Life is Too Short for Monday Mornings – Personal Finance Review

Why do we spend miserable Monday mornings at our jobs when we don’t even know if we’ll be alive the following Monday?

I recently got an email from my parents about a guy I knew in my college years who just died in an accident.  I can still remember the last time I saw him.  He was leaving with his dad and a friend, off to college. I can remember the last time I spoke with him.  He was finished with school and settled temporarily in our metro area. We invited him over for a party but he couldn’t make it.

Just two weeks ago he was alive and out with some friends.  Hours later his parents got the dreaded phone call.  It can happen that quickly, the time we have to live is so precious but it’s so easily squandered doing things we don’t enjoy. 

Obviously we can’t go through life avoiding everything we don’t enjoy or we may never get out of bed.  I do think, however, that sometimes we make choices which force us into doing less of what we enjoy and more of that other stuff. 

I think my main problem is time.  I have things I want to do, which usually are overridden by things I need to do.  I try and steal extra hours by staying up into the early AM but this too often leads to sleeping at my computer, followed by miserable, grouchy days at work.  Instead of learning the GTD system, I seem to have mastered the art of getting nothing done.

I’m in search of ways to become more productive and change the 9–5 lifestyle so that I have more time to spend with the things I really care about in life, but progress is slow. Emails like the one I recieved about this old acquaintance passing away at an early age remind me of the urgency of figuring out time management & prioritization sooner, rather than later so we can take advantage of the time we have.

One of the things I spend time doing every day is reading what others have written about personal finance. Sometimes it’s the same information we’ve all heard before, other times I learn something new and useful. I probably need to re-evaluate how I read and filter information on the Web since it’s easy to get sidetracked online.

However, for now, here are some interesting money articles from last week:

– How to Eliminate Mutual Fund Deadbeats from your Portfolio @ Gen X Finance

– Create Your Own Dollar Plan @ My Dollar Plan 

– Bought Another Piece of Gold @ Suns Financial Diary

– Getting Organized for Tax Season @ Million Dollar Journey 

– Build A Business Before You Go Solo @ The Digerati Life

– Finovate Start-up Questions @ Lazy Man & Money

– Newest Problogger on the Block @ Brip Blap

– Tax Freedom Day @ Mighty Bargain Hunter

– The 10 Habits of the Prosperous @ Free Money Finance

– Debt Reduction Guide – Beyond the Basics @ No Credit Needed 

– The Future of Renewable Energy @ Five Cent Nickel

– Budgeting 101 @ The Simple Dollar

– 2008 Sales Tax Holiday Schedule @ Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

– Outrageous Cost of Storing Stuff @ Get Rich Slowly

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Best Gas Credit Cards to Save You Money at the Pump

Gas credit cards can earn you rebates or cashback to help save money on your gas bill.  We’ve recently looked at ways to make more money during bad economic times but the other side of the accounting equation is obviously to spend less money.

With high gas prices continuing to climb, saving money on gas is important to many of us and gas discount cards can help reduce the bill a little. There are many options to choose from; before you apply for a gas rewards card, be aware the features such as reward limits, introductory rates, and rewards earned can vary from card to card.  To help you find a good gas card we’ve put together a review of some of the top gas credit cards:

American Express Blue Cash Card

American Express’s Blue Cash card gives you 3% cash back on gas purchases with the Preferred version  of the card.  It also gives 3% back at department stores, and 6% on supermarkets.  The Blue Cash card no longer has a tiered rewards program, so you earn higher cash rebates in these everyday categories starting with the first dollar you spend.

This is one of my favorite rewards cards since we put almost everything on our card and far exceed the $6500 in spending.  The Blue Cash card is also offering a 0 % introductory offer on purchases and has no annual fee.

Chase PerfectCard

You can earn 6% rebates on all gas purchases at any gas Station for the first 90 days and then 3% rebates afterwards. You earn 1% rebates on all other purchases made anywhere else and there is no annual fee.

