It’s easy to get lost and lose money even just to get started on online forex trading. The internet has literally thousands materials, advertisements and other  offerings that can cost you an arm and a leg. I outlined a list of very useful, and mostly free, resources to get one started to online forex. With only US$ 72 and an internet connection, one can now setup a serious home-based business – if you plan to be a trader. Success depends on how much time is devoted to studying and controlling emotions.

1. BabyPips: BabyPips.com is the best way to learn about Forex basics. They handle all topics from ground up that isn’t intimidating to newbies. The levels of learning is graduated from Pre-school all the way up to College depending on level of technical complexity.
2. Your Trading Coach: Once you get into the topic of Technical Analysis (such as candlesticks & candlestick formations), Lance Beggs has several easy to understand video tutorials on YouTube. This will quickly speedup your learning about candlesticks, technical indicators and a host of other trading strategies.
3. Trading Spreadsheet: A serious trader always keep a journal of all trades handy. This is the only way to improve ones skills by identifying weak trades and improving on them. Trading Spreadsheets provide a comprehensive tool set to help every trader manage every entries.
4. FXCM Micro Account: FXCM is the world’s largest forex broker. A beginning forex trader can start trading to as low as $US25 and is the best way to get the real feel of online trading without risking too much of your start-up capital. Visit FXCM Micro for details.
5. Demo Accounts: I highly advice beginning traders to trade first for at least six(6) months on demo accounts. Demo accounts uses live charts trading on virtual money. This will help beginning trader to familiarize the trading platform and put into practice all theories learned from different sources provided above.
6. News & Live Charts: Keeping updated on financial news is very important and gives a heads up on what position to make when entering or closing a trade. Some of these include: DailyFX and Bloomberg.
7. Forums & Portals: The best way to quickly learn trading techniques & strategies is by communicating with other traders. The internet has many forums but I would highly recommend DailyFX Forum since many of their members are longtime time professional traders.

A few months back, something sparked my interest on getting into spot (Foreign Exchange) trading and so I started practicing on demo accounts, enrolling on online courses, attending webinars until finally I openned a live account – a microlot account.

The real trading practice is significantly different from the demo and yes, as expected, I burned some good money away the instant I started placing my trade. It was disheartening at first but I surely got something more valuable to my future as a beginning trader than the money I lost at startup. I gained practical knowledge on the best practices on how to and how not to trade going forward.

For those newbies like me considering on getting into spot trading, here are some practical and no non-sense advice you would definitely find it handy:

The whole idea of getting a life insurance is purely for protection however, there are now a wide variety of life insurances, bundled with some form investments,promising better returns (cash value) and boasts wider coverage. But, before you pull your wallet and get excited please ALWAYS take time to know what you want, how much you can spare, and for how long you wish to keep the policy. Carefully selecting the right life insurance can spare you from disappoitments and save you huge sums of money in the future.

After careful deliberation, you’ll surely be faced with the million dollar question – should you buy a permanent life insurance or term insurance? Here are some useful facts and tips you should consider first before buying.

1. Buy Life Insurance for Protection ONLY

Life insurance is NOT an investment vehicle and should never be considered as such. Many life insurance policies nowadays are bundled with some form of investment component that primarily makes your premium very expensive. To give you an idea, Term Life Insurance will only cost you around 10% of the actual cost you’ll get from Permanent Life Insurance having the same coverage. Also, another reason worth mentioning is that investment component in permanent life insurance policies generally yields very low returns because it does not earn cash value in the first two years from your policy application.

2. Term Life: More value for less

If your young or a middle-aged dad like me, getting a term life insurance policy make alot more sense. A term life coverage at a younger age makes your premium very affordable and the likelihood of you cancelling your policy is less because it’s cheap and sustainable. Fact is, many permanent life insurance policies are cancelled in the first 10 years for the very same reason.

