%.

As I stated earlier, the ideal utilization rate is 35% or under for all of your cards. Even having one card above 35% will drag your utilization up. I’m definitely working hard on getting my utilization down. I want to become more creditworthy within the next few months.

During an independent study, researchers found that people with 720 or higher credit scores tend to have utilization rates of 20% or less. I still have a little ways to go before I get there, but I know it’s attainable. Something that’s interesting is that people who had a zero percent utilization rate often had very low credit scores. It seems that their scores were so low that they couldn’t even get a credit card. That is a not a situation that anyone wants to be in.

The main thing is not to have a zero percent utilization rate. If you’re not using your credit card at all; you’re not demonstrating creditworthiness. It’s important that you try to get your utilization rate between 1% – 35%. That one technique can quickly give you a credit boost.

Investing in Stocks With Little Money

Posted on September 9, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler 1

investing in stocks, investment tips, stock advice

Hello, Dinks. A lot of people believe that you need a lot of money to invest in stocks. That is not always the case. There are some inexpensive ways available that you can invest in stocks. Today, I want to go over a few of them.

Employer Retirement Plan

One of the easiest ways to invest small amounts of money is through your employer retirement plan. It’s pretty simple. All you have to do is enroll in the retirement plan. Once you enroll, you choose the amount that you want to invest. You can choose amounts from as high as 20% or more to as low as 1%. Each employer plan is different, so you will want to check with them. Since you’re investing in stocks with little money, my suggestion would be to start off at 2%. You can gradually increase that amount each year. With the contribution being so small in the beginning you probably won’t event miss that amount from your paycheck.

Loyal3

Loyal3 is a company that is using social media platforms to make stock ownership cheap and accessible to the general public. Loyal3 is focused on allowing investors to buy popular consumer brands directly from their site or through their social media sites like Twitter. There are a few advantages with Loyal3.

They are promoted towards small investors. You can get up to $2500 worth of stock, per stock, per month. This is ideal for small investors.

There are no transaction fees. Yes, you read that right. There are not any transactions fees. You don’t have to pay a penny for anything. You can’t beat that. There also aren’t any buying or selling costs either. Loyal3 is really trying to keep the small investor out. If you’re investing in stocks with little money you should give Loyal3 a look.

They accept low amounts. Loyal3 lets you purchase stocks for as little as $10. If you don’t have that much money, this is truly a way for you to get started.

You can buy stocks with your checking account. There was a time that they allowed people to use credit cards, but they stopped doing that.

Mutual Funds

Mutual Funds are the next item on the list. They are a good place to invest in stocks with little money. They are an all inclusive option. One single mutual fund can give you access to several different investments. This is perfect for new investors.

Some companies will let you invest in mutual funds with a minimum as low as $100. You have to search and find the ones that are the most affordable for you.

Usually, to get the low investments, you have to agree to automatic monthly investments. That can be done through the payroll at your job.

Robinhood

Robinhood is an app that allows individuals to invest in publicly traded companies. They do not charge a commission. You can’t beat that. You’re able to save more money. You can use that money to invest with.

Robinhood sends notifications to your phone. The app is very easy to use. There are no account minimums.

As you’ve read, there are a few ways for investing in stocks with little money. If you’re ready to start, try out one of these options today.

5 Ways to Make Money While You Sleep

Posted on September 7, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler 2

making money, passive income, side hustle

Making money while you sleep is not as hard you might think. With strategic, hard work, it can be done. There are several ways that you can make money while you sleep. Today, I want to go over five of them.

Selling an Info Product

If you’re good with a particular subject, you may want to create an info product and sell it. An example of this would be if you paid off a significant amount of debt, you could create an eBook or software to help people do the same thing. When you sell your own product, you get a chance to keep more of the profit.

Investing in Stocks

Investing in stocks is the next way to make money while you sleep. Buying stocks allow you to benefit from the increase in value of the company. Once you receive the dividends, you can start earning a percentage of the company’s profits automatically. When looking at dividend income, you should look at what corporations and industries are doing well right now. They are the ones that may increase the dividend amount in the future. That means more money for you if you’re an investor.

Affiliate Website

There is money to be made with affiliate sites. It takes work, though. You will have to set up a blog and promote it. You can promote it to your family and friends by word of mouth. You can also promote it via Facebook and Twitter. The more people that know about your site, the better. Traffic is your friend. You will need to add some affiliate links to your site that are relevant. Once your traffic starts building up, you should start getting some affiliate sales. People are online all day and night. You never know when someone will find your website and click on one of your affiliate links. It happens all the time. You also will need to review your site from time to time to make sure all the links are still working.

