Financial 1

Most People Spend 10% More Than They Make!
You probably know how much money you made last month, but do you know how much money you spent? Or do you know how much money you have left to spend this month? If you don't you're not alone, most people have no idea. The fact is most of us spend 10% more per month than we make. That comes out to $431 per month based on the average American income. No wonder the average credit card debt is now at $8,500!

So why is it so difficult to track your spending? Today we live in a near "cashless" society. Using debit cards, credit cards, automatic deposits, and wire transfers we rarely even see our money. It's easier than ever to spend, spend, spend!

A New Way To Manage Your Money
Traditionally, many people managed their money by dividing their cash into several paper envelopes. An envelope for food, entertainment, utilities etc. They then spent their money from these envelopes. They always knew how much money they had left to spend, and how long it had to last. Mvelopes Personal is a breakthrough in budgeting and spending management that modernizes this same envelope concept using advanced Internet technology for today's nearly "cashless" spending world.

Top Reasons To Use Mvelopes Personal

1. Recover 10% of your income from hidden spending
By knowing where your money is going and setting up spending evelopes beforehand, Mvelopes users have been able to save 10-20% of their income each month. Mvelopes helps you eliminate hidden spending from all those little purchase that add up to more than you think. With better tracking and forecasting, you can recover that extra 10% each and every month. Over the year that really adds up! If you make $40,000/year that's $4,000 dollars you could save and put to better use.

Sande, Photographer
"I had no idea that I was spending $400 per month on gardening! Mvelopes Personal has helped me save $350 per month and put it toward debt reduction."

2. Always know how much you have left to spend in every budget category
Quicken® and MS® Money both use after-the-fact budget reconciliation. This means that you don't know how much you have spent until it's too late. Quicken and Money simply do not help you manage your spending or teach you how to effectively use a budget. Mvelopes Personal provides you critical balance information for each spending category at all times. You always know how much money you have left to spend and how long it has to last, enabling you to make informed spending decisions.

Stacy, Cosmetologist
"I love Mvelopes Personal because it actually sets aside money for upcoming periodic expenses. All the other "budgeting" programs we tried were only good for tracking what we had already spent - not telling us how much was left to spend from before we made a purchase."

3. Automatically track all your purchases
With Mvelopes Personal, you get all your transactions from all your accounts at once. Mvelopes simultaneously retrieves all your checking, savings, and credit card transactions from your financial institutions at once. You decide which envelope budget category to assign each transaction to, and you don’t have to type in any of the information ! Getting all this information automatically saves you time and money. No other personal finance program can do this!

Annette, Homemaker
"Before Mvelopes, we would discuss purchases but not know exactly where the money would come from… Now I feel much more in control of our money and not controlled by it."

4. Effectively manage credit card spending
Mvelopes Personal’s credit card spending tracker knows every time you have used a credit card to make a purchase. It sets aside money from your spending envelopes into a credit card payment envelope. This enables you to pay off your purchases in FULL each month. No more costly finance charges and interest payments for you!

5. Quickly eliminate debt
People who use Mvelopes Personal have found that many of their spending envelopes have money left over in them at the end of the month. By applying this money to debt reduction they eliminate debt at a much faster rate, often in less than half the time. Once one debt is paid in full, they roll that amount over into the next debt and continue to pay them off at an accelerated rate. You too can eliminate your consumer debt before you know it using Mvelopes Personal.

Stewart, Journeyman Electrician
"My wife and I have been using Mvelopes Personal for over 4 months and have eliminated ALL of our consumer debt! It has saved us more than once from impulse buys and unnecessary finance charges. Once you've used it, you'll wonder how you ever lived without it."

6. Never miss a payment again
Mvelopes Personal includes a full-featured bill pay service , which helps you easily create and manage payments online. You will never miss a payment again. You’ll never have another late fee. Payments can be made to ANY company or person - up to 20 per month. Save more than $7.00 in postage alone, not to mention the time you'll save. It’s so convenient and easy!

Phillip, Financial Consultant
“I love online bill pay! It's so much easier and faster than writing out all those checks and this way I never have to worry about whether or not I remembered to write all the checks down in my registry. Paying bills takes me so much less time now!”