True Earnings from American Express

The True Earnings Card from American Express and Costco earns you 3% cashback on gas purchases.  You can also get 3% cash back at restaurants and 2% on travel; but unfortunately you need to be a Costco member to have a True Earnings card. 

If you already have a Costco membership then True Earnings is a good card but if you’re not, does it make sense to become a member simply to get the card?  It really depends on what you would buy at Costco and if the savings would make up for the annual membership fee.

In the past American Express has run True Earnings promotions to help offset the cost of membership but they’re not offering anything right now. Whether you already are a Costco member or decide to become one, the AmEx True Earnings card is good gas credit card option.

Summary
 The gas card review wraps up this week’s coverage of financial tips for a bad economy.  Hopefully it was helpful and gave you a few ideas that you can use, here’s a reminder of how you can make money from the falling dollar, a down real estate market, and a recession.  

We finished it up with this review of how you can save money on gas with the following rewards cards:

• American Express Blue Cash
• Chase PerfectCard
• Amex TrueEarnings from Costco

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3 Ways to Make Extra Money in a Recession

Cash shortages are common during a recession.  What similarities do you notice in the cycle below:

• Consumers Spend Less Money
• Businesses Earn Less Money
• Businesses Stop Hiring/Start Firing
• Laid off Consumers Spend Less Money
• ….

When the economy stops expanding there is less money to go around. Everyone tries to get more out of less.  We pay less for products and services and then try to extend their useful life.  So how can you tap into this trend to make extra money during a recession?

Help People Extend Product Life
One way people will be looking to cut costs is to buy fewer things, which means making what they currently have last longer. Chances are you know more about a particular product or service than the majority of people in your town, or even the whole country.  You can make money helping people extend it’s useful life, saving them money.

If you can offer information, consulting, or repair services people looking to save money will find you.  Don’t think people will pay you for that kind of information?  Check out the following example.

There’s a person that offers a whole series of booklets (EZ Battery Tip) on how to renew old Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) batteries on cordless power tools for brands like Craftsman, Ryobi, Porter Cable, and Bosch. These batteries are not cheap to buy new so people are happy to find a way to reuse their old ones. This person has sold thousands of these booklets on eBay, with 99.8% customer satisfaction; check out some of the feedback from buyers:

• The instructions really work; saved a fortune on Bosch drill batteries
• GREAT info! well worth the bid
• great investment great ebayer
• good info worth the money thanks
• It really works!  I saved alot of $
• SUPER, worth the price

If you have experience that can save people money, they’ll reward you for it. What area are you an expert in?  You wouldn’t have to sell your expertise online; you could setup a local operation repairing items in your town instead.

Teach People to Save Money
Maybe you don’t know how to fix things but are great at cutting costs. Start a website or hold local seminars, teaching people how they can save money.  Maybe you have techniques for saving on gas prices, insurance, automobiles, housing, energy, taxes, clothing, or grocery bills.  You might think some of these things are common sense but to someone who’s not familiar with having to live with a fixed budget, they may be valuable lessons.

Take a look at Fiona Lippey, the Simple Savings lady in Australia who’s built a huge resource for people looking to save money.  Some people use it for free but others pay money to access the entire library of money saving content.  Again, to a frugal person like me this might seem like a waste of money but for some people it’s just what they were looking for.  If money is tight and the membership can save them more than it costs then they’re happy to sign up.

Look a little closer to home, remember America’s Cheapest Family?  They wrote a whole book about how to save money; I bet sales will surely increase as more people look to save money during a recession.

While a habit of being thrifty may be scoffed at by some in times of prosperity, when the economy turns and people lose their jobs, suddenly the skill of being able to make dollars stretch farther becomes very valuable.

Sell for Lower Prices
When people have less money to spend, they’ll look for alternatives to retail prices and turn to places like eBay, Craigslist, or garage sales for bargains.

