…or 49 pages.

Came across this excellent guide written by Trent Hamm at his website simpledollar.com.  If you like what you see in this guide, it represents just a small portion of this great stuff he has on there.

What it all comes down to is:

1) Spend less than you earn

2) Live Frugal

3) Earn More

4) Manage Your Money

5) Control Your Own Destiny

You have to ask yourself a few questions:

Do I buy gas?

Do I buy groceries?

Do I pay bills?

If your answer is yes to any of those questions then you are probably a citizen of the global economy.  The next question you need to ask yourself is this:

If I am going to be paying for these things anyway and someone would offer me cash back, free vacation, airline tickets or gift cards why wouldn’t I take it?

What I am talking about are Reward Credit Card programs.  In a time when having a little something extra for vacation or the upcoming holidays this is something that (when done right) can really pay off.

My family and I enjoy a free vacation to Disneyland at least once a year because we literally use our Chase Disney Rewards credit card for every natural expense we have during the month.  We have found that outside of our mortgage just about everybody will accept a credit card for payment and when you start doing the math for how fast those points accumulate you can see why more people ought to be doing this.  Chase has a sample points calculator where you can get an idea of how the points accumulation system works here.

For as much of an advocate as I am of this idea I will put the disclaimer that I would not recommend this for everyone.  I would not recommend this if you:

1) Do not pay your credit card off at the end of every month and instead pay interest

2) Do not have a budget in place that you will stick to with this method and instead go overboard becuase its plastic.

3) Do not consider yourself responsible with money or anything plastic

Although it could be used for the finance of some one time larger purchases I have found that its better to keep the monthly expenses on one card and to go for a separate rewards card if you are going to buy a computer or furniture or something else like that.  The same could be said for you small business owners or those of us with expense accounts – keep it separate!

One last disclaimer I will put is that you really need to know the small print on these cards.  I almost always stay away from rewards cards that have annual fees.  Below you will find a list of some websites and online resources that will help you find the best card for you.

rewardscards.com

credit.com rewards card chooser

rewardscreditcards.net