7. Anytime, anywhere online access
The Mvelopes Personal system is completely ONLINE. That means you can access your information from anywhere, at anytime--all you need is an Internet connection. This allows you to always make informed spending decisions and always know exactly how much you have left to spend. It also means no software to install or yearly upgrade fees.

Jennifer, Advertising Consultant
“Each fall I like to buy a season pass for Alta Ski Resort. Since I’ve started using Mvelopes, it is so much easier now to pay for it. Rather than having to come up with the whole amount at once, I set a little aside each month. Then when September rolls around, I already have the cash to pick up my pass. Now I just have to wait for the snow!”

8. Try Mvelopes free for one month and see for yourself
You can try the Mvelopes Personal System FREE for one month. Once you’ve tried the system, we know you will love it. There is absolutely no risk or obligation! If you choose to continue using the Mvelopes Personal system pay as little as $9.95 a month, and of course you may cancel at any time, there are no contracts. See competitive cost comparison .

The Mvelopes Personal monthly service gives you:

Complete Online Spending Management System Instant access to your spending plan and all of your financial information anytime, anywhere. Everything you need to successfully manage your finances.
Automatic Transaction Retrieval Retrieve all your transactions from all your online financial institutions and credit cards, at once.
Full-featured Bill Pay Service up to 20 payments/month including postage.
Mportfolio™, Portfolio Account Aggregation . Track your investments, mortgage, car loans, loyalty programs, e-mail accounts and more - all in one summarized page view.
Personalized Coaching and Support . Never pay to speak to a customer support representative again, plus get free budget coaching.

CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED TODAY!

Content provided by EssayEdge.com.

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This article contains three parts:

Step One: Brainstorming

The most important part of your essay is the subject matter. You should expect to devote about 1-2 weeks simply to brainstorming ideas. To begin brainstorming a subject idea consider the following points. From brainstorming, you may find a subject you had not considered at first.

What are your major accomplishments, and why do you consider them accomplishments? Do not limit yourself to accomplishments you have been formally recognized for since the most interesting essays often are based on accomplishments that may have been trite at the time but become crucial when placed in the context of your life.
Does any attribute, quality, or skill distinguish you from everyone else? How did you develop this attribute?
Consider your favorite books, movies, works of art, etc. Have these influenced your life in a meaningful way? Why are they your favorites?
What was the most difficult time in your life, and why? How did your perspective on life change as a result of the difficulty?
Have you ever struggled mightily for something and succeeded? What made you successful?
Have you ever struggled mightily for something and failed? How did you respond?
Of everything in the world, what would you most like to be doing right now? Where would you most like to be? Who, of everyone living and dead, would you most like to be with? These questions should help you realize what you love most.
Have you experienced a moment of epiphany, as if your eyes were opened to something you were previously blind to?
What is your strongest, most unwavering personality trait? Do you maintain strong beliefs or adhere to a philosophy? How would your friends characterize you? What would they write about if they were writing your admissions essay for you?
What have you done outside of the classroom that demonstrates qualities sought after by universities? Of these, which means the most to you?
What are your most important extracurricular or community activities? What made you join these activities? What made you continue to contribute to them?
What are your dreams of the future? When you look back on your life in thirty years, what would it take for you to consider your life successful? What people, things, and accomplishments do you need? How does this particular university fit into your plans for the future?

If these questions cannot cure your writer's block, consider the following exercises:

If you cannot characterize yourself and your personality traits do not automatically leap to mind, ask your friends to write a list of your five most salient personality traits. Ask your friends why they chose the ones they did. If an image of your personality begins to emerge, consider life experiences that could illustrate the particular traits.

While admissions officers are not interested in reading about your childhood and are more interested in the last 2-4 years of your life, you might consider events of your childhood that inspired the interests you have today. Interests that began in childhood may be the most defining parts of your life, even if you recently lost interest. For instance, if you were interested in math since an early age and now want to study medicine, you might incorporate this into your medical school admissions essay. Analyze the reasons for your interests and how they were shaped from your upbringing.

Many applicants do not have role models and were never greatly influenced by just one or two people. However, for those of you who have role models and actually aspire to become like certain people, you may want to incorporate a discussion of that person and the traits you admired into your application essay.

Before you sat down to write a poem, you would certainly read past poets. Before writing a book of philosophy, you would consider past philosophers. In the same way, we recommend reading sample admissions essays to understand what topics other applicants chose. EssayEdge maintains an archive of over 100 free sample admissions essays. Click here to view sample essays that worked.

