Tip #5: Don't go shopping as an activity
This might not be for everyone. But there are those among us - and I'm one of them - who are born handymen or women. Or at least we enjoy trying! Most of the time, we succeed. Take plumbing. Our showerhead broke. Twice. The first time we called the plumber and he fixed it for us. For a few hundred shekels. But I watched what he was doing and realized it wasn't that hard. So the next time, I tried myself. And guess what? It worked! I saved the money and had fun. I'm sure you can think of lots of places where you can hammer or stitch or plaster or paint it yourself. In addition to the money you'll save, you'll feel great!
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You know what...this has gone on for longer than I expected when I started writing the article and I don't want to wear out your patience. So with your permission, I'll post the final five - the rest of our Top Ten Ways to Save Money in Israel - in next month's issue.
BTW - the source for many of these great tips is the late Joe Dominguez, author of Your Money or Your Life, one of the books we recommend in our "Overcoming Overdraft" course. Joe actually lists over 100 different money-saving tips. We picked out what we thought were the most suited to Israeli life, and added some of our own as well.
IN THE PRESS - NOVEMBER 2003
The Bank of Israel is taking aiming at overdrafts. They're not going to outlaw them per se, but they claim that they want to make sure consumers understand exactly what the terms are. Will they succeed? Read the article at: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/352386.html
Bank Hapolaim has been voted the cheapest bank to use and Bank Leumi the most expensive. This according to a report published by the Bank of Israel's Yoav Lehman. Click here to read the whole report:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=Jpost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=
1065627284206
The Bank of Israel has cut its central lending rate by 0.5%. That brings the rate down to 5.6%, the lowest since May 2002. Read the full story at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/354451.html
If you have passive income "back in the old country," you already know that beginning this year, you're supposed to report it in Israel and pay taxes. Well, the tax authorities are trying to make things easier for you and have institute a simple voucher you can use. They say it's to be filled in twice a year and this will help you avoid building up really large amounts that you didn't expect at the end of the year. Here's the story:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/354026.html
If you're thinking about printing new business cards or stationary, keep the followign in mind: come April of next year, you'll have to change everything to reflect your new cellphone number. That's right, a seventh digit is being added to every cellphone number in Israel. There's a complicated scheme for figuring out your new number; you can find it by following this link: http://www.moc.gov.il/new/documents/numbering_21.5.03.pdf
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