MONEY MATTERS--A DEAD BROKE TOWN WITH AUTHOR TERRY SHAMES

Terry Shames writes the Samuel Craddock series set in the fictitious town of Jarrett Creek, Texas. Her first novel, A Killing at Cotton Hill was a finalist for several awards, including the Macavity Award for Best First Novel. Learn more about Terry and her books at her website. 

Dead Broke

What would happen if you suddenly found out that your town could no longer send anyone to help if your house was burning down? Or if you came home to find that a burglar had ransacked your house? Or if your city could no longer pick up garbage? Or provide clean drinking water? That’s what happens if a town goes bankrupt. All you have to do is look in the news at places like the small city of Vallejo, California or the big city of Detroit to see that it only takes a bad economy and some bad choices to send a city’s finances into a tailspin.

My next novel is called Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek. And yes, Jarrett Creek goes bankrupt in the novel. Although in real life, having a town bankrupt isn’t a humorous situation, in a novel the idea of a town going bankrupt can be fodder for a bit of humor. One of the characters in the book says he hopes Jarrett Creek will recover soon because his wife pitched a fit when she found out the library would only be open a couple of days a week. And the only reason it would be open at all was because the librarian was willing to volunteer to open it for limited hours.

When a town goes bankrupt a lot of blame gets hurled around, and Jarrett Creek is no exception. Everyone blames the former mayor, Alton Coldwater, for making terrible choices. But one of the things I try to convey in the novel is that Coldwater is not a bad guy. Yes, he made bad choices, but not because he was greedy or untrustworthy. Like a lot of us, when things started to go bad, he scrambled to find a solution. Unfortunately, his solution was disastrous.

One of the other things I highlight is that when individuals struggle financially it has an impact on everyone. If many people lose their homes to bankruptcy, that affects the tax base, which means less to spend on basic services. I don’t put a political spin on the issue in the book. What I am interested in is showing how people don’t have to be ill-intentioned to get into financial trouble. That doesn’t mean there aren’t villains lurking in the background, both of the book and in real life. And as you’ll see if you read the book, they can bring towns down with them.

One result of the bankruptcy in Jarrett Creek is that Samuel Craddock temporarily becomes the chief of police because he can afford to do the job without a salary. Although most people are delighted with having their “Chief” back in charge, a surprising number of characters resent that he has the resources to help out. And they’re right. Samuel happens to be a good guy, but what would happen if a bankrupt town that had to rely for law enforcement on a wealthy citizen who was not such a good guy? Hmmm, an idea for another mystery?

Dead Broke in Jarrett Creek

When Jarrett Creek, Texas goes bankrupt, it looks like the former mayor played fast and loose with the town’s money. But the local banker is murdered and the investigation leads Samuel Craddock to uncover a corrupt scheme that involved some of the town’s most upstanding citizens.

Book release date: October 7, 2014 from Seventh Street Books. 

MONEY MATTERS WITH SHEILA--GUEST AUTHOR KAREN McCULLOUGH

Karen McCullough is the author of a dozen published novels and novellas in mystery, romantic suspense, and fantasy and has won numerous awards, including an Eppie Award for fantasy. Her short fiction has appeared in several anthologies and numerous small press publications.

Today, along with telling us about her newest release, Karen brings us some money-saving tips. She’s not a financial adviser, nor has she played one on television. She’s culled these tips from a lifetime of struggling with her own finances. The advice she presents here has worked for her, and she’s happy to share it with our readers today.

Read more about Karen and her books at her website and blog.

Five Practical Hints to Make Managing Your Money Easier

1.  Carry a small notepad in your pocket or purse and each time you use your debit card or write a check during the day note down the amount on the pad.  At the end of the day, give it a quick glance to check the total and mentally compare it to the cash available in your account.

2. Use a program like Quicken to track your financial situation.  I update it once a week, entering all the transactions from the previous week.  By doing that, I know how much I have in the bank and therefore how much I can afford to spend the coming week.  It's made it much easier for me to keep up with what I have.  I also keep up with my credit card expenditures as well.  You can even set it up to download transactions from your bank, so you don't have to enter them yourself.  You just have to be sure your notes match what the bank says.

3. Use Quicken or some other program to track all your accounts -- savings, investment, etc.  You can keep up with your mortgage and other loans as well, so you can quickly get a look at your net worth.  I know it can be a bit depressing (believe me, I KNOW!), but ignorance is not bliss.  Ignorance can mean ugly surprises. And knowledge can both help you plan for the future and provide incentive to improve your situation.

4. Sign up for electronic bill pay if you haven't already. Your bank doesn't support it?  Find a new bank. Seriously.  This is such a time and money saver it's worth the effort involved in changing banks.

5. Okay, this one is going to be a bit more controversial.  You know all those articles that say you can save xxx amount of money by not stopping for that latte every morning or taking your lunch to work in a bag instead of going out and buying it?  I say the heck with most of those.  The savings are small potatoes and probably largely offset by the irritation of doing without a treat that helps make the rest of your day bearable.