If you have a knack for finding good deals you can turn around and re-sell the things yourself to make some extra money.  Obviously the benefit of selling them online vs. garage sales is that you can reach a much wider audience of potential customers on the Web.  Of course, if you’re not comfortable with selling on eBay there are options such as garage sales or flea markets.

The risk of this option may be the highest of the three since you’re taking possession of products and aren’t guaranteed to get your money back.  The way to mitigate that risk is to only buy things for re-sale if they’re a really good deal and you have a high level of confidence (based on numbers not a gut feeling) that you can re-sell them.

Of course, if money is tight you might not have extra cash to buy things with.  In this case you could always start off by selling your own stuff to raise some initial funds.

Summary
Just remember, the economy tends to move in cycles and recessions don’t last forever. Even if these things sound like more work than they’re worth, keep in mind you don’t have to do them indefinitely. 

The goal here is to make extra money during a recession to help keep your finances in order while the majority of the country is struggling through a bad economy.  Things will eventually get better and then you can decide whether to keep it up and continue making extra cash or to take a load off and enjoy the long-awaited economic upswing.

Think about the different ways you have to make more money in a bad economy:

• Help People Extend Product Life
• Teach People to Save Money
• Sell for Lower Prices

Make sure you also read how you can make money from a down real estate market and profit from the falling US dollar and be sure to stop back tomorrow to check out the best gas credit cards to save you money at the pump.

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3 Ways You Can Profit from a Down Real Estate Market

The real estate bubble was several years in the making and has been deflating for a year or two now.  It’s hard to say exactly when it popped because the real estate market is so regional but it’s pretty evident that billions of dollars of bubble money have evaporated from bank balance sheets and home owner’s real estate values. The real estate crisis has caused a real mess for the financial sector and no one knows how long the impacts will continue to plague the US economy.

Just like the falling dollar, we feel helpless in the face of the credit and real estate implosion.  What can we do to avoid getting sucked down by the bursting bubble? If every cloud has a silver lining, where’s the opportunity here?

Reduce Your Housing Expenses
The most obvious move you can make is to research refinancing your mortgage.  The Federal Reserve has been cutting interest rates to try and prevent a sudden/massive shock to the US economy so borrowing money is cheaper.  Refinancing your mortgage can save you thousands of dollars of interest, depending on your prior rate and the term of your loan.  The costs may include discount points you buy, an application fee, a title search, and an appraisal fee.

Of course if you bought at the peak of the bubble this may be more difficult since your home may appraise at a lower value than the amount you paid for it.  This brings up a second possible way to reduce your housing expenses.  Using the appraisal you purchased for refinancing as evidence, you can challenge the value that your local government places on your home for real estate tax purposes.  Each locality has their own process for how to challenge the tax assessment.

Buy Discounted Assets
As real estate values continue to fall and the stock market struggles there will be bargains to be had.  Of course, you don’t necessarily have to buy stocks or real estate to benefit, lets look at some examples.

A real estate investor that buys properties and tries to flip them or rent them out may need to raise some cash to pay debts they took on during their expansion.  They might sell property from those empty homes or apartments just to raise needed money.  You could walk away with nice furniture or appliances for a bargain.

Another example are companies that are seeing losses in profits due to the weakening economy.  In order to prop up sales they might offer low prices or long-term financing that you could take advantage of.

Of course, one option is to invest directly in quality company stocks or real estate, buying them at a discount to their price a year or two ago.  The big question here is when to buy.  How do we know when prices have stopped falling and we’ve hit the bottom?

Since we don’t know when things will turn around it would be speculation to dump a bunch of money all at once into a property or stock.  You could setup regular payments into a real estate REIT or an ETF tracking the banking industry.  Although their value may continue to decline, you’ll be buying in smaller increments so your risk will be diminished.  Here’s an article from the Motley Fool about investing in banking stocks.

