Apr 17th 2007
In today’s schools, students are taught life skills that will become useful for them once they become adults. These skills include reading, writing and math. However, personal finance is one skill that schools tend to overlook.
If you look at this generation of students, you’ll find that too many high school students graduate with no concept of the dangers of credit card debt, and that children aren’t taught to save. There are constant articles coming out every week about young adults struggling with debt, whether it is credit cards or student loans.
High school mostly teaches you to memorize information that is being taught to you during lectures and to rehash it back to your teacher during exams. The moment you walk out after taking the exam, you would completely erase the information from your mind.
Feb 27th 2007
Budgeting is an important tool for financial planning and control of one’s personal finances. It’s the process of gaining control, planning, communicating, and fulfilling your future goals. Budgeting is not an easy task, in fact, it’s a time-consuming process. So, why budget? Naturally, the answer to this question will be different for everyone. But here a few common benefits that one can realize right away when they start to budget:
- Your financial situation – It acts as a tool for monitoring and periodic evaluation of how much money you have, it can be as detail as you want. By monitoring your expenses, you can see where your funds are being allocated. The more information about your expenses, the better. Knowing where your money is going to is the first step in controlling it.
Feb 11th 2007
The idea of preparing a family budget should be simple. But how do you really prepare a budget for your family? If you don’t have a family budget all planned out, chances are you’re probably wondering where all your hard earned money went.
Money comes in and money goes out, simple as that. Usually though, balancing your family income and expenses is not an easy task. Unless you are one of the very rare fortunate few, you’ll need to learn how to prepare a family budget to help you manage the family’s finance.
Finance problems in the family can create a lot of anxiety and stress. In fact, family finances are one of the most common causes of arguments in the United States households. This can be a major source of conflict within a relationship. The money that you are making doesn’t seem to match the money that you need to be making to allow you to live a comfortable life. However, creating a family budget can put an end to the hassles and turmoil you may be currently facing.
Nov 15th 2006
If you think that filing for bankruptcy is the easiest way out of your deb problems, then you are being misled. When you start declaring that you are bankrupt, what you are basically saying to your creditors is that you cannot possibly ever repay all of your debt. It gives people who need to get out of debt and are unable to pay their bills the right to start again financially. You will have to declare bankruptcy through a lawyer.
This may sound awesome at first, however, bankruptcy filing can come to haunt you for years and that is why this decision should be taken after careful analysis and deliberation. You don’t have to become bankrupt just because you’re struggling with debts. It should be the last resort. The following are reasons why you should not declare bankruptcy:
Nov 4th 2006
Establishing and sticking to a budget requires realism, motivation, and discipline. The main objective for any budget is for income to meet or exceed expenses. A personal budget helps you keep track of how you spend your money and you’ll be more likely to avoid traps that can undermine your ability to attain your financial goals. You’ll be in a better position to pay off debt and build savings.
Your first step should include establishing what type of income you have. Income includes: allowance, loan refunds, salary (paycheck), bonuses, overtime pay, money earned from hobbies and sale of possessions, monetary gifts, tax refunds, and whatever other income that you may have. After making a list of your incoming money, tally it up and see what you have to work with.
Nov 2nd 2006
Financial planning is a skill you should learn and practice. After all, it’s something you’ll be doing for the rest of your life. We all have financial goals, and a smart way to reach them is by developing a sensible plan. If you are already an avid saver, congratulations; keep doing what you are doing.
The first step of successful planning is to identify your personal financial goals. The only way you can create a financial plan is by knowing what you’re working to achieve. Here’s what your plan should include:
- The goals you hope to achieve.
- Your time frame for reaching each goal.
- The benefits of reaching each goal.
- The obstacles that could prevent you from achieving each goal, and ways to help overcome them.
Oct 29th 2006
Nobody wants to think about a heating system when it’s still warm and sunny outside, but the temperatures are starting to slide and that’s going to put the heat on. It’s a good time now to start tuning up your main heating system now before it wastes fuel and money or worse breaks down on you altogether during winter’s worst bite.
There are big savings to be had in making sure your heating system is operating at peak efficiency. Here are some suggestions for some do-it-yourself maintenance tips:
- Check and change filters regularly. Probably the easiest thing to replace and the one many homeowners forget about most often. Dirty clogged filters can reduce airflow and make your furnace work harder and less efficiently. Keep And that costs you more money.
Oct 18th 2006
Even if you spend a lot of time managing your personal finances, you probably don’t think of your income and spending in terms of cash flow. If they use the term at all, most people think that cash flow is something that businesses have to worry about. But you also have a cash flow, and figuring out whether it’s positive or negative is an important part of managing your money.
Cash flow planning is the foundation of all Financial Planning, because it allows you to:
- Assess your ability to meet your goals.
- Project your future cash flow needs.
- Identify opportunities to increase income and/or decrease expenditures.
- Make portfolio adjustments to meet your investment objectives with less risk.