Two articles published in USA Today several months ago have inspired me to think a great deal about death and inheritances.The first article noted the generosity of Howard Hughes in donating the majority of his estate to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation after his death. It went on to discuss the growing trend of the rich to leave much of their estate to charity, rather than pass it on to their children. Most of the children in the article - possibly all of them - discussed the trend in a positive manner; I don't recall anyone other than the author bemoaning their loss. The second article focused on one family, whose patriarch was dying of cancer and using most of his savings on medical bills. Although his children repeatedly stated that they would rather have hope for their father than an inheritance (one significantly smaller than the Hughes children would someday receive), the father worried about what he would leave to his children.

I found the tone of both articles disturbing. The implication was that parents should build up their fortunes primarily for their children. The entitlement factor that pervades America has now become funeral fodder. I wonder about the interviews you would never get - the decision to put an elderly parent in a state-funded home to preserve the inheritance for their grown children. I wonder why we are beginning to believe that we are entitled to something that someone else has worked hard for. If I were to visit Mr. Hughes and inform him that I deserve his money simply because I am alive, he and most of the rest of the nation would laugh at my daring and dismiss me. Why, then, is it deemed acceptable for us to believe we are entitled to what our parents have worked for?

As a mother of small children - all five and under - I obviously want to be sure that my children will be financially provided for should something happen to my husband and myself. But I also think the most valuable thing I can leave my children is a desire to work hard. Studies have shown that the children of the rich often wind up wasting their lives and their money, squandering it quickly. It is the grandchildren of the rich, sometimes the great-grandchildren, who seek to rebuild the fortune they once had. Granted, this isn't always the case, and money isn't always the problem.

However, once my children have grown up and made their way in the world, I don't think they are automatically entitled to receive my money. Personally, I plan to enjoy my retirement years, and I can only pray that my husband and I will raise them in such a way that they will always put our health before their financial growth. Heck, I hope to raise them in such a way that they can support me in my retirement - but I don't expect it. Leaving an inheritance for my children would be nice, but is not my primary goal in life.

I recently discussed my father's intentions following the death of my step-mother - questions about where he would want to be buried and the like. In the process, he mentioned that he owned a life insurance policy for $100,000 so that my sister and I would receive an 'inheritance'. Since he is a single man on a tight budget, with no one dependent on him for income, I urged him to take the money he was paying into the policy and spend it on himself or some of the debts he was struggling to pay off. He refused, insisting he wanted to leave us with something. Again, I told him that I would rather have him happy now than have some money later.

At the same time, as my husband and I calculated our insurance needs, I tried to plan how much three children would need to support themselves until they were 18. Of course, it would be nice to pay for college....and on the list went. I tried to decide about trusts with annual payouts and interest rates, and when to give them the principle of the balance (I decided closer to 30 would be nice...or maybe 50...). So I guess, ranting aside, I'm not immune to wanting to leave a nice inheritance for my children.

All of that said, I am opposed to children who think they deserve what their parents have earned, whether it is a fortune or a small business, or both. I feel like one of the most important things we can teach our children is to work hard and save hard. And I think that we should make sure as we plan our estates that our children benefit, not just financially but in all aspects of their lives.

However, if Mr. Hughes feels the urge to leave some of his fortune to me, I guess I would take it.

As a mother with three kids and a very hardworking, hungry husband, I have discovered that absolutely nothing is cheap. I have also discovered that it is the small, daily changes we have managed to make that have had the most profound impact on our budget.

Here are 16 of the simple, everyday changes that have worked for us.

1. Use a coupon, absolutely whenever possible. I was really surprised by how many money-saving opportunities are out there when I knew where to look.

For local purchases, get an “Entertainment Book” each year and you will save on those inevitable everyday expenses ranging from dining out to groceries to oil changes. Visit the website to find the savings specific to your zip code. http://www.entertainment.com

For online purchases, stick to the reputable retailers. You certainly will not save any money if you are the victim of fraud or if you are simply unable to return an item. And before you start shopping, always look for a coupon code that will allow you to save on your purchase. In the past, many online retailers sent out promotional codes as a series of letters or numbers that could be entered at checkout. Now, many retailers use a button or text link that automatically activates your coupon when you click through, so it is often a good idea to find the coupon first, before you start to shop.

