The Times offers five reminders, or suggestions, about your finances, a wicked subject that makes most hardworking human beings anxious. To read mortgage agreements, credit card contracts, retirement investment brochures, and life insurance pitches, we have to know the languages of finance and of American law, and it’s a hard row to hoe. So, think of these five things as “the first principles of Your Money, guidance that can be useful in making just about any financial decision.”
- “Save a ton. Reallocate infrequently.”
- Hire a “financial planner, accountant, stockbroker, or lawyer.” You’ll make (or save) more money with their help.
- Ask a nonprofessional for help, too. Search the internet for financial Web communities. Ask friends who are older and wiser.
- Pay your bills online or with Direct Deposit.
- Help your parents plan for their retirement (or, ask your adult children for help).
Thoughts?
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I take issue with #4. The time you can save with direct deposits/online payments is more than eaten up on the rare occasions when a mistake is made by the bank or the payee and you have to spend hours on the phone (most of it on hold) straightening it out. Also, the more one does this, the more one is open up to identity theft. 15 minutes and a few dollars worth of stamps every month is worth it.
Read Dave Ramsey.
Ree,
I pay nearly all my bills online or by automatic debit, and I have never had a mistake made. There is little if any human involvement in the transaction except for my own.
Paying by check, on the other hand, I have had mistakes made, because the person keying it in misread the numbers I wrote, or miskeyed them in the computer.
I find it much easier to keep track of the ones I pay online, especially if they send email statements also, as I can flag them to remind me to pay on the correct day. The payments I most often make late are the ones that require mailing in a coupon, because I keep forgetting to pull out the coupon book on the right date, or I mislay the coupon book altogether. (If I had enough money to pay everything ahead of time it wouldn’t be an issue, but I don’t.)
By paying online, I also control what date the money is debited from my bank account. I can schedule a payment for the day I get paid, knowing the payment is due the next day. If I sent in a check, I would not know how long it would take to arrive in the mail, and it might get there before I had enough money in the checking account, or after the due date.
4. Pay your bills online or with Direct Deposit.
Use your bank’s bill payment service instead of paying at the individual websites of your bills. It’s quicker, and easier to control your debit card that way.
I agree with Scroop Moth (!) and Pauline. Most banks offer bill-pay for free. I don’t think we’ve ever had an error. We can even generate a pie chart showing how we currently spend our money.
Ree, I’m just as open to identity theft by mailing a check that has my account number on it, especially if I don’t drop it in a drop box but leave it sitting in my mailbox on the street for several hours. I’m also saving the money you spend on stamps, which only goes up.
KBells is also right–read Dave Ramsey. Either check him out at the library (it seems ironic to buy a book about getting out of debt) or listen to him if he’s carried on your local conservative talk radio (usually around 1-3 pm).
#6 No one ever got rich by spending their money.
#7 Start retirement savings early - like with your first paycheck.
#8 Learn to always pay yourself first.
#9 Invest in your future. It doesn’t take much effort to become fabulously wealthy if you start young.
#10 Sacrifice to be able to always live below your means. The stuff you can buy isn’t worth owning and the stuff worth owning you can’t buy.
#11 You can borrow for a college education but you cannot borrow for retirement.
Ree- When paying back my student loan, I got a ¼% discount on the interest rate. You bet we signed up.
Everyone talks about how low the passbook savings interest rate is. Well, 1% or less is better than zero. At least the money is still there when needed!
Llama, I have a corollary to your #8. For Christians, should we not give to the Lord first?
I do agree that saving has to come from the top; I would just prioritize tithing (or giving, or however you want to phrase it) as well.
The rest of your list is on target!
I agree with Pauline and Scroop. And, Pauline, if you use your bank’s bill-pay, you can schedule recurring payments for which for you have coupons and throw the coupon book away. I even paid my last World Mag subscription through my bank’s bill pay.
#8 Cameron,
No. Pay yourself first because God has no need or use for your money and said you can’t buy salvation no matter how much money you have.
Put the church tithing 2nd. Giving the Lord ‘His Due’ is something of a horse of a different color and has nothing to do with money.
