Frugal Five Meet Yvette

Yvette is recently transplant to Florida who runs several wahm businesses including. Work at Home Business Buffs which helps newbies build a home business.

What is your financial life?

My income has been very erratic in the past few years since my husband retired! My husband decided to take our pension funds and invest them himself, since he though he could do better than the mutual funds they were in. Well, that was about the time of the mini stock market crash in 2002! Our funds were suddenly reduced by 2/3s! Since then we have recovered and now we are living the best that we ever have!
Our one problem is owning 2 homes. We've recently moved to Florida and we just did sell our Pennslyvania home, so that will be a lot of expense off of us. My husband has even been able to "gift" our kids in the past 2 years, because of our successful stock market ventures. He watches it carefully and is educated in making trades. In fact, he has recently hired our son to work with him! Michael has recently quit his "day job" to work entirely on the internet because he was being so successful. Now his father has insured him a paycheck, so he can be more secure.
Our credit cards are only 2, plus one for my business. We pay them off monthly, so no interest to pay. I'm afraid we do have a mortgage, new car pmt, etc, because my husband figures he can better use the money to invest with - he can earn more interest (20-30%).

What is your budget buster?

Hospital insurance and all those medical expenses are a huge drain. It adds up to over $1000 a month.

What is your favorite money saving tip?

Since credit card debt is so expensive %-wise (up to 20+%!), I advise paying your bills in total every month so you don't have the interest to pay! Paying the interest is a big chunk of your monthly payment! At least, pay extra on your cc debt each month to reduce it quicker so you can pay the total monthly. Do some scrunching and denial and don't add to those bills until you get them under control! (Check out Tips to get out of debt)

If you had an extra $1000 what would you do with it?

That's difficult to say, since it's not very much money anymore! I'd like to add it to my business account, so I could be a little more free in my advertising costs

What is your best resource for frugal living?

I've had my own Accounting practice and we've had retail businesses, such as a Cheese Shop, and now I'm working on the internet and my husband in the stock market, so we've learned a lot over the years. I read Financial Magazines , such as Inc.and the new one: Revenue.

Thanks Yvette for sharing all of your story! Let us know if you would like to be profiled in the Frugal Five