Bet Against Industries
I mentioned above putting money into real estate REITs. John Rubino points out in his book “How to Profit From the Coming Real Estate Bust” that some REITs, such as Health Care and Rental, should do well in a down real estate market and there are others that will likely suffer, such as mortgage, office, and commercial REITs.

If you follow Rubino’s logic and feel comfortable making the assumption certain stocks and industries will definitely suffer from a decline in real estate, you can actually make financial bets against them by selling short.

This is the riskiest strategy I’ll cover today and one that I have no experience with but it’s an option that exists to potentially make money off of down industries so I’ll mention it.

Basically short selling is borrowing shares of a stock through a broker and selling those shares at one price. Then if the share value goes down, you can buy the shares at a lower price and return the borrowed shares to the broker. Here is how Investopedia defines it:

“The selling of a security that the seller does not own, or any sale that is completed by the delivery of a security borrowed by the seller. Short sellers assume that they will be able to buy the stock at a lower amount than the price at which they sold short.”

They also note that “This is an advanced trading strategy with many unique risks and pitfalls. Novice investors are advised to avoid short sales.” The main risk is that the stock value actually goes up and in order to cover the shares you borrowed, you have to buy the stock at a higher price than you borrowed it for. The danger of selling short is that you can actually lose more than you invested depending on how high the price of the stock actually climbs. 

Summary
Although it sounds counter-intuitive, there are ways you can make money from troubles in the real estate market: 

• Reduce Your Housing Expenses
• Buy Discounted Assets
• Bet Against Industries

Be sure to check out yesterday’s coverage of how you can make money from the falling dollar and check back tomorrow for 3 Ways to Make Extra Money in a Recession.

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4 Ways You Can Profit from the Falling US Dollar

The value of the US dollar is dropping and hitting many of us smack in the pocketbook.  What can you do about it?

It’s a discouraging situation; you’re working just as hard as you always have but your money isn’t going as far, thanks in part to the falling dollar.  It’s also frustrating that it’s such a huge issue and we feel as though there’s nothing we can do about it, that we’re just along for the ride.  

The good news is that although we can’t change global economic momentum there are several ways to make money from this fall in value of the dollar. 
 
Invest in Multinational Corporations
This method is probably the most obvious and involves the least amount of effort. CNNMoney recently took a look at how exchange rates are influencing the performance of multinational companies.

“Declines against world currencies make U.S. products look cheap overseas, and translate into big returns when sales are converted back into dollars.”

Investing in the stock of multinational companies such as McDonalds, Microsoft, Coca-Cola, Caterpillar, and IBM allows you to relatively easily put some of your money where it could potentially benefit from the drop in the dollar. Do your own research on these companies; they’re just examples of corporations whose organizations and sales extend outside the boundaries of the US.

Invest in Foreign Currency
As the dollar weakens and other currencies are on the rise, this presents an opportunity for those willing to risk some money in foreign currency exchange, otherwise known as forex.  If you use the dollar to purchase a foreign currency, wait for that currency to rise in value, then trade it back in for dollars you’ll come out ahead.  Of course foreign currency exchange is a rather speculative market but it is a huge one. According to Investopedia:

“The forex market is the largest, most liquid market in the world with an average traded value that exceeds $1.9 trillion per day and includes all of the currencies in the world. It is open 24 hours a day, five days a week, and currencies are traded worldwide among the major financial centers of London, New York, Tokyo, Zürich, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris and Sydney – spanning most time zones.”

This is probably the riskiest of the options discussed here because of the frequent fluctuations in the currency market and the knowledge you’d need to comfortably invest in forex.

Export Products
How much time do you think it would take to setup to start exporting products overseas? Would you believe you only need the 15 minutes it takes to signup for eBay? By selling online, you can personally leverage the same trend the multinational companies are seeing where products sold in US dollars look cheap to overseas buyers.

Let me give you an example. I spent about $400 dollars at a local Adidas outlet buying clothing that was worth about $1000 retail. I listed the clothes at around 25% below retail in my eBay store and the orders from England started rolling in!

