My husband has two jobs — he is an artist and a salesman. He earns commissions from both jobs, so we never know what our income will be. I work part-time and am paid hourly. How can we possibly live on a budget? — Jenn P., Texas he mistake many people who live with an uncertain income (or what I call “mystery means”) make is they spend whatever amount of money they earn as it comes in.
They multiply a good month’s income by 12 and figure that’s about what their annual income should be and then set their lifestyles accordingly. Then they starve during the lean months, allowing all the bills to go past due hoping that a good month will follow soon.
The secret to living on an uncertain income is to determine the very minimum you need to live each month. What dollar figure must your husband’s commissioned jobs produce so that when added to your part-time paychecks will allow you to pay all of your bills? Whatever that number is, let that become his new salary.
Next, open another checking account and designate it as his holding account. Instead of putting his commission checks into your regular household account, from now deposit them to this holding account. Once a month, write out one check from this account to pay him his salary. This is going to require a great deal of discipline because some months he will bring in more than the amount you’ve determined to be his plastic card. That’s good because you will have lean months ahead. Allowing money to build up in that separate account will become the reserve you need to pay him even during those slow months.
Being self-employed (or commission-based, which to me is about the same thing) can be either rewarding or horribly debilitating. It all depends on your willingness to be disciplined and to exercise great restraint during that occasional month when it feels like your ship has come in. Don’t believe it. Next month could produce little, if any, income at all. You have to learn to handle both.I am opposed to any kind of plastic for kids of any age. Honestly, age 18 is about the right time to introduce credit and debit cards. Plastic is a privilege for financially mature adults.
Plastic confuses and skews children’s thinking processes. Cash, on the other hand, works like a dream. It’s real, and you cannot spend more than you have. Teach your kids how to earn, save, give and manage cash. Those are the skills they need to learn now so that they will be able to understand and manage plastic in the future.
I have written extensively about this in my book, “Raising Financially Confident Kids,” which also includes a foolproof, step-by-step plan that will help you to produce financially confident adults. I hope you will read it soon, before you hand your child an American Express card. Keep an eye on your mailbox. I’m sending you a copy of the book. Enjoy!
To that end, I usually head straight for the self-service checkouts. It is not perfect – “unexpected item in bagging area” has become a familiar element of the experience – but it is fast and I don’t have to worry about offending a checkout worker by talking on a mobile phone.
So I was excited to hear about a scheme in France where shoppers were able to pay for their goods with a flick of their finger.In a six-month trial, customers of supermarket chain Auchan and DIY store Leroy Merlin were able to pay for their goods by placing a fingertip on a scanner.The participants carried a payment card holding their biometric data and a case that allowed the card to communicate with the till. All the customer had to do was present a finger and the payment was processed.
The customers certainly seemed to like it. Around 900 people took part in the trial and 94pc said they would be willing to use fingerprint payment for all their in-store purchases.Mr Delaforge said the technology could also be developed to add loyalty points and discounts automatically when a customer scans their fingerprint, helping consumers save both time and money.
It could be the influence of Minority Report, but there seems to be an interest in biometric payments on this side of the Channel as well.A recent study of more than 2,000 shoppers by payment processing group WorldPay found 49pc would use biometric payments, such as fingerprint or iris scanners – far outweighing the popularity of smartphone payments, which won 30pc of the vote.
Ron Kalifa, deputy chairman of WorldPay, said: “It’s interesting to see the public considering biometric payments, a science that they may have seen in films or on television, which suggests familiarity and visibility of new payment technologies is crucial in moving usage from tech-savvy enthusiasts to the wider public.”Biometric payment might be a few years away from supermarkets in Britain. But in the meantime, a number of developments are under way to change the way we shop.
The idea was to take the self-scan checkouts and redesign them for bigger shop loads. A shopper places their items on a conveyor belt which passes through a 360-degree scanner, able to identify bar codes from every angle. There are two bagging areas so as soon as the first shopper’s goods have passed through the scanner, a second shopper can begin sending their items through.It is also a cashless process, as the system only accepts payment from a plastic card.
Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, is currently piloting a mobile app which allows customers to scan their shopping using their smartphone as they walk around the aisles. The app tracks their spending, so customers can pay for their shopping at the till without having to unload their goods. The service is currently available in three stores – Clerkenwell and Bethnal Green in London and Tadley in Hampshire – ahead of a wider rollout next year. A Sainsbury’s spokesman said in future the app could act as a mobile wallet, allowing customers to pay with their smartphone and avoid the till altogether. A slightly more Big Brother-esque possibility is that the app could remind customers if they forget to buy a regular item.
I hope that checkout staff remain part of the supermarket shop. It is helpful – sometimes essential – to have a human dispensing some common sense behind the till. But if anything can get me out of the door faster while keeping my personal data safe, I’m all for exploring the possibilities.
Read the full products at http://www.smartcardfactory.com/smart-card-IC-card_c504.
没有评论:
发表评论