2. Shop around. The internet is an amazing tool for researching products and retailers, as well as for comparison shopping. We make nearly all of our large purchases online (with a coupon code, of course). It is also important to know where to shop. For holiday gifts, plan ahead and check out the big online discount stores. Overstock.com and Smartbargains.com offer significantly reduced prices on trusted brands. And you can get great shipping prices, too, even on large gifts. Overstock.com, for example, generally charges a flat $2.50 for shipping per order, not per item. I once had an enormous game table shipped to me for $2.50. Overstock often offers coupons for free shipping, too, so be on the lookout for those.

3. Keep a running list of gift ideas for your loved ones. I have found that when I am confident that a gift is perfect for the recipient, I am much less likely to overspend. But that kind of inspiration rarely hits me during the mid-December holiday rush, so I need to keep a list going the whole year through.

4. Budget. Of course, it is important to know what you are really spending. For years, the budget I had in mind was really more of a “wishful thinking” budget. But this quickly led to debt. It pays to get realistic. Whether you use a computer program or a simple ledger book, make sure you know where your money is really going.

5. Save for the future. Take 10 percent of your income and put it in savings, right off the bat. Now you know what you need to cut back on (or how much more you need to earn) to shore up the deficit.

6. Plan ahead. You will want to make sure you have money in the bank for emergencies. Experts say you should have three to six months of living expenses set aside, for those just-in-case times. It sounds like a lot, but start socking away money each month, and it will add up fast.

7. Get organized. When your home is organized, you will be less likely to spend money on items that are already hiding in the nether reaches of your closet and drawers. The same goes for your refrigerator and kitchen cupboards. Purge and organize before you shop.

8. Simplify. There is a certain romance to the “simplify your life” movement. And having too much stuff really does weigh us down. Take a look at everything in your home. If it does not add joy, beauty, meaning, or usefulness to your life, give it away. And when you are tempted to buy something new, it must pass the same test.

On a quarterly basis, go through your house and ask yourself these same things again. Go through your closet, attic, garage, and basement and purge those items that do not add genuine joy, beauty, meaning or usefulness to your everyday life.

9. Reduce, reuse and recycle. A simple lifestyle, for me, is about reducing my urge to over-consume. It is about being kind to the environment. It is about spending less money on material things, so that I have more time and money to spend on memories with my family. Make changes that will help the environment and your pocketbook at the same time. Install water saving kits on your toilet. Write on the back sides of paper. Use reusable containers in your lunches. All these little things really do add up, and it is important to show our children how we can all be part of the solution.

10. Shop without your kids. I know that if I get a shopping cart at WalMart and I do not have a list, I will spend $100. If the kids are with me, I will spend even more. This is another reason it makes sense to do your shopping online. You are less likely to purchase the incidentals.

11. Make sure that your credit card is paying you back via an incentive program. I found a credit card that allows me to earn points on my daily purchases toward our annual vacation trip, including airline miles and hotel accommodations. Since most of my expenses each month are incurred at the grocery store, I found a card that rewards specifically for these types of purchases. Of course, you will need to make sure that you are paying off your balance each and every month. Paying a high interest rate on your credit card will quickly negate any savings you accrue on your incentive plan. Here is a good resource to find the rewards credit card that makes the most sense for you: http://www.creditcards.com/reward.php

12. Lower your interest rates. If you are carrying a balance on a credit card, give the credit card company a call to see if they will give you a lower rate. Sometimes, it is just that easy.

13. Shop around for insurance. The money you pay for auto insurance can vary greatly. Do some research to find out if you are getting the best rate.

14. Be wary of the influence of TV commercials and print ads, especially on your children. We hear fewer cries of “I want that!” when we keep our kids programming to those channels that do not rely on advertising dollars, such as PBS and Noggin.

