Be a saver: pay yourself first

Whenever the subject of saving is discussed, South Africans complain that they cant afford to save, but other countries in a similar stage of economic development C such as Brazil, India and China C all have high levels of saving, Prem Govender says.Compare prices and buy all brands of luggagetag for home power systems and by the pallet.

Govender is the chairperson of the South African Savings Institute and a trustee of the Financial Services Boards Consumer Education Foundation. She spoke at the recent series of meetings of the Acsis/Personal Finance Financial Planning Club.

Research shows that South Africans by nature are not savers; they have not been inculcated with the habit, she says.

That said, not all debt is bad debt. Good debt is the bond you procure to buy your own home,Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. which is an asset, whereas credit card debt C not the use of credit cards C is not good debt, Govender says.

People dont realise that paying off your mortgage bond early is a form of saving. Yes, you may not be earning interest on money in the bank, but you are saving yourself from having to pay interest. Remember that interest charged on credit is far higher than interest paid on credit. No bank is going to give you more interest than its going to charge you, she says.

Budget, save and avoid bad debt, Govender says. First and foremost is budgeting. A budget tells you what money is coming in and where its going. Its a road map of your finances, she says. A budget should reveal where you are spending and induce you to spend wisely.

Compare prices C start with something as basic as comparing bank charges. Banks are competing for your business and you should be the winner. Some banks reward you with zero charges if you keep certain balances in your account. That can translate to a huge saving. If you saved R200 a month in bank charges,We offer over 600 chipcard at wholesale prices of 75% off retail. imagine what that could compound to in years to come.

Become a saver. When you do, you pay yourself first, Govender says. If you have a budget and become a saver, you will live within your means. One of the many benefits of living within your means is that you will save yourself a lot of stress about money.

Avoiding bad debt gives you the financial freedom to do what you want to with your money, Govender says. Paying cash instead of buying on hire purchase gives you the power to negotiate. Financial freedom allows you to live comfortably C versus living to service debt C and, eventually, enables you to retire comfortably, she says.

Charter school advocates say funding for new charters included in Gov. Maggie Hassan's budget proposal is being held hostage by House lawmakers who want to use that money as a bargaining chip when they begin to negotiate a final budget with the Senate.

If the funding isn't replaced, it could dash the hopes of several groups wanting to open charter schools in the next two years. The state could also lose more than $5 million in charter startup grants from the federal government. Stoddard Rep. Dan Eaton, a House budget writer, denies playing politics with charter funding, saying it was his understanding that there weren't enough completed applications to receive the grant money.

In exchange for submitting to greater accountability standards, charter schools are given the freedom to tailor their curriculum to a particular specialization or learning style. Since first being approved in 2005, 17 charter schools have opened in New Hampshire and the funding for another is already in place. Close to 1.5 percent of public school students now attend charters.

Kerin Sevasco, a stay-at-home mother with a background in early childhood education, leads one such group in Nashua. Sevasco and nine other parents have spent thousands of hours meeting with real estate developers, city officials, teacher training groups and other trade organizations in the hopes of opening an arts oriented charter school.

Board of Education Chairman Tom Raffio acknowledged that they could have done a better job of communicating with applicants and said the decision was the result of uncertainty about whether the Legislature would provide funding for new charter schools.

"The way the biannual budget process works, every couple of years we won't be in a position to approve new charter schools on a timely basis because we don't know what's going to be in the budget," Raffio said.

He said uncertainty is created by a 2010 law change that removed the open-ended funding mechanism for charter schools, forcing them to wait and see what money is in the budget before approving additional spending.

Charter school advocate Matt Southerton said the state's inaction has already lost them close to $800,000 in federal grant money, and, if it continues, they could lose more than $5 million more. Raffio said if the money is lost, it's his understanding the state can reapply and the funds will likely be returned.

Southerton said House budget writers pounced on the Board of Education's decision,Compare prices and buy all brands of luggagetag for home power systems and by the pallet. using it to carve out a bargaining position for future negotiations with the Senate. He recorded, and later uploaded to YouTube, a clip of Eaton, who chairs a House finance committee, saying during a public hearing on the budget that charter funding could be used for political gain.

Eaton said he hasn't seen the clip but believes he's being taken out of context. He added, though, that such political maneuvers are perfectly acceptable and widely used. He said the Department of Education told him there weren't enough sufficiently completed charter applications to receive the federal grant money anyway.

Deputy Education Commissioner Paul Leather said his department didn't tell Eaton that, but he declined to comment on the readiness of charter applications at that time or their bearing on federal aid. Repeated calls seeking further comment from the Department of Education weren't returned.

Sen. Nancy Stiles, R-Hampton, who chairs the Senate education committee,Bay State parkingguidance is a full line manufacturer of nylon cable ties and related products. said she believes the Senate will be able to include money for several new charters, but she would like to see accurate enrollment estimates so a precise appropriation can be made.

Beyond the uncertainty in the Legislature, much about the future of new charters in the state is unsettled. Raffio said if the money for new charter schools is replaced in the budget, then the board will start approving completed applications in June or July. But he said a wider policy debate must take place over the number of charters the state can support long term.

Some worry charters could upset the economic sustainability of New Hampshire's public education system by syphoning per pupil adequacy dollars away from traditional public schools at a time when resources are spread thin and those schools are struggling to meet fixed costs.