Exchange Rate Benefits
One British pound can buy about two US dollars so customers in Great Britain were able to buy Adidas clothing from me at about half price due to the exchange rate, plus the discount I was offering. Although the shipping wasn’t cheap, the savings more than covered the cost.

Choosing Products Wisely
Of course, you have to be smart about the products you sell, the Adidas gear was perfect because it was light to ship, has appeal in many different countries, and can be quite pricey for consumers to purchase retail. Good candidates are products you can only get in the US or something you can get in the US considerably cheaper than people in the rest of the world.

Selling Nike Shoes in Europe
Don’t be scared off by the unknown of selling internationally. My boss had never sold on eBay until I mentioned the possibility and he did something similar with tennis shoes.

His brother works for a shoe company that offered older model shoes to its employees at large discounts. He filled up the back of his van and sold them all online. He made a lot of the money selling Nike shoes via eBay to customers in Europe, France in particular.

These examples are just to show it’s possible for the average person to do it.  All you need is a little time to learn the ropes and find the right product and anyone can become an exporter of goods.

Sell Internationally
I use eBay in my examples, it’s a great place to reach customers around the world since it’s an international marketplace but there are certainly other sites that offer global reach. One thing you’ll want consider when selling internationally is that you’re very clear about your refund policy, return shipping on items from overseas can be pricey.

Export Your Services
If you’re not into selling products internationally you might consider selling your professional services. In a global information economy, you can provide consulting services in your area of expertise to almost anyone, almost anywhere in the world. Using sites such as eLance, you can bid on a wide variety of projects in areas such as:

• Legal
• Design & Multimedia
• Sales & Marketing
• Finance & Management
• Engineering & Manufacturing

The person or company posting the project looks at the various price bids that come in, the experience of the providers, and choose someone to hire. The weakened US dollar means it is cheaper for clients in countries whose currency is stronger than the dollar, ex: British Pound & Euro, to hire you. 

Of course there are many providers on eLance from countries with currency weaker than the dollar, ex: India & Russia, who can underbid you. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t be the cheapest “preferred” provider. For example, a job description in a recent posting for a designer, stated “Prefer U.S., UK, European design experience”.  Thanks to the exchange rate, the client gets a built in discount if they hire you over a British or European designer.

Summary
Who knows how long the value of the dollar will continue drop and how low it will go?  Although there’s nothing you can do to stop it’s decline you can try these strategies to leverage the opportunities the new exchange rates are creating.

• Invest in Multinational Corporations
• Invest in Foreign Currency
• Export Products
• Export Your Services

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Financial Tips to Help You Make Money in a Bad Economy

Welcome to your guide to turning economic lemons into profitable lemonade.  We all know the economy is struggling and we’re all worried about it.  The sub-prime mortgage mess, the credit bubble bursting, the weak and falling US dollar, high gas prices, and a recession are more than enough to keep us up at night.

The good news is that there are always economic opportunities to be had and that’s what I’m going to focus on this week.  For example, although gas prices reached record levels today, all is not lost.  Sure, fuel costs are going to hit businesses and consumers right where it hurts, but that pain will create opportunity. 

The more we’re paying for gas, the higher the demand for alternative energy, and the bigger the payout for those that invest in a winning solution. I covered these “green opportunities” just yesterday in Earth Day Profits – How You Can Make Money from Saving the Environment.

Coming up this week we’ll take a look at the following methods of saving or profiting from the troubled economy:

• 4 Ways You Can Profit from the Falling Dollar
• 3 Ways You Can Profit from a Down Real Estate Market
• 3 Ways to Make Extra Money in a Recession
• Best Gas Credit Cards to Save You Money at the Pump

Of course, most of these are long term approaches.  In a global economy, people across the world are going to feel the crunch of tough economic times; but if we can invest wisely when opportunities exist then we’re bound to see better rewards in the future.