Here is how I’ve been spending my money.
Apparently a crime ring between Hartford and New York stole my identity and has been buying a lot of fuel with it. Based on the size and locations of the purchases it looks like it might be a small time trucking company. Apparently gasoline is the new currency.
Now we know where my economic stimulus check went. Does crime benefit the economy? How long before people are mugged for their fuel?
I think it was just great that Congress votes to sue OPEC and they those oil potentates are so scared the price of oil went up another $5 a barrel.
Those oil potentates are shaking their boots now knowing those appeasing anti war lefties are in control of the US military. Next thing you know these deathly afraid oil barons will turn themselves in for immediate imprisonment in Leavenworth for their cartel activities.
Since the left took over congress, oil doubled in price (in less than a year even though the whack jobs have been in power longer than that), the economy is nearly in a recession, unemployment is starting to skyrocket, food prices went trough the roof, the dollar is worth almost 40% less, the housing market crashed and the country nearly went under financially in the credit crisis.
I can’t wait to see what happens to us when the socialists take over the presidency and the nuts are running the entire nut house.
One thing is for sure - we know who to blame at election time - but I don’t think it will make any difference. I’m thinking the left has convinced the country it is better to be imprisoned and impoverished by socialists, financially and spiritually broken, out of work, poor, hungry and miserable then to ban gay marriage or late term abortions.
It takes about 30 years for the country to forget what these people do to them without even trying very hard. It takes that long for people to dream and pray for hope and change only to wish later it never came true. I hope you can recover this time. Last time you nearly died and that was before they were buddies with people who wanted to kill you
For those who have any interest in a family business, even one run from the living room sofa, insist upon the hiring of a firm of accountants to go over your books and review your financial statements. Your bookkeepers and tax preparers aren’t enough. Growth always creates chaos which leads mostly to bad things — overconfidence, disappearance of working capital, employees who rob you, inability to get (cheap) bank credit. Management consultants, sales schemes, and brilliant plans fall to pieces in the back office! Reviewed financial statements (one step below audited) sound like overkill, but you save money by starting on that path early. My other advice for those in this situation is to bring an outsider into your family’s annual meeting and put him or her on your board of directors. The family will resist, but you’ll be doing them a favor.
In the long run financial success involves investing in and wisely managing a business that provides a good or service that meets the needs of people. Over time such a business provides good income and increases in capital value. The virtue of the Anmerican economy is is about building such businesses.
Clever articles by newspaper scribblers on financial success are about worth the paper on which they’re printed.
Since the left took over congress, oil doubled in price (in less than a year even though the whack jobs have been in power longer than that), the economy is nearly in a recession, unemployment is starting to skyrocket, food prices went trough the roof, the dollar is worth almost 40% less, the housing market crashed and the country nearly went under financially in the credit crisis.
Show us how that is the fault of the whack jobs. Cite sources, facts and figures. You talk a big game, but I don’t think you know squat about economics or the economy.
Scroopy,
Where do you get such weird ideas? Most family businesses start out small and cannot afford any outside auditors who are usually idiots and right out of college to tell you the truth. Accounting firms are out of the question you will be lucky to be able to hire a bookkeeper. If you are starting a business and do not how to put in simple financial controls suitable for small family business you won’t be able to hire someone who can - for many years.
There is no question though, that the fast way to creating personal wealth is to operate a business as an owner. You don’t have to start it though and can usually save some time in not starting it since most new businesses fail for one reason or another.
Spending, investing, or saving is a worth-less activity if one is not first rich toward God. I would think any advice about being wise in spending should be balanced with advice about giving it away.
At least that seems to be John Wesley’s view:
“Make all you can, save all you can, give all you can”
Llama,
I humbly disagree with you. We should give to God first, and then to ourselves. In Matt. 6:33 it says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” By giving to God, we will always have enough.
And about Dave Ramsey. For those who would like to know more, his website is: www.daveramsey.com. He has helped our family out so much with our money. Thanks to him and his teaching, I will never have to be a slave to debt. I’m debt free!!