I’m newly married and my wife and I just bought a house…  Needless to say we are facing new expenses that we aren’t used to.  I’m coming to a point were I’m scared to spend the way I used to spend when I was single… or even when we were engaged… Does everyone feel the same way that’s been in my shoes?  It’s like I’m questioning every single purchase I make!  Its definitely not fun to do, but needed… at least until we get into the swing of paying our mortgage and utilities along with whatever else is up ahead for us…..   Some advice that I’ve received is to log everything that you buy for a month or two, create categories according to your spending and then allocate an “allowance” for each category that you have.  Another piece of advice that I found to be great was to do a 60/40 split on your finances.  This is basically where you save 40% of your income and live off of the remaining 60%.  So that means all of your bills (mortgage, utilities, car note, credit card bills, etc…) should all be payable by 60% of your income per month.  The other 40% should be broken up as follows:
10% - 401k or some kind of retirement fund
10% - Long term savings.  Something you wont touch for a long time until a big purchase comes around like a house, or college for kids or something of that nature
10% - Short term savings.  This is for unexpected expenses like repairs for your car or medical bills.  It can also be allocated for vacations or gifts during the holidays.
10% - fun money.  This is basically whatever you want to save up for or to just have a fall back stash.
 
Another piece of advice that I got, which I’m semi weary of is to get multiple credit cards (if your financially responsible) and divide them up to different categories of expenditures.  So basically get a very low interest credit card for big ticket items that you do not plan to pay off in the near future and get a credit card with “rewards” (which usually means higher interest rates) that you will pay off in full at the end of each cycle.
 
Does anyone else have advice or input on financial planning for couples that are just starting out?  I think we all could benefit from some good advice!

Here are some helpful tips to save money.

http://biz.yahoo.com/allbiz/080331/2446_id.html?.v=1&.pf=banking-budgeting

Over the last few years, customers of South Asian decent would have to get loans through some of the more affluent banks here in the States, well not anymore. With the rise of Indian owned businesses in the market, they thought it would be nice to see how green the grass is on the other side…

Indian Owned Banks

Over the years Houston, Tx has closely been associated with the RODEO, all the events that occur in the month of March has a great impact on the Houston market. Lets take a closer look at the numbers…

Economic Impact
Direct Expenditures and Economic Impact

Although the financial impact of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo™ is felt by individuals and businesses directly involved with the organization, numerous other outlets throughout the city — as well as the entire globe — receive economic benefits from this massive event.

Total Direct Expenditures in Houston Metro $179,214,840

Total “New Money” From Outside Houston Metro $84,197,653
Economic impact of “new money” in Houston Metro  $210,494,132
(2.5 economic multiplier)
Economic impact of remaining expenditures $95,017,187
(1.0 multiplier)

New Money Impact and Remaining Expenditures $305,511,319

Import substitution effect (on remaining expenditures)$38,570,734

Total Estimated Economic Impact in the Houston Metro $344,082,053

Total Direct Expenditures Outside Houston Metro $42,737,734

Note: All of the money spent outside the Metro was new to the areas of the expenditures. Because the “economic engines” of the various areas are unknown to the Show, no economic multiplier is applied.

Total Direct Expenditures (world-wide) $221,952,574

Economic impact in Houston Metro $344,082,053
Direct expenditures outside the Houston Metro $42,737,734

Total World-wide Economic Impact $386,819,787

Total hotel/motel room nights in the Houston Metro 204,082

Total hotel/motel guest nights in the Houston Metro 465,512
Total guest/spectator/contestant/exhibitor meals 1,970,289

Source

So my question to you is Do you Rodeo? If not then I would highly recommend that you attend this weekend, since it’s the last weekend for this year. I remember when I went the first time a few years ago, seeing all the livestock show animals and all the rodeo competitions, I got to sit in the first row and really take it in. The fair right outside the reliant stadium is an event all by itself, the food and drinks and games that you can play. I also attended the shows in the evening and the whole experience was just truly wonderful. Made me feel like a true Texan that day. I would not mind going again, but next time I won’t forget the cowboy boots and hat, it is a must have. I would love to hear from the readers, their experiences when they went to the rodeo, was it good or bad?

