10 Bitch Tips for Getting Your Financial Life Together NICole lapin

Let’s just go ahead and acknowledge it: people can be really nasty to ambitious woman.

As Jessica Miller Merrel writes, "When women are confident, calm, and educated, they

are often seen as trouble."

If you speak your mind, you’re called a bitch. If you don’t take shit from anyone, you’re

called a bitch. If you aren’t afraid to go for what you want, you’re called a bitch. If you

are empowered about your money and the life you want, you’re called a bitch. If you

demand respect, you’re called a bitch.

Let me be clear. Being a Rich Bitch is good. (Rich Bitches are the good

kinda bitches, like Glenda in The Wizard of Oz, not the bad bitches like the

Wicked Witch of the West.) It’s about empowerment. It’s about taking

control.

Being a Rich Bitch means going after what you want in life by getting the

financial part in order. Because let’s be honest: you need money to live

the life you want. My mission is to make you so financially fit that you’re

confident to call yourself a Rich Bitch.

What follows are 11 easy tips that will help you on your

path towards being a Rich Bitch and achieving your

financial goals.

1.Get your credit score(aka FICO score)

*

*

You’ve probably seen a ton of gimmicks—catchy commercials or random pop-up ads or a

ton of confusing, seemingly official sites when you do a Google search for “credit

report.” But there is only one that offers truly free reports. Uno. One. It’s www.

annualcreditreport.com.

BONUS: If you apply for a loan, you can ask the lender for a copy of the report and FICO

score they pulled, so you don’t have to pay for them yourself.

Chill on the big purchases (like a big-screen TV or new

computer) and don't open any new lines of credit for

several months before you try to refinance or get a

mortgage. It could screw with your credit score and lead to a higher interest rate.

2.Chill on the big purchases(like a big-screen TV or new computer)

New cars depreciate 15-20% the second you drive them off the

lot. And, they lose 70% of their value in the first four years.

3.Buy a used car.

Lots of car dealerships work on a quota system, meaning that they have

to sell a certain number of cars every month. In the last days of the

month, the dealership will have greater incentive to knock down the price

in order to move vehicles off the lot and meet their quota.

4.Buy cars at the end of the month.

Are you in between health insurance plans? Even if you're not, make friends

with walk-in clinics. It’s cheap, quick and easy. You don’t need an

appointment. You just show up—so you don’t have to deal with those

middle- of-the-day times when you have to drop everything because your doctor can squeeze you in.

5.Walk-ins rock.

Debit cards make bookkeeping easier because you can see exactly what you are

spending on a cash basis every month. This will go straight into the outflow section of

your balance sheet*/cash flow* statement since it's coming from money you have. A

credit card bill, on the other hand, will have two steps accounting for the interest. That is, the things you pay for with credit cards are listed out as expenditures and then re-

totaled with interest factored in.

6.be a debit devotee

Stocks will drive you crazy if you watch them every day, and will cause you grief

if you let them...especially if you fall in love with them. There's an old finance

saying: "Falling in love is always expensive." If you can stomach the volatility and

possibility of getting your heart broken, "own" investments.

7.Put your stock blinders on

8.

And you never know unless you try. You should always, always negotiate

the interest rate you get on your credit cards, and any late fees you may

incur. Never take the APR of interest rate offered as set in stone, it's not.

Everything is negotiable.

9.

See if you can get your boss to pay some of your bills. Do your employers require you

to be available on your cell during off hours? That's a good reason to ask them to help

pay for your phone bill. Do you bring your personal laptop into the office for work?

Ask about that too. If your employers won't help you pay for it, you might be able to write whatever item you're using for work off on your taxes.

Get your boss to pay your bills

10.

Many 401(k)’s allow you to contribute up to 15% of your salary until you reach the

cap, but there’s nothing that says you have to contribute that much. It’s ideal to

put in at least as much as your employer will match, typically 5% or 6%, so you

reap the benefit of that “free money.”

401(k) matching

amazonnicole lapin