Stay tuned for this weeks articles on turning economic lemons into profitable lemonade.

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Earth Day Profits – How You Can Make Money from Saving the Environment

How many stories have you heard about big business ruining the environment?  Of course the ones that stand out most in our minds are those that effect humans, like A Civil Action or Erin Brockovich, but there are countless other documented examples of corporations making a buck at the expense of nature.

The good news for Mother Nature is that there are now some businesses on her side.  With Earth Day only days away, you can not only be encouraged by this development, but also potentially profit from it.

Economic Opportunity?
An article on the Motley Fool website about cleantech quotes venture capitalist John Doerr referring to cleantech as

“the biggest economic opportunity of this century”

Of course that’s just one venture capitalist’s belief but according to the article he’s been around the block and made some good early calls on technology stocks.

With the need for sustainable energy growing each year, it makes sense that companies that meet that demand will profit from it.  The article talks about companies such as EnerNOC, Comverge, Trina Solar, Akeena Solar, and Canadian Solar as cleantech options. It also mentions bigger companies like GE and an ETF, the PowerShares WilderHill Clean Energy.

Current Cleantech
One place you can stay up to date on cleantech developments is the CleantechBlog.  The site offers periodic updates on sustainable energy stocks and also features promising “green” products such as:

• Biokleen All Purpose Spray and Wipe Cleaner
• Tesla Roadster
• EarthLED CL-3 LED light bulb
• Keetsa eco-friendly mattresses
• Eco Touch Waterless Car Care
• The Freshaire Choice Paint
• Vectrix Electric Maxi-Scooter

Risks of New Technology
Of course some of the newer “environmental” technologies that cleantech companies come up with aren’t proven so investing your money into them is a risk.  It’s kind of similar to how the tech companies were hot in the 90’s.  A lot of them crashed and burned but some of them really took off and made investors a pile of money.

Make a Difference – Invest
On this upcoming Earth Day, one of the small ways you can contribute is to take a look at investing in cleantech.  With the government in a budget mess, many bureaucrats are looking to the innovation of private industry to find clean/sustainable energy technologies.  Of course the million dollar question is, which one(s) to invest in ……

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Blockbuster Free Trial – One Month of Total Access Online Movie Rental

What’s better than a two week free trial of online DVD rentals?  How about a whole month free trial?

I’ve written before how we’ve used Blockbuster free trials to get free movies and just last week I talked about an offer I’d seen for a two week free trial of Blockbuster Total Access.

I mentioned the deal to some of my co-workers last week and one of them came in just yesterday and pointed out a promotion that offers a whole month of Blockbuster for free. 

She’s a huge movie buff and is constantly renting new DVDs from the store.  I’ve told her in the past she could save a lot of money by using a service like Blockbuster total access or Netflix but she always has to have the latest new release the day it comes out.

Lately she’s been trying to save her money and a budget analysis showed movie rental charges really taking a toll.  I reminded her that as much as she rents movies she could save a lot by using an online dvd service and she’d still be able to get her movie fix.  One of their plans lets you have 3 DVDs out at a time and 5 in-store exchanges per month.

Seems like a no-brainer to me considering she was renting 3–5 movies a week on average.  Of course she’s single so she has a lot more time and money on her hands than we do.  She didn’t really seem to mind spending the money until recently, so when I mentioned the two week trial she had considered trying it out.  Once she found the one month trial she went ahead and signed up and let me know about it.

Unfortunately the free trial is only available to new customers, but like I said before, I’ll just have my wife signup. You don’t need a coupon code or anything just visit their deal page and sign up there.  According to Blockbuster, they can have your first video delivered to your door in as little as two business days. 

One thing to keep in mind, if you decide to cancel at the end of the trial, mail the movie back to Blockbuster a few days before your month trial is up so you’re not charged for the following month.

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Blockbuster Total Access – Free Two Week Trial

Update: Now you can rent DVDs online from Blockbuster for free with their one month free trial of Blockbuster Total Access.