India has yet another reason to brag.  India just received recognition for having the most individuals placed on the world’s TOP 10 Billionaire’s list, recently published by Forbes.com.   Lakshmi Mittal, Mukhesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and KP Singh all received placement on this prestigious list.

Here is a little more info on each of the Indian Billionaires, provided by Yahoo Finance:

Lakshmi Mittal:  #4, $45.0B

• Heads world’s largest steelmaker, $105 billion (sales) ArcelorMittal, which accounts for 10% of all crude steel production.
• Just delivered 580 tons to be used in construction of the World Trade Center memorial in New York.
• With 44% stake, is the company’s largest shareholder. Longtime resident of London is Europe’s richest resident.

Mukesh Ambani:  #5, $43.0B

• Asia’s richest resident heads petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries, India’s most valuable company by market cap.
• His fortune is up $22.9 billion since last year, making him the world’s second-biggest gainer in terms of dollars. The biggest gainer was his estranged brother Anil, who ranks sixth in the world, just behind his older brother.
• The sons inherited their fortune from their late father, renowned industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani.  But they couldn’t get along, and in 2005 their mother brokered a peace settlement breaking up the family’s assets.
• Mukesh is using some of his money to build a 27-story home.

Anil Ambani:  #5, $42.0B

• The year’s biggest gainer, Anil Ambani, is up $23.8 billion in the past year and is closing gap with estranged brother, Mukesh, who ranks one spot ahead of him in the world at No. 5.
• The sons inherited their fortune from their late father, renowned industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani.  But they couldn’t get along, and in 2005 their mother brokered a peace settlement breaking up the family’s assets.
• A marathon runner, his biggest asset is his 65% stake in telecom venture Reliance Communications.
• He recently raised $3 billion from the highly anticipated initial offering of his Reliance Power, the biggest in India’s history. Despite the hype, the stock tumbled 17% immediately after its February listing. In a bid to appease investors, company’s board recently approved the issue of bonus shares.
• Still feuding with brother Mukesh: battling him in court over a gas-supply agreement.

KP Singh:  #8, $30.B

• Singh is now the world’s richest real estate baron after listing his real estate development company DLF in 2007. The offering helped triple his fortune to $30 billion this year, up from $10 billion.
• A former army officer, known as K.P., he joined his father-in-law’s Delhi Land & Finance in 1961.
• Singh later built DLF City in Gurgaon, his showpiece township on the outskirts of Delhi, by acquiring land from farmers. Over time, he transformed it into one of India’s biggest real estate developers.
• Group plans to raise another $1.5 billion by listing a subsidiary in Singapore.
• A keen golfer, he now leaves son Rajiv, daughter Pia to run operations.

So the questions our teams have is this:  How much of this money is being used by these top-brass fellows to better the country of India?  Oh ya, that’s right, my man Mukesh is still too busy building his $1B house…hopefully the other bookoo-rich guys on the list have a little more understanding of Deepak Chopra’s second spiritual law of success - The Law of Giving.

Either way, we tip our hats to these fellas as they have helped bold India onto the world map once again.  

What’s all the buzz about the Visa IPO? If you don’t understand why this is such a big thing, you’ll just need to take a look at the Mastercard stock (ticker:  MA), which IPO’d at below fifty bucks and now is just slightly under $200. 

Analysts are predicting that the Visa stock will put on a better show than Mastercard did over the past two years.  Not only that, Visa is set to break the record for the biggest US IPO offering ever.

Here is an article about the Visa IPO to read in your spare time:  Visa IPO Article

So we want to know, ARE YOU GETTING IN ON THIS?  Leave us a comment and let us know if you’re gonna join the party.