3. Keep it lean and simple.

Do not buy some additional riders you wouldn’t really need and most probably will not use. Insurance riders contain a lot of exclusions that is usually written in fine prints for very obvious reasons – they don’t want you to know. Riders also drive your premium payments up and put more money into your agents pockets. The rule of thumb when getting a policy is, keep it simple and lean. The only exclusion to this rule, in my opinion, is the Waiver of Premium Rider (WoPR). This rider suspends premium payment but keeps your policy active when you become disabled.

4. Buy only from reliable source.

Always do your homework by knowing the financial standing of the insurance company you’re buying a policy from. Don’t be deceived by nice looking brochures or verbal promises made by your agent. Know their financial standing and get opinions from others. You have to know and make sure the company will still be there when you need them.

5. Select a professional insurance agent.

Surely, the first people who will approach you to buy their insurance are either some very close friends of yours or your relatives. My brother bought his from his mother-in-law which he eventually cancelled. My advice is stay away from them and get someone not related to you that can equally be trusted. This will make it easier for you to say no on offers you don’t need or not be ashamed should you want to settle for a low-premium policy. This is one good reason why I find it difficult to cancel my policy which I bought from a close friend.

I must admit, I am not really big on saving money much less on investing. However, we all need to save and make money one way or the other; if we atleast care about securing our future or our children’s future.

The only way I know then on saving money is the same way how most people still do now – apportion an income and place it in a bank. Very crude and ineffective. No wonder saving money takes so much discipline and effort to make it work.

But before we jump in, allow me to say that there are two key elements that must always be considered when saving money. Elements needed to make saving money to work for you, every time. First is doing it ‘automatically’ and second, protecting it from yourself .

1) Saving ‘Automatically’. This means having someone apportion your money for savings on your behalf with no conscious effort. A common example may be automatic deduction by your payroll officer or automatic fund transfers by your bank.

2) Protect from yourself. These may be processes or programs that limits you from touching your nest eggs from unnecessary withdrawals for a  specific period of time.

So what are other ways to save and how do we start it? Here it is:

1. Increase your monthly HDMF (Home Development Mutual Fund) contributions.

I am pretty sure that right now, you are paying only the minimum required by the government for your HDMF or PAG-IBIG. And, what still many of you do not know is that, PAG-IBIG also functions like a bank (a provident saving bank).

Increasing your PAG-IBIG contributions doubles or triples your money since this will be matched equally by your employer. So, say for example, your monthly contribution of 50 bucks is matched equally by your employer with another 50 bucks. That’s easy money! Also, since it is a savings deducted together with your other obligations like your SSS; it is non-tax deductible and earns dividends overtime.

This means the more you contribute the more you earn overtime and without you even knowing it.

2. Get a savings-linked annuities.

Annuities are premium payments made on regular intervals like monthly, quarterly or annually. There are some non-traditional investment vehicles that are now linked to savings. A very good example is a whole life insurance where you pay annuities until the age when you plan to retire and a portion of these premium payments goes to your savings. This way, one is compelled to pay and save at the same time to get covered by an insurance.

I got mine at PruLife UK with a no-frill life insurance plan. Scout for a plan that fits your needs and make sure its linked to savings. To do this ‘automatically’, ask your payroll officer to do an automatic salary deduction and directly deposit the premium payments to the insurance company’s bank account.

3. Save windfalls and extra incomes to savings-linked annuities or other investments.

Yes we do have windfalls once in a while and these may be in a form of bonuses or successful business deals. Windfalls or extra incomes provide for us an opportunity to advance our payments on mortgages, savings-linked annuities, or to buy more investments. The whole idea of advancing payment on savings-linked annuities other than increasing your savings is to protect you from difficult times such as unemployment.

But do not advance your savings-linked annuities too much as you might be putting all your nest eggs in one basket. An 18 to 24 advance payment will do the job and give you enough protection during hard times.

4. Simplify investment. Get a Managed Fund.

I’ve written in my previous blog article that I am completely opposed to putting my savings in a bank since it only earns very little interest plus other deductions. So it’s really not a wise move if you do and it’s only the banks that earns from your hard earned money.