Life is short. Why do you want spend 2-6 years of your life at a particular college, graduate school, or professional school? How is the degree necessary to the fulfillment of your goals? When considering goals, think broadly. Few people would be satisfied with just a career. How else will your education fit your needs and lead you to a fulfilling life?

If after reading this entire page you do not have an idea for your essay, do not be surprised. Coming up with an idea is difficult and requires time. Actually consider the questions and exercises above. Without a topic you feel passionate about, without one that brings out the defining aspects of you personality, you risk falling into the trap of sounding like the 90 percent of applicants who will write boring admissions essays. The only way to write a unique essay is to have experiences that support whatever topic you come up with. Whatever you do, don't let the essay stress you out. Have fun with the brainstorming process. You might discover something about yourself you never consciously realized.

Good Luck!

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Step Two - Selecting an Essay Topic

By EssayEdge.com: Our Editing Makes the Difference

Having completed step one, you should now have a rough idea of the elements you wish to include in your essay, including your goals, important life experiences, research experience, diversifying features, spectacular nonacademic accomplishments, etc. You should also now have an idea of what impression you want to make on the admissions officers.

We should remark that at this stage, undergraduate applicants have a large advantage over graduate school applicants. Whereas nobody questions a high school student's motivation to attend college, graduate and professional school applicants must directly address in their essays their desire to study their selected field.

You must now confront the underlying problem of the admissions essay. You must now consider topics that will allow you to synthesize your important personal characteristics and experiences into a coherent whole while simultaneously addressing your desire to attend a specific institution. While most admissions essays allow great latitude in topic selection, you must also be sure to answer the questions that were asked of you. Leaving a lasting impression on someone who reads 50-100 essays a day will not be easy, but we have compiled some guidelines to help you get started. With any luck, one or two topics, with small changes, will allow you to answer application questions for 5-7 different colleges, although admissions officers do appreciate essays that provide convincing evidence of how an applicant will fit into a particular academic environment. You should at least have read the college's webpage, admissions catalog, and have an understanding of the institution's strengths.

Consider the following questions before proceeding:

Have you selected a topic that describes something of personal importance in your life, with which you can use vivid personal experiences as supporting details?

Is your topic a gimmick? That is, do you plan to write your essay in iambic pentameter or make it funny. You should be very, very careful if you are planning to do this. We recommend strongly that you do not do this. Almost always, this is done poorly and is not appreciated by the admissions committee. Nothing is worse than not laughing or not being amused at something that was written to be funny or amusing.

Will your topic only repeat information listed elsewhere on your application? If so, pick a new topic. Don't mention GPAs or standardized test scores in your essay.

Can you offer vivid supporting paragraphs to your essay topic? If you cannot easily think of supporting paragraphs with concrete examples, you should probably choose a different essay topic.

Can you fully answer the question asked of you? Can you address and elaborate on all points within the specified word limit, or will you end up writing a poor summary of something that might be interesting as a report or research paper? If you plan on writing something technical for college admissions, make sure you truly can back up your interest in a topic and are not merely throwing around big scientific words. Unless you convince the reader that you actually have the life experiences to back up your interest in neurobiology, the reader will assume you are trying to impress him/her with shallow tactics. Also, be sure you can write to admissions officers and that you are not writing over their heads.

Can you keep the reader's interest from the first word. The entire essay must be interesting, considering admissions officers will probably only spend a few minutes reading each essay.

Is your topic overdone? To ascertain this, peruse through old essays. EssayEdge's 100 free essays can help you do this. However, most topics are overdone, and this is not a bad thing. A unique or convincing answer to a classic topic can pay off big.

Will your topic turnoff a large number of people? If you write on how everyone should worship your God, how wrong or right abortion is, or how you think the Republican or Democratic Party is evil, you will not get into the college of your choice. The only thing worse than not writing a memorable essay is writing an essay that will be remembered negatively. Stay away from specific religions, political doctrines, or controversial opinions. You can still write an essay about Nietzsche's influence on your life, but express understanding that not all intelligent people will agree with Nietzsche's claims. Emphasize instead Nietzsche's influence on your life, and not why you think he was wrong or right in his claims.