15. Play “Time Warp.” This is a technique I first learned from “My Monastery is a Minivan,” by Denise Roy, and I use it quite a lot. It goes like this: When you are tempted to make a purchase, mentally fast-forward through the life of the item. For example, in her book, Roy thinks she needs new candleholders. She imagines spending time at the mall to find them, soon having to clean them, and then, years down the road, packing them in the giveaway box. She shirks the purchase and soon rediscovers the heirloom candleholders that are packed away right in her own home.

I like to play this "fast forward" technique in reverse, too, asking: What new clothes did I buy last season? (Sometimes, I can not remember). Where are those "I have to have it" items now?

16. Keep your mind on abundance. When you are thinking about money, it is really important to get out of the poverty mindset. Too often, when we are focused on saving money, we are living from a perspective that focuses on lack and scarcity, which tends to bring about more of the same. It has been really helpful for me to make a conscious effort to see the world as infinitely abundant and to rest in the notion that my needs will be taken care of. This is generally a simple matter of thinking more about what I *do* have than what I do not have.

All my days of penny-pinching have certainly proven to me that it truly does not take money to make us happy. Many of my fondest memories have occurred in the smallest homes. My child’s favorite playthings tend to be the inexpensive items that were never designed to be toys at all. And it is the simple, everyday pleasures that are the sweetest, when enjoyed together.

I don't think anyone enjoys paying bills, myself included. I just get so bored looking through all the bills in order to write check after check for each one. I think this task is wasting my time so I usually let the bills form a heap on my desk, which isn't exactly an efficient way to handle my finances.

Recently, I was pleasantly surprised when I heard somewhere that there is a new online service available for people like me who get bored writing check after check. While I was checking something on the internet, I noticed that many creditors were offering a pay bill online feature. I was extremely delighted to learn that someone has discovered a solution for my problem. I just wanted to get rid of the everyday process of paying bills.

The first advantage of the pay bills online that I can think of is that you will be always sure that you are not late with your payment. Moreover, you will be sure that you have forgotten none of your bills. It often happens to me to forget paying my bills not because I don’t have the money, but I just have overlooked the deadline. I have so much daily tasks that paying bills is just on of these that I often miss to accomplish.

The pay bill online option allows you to make yourself an account where you can check from your home computer whether you have a payment due. If I found that, I have a payment due, I just select the bill, and with the pay bill online feature within a few minutes, my bill is paid.

The pay bill online feature allows you to check whenever you want whether you have not overpaid a bill. When I receive my bills with the regular mail, I have noticed that it is sometimes crossed with past mail. If I do not check the date, I will pay a past bill because I am used to write checks according to the total sum on the bill. I have found that I have written payments for bills that I had already paid once. This will be impossible with pay bill online option. It is nice to have a credit on your account. This does not happen to me because my husband and I live from paycheck to paycheck many months. In such cases, every penny is important.

We also have found out that the pay bills online feature keeps information about what bills have been sent and what bills have not. This means that with the pay bill online it is impossible that I will pay a bill without knowing that my husband had already paid the same bill. Such misunderstanding happened to us last year. I sent a payment check for our car insurance. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that my husband had already sent the same payment in the mail. Our car insurance was paid as well for the next quarter of the year and this is not bad but we had spent money that could have been applied elsewhere. The pay bill online service prevents this from happening.

With the pay bill online feature, you can always have the most up to date information about your account. This pay bill online option helps me very much to keep track of my payments. With the pay bill online service, I’m always sure that I’m not late with any payment. . I spend a lot of time online. It just takes me a few minutes to select the pay bill online feature. After I get my payments settled, I am ready to move on to other things.

Those guides and books have nothing of value, all the information they contain is superfluous or can be found anywhere on the net. Most of them lack the only thing that could have some use: copies of the forms you need to fill in order to apply for a government grant and detailed explanations on how to fill them.