Instead, look at the bigger picture.  Can you have ten or fifteen or even twenty dollars a month transferred automatically from your checking account to savings the day after your paycheck is deposited or once a month on a specific day?  It's so much easier if the money goes out before you ever see it.  Find trade-offs: things you maybe don't need as much that you can sacrifice.

The Wizard's Shield

To solve a murder and retrieve a stolen magical shield, a pair of wizards journey into a dangerous, magical underworld, where the weapons of choice might be guns... or lightning bolts.

A powerful wizard with a physics degree and a checkered past invents a shield to ensure he'll never again be tortured almost to death. The wizarding powers-that-be fear the repercussions of such a device and send his former girlfriend, an accomplished wizard herself, to retrieve the device or destroy it. When the shield is stolen by the magical mafia, Ilene McConnell and Michael Morgan have to set aside their differences and work together to recover it. Michael claims he needs the device as insurance against the kind of injury and injustice he suffered once before. Ilene maintains its potential to upset the delicate balance of power makes it too dangerous and that it needs to be destroyed. But none of that will matter if they can’t retrieve it before a ruthless, powerful wizard learns how to use it for his own ends.

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MONEY MATTERS WITH SHEILA - CREATING A PERSONAL FINANCIAL BUDGET

Today we have the folks at Happy Health visiting to discuss personal financial budgets. Happy Health provides useful lifestyle and product information, including home security reviews. Check them out at their website. -- AP 

Creating A Personal Financial Budget

Many people will go through life without ever putting together a budget for their household expenditures. Many others have created a budget but don't keep it current when they experience a change to income or expenses. This is too bad because knowing exactly what income you make and what your monthly expenses are is one of the key pillars to financial success. A well-managed budget ensures that one does not spend their way into consumer debt.

Early last year I had the opportunity to help a friend with her monthly budget. She was hopelessly in debt. After working with her on a monthly budget we, put a plan together to control her spending and help pay off her cards. Most importantly we checked her monthly progress against the budget we prepared. It was very hard for her to make the changes she needed to make but as every month went by she started to get better and better and staying with her budget. Even more exciting was that she was able to figure out ways to save even more money from her personal expenses.

Many people's financial dreams are ruined by their personal debt. Not all debt is incurred based on bad decision in incurring consumer debt. There are many people who have been dealt with some bad luck such as health problems and have been forced into debt just to ensure that they have appropriate health care. Regardless of how you have incurred your debt it is important to put together a personal budget to ensure that you have a plan for your future financial success.

I've spoken with many people who make a lot of money and they often think that they don't need a personal budget. I could not disagree more. In fact these types of people I believe need a budget more than others.  The reason for this is that while they make a lot of money including an excess of discretionary spending money they spend almost everything that they make. What they should be doing is carefully watching what income they make and their expenses and making sure that a respectful amount of their income is being reinvested into cash flow producing assets instead of wasted on expensive goods and services that they did not really need.  With a proper plan and good budget those who make a lot of money are able to continually reinvest their wealth producing a cascading flow of cash flow.

Make time out of your busy schedule to ensure that you have a personal budget. More importantly take time out of your schedule to make sure that you compare your budget to your actual real monthly expenditures. The road to financial success is not easy but ultimately it is very rewarding. Ensuring that you have a plan including a monthly budget is a step in the right direction in ensuring that financial success is not just a dream but a reality.

MONEY MATTERS WITH SHEILA--BUDGETS

As many of you know, when Karl, my dead louse of a spouse, permanently cashed in his chips in Vegas, he left me in debt up to my eyeballs. Our finance guru Sheila Conway has been helping me formulate a plan to dig my way out of debt. Today she offers some tips to aid anyone mired in budgetary woes. -- AP

Thanks, Anastasia! It’s hard to chip away at debt when it seems overwhelming, but the biggest hurdle many people face is their own denial of the situation. You have to accept that you have a problem before you can take steps to solve it.

So the first thing you need to do is put it all down in black and white. Make a list of everything you owe, what you’ve saved, and what you need to spend each month. Numbers don’t lie, and they don’t make excuses.

Now, formulate a realistic budget based on those black and white numbers. If you need to whittle down debt, study your monthly expenditures. What can you do without or downgrade or cut back on? Most Americans spend far more each month than they realize and spend it on items that are non-essential. If you got yourself into debt by spending more than you earn, now is the time for a bit of austerity.

Once you accept that you need to change your lifestyle in order to keep having a life, you’ll be amazed by what you can do without. The kids want pizza for dinner? Fine. Throw a frozen pizza from the supermarket into the oven instead of picking up the phone for take-out. Borrow a DVD from the library for a home movie night instead of piling the family in the car for a trip to the multiplex. Get together with a girlfriend to do each other’s nails instead of that weekly trip to the nail salon. If you’re a smoker, stop. Not only will you save money, you’ll save your health. And most of all, step away from the mall. Too many Americans spend a good chunk of their free time on weekends at the mall where the temptation to buy, whether we need something or not, is too great.

Brutal as always, Sheila. But totally on the money. What do you think, readers? Are there things you spend money on that you could just as soon do without? Let’s hear from you. Remember to post a comment to be entered into the drawing for a book from this week's Book Club Friday guest author. -- AP