In this vein, if you are presenting a topic that is controversial, you must acknowledge counter arguments without sounding arrogant.

Will an admissions officer remember your topic after a day of reading hundreds of essays? What will the officer remember about your topic? What will the officer remember about you? What will your lasting impression be?

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Step Three: Writing the Essay, Tips for Success

By EssayEdge.com: Our Editing Makes the Difference

Even seemingly boring topics can be made into exceptional admissions essays with an innovative approach. In writing the essay you must bear in mind your two goals: to persuade the admissions officer that you are extremely worthy of admission and to make the admissions officer aware that you are more than a GPA and a standardized score, that you are a real-life, intriguing personality.

Unfortunately, there is no surefire step-by-step method to writing a good essay. EssayEdge editors at http://www.EssayEdge.com/ will remake your essay into an awesome, memorable masterpiece, but every topic requires a different treatment since no two essays are alike. However, we have compiled the following list of tips that you should find useful while writing your admissions essay.

You can follow the next 11 steps, but if you miss the question, you will not be admitted to any institution.

Even seemingly boring essay topics can sound interesting if creatively approached. If writing about a gymnastics competition you trained for, do not start your essay: "I worked long hours for many weeks to train for XXX competition." Consider an opening like, "Every morning I awoke at 5:00 to sweat, tears, and blood as I trained on the uneven bars hoping to bring the state gymnastics trophy to my hometown."

Admissions officers want to learn about you and your writing ability. Write about something meaningful and describe your feelings, not necessarily your actions. If you do this, your essay will be unique. Many people travel to foreign countries or win competitions, but your feelings during these events are unique to you. Unless a philosophy or societal problem has interested you intensely for years, stay away from grand themes that you have little personal experience with.

For some reason, students continue to think big words make good essays. Big words are fine, but only if they are used in the appropriate contexts with complex styles. Think Hemingway.

If you are not adept with imagery, you can write an excellent essay without it, but it's not easy. The application essay lends itself to imagery since the entire essay requires your experiences as supporting details. Appeal to the five senses of the admissions officers.

Expect admissions officers to spend 1-2 minutes reading your essay. You must use your introduction to grab their interest from the beginning. You might even consider completely changing your introduction after writing your body paragraphs.

Don't Summarize in your Introduction. Ask yourself why a reader would want to read your entire essay after reading your introduction. If you summarize, the admissions officer need not read the rest of your essay.

Create Mystery or Intrigue in your Introduction. It is not necessary or recommended that your first sentence give away the subject matter. Raise questions in the minds of the admissions officers to force them to read on. Appeal to their emotions to make them relate to your subject matter.

Your introduction can be original, but cannot be silly. The paragraphs that follow must relate to your introduction.

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The conclusion is your last chance to persuade the reader or impress upon them your qualifications. In the conclusion, avoid summary since the essay is rather short to begin with; the reader should not need to be reminded of what you wrote 300 words before. Also do not use stock phrases like "in conclusion, in summary, to conclude, etc." You should consider the following conclusions:

Expand upon the broader implications of your discussion.

Consider linking your conclusion to your introduction to establish a sense of balance by reiterating introductory phrases.

Redefine a term used previously in your body paragraphs.

End with a famous quote that is relevant to your argument. Do not try to do this, as this approach is overdone. This should come naturally.

Frame your discussion within a larger context or show that your topic has widespread appeal.

Remember, your essay need not be so tidy that you can answer why your little sister died or why people starve in Africa; you are not writing a "sit-com," but should forge some attempt at closure.

Spend a week or so away from your draft to decide if you still consider your topic and approach worthwhile.

Ask editors to read with these questions in mind:

WHAT is the essay about?

Have I used active voice verbs wherever possible?

Is my sentence structure varied or do I use all long or all short sentences?

Do you detect any cliches?

Do I use transition appropriately?

Do I use imagery often and does this make the essay clearer and more vivid?

What's the best part of the essay?

What about the essay is memorable?

What's the worst part of the essay?

What parts of the essay need elaboration or are unclear?

What parts of the essay do not support your main argument or are immaterial to your case?

Is every single sentence crucial to the essay? This MUST be the case.

What does the essay reveal about your personality?

Could anyone else have written this essay?

How would you fill in the following blank based on the essay: "I want to accept you to this college because our college needs more ________."

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