And even those who include forms and models of letters have little value since all that can be easily obtained at each government agency that provides access to funds in the form of government loans and grants. And of course, you can get all that for free.

Government Grants

There are many government agencies providing funding for different purposes to individuals and organization that meet certain requirements. However, qualifying for such money grants is not an easy task and a guide or book won’t help you either. In order to successfully apply for a government grant there are many things you need to know.

First of all, you should see whether the purpose that the money you need would have fits into any of the grants’ categories. There are grants for first time home buyers, college students, physically challenged people, starting businesses, non-profit organizations, etc. As you can see, if you want the money to buy yourself a new state of the art high tech TV, you are out of luck.

You also need to make clear how much money you’ll need because generally grants offer a limited amount of funding. The idea is to provide assistance to the underprivileged and not to finance those who can get finance by other means like private loans or government loans.

Thus, by keeping grants to small amounts, the government can help as much people as possible. When it comes to business grants there is more flexibility but they won’t finance huge ventures either. For larger amounts, the only option is private finance.

How to Get Them

As stated above, there is no need to pay for expensive books or guides, most government agencies have online sites whit contact information. There are also private sites explaining everything about government grants with information and examples of forms and letters so you won’t have problems applying for government grants and you won’t need to spend hours figuring out the explanations that appear on government sites with all the technical terms and so.

Thus, search the net for government grants and you’ll find many online sites that will help you understand grants and will explain you how to apply and get approved. However, you need to be careful too, because there are many sites which are nothing but scams and will want to take your money and provide nothing in return, just like the guides and books.

Kate Ross is a professional consultant at Kate Ross is a professional consultant at Speedybadcreditloans with fifteen years in the financial field. She helps people in the process of securing personal loans, mortgage, refinance or consolidation loans and prevents consumers from falling into financial scams. If you need advice on Government Grants visit her website and also get more articles and smart tips on this and other financial issues.

If you had invested $300 a month in S&P 500 index for past 30 years, the net value of your total investment will make you a millionaire today. The S&P 500 index represents over 70% of the value of the U.S. equity market. The annualized return of S&P 500 index is about 11.16% in past 30 years. If the investment period was only 20 years (not 30 years), your net worth is about one third of a million.

For young couples, by the time they have graduated college, found an apartment, and paid their cell phone bills, chances are they have dug an even deeper hole in debt land, not to mention the huge student loans. However, the time is on their side and the power of compound interest will turn many of them into millionaires if they understand the simple wealth building strategy and start early.

Far too often couples feel that they will start saving, only after they generate a large amount of revenue. But they really need to start saving right away. Wealth building is not an overnight process. If you are having difficulties putting money aside because of children or college loans, it is still possible to even save extra change. By emptying your pockets every night and creating a change jar, you would be surprised how quickly it adds up. Also, if you could even take $20 every other week out of your paycheck, it is still better than having nothing at all.

Other important factors in wealth building include finding the right mortgage. By selecting a mortgage that allows adjustable rates, you could be saving money in the long run. Additional options include seeking out real estate investing seminars. Regardless of how much you know, real estate investing seminars are great to consider when wealth building. It is essential to look at the big picture instead of tomorrow or next week. Another crucial thing you can do is be creative. Find extra ways to make money on the side, even try a creative new hobby. By working together as a team on a side project, chances are you could make extra cash to store for wealth building.

If you are unsure of where to start and feel like you just aren’t cut out for wealth building, there are programs that will instruct you further. Wealth building seminars teach consumers how to save their money, live on a budget, and use other alternatives. There are hundreds of unique ways to do this, but only wealth building seminars will show you the ins and outs. For many, this is extremely helpful because they are often in over their heads. Wealth building programs are far from effortless, but it does point you in the right direction.

Regardless of what type of financial situation you are in, wealth building is a great tool. For young couples, wealth building strategies are even more crucial. By saving money when you are young, you will have more revenue in the future. This could mean better education for your children, a fancier retirement package, or anything you’d like. While wealth building does teach you how to save and think, you need to take the extra initiative. Without a strict budget and determination, wealth building seminars will only be another dollar out of your pocket.