I wrote last year about Blockbuster vs. Netflix and how we’ve watched movies for free during past summers.  Looks like Blockbuster is gearing up for the spring and summer season again, they’re offering a 2 week one month free trial of their total access service.

I found out about the trial after watching Blockbuster’s latest commercial promoting thier online video rental service.  It’s actually pretty funny, the story of a young guy who has a crush on the girl next door and cons her into a movie date by pretending to have a chick flick movie she’s been dying to see.  Of course he doesn’t really have the sappy love story on DVD so Blockbuster uses the commercial to play up the feature of their service that allows you to exchange movies you get in the mail for ones in the store.

Anyhow, I thought it was a funny advertisement, it was effective enough to get me to check out their website again.  I imagine the 2 week one month trial is only available to new members so I likely won’t qualify, I’ll try having my wife signup with our post office box address.

I really did like the way the Blockbuster online service worked and integrated with their local stores, we just haven’t had much time to watch movies as new parents.  Now that the little guy is getting older and a little more self-sufficient we may have enough free time to watch some movies this spring or summer. Unfortunately, the Blockbuster store closest to us moved to a new location not long ago so it’s not as convenient but there’s still one on the way to work where I can drop movies off.

Anyways, if you’re a movie buff you might check out the free trial and see for yourself how you like the service.  I’m always up for most anything free : )

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The Costs of Being Overweight – How Much Money Can a Healthy Diet Save You?

How much does a double cheeseburger, milkshake, and fries cost?  While you may only pay a few bucks each time you buy it, eating that meal over and over can end up costing you a lot more than that in the long run.

Health Care Costs
Although we don’t think about it on a daily basis, our diet can actually have a big impact on our finances. Health problems like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, diabetes, and heart conditions are expensive to treat and the price keeps going up.

The USDA released a report a few years ago that states that the medical costs that come as a result of obesity related problems are about $10,000 higher than they are for those with a healthy weight.  Do you know anyone who has an extra $10,000 to spend?

Of course a person that eats a balanced diet and follows a healthy lifestyle can reduce those costs considerably.  Not only will we save money it can potentially even save our life.  Those sound like two pretty big motivators right there.

Wardrobe Expenses
There are other costs to consider in addition to the actual doctor bills.  If you’re not eating well or exercising regularly, your waist will grow over time and you’ll have to spend money on buying larger clothes.  Plus size clothes sometimes come at a premium to standard sizes which can put a further strain on your wallet.

Life Insurance Rates
Obviously if clothing size was enough of a motivator there would be many more skinny people in the US so let’s look at another factor, the cost of life insurance.  As the population becomes increasingly overweight and obesity related deaths rise this puts a strain on the resources of life insurance companies.  This results in higher premiums for overweight individuals, a cost that can certainly add up over time. 

Productivity and Psychological Costs
When you exercise your body creates endorphins that can do great things for your energy level and mental state.  People that don’t work out and have resulting weight issues can have a harder time getting going and getting around which can definitely reduce their productivity. 

Being overweight can also be mentally discouraging, dealing with this anxiety or frustration can take a toll on a person’s productivity and could even trigger deeper psychological issues.

A Drain on the Pocketbook
It’s obvious that there are many different costs of being overweight and unfortunately a large number of people in the US are experiencing at least some of these problems. There are around 127 million adults in the US who are overweight, 9 million of which are in the severely obese category.  Just think about all the money those extra pounds are costing them.

Make an Investment in Your Health
Although some people will argue that it typically costs more to buy healthier foods and takes up more time than they have to exercise, hopefully this article has shown that being healthy just makes good financial sense.  It’s worth it to invest your money in healthy meals, work out equipment, and exercise programs; they will pay off in the long run.

Also keep in mind that a healthy lifestyle can save a whole lot more than money.  You’ll be able to have a more active, vibrant life with your loved ones and you’ll have the energy to do the things you love!

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