Rental Properties

More and more I’m thinking about buying some type of rental property. My mentor used to own some houses a few years ago. He was making decent money renting them to small families. With rental property, you will receive money from the tenants each month. You will also see your property value grow. Before buying a rental property, you want to make sure that you can cover the costs. Things you should factor in are taxes, maintenance (things will break) and insurance. If you can afford that and make a profit, you should be good to go.

Advertising

The final way to make money while you sleep is to sell advertising. If you have a website that gets good traffic, you should be selling some advertising space. Companies will pay good money for a header or a side ad. Remember, the more traffic that you have, the more money that you can charge advertisers.

Do you make money in your sleep? If so, how do you do it?

Staying on Track With Financial Goals

Posted on September 5, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler 1

financial goal tips, financial goals, personal finance

People come up with hundreds of financial goals all the time. Some people reach their goals all the time while others never do. Do you want to know why or why not? Many people use a setting goals worksheet. Some have this worksheet online. Others, like myself, have them in a notebook. Being able to read your goals daily will do something to you. It will help you to remember them, and that should help you complete them sooner.

Your setting goals worksheet should have a few areas in it. The areas are priorities, goals, why the goal is important, action steps, and deadlines. Below, I will go over each of them briefly.

Priorities

In his section, you should list what your priorities are. For example one of your priorities could be side hustles income. Another one could be a savings goal. There is no wrong answer.

Goals

In the goal section, you will elaborate more on your priorities. Let’s go back to the example that I gave you earlier which was side hustle income. The goal could be to make a certain amount of side hustle income each month. Make sure that you highlight this information on the setting goals worksheet,

Why is it important

The next section will ask why it’s important to you. Again, there is no wrong answer. You just need to dig deep down and write why it’s important to you. Here is an example of why making a certain amount of side hustle income is important. It is important for several reasons such as paying off debt and saving up for a down payment for a house.

Action Steps

The action steps section is very important for the setting goals worksheet. In this area you write the steps, you plan to take to make your goal happen. Typically, each goal will have 3-4 steps that you will do. Example, you can do the following things to make a side hustle income:

Sell more items on Craigslist.
Create info products to sell.
Learn how to edit documents for people on photoshop.

The final way to stay on track with your financial goals is to set a deadline. The deadline should be believable. It shouldn’t be too soon, but it shouldn’t be too late either. The deadline that I would use for the side hustle income example is a month or two. That is enough time to start a side hustle and monetize it.

Staying on track with your financial goals can be done. Make sure that you prioritize them, set concrete goals, know why it’s important, take action steps and set deadlines. If you take these steps, you will be able to stay on track with your financial goals. Once that happen, you will be able to create more of them and get your finances in order.

Do you have any financial goals that you are working on? How do you stay on track with them? Feel free to share your answers below.

Getting Out of Debt Quickly

Posted on September 2, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler 2

Happy September Dinks! I hope all is well with everyone. Many of us have debt. It is holding us back from doing more in life. Because of my debt, I haven’t been able to save as much money as I would like to. I also haven’t been able to do any real investments. Something that I’ve been doing this year is paying down my debt. I’m not there yet, but I am in a much better situation than I was in last year. Today, I would like to go over a few ways that would help anyone get out of debt quickly.

Work 2 Jobs

The first way that you can get out debt quickly is to work 2 jobs. Some people might complain that they don’t want to do that. They may complain that they don’t have time. That’s where you separate the winners from the loser. Getting out of debt quickly isn’t going to be easy. You can make a lot of extra income with a part-time job depending on how many hours you work. There are several part-time job opportunities out there. My suggestion would be to get a delivery job or a server’s job part time. You could do that on the weekends or on evenings after you get off your full-time job.

Find A Side Hustle

Finding a side hustle is very important when it comes to paying off debt quickly. There are so many side hustles out there. There is no reason that you shouldn’t be able to find one. You can create things to sell online such as mugs or t-shirts or you can sell items in a flea market. Also, check out this website called Fiverr. On the website, people are looking for help to complete certain gigs. Some of the gigs that are offered on the site are website help, logo design, and voiceover work. For more ideas check out this side hustles post from a few months ago.

Donate Plasma

Another way to make money quickly is to donate plasma. Most cities have at least one plasma center. When you get a chance, visit their office. If you are a healthy individual, you can donate. You can do this a couple times a month. It’s not the most money, but any little bit helps when you’re paying off debt.