I have watched several documentaries on Kartrina and the existing devastation of the New Orleans area. It seems the major corporate entities such as the Superdome in New Orleans and the Gambling Casinos in Mississippi have been restored quickly and are functioning.

The areas other than the corporate wealthy areas are still blighted, full of piles of trash, and vacant. Insurers are finding excuses for not paying to rebuild houses and the government keeps saying it plans to fund the rebuilding of the gulf coast homes, but have not.

If I am not mistaken, didn't all of those homeowners and most of the apartment dwellers work and pay state and federal taxes? Doesn't that mean they deserve to have some of that tax money available to fix some of that devastation? Does this mean that when there are natural disasters in other parts of the country people will NOT be treated as tax paying citizens of their own country, but instead like refugees with no rights?

Seeing all of those documentaries on the anniversary gave little hope to the future of natural disaster plans in this country. A documentary by Discovery Times interviewed many of the professionals who were present during and after the floods, who contradicted many of the negative media reports that were put on the air about Katrina victims. Were these false reports put on the air to brainwash us against the Katrina victims?

In my opinion all of this demonstrates that although we pay large amounts of state and federal taxes, the government may not be there for you if a natural disaster happens, therefore you MUST get all of your ducks in order now. Save money, keep a credit card with no balance, have an evacuation plan, have provisions, and leave when you are told. That was difficult for the poorest people who did not have money saved or credit cards, but they can try by contacting family members out of town or finding an inexpensive hotel on higher ground outside town or asking their church for help.

Write your congressman and senator for more clear cut evacuation bills so everyone can be helped when a disaster strikes.

If you are anything like the average person, thinking about budgeting is enough to warrant a serious headache. After all, everyone wants to enjoy their hard earned money, and "budget", well that is like a four letter word to many people. However, believe it or not, budgeting will actually help you to enjoy your life even more.

How can planning a budget help you fully enjoy your life? Well, with a budget, you are better able to plug up that drain that seems to suck away all your money every pay period. You are better able to identify where your money is actually going, rather than playing the guessing game. And for most folks, time is a precious commodity, better spent elsewhere in more enjoyable activities.

In order to figure out where you are wasting money, you have to take a look at your spending patterns. And a budget can help you in this area, because you are allotting a certain amount of money for each monthly expenditure.

To start your budget, you will need to make a list of all your monthly expenditures and the amount that you spend on each item. You may be surprised to realize how much money you actually should have left after paying all your monthly bills. Now, it is time to figure out where all that extra cash is actually going.

You can start the whole process by keeping track of every expense that you incur (even if it is a candy bar or cup of coffee) for about two weeks. You may be shocked at how much money you are actually wasting each day. If you are planning to continue your current lifestyle after this little exercise, then these things should be included in your budget.

However, the whole point of this is to help you learn to be a better steward of your money. And after looking at the whole picture, you may realize that you actually waste more money than you thought and that your money could be better enjoyed elsewhere. Time to exercise a little self-control...

So how can you enjoy life a little more on your current salary? Here a few ideas:

1. When grocery shopping, buy only the items that you planned for, and never go when you are starving.

2. Do you REALLY have to have that outfit just because it is on sale? You can curb credit card expenses by buying only when you have planned it or it is necessary.

3. Always compare prices before you make a purchase, especially a major purchase. Sometimes you can save hundreds this way.

4. Try taking your lunch to work rather than eating out. You will probably find that you will save tons this way, and your waistline will thank you.

Surely you can think of other little things that are sucking you dry and killing the joy in your life. By exercising just a little restraint, you will have the money you need when you want to go on that vacation or buy that something that you have really been looking forward to.

When you start to think of the whole budgeting process as an exercise in reclaiming the happiness in your life, then you will see that it is not such a bad thing. Think of it as a way to take that exotic vacation or buy that new furniture, and you might just find yourself saying, "Hey, it works for me..." when you think about your budget.