Money3rd highly recommends mvelopes as your personal budgeting software program. The envelope method of budget is the simplest most effective method for managing your spending. Mvelopes is a modern method of using the envelope budgeting method; this program allows you to continue to use you debit and credit cards without accumulating debt. If you use mvelopes correctly, you will soon eliminate wasteful and excess spending from your budget.

ING DIRECT is a great place to store your emergency fund. With an ING Direct Electric Orange account you can earn an interest rate much higher than the national average for checking accounts and maintain access to the funds in case of an unexpected expense. With an ING DIRECT Electric Orange checking account you will earn a competitive interest rate and have immediate access to your money.

Money3rd recommends you first invest 15% of you household income into Roth IRA's and pre-tax retirement. After you reach this percentage we recommend you invest in A shares (front-end load) mutual funds with at least a 5 year track record of good returns within the fund category. If after conducting research on a particular company you would like to purchase some single stocks of that company, we recommend you use Trade King and limit single stocks to no more than 10% of your portfolio. Trade King offers one of the lowest fees for purchasing single stocks on the Internet.

Saving for college is more important now than ever before. College tuition is constantly on the rise. While Upromise is not the complete solution to paying for college, we believe it is a good addition to your current college savings plan. With Upromise you can save for college without changing your current spending habits