So where do you put your money? Put it in a managed fund. I prefer managed fund because its simple, balanced yet yields higher returns, and less time consuming. This way, my money is diversified across different investments thus making it more secure in the long run.

5. Pretend that you didn’t get a raise.

If you do get a raise, I highly advise you NOT to tell your wife or else… you know I mean. Since you and your family has adjusted to the lifestyle prior to your salary raise, keep your mouth shut and save the extra to any investment vehicles that you may have. Again, you may pay in advance your annuities or make another investments.

You can the again negotiate with your payroll officer to direct deposit the raise to annuities of your choice.

6. Buy Certificate of Deposits (CDs).

A certificate of deposit is a promissory note issued by a bank. It is a time deposit that restricts holders from withdrawing funds on demand. Although it is still possible to withdraw the money, this action will often incur a penalty.

CDs only offers a small annual rate of return, usually around 5%-6% per year but the good part is it prevents you from touching your money unnecessarily. It also provides another good option to place your windfalls or extra income since it only requires a minimum of five thousand (Php 5,000.00) pesos per certificate.

As you can see, there are ways to force yourself to save and there are still some more out there. So far, I only included those that works for me and still slowly increases my savings contribution every so often.

Many of us would agree that saving money is an essentially important part of our daily activities yet, don’t know exactly how to start and sustain it.

When I was a young kid, I was taught the value of saving money and the very traditional way of doing it – saving a few amount and putting it in a bank. That’s it! There were no specific instructions or rules given on how to achieve this task and how I will manage to sustain it.

These 5 simple rules is what works for me and surely may work for you too. I wrote them here so I can always remember on how I did it and to help others who wishes to get themselves on track to saving wisely.

1. Set your purpose for saving money.

Just like with any other things you wish to do, you’ve got to have a roadmap on where you plan to go. Saving money is no exception and you should know where to put your money on and for what purpose.Knowing your goal and purpose for saving money also serve as an inspiration. It is an index to your faithfulness to save.

Some examples of purposes for saving money are: Retirement Plan, Children’s College Education, Buying a house, and Emergency Funds.

2. Start now and just do it!

Just with any natural laws of Physics, it takes more energy to move an idle object. It is the same thing with habits, the hardest part is always to get something started.

The best time to get your savings habit (if you haven’t done so), is to start NOW! One of the best advise I got on getting things done was from a Nike commercial that says: “Just do it!”. When I strongly believe on something that I know is right for me, I just do it , take it head on and not ask too many questions- period.

So, instead of being critical about things while you waste time thinking, getting it started NOW and think as you move along is the best way to make things done.

3. Pay yourself first.

This is nothing new but rarely done. This means that before you pay the government (for taxes), your utilities or mortgage; you have to pay yourself first.

Most often than not, I hear families do it the other way around – pay the bills first then what ever is left will be for savings. This is a HUGE, HUGE mistake that is why many unsurprisingly, never save enough for their future.

How much should you be saving? A rule of thumb is to save between 10% to 15% of your gross monthly income – I save 17%. If your in your middle thirties and haven’t really saved much, I suggest you to save as much as possible including some windfalls like bonuses or cash gifts. Catch up on the lost years that you haven’t.

4. Do it automatically.

One thing I don’t and never plan to do is budgeting. So you ask how I manage my savings without budgeting? I do it automatically!

Doing it automatically means ‘automatically’ deducting my income (be it for my insurance or managed funds) before it even reaches my hands. This way, I don’t get tempted to use my money from other purposes I don’t intend to buy. Discipline is something I don’t have and so I work only with whatever income is left after deducting ‘automatically’ for my savings.

5. Do not keep it in a bank!

For many of us, we put all our savings in a bank where it only grows 1% per year. This is precisely the reason why I never put my nest eggs in them because you virtually inhibit your money from growing.