Sell Something

Selling things can always get you extra money. It’s one of my favorite side hustles. I’m sure that if you look around your home or apartment you will find a few things that you no longer need or use. You should try selling them. There are several ways that you can sell them. The first way is to list them on eBay. You can also try selling them on Craigslist. A third way is to join some buy and sell groups on Facebook and advertise them over there. This year alone, I’ve made over $600 selling things on eBay in my spare time.

Getting out of debt quickly can be done. You just have to have focus and sacrifice some things.

What ways have helped you get out of debt?

Date Night Ideas For Married Couples

Posted on August 31, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler 3

What’s going on Dinks? I hope everyone is doing well. One of the best things a couple can do to keep the spice in their relationship going is to have a date night. Sometimes couples neglect that because they are tired or too busy. You shouldn’t do that. All couples should have at least one or two date nights per month. Date nights don’t have to be expensive either. Below, I have a few date night ideas for married couples.

Amusement Parks

Amusement parks are very popular date opinions. People of all ages visit them. Besides getting on different rides, you can grab a bite to eat while you’re there. You can also get souvenirs and even take pictures that both of you can cherish.

The Drive-In

If the city that you live in has a drive-in movie theater, consider yourself lucky. It is a great date night idea for married couples. With there not being that many drive-ins in the country, you may want to get there early because it can get pretty packed some nights. You want to make sure that you can find a good spot. The movies are not expensive either. You can see two movies for the price of one admission if you choose to. That is a great deal. The food shouldn’t cost you an arm and a leg either.

Farmers Market

The next date night idea for married couples is to go to the farmers market together. Some people may look at that as being boring, but it’s not. You get a chance to spend some quality time with your wife or husband. You can also get produce for next week’s meals.

Beach

First off, if you live near a beach, I’m jealous of you. Not only are you near the ocean, but you also have the opportunity to have dates on the beach. The beach is a beautiful place to visit. You can quickly grab some food and enjoy a day on the beach. That is a date idea that would probably never get old.

Picnic at the Park

The next date night idea for married couples on the list is to have a picnic at a park. It’s very easy and fun to do. You can cook your food at home or grab a few items from your favorite restaurant. After that, you would just need to grab a blanket and find a good spot park. This would be a perfect date to do in the spring or the summer time.

Game night

The final date idea is to have a game night at home. Sometimes you just may not want to leave your house. A game night is something fun that you can do from the comfort of your own home. There are many games to choose from such as Connect Four, Spades, and Scrabble. Find a night that works for you and your husband/wife and make it happen.

What are some other date night ideas for married couples?

Finding the Right Home

Posted on August 29, 2016 - 6:30 am by Jason Butler

home purchase process, buying home tips, purchasing the right home

What’s going on Dinks? I hope everyone is doing well today. There comes a time in every relationship where a couple has to decide where they want to live. There are a lot of factors in finding the right home. There are a few tips that you need to use during the research and purchase process. These tips will help you to make sure that the home that you’re interested in is the right one for you.

Location

One of the most important things that you should worry about when finding the right home is the location. The location is key. Do you and your husband/wife want to live near each other’s jobs or far from them? Do you want to live in a large city or on the outskirts? Do you want to live on a busy street or somewhere quiet? Those are a few questions that you should ask each other when making the decision about where to live.

Talk to seller

The next thing that you should do is talk to the seller. They will be able to give you most of the most of the information that you need when it comes to the home. They should be able to tell you about any issues that the house has. The seller should also be able to discuss how the neighborhood is. If you have any questions about the house, don’t hesitate to talk to the seller.

History

The next thing you should do is talk to the local realtor or seller so that you can get the history of the home. They should be able to give you information about the past owners as well as issues that the house has had. For me, the history of a home is very important. I’m not trying to live someplace where someone was murdered. I’m sure I’m not the only person that feels like that. As I stated earlier, don’t hesitate to ask any questions.

Room to Grow

The next tip is that you should leave room to grow. I know that right now many of you are DINKS, but that may not always be the case. You may decide to have a kid. If you do, you want to make sure that you have enough room for the baby. One day you may want to start a home-based business, so you want to make sure that you have space for that. Choosing a home with more space will make it easier to adapt as your life changes.

Affordable

The final tip that I have today is that you have to figure out what you can afford. You may like a home, but if it’s out of your price range, you don’t want to get into any extra debt because of that. You want to be able to pay your mortgage without any problems. You should also keep in mind any potential future expenses your home may need.

You can find the right home for each other. You just have to do the research. These tips will help you get on track.

For more things to consider when buying a home check out these other great articles.

Questions to ask when buying a house
Buying a Newly Built House – Positives and Negatives
Real Estate Smarts: Home Buying Tips For Finding Your Dream House

What other tips do you have for finding the right home?