If there’s one sure thing in life, it’s that times and conditions will change. People that retired many years ago are now facing some of the results of that change. We now have higher taxes, low interest rates, and people, on average, are living longer. It may be time for View full post…
I’m sure we’ve all had this situation before: you take a look at your credit card or bank statement and stare at it in disbelief. “When the heck did I spend all that money,” you think. Situations like these aren’t particularly uncommon for virtually anyone in almost any financial situation, and they serve as good illustration of why good financial prudence is necessary.
However, good financial planning often isn’t as simple as “save as much money as possible” or “just pay off your credit cards”. Rather, financial planning is often a complex strategy designed to maximize your savings, eliminate your bad debt, and give you up to date access to your net worth now and in the future.
As such, personal financial software should not only be intuitive but also give you the tools you need to keep yourself financially stable.
Every parent that has a brand new baby is a target for very aggressive new parent marketing. Free diapers, discounted formula, baby clubs, $1 life insurance policies, and college savings programs are all a part of this direct marketing on how to pay for college.
College savings programs are something that few parents concentrate on in the very beginning of their child’s new life. Worrying about how to pay for college is pretty far from a new parent’s sleep deprived mind.
Considering that children born in today’s world can expect to pay around $100,000 for an undergraduate degree, college savings programs seems like a very smart move.
Whether we like to admit it or not, discussions on how to manage money, or the lack of it in some cases, is the primary cause of divorce today. Perhaps we should take that concept a bit further, and say that the lack of communication, e.g., discussion of finances, leads many couples to the divorce lawyer.
Many books have been written on this subject, usually with different strategies on how to overcome the problem, and basically they all come to the same conclusion, couples must be able to discuss the topic of money in a healthy and constructive way. It’s easy to say, but sometimes hard to do, isn’t it?
Apparently the topic of money has become taboo. Is it because, as children, how to manage money wasn’t discussed in your family? Do you think if it had been you would be more open to discuss it with your spouse? Is it more prevalent with the current generation of couples? Many are doing research on this, and the results aren’t really that conclusive.
We mentioned a personal budget software program in our previous post that we recommend to our clients. The program is not only inexpensive, but the name really says it all…You Need A Budget. The developer of the program could not have found a better name for it, because the truth of the matter is, we all need a budget.
There are some individuals who shudder at the idea of creating a budget, and then to live within the terms of the budget, is just too much to deal with. However, you can look just about anywhere in the world today and see that the day of reckoning has arrived. For many, many years, every country, including the USA, has spent foolishly and recklessly. If the cash wasn’t there, it didn’t matter, just borrow and worry about paying it back at a later date. Well the later date is here and countries and individuals are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.
This personal budget software program, YNAB for short, was developed with a four point philosophy as its basic rules for creating a budget. The four points in this concept are:
