Gryphon, I hope you don't mind if I put this here, but it seems to go w/your other subjects.
Someone sent this link to me and I thought my forum friends might be interested.
This site:
QuoteMyMoney.gov is the U.S. government's website dedicated to teaching all Americans the basics about financial education. Whether you are planning to buy a home, balancing your checkbook, or investing in your 401k, the resources on MyMoney.gov can help you do it better. Throughout the site, you will find important information from 20 federal agencies government wide.
http://www.mymoney.gov/
Seems like really good info.
Not at all, PIYA, I was thinking the other day I needed to put some information here on this very subject. With the shaky financial ground that more and more are finding themselves on, this is great!
You know, one of my new years resolutions was to make a real budget for myself. In part because I want to start another degree and in part because I've just tended to spend money willy-nilly the past several years. I decided last fall that I would do this, so I saved all of my receipts for a few months to give myself a better idea of what I was spending. When I put all my expenses in front of me, I shocked myself with what I was spending--and a lot of it was just me being spoiled and lazy. (eating out ALL the time, paying someone to wash my cars, taking EVERYTHING to the cleaners, etc.) When I actually laid it all out, I realized I could save thousands and thousands of dollars and not feel like I was missing anything from my life. (just skipping wine and dessert when I eat out, based on those months of receipts, saves me over $100 a month!)
What attracted me to the site was investing my 401K. I'm totally at a loss when it comes to understanding stocks so I have most of my money in the risker, but faster/bigger earners and a small portion in the safe and slow. I'd really like to understand better how to make my money grow in the best way.
The idea of saving all of your receipts is an excellent one. I try to be conscious of what I'm spending most of the time, but it's way too easy for me to say, "what the hell you only live once" over something that I could really do without.
Yeah, Im at a total loss when it comes to investing. Thankfully, Ive got a good broker and a dad who is a financial planner, so I just leave it to them.
I totally hear you on the "you only live once" mentality. Im very bad to look at a menu, and say to myself, "oh its only five bucks more" when choosing between two things.
But five bucks more when you eat out twice a week is over $500 bucks a year even before you add on the extra tax and tip. I found a half dozen similar things when I looked at what I was spending.
Honestly they need to create a class in high school all about money, credit, investing - you know before you actually make money you should know how to spend it.
So on a similar note, my uncle who has been coddled all his life is now in trouble with the IRS. Whenever my mom or grandfather gives him the interest forms for accounts that his name is on they would say to him "You need to file these". So he did. He put them in a manila file and stuck it in the closet - every year for several years now. He doesn't have any children and neither does my aunt. I keep telling my mom that she needs to outlive both of them because I'm not taking on that mess! Both have filed bankruptcy and both are codependent on something whether it be drugs or gambling! So mom better stay in shape for the long haul. :no: