MONEY TALKS

Keeping more of the money that comes into your life is a lot more than just reading hundreds of useful savings tidbits. Each savings idea is like a little recipe to create money, but in order to follow a recipe, it helps to know how to cook first. So let's start by learning some savings fundamentals.

Savings fundamental number one: The best way to save money is not to spend it. And the best way not to spend money is to not buy things you don't want or need. That sounds stupid, but work with me here. Because many, if not most of the things you spend money on now probably fall into that category. We live in a world where our "needs" are largely the figment of someone else's imagination, and that someone else lives in executive suites and on Madison Avenue. In other words, what you think of as your reality may not be so real! There are fundamental physical truths, like gravity, that we know are real because we've experienced them. But we were all raised in a false societal reality created for other people's profit that has nothing to do with what's real. It's imaginary, and it's probably in direct conflict to a different, better reality that you can create by simply deciding what makes you happy and fulfilled.

Real Estate

83. Time your home purchase. The hardest months to sell a house are the best months to buy one: October, November and December.

84. Sell it yourself. Real estate commissions are among the costliest of fees, especially considering the value you get in return. If you're in a lousy housing market, you may not have a choice: realtors will expose your home to the maximum number of potential buyers. But if the market's popping, try selling it yourself, after reading a book or two on the subject. Many other people have gone this way successfully and it's a way to save many thousands of dollars!

85. Buy direct from sellers. People who sell it themselves are saving money on real estate commissions. They should be able to sell for less. But doing things without realtors also means more education for you. So be knowledgeable before you try bringing home the savings.

86. Don't even think of buying a house until you've had it thoroughly inspected. Not only will you be more comfortable with the purchase, but you can use the report as leverage to get the price lowered. (The inspector will ALWAYS find something wrong.)

87. Negotiate Rent. For some reason, everybody knows they're supposed to negotiate house purchases, but almost nobody thinks of negotiating rent. Why should you pay the same rent as the punk rockers upstairs? You're a quiet, high quality, self-sufficient tenant who will be less hassle than other people. Therefore you should pay less rent. (Trust me, as a former landlord, this is absolutely true.) Another technique that may help you negotiate lower rent is to offer to pay several months up front. These ideas may not work, but it costs nothing to try.

Keep in mind: the key to saving money is to do things that are painless for you. Otherwise, you'll never be able to stick with it. And what's painless for you might be ridiculously hard for me, and vice-versa. We've all got things that we are willing to trade our money (and therefore our lives) for. The trick is to find the ones that are really yours instead of blindly following the fake reality created for you by Madison Avenue. Reshape your reality by rediscovering what's important to you and choosing to part with your resources to experience it. Then ignore the ever-present background noise designed to keep you enslaved to debt.

Find more money advice at www.MoneyTalks.org.