Be wise and put your money on managed funds or other investments where you have complete control on how your money is invested on. Many managed funds have at least an annual compound interest rate of 10% per annum.

Would you still keep it in a bank?

I am neither an accountant nor I claim to be a financial guru but I can certainly tell what makes sense if you’re a middle-aged dad like me raising a family and securing our financial future. I have learned that there are only six simple rules (aka S.P.I.D.ER. Rules) for one to ensure future financial security. These rules spans time, income class or educational attainment. The degree of financial success depends on how much effort you give into all of these.

Rule 1: Save

The act of saving is the first basic step toward future financial security. As a rule, one should save 10-15% of one’s gross monthly income – I save 17% monthly and I still live quite comfortably. Man’s appetite for personal conveniences (lifestyle) is insatiable yet can only be controlled by one limited resource – money. To limit and simplify my lifestyle, my savings get automatically deducted from my paycheck and I live with what i have left. Simple yet effective.

Rule 2: Protect

Since I am a family man of two children, I have to protect my savings and family from unforeseen circumstances of death or debilitating diseases. I chose a no-frill permanent life insurance just enough to cover me for these unexpected events. My life insurance serve also as a savings plan with a 10% per annum interest.

Rule 3: Invest

Investing is an act of contributing money to make money. Savings alone is not enough to secure one’s future – you have to multiply it.I started mine in mutual funds then, when I accumulated enough, it will be invested on businesses that provide a much greater return.

Rule 4: Debt Management

It is moronic for me to say that debt is bad because it never is. It turns bad only when it becomes unmanaged to a point where one can no longer pay for it. Here is my rule when getting a loan: only borrow money to make money. Buying a car for family use will not put money in your pocket and buying your dream house won’t either. Manage your debt and put it in a controllable level.

Rule 5: Educate

As with any activity like a camping trip or a basketball game, it needs careful planning. Good planning starts when we are financially educated and really doing what we learned. I started by reading books from R. Kiyosaki and D. Bach and browse for more on the web. Learn as much as you can. Let education be your map to your future.

Rule 6: Revenue Streams

Even though I’m a part business owner of our health care company, I am salaried just like any employee in the office, but the pay is much higher. Having learned not to be complacent, I find creative and new ways to make money. And, Whatever I earn goes to the bank or some other investments. Everyone has special skills and anyone can profit from them. Be it in cooking, web design, and writing; you can turn them into profit and who knows, any of these special skills may become a huge income generating business for you and your family.

Warren Edward Buffett (born August 30, 1930, in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American investor, businessman and philanthropist. He is regarded as one of the world’s greatest investors and is the largest shareholder and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway. With an estimated net worth of around US$62 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as the richest person in the world as of February 11, 2008. –Wikipedia

Secret #1: Happiness comes from within.

“In my adult business life I have never had to make a choice of trading between professional and personal. I tap-dance to work, and when I get there it’s tremendous fun.” — Warren Buffett

Secret #2: Find happiness in simple pleasures.

“I have simple pleasures. I play bridge online for 12 hours a week.” — Warren Buffett

Secret #3: Live a simple life.

“I just naturally want to do things that make sense. In my personal life too, I don’t care what other rich people are doing. I don’t want a 405 foot boat just because someone else has a 400 foot boat.” — Warren Buffett

Secret #4: Think Simply.

“I want to be able to explain my mistakes. This means I do only the things I completely understand.” — Warren Buffett

Secret #5: Invest Simply.

“The best way to own common stocks is through an index fund.” — Warren Buffett

Secret #6: Have a mentor in life.

“I was lucky to have the right heroes. Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out to be. The qualities of the one you admire are the traits that you, with a little practice, can make your own, and that, if practiced, will become habit-forming.” — Warren Buffett

Secret #7: Making money isn’t the backbone of your guiding purpose; making money is the by-product of your guiding purpose.

“If you’re doing something you love, you’re more likely to put your all into it, and that generally equates to making money.” — Warren Buffett