How steady is your paycheck?

How steady is your paycheck? If you're like a growing number of Americans, you're getting more commissions, project fees, seasonal and overtime pay, plus bonuses. What you're not getting is a semi-monthly check with benefits.

If your income varies from month-to-month, that means you've got to get smarter about managing your money.

Create a list of priorities in your life, starting with food, clothing, shelter, utilities, transportation and health insurance. Next, stash between 25 to 30 percent of each check in a separate account to pay Uncle Sam. If you've got extra cash, fatten up your emergency cash account, and prepay bills, if you can. Finally, be sure to contribute to your retirement account throughout the year, so you don't have to come up with a lump sum all at once.

The trick to living on an income that varies is to use one of my favorite financial principals – deferred gratification. If you don't absolutely need it today, don't buy it.

Are you Hemorrhaging Money in your household?

My friend, Mark, likes to joke that he and his wife are "hemorrhaging" money. That's his way of saying that no matter how much money he brings in, when you've got kids, a dog and a house, it feels like it's never enough.

So true: After I'm done paying the bills each month, I often wonder how we managed to stretch our dollars enough to pay for it all.

Whenever I feel this way, I'm always glad I track every cent we spend. You can do this in a sophisticated computer program, like Quicken or Microsoft Money, or you can buy a 60 cent notebook at your local drug store. You've just got to be diligent about keeping track of the pennies as well as the dollars.

My friends are really divided on how useful an exercise this is. Most don't want to take the time to track their cash. Maybe it's just what I do for a living, but I like knowing exactly where my money goes.

Check Benefits Before Taking Maternity Leave

Having a baby can be the most wonderful thing in the world – if you've planned for it. Part of that planning process is to check what kinds of benefits your company provides new moms and dads.

Only 7 percent of companies provide paid maternity leave. If your company has more than 50 employees and you've worked for your employer for at least 12 months and logged at least 1,250 hours during that time, you may be entitled to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.

If you do get a paid leave, it may be funded through short-term disability insurance. Make sure you sign up for it during your open enrollment period.

To find out what kinds of benefits your company offers, contact your human resources department.

Finally, prepare a budget and figure out how you're going to cover your home expenses on the cash you'll be able to bring in while on leave.

Quicken's New Home Inventory Manager Helps Inventory Household Possessions

Do you know what you have in your house? I mean specifically, do you know how many chairs, tables, beds, couches, pillows, sets of sheets and comforters?

I was thinking about this over the weekend as I talked to my neighbor whose basement was one of 400 homes in my neighborhood that flooded in a recent downpour.

As he carted out the moldy furniture, carpet and toys to the curb, I realized that if a catastrophe strikes, the only way to prove what you had in the house is by having a list of every single thing in your house.

Quicken has come out with a Home Inventory Manager product for under $30 that allows you maintain a record of household possessions in order to back up a claim. You can even drag and drop scanned images of photos and receipts into your file to back up your claims.

For $10 per year, you can back up your list online.

The Power of Nice in Your Business World

Are you nice, or just sort of nice? The answer could affect your success in the business world.

While the business world seems to thrive on malice, power struggles and overpaid executives, a new book suggests that the real winners, financially and otherwise, are those who are truly nice.

In their book, THE POWER OF NICE, authors Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval describe how they've created a nearly $1 billion business by being nice not only to their employees and clients, but strangers on the street.

They believe that positive impressions are like seeds. They grow and deliver in ways you'd never expect. If you're kind to everyone, you never know if a stranger on the street will be the one to deliver a huge payback financially. Treating all employees well means they'll be inclined to help you down the line when they're more successful.

But my favorite piece of advice from the book is this: Negative impressions are like germs, infecting everyone around you.