Category: Personal Finance

You constantly make financial decisions. That’s just a fact. Some of them are seemingly simple and unimportant like where you’re having lunch today when you are out and about. Or whether you should buy that new pair of shoes you saw online today or just wait until the next big sale.

But then there are the other decisions you make: the really significant ones like taking on a new job or buying an expensive car. Those decisions can have a major impact on your financial future.

It occurred to me, after being on the planet for almost 73 years, that what I and most of us call good money habits are unknown to millions among us who just haven’t any clue about that. After all, if they did, then the need for me or anyone to write about it would be a totally moot point, wouldn’t it?

If you don’t understand anything about personal finance, I’m not here to scold you or mock you. It’s not your fault because you probably either had no practical education in the field or worse, you may have had some really bad examples of how to manage money demonstrated to you as a child or young adult. In any case, you will eventually find out the truth about you and your money. The question is only when and how much damage it might inflict upon you. That’s why it’s never too early or too late to learn these “must-know” money tips you need to take your finances to the next level.

Learning how to manage your money is a skill that must be learned and mastered or else. You could go to the library or a book store and seek out a guide to your money and finances that would have chapter upon chapter about the rules of finances and you’d certainly have a leg up on learning about it. But what about those unwritten money rules?

Unfortunately, for a good majority of us, the skill of learning those rules comes from the school of hard knocks. Money management and personal finance principles aren’t the big “important” subjects that are taught in schools, although that does seems to be improving slightly. Even so, the rules about money are not always written down on a neat short list for you to learn, but there are actually unwritten money rules you need to know.

When you are a child, someone usually takes care of your finances for you, even if you hate that! That someone is most likely to be mom or dad or a guardian, but whomever it is, they try to make sure you have everything you need until that day comes when you fly away from the nest – so to speak. The hope is, of course, that you don’t try to fly and then crash and burn as you hit the ground, but even with help, you might. That’s the reason that Adulting 101 is so important. It’s time to learn personal finances for yourself now that you are a grown-up (no matter how grown up you may already be)!

Now That You’re on Your Own, What Will You Need?

There is a long list of basics that everyone needs in order to be financially secure, or at least try to be. They’re not new and they’re not complicated, but it seems that so many of us fail to “get it”, that is the real importance of these things. It’s that safety net you’ll need when you do jump from the nest and will continue to need for your entire life.