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personal finance

Book Reviews

Think Positively About Your Finances

Written more than five decades ago, Norman Vincent Peale’s book The Power of Positive Thinking contains wisdom that can still be applied in our lives today. The book contains many stories and illustrations of how people’s lives dramatically improved after they changed their way of thinking. Rather than giving in to the struggles in life, these people overcame their issues through faith and changing their frame of mind.

You get what you expect.

According to the author, “It is a well-defined and authentic principle that what the mind profoundly expects it tends to receive.” In other words, if you think you are going to fail, you likely will. The good news is that if you believe that you will succeed, you likely will.

Your thinking affects your whole life.

The way we think about ourselves and the world will determine how well we perform in life. Whether we realize it or not, it is our attitude towards life which is far more important than our circumstances. You may be struggling financially and think it will never end, but don’t give up hope. Instead, believe that you will find a way to get back on your feet again.

March 10, 2015

General

Helpful Advice For Making Wise Financial Decisions

Despite the fact that capitalism is a major part of our daily lives, few of us reach adulthood with the knowledge necessary to make wise financial decisions. If we’re lucky, someone has taught us how to balance a checkbook somewhere along the way. But most people don’t even know how to create and adhere to a basic budget, much less use credit cards appropriately or set up an investment portfolio. In short, it’s no surprise that so many adults find themselves facing a mountain of debt with no real hope of digging themselves out. But you have the capacity to learn the ins and outs of basic personal finance, and you don’t have to wait for the consequences of bad decisions in order to learn your lesson. Here are just a few helpful guidelines that can get you started down the path to making wise financial decisions.

You might want to start by taking a personal finance class. You can often find such offerings at your local community college, adult continuing education center, or even through your community center. In some cases these courses are available online. And the benefit of taking such a course is that you’ll get a broad overview of personal finance, including household expenses, retirement accounts, investments, and more. But you may also have access to specific and practical lessons like how to create your own budget or pay down credit card debt.

September 6, 2014

Budgeting

Effectively Handling Your Personal Finance

For many people the mention of personal finance is akin to some unsolvable puzzle that bothers them at odd times. The thought of sitting down and planning expenditure is scary, and the idea of pre-paying the credit card bill, an alien concept. Such people are sitting ducks for target practice when finances go awry. It is in your own best interest to learn how to handle your personal finance matters effectively. Here are some tips that you can use.

Be Aware of Income and Expenditures

In order to understand your finances you need to know what money is coming in and on what it is being spent. It is a good idea to sit down with a pen and paper and list just how much money you have access to each month. Include the money that comes from your salary, any interest you get on savings, and any other sources of income you may have. Even if it is an irregular source of income, make sure you record how much you earn from it. Similarly make a list of all the main expenditures you undertake monthly. The rent, utilities bills, school fees, groceries, and medical expenses; make sure you list everything. Specific annual payments such as insurance and taxes should also be included on the list. You can revisit the list at a later date when you remember some that you originally missed.

August 26, 2014

Gifts

Are You Sure You Cannot Afford It?

Have you ever stopped to think about how many times you’ve said “I can’t afford that”, but what you really meant to say is that you haven’t made “that” a priority? Of course there really are things you can’t afford, but many times we can afford things but we say we can’t. Why do you think that is?

To me it all boils down to our priorities. We will make sure we can afford the things we make our priorities, but we will offhandedly say we can’t afford anything that we could care less about. For instance, imagine our son tells us he would like to go to summer camp. Would you tell him you can’t afford it or would you be willing to forfeit a few restaurant meals to ensure you could afford to send your son to camp?

If we are honest with ourselves, I hope we will examine our priorities and find out if we are using our money in the best way possible to meet our goals but also to ensure that we are not hoarding all of our financial resources. We need to think of others and not just ourselves.

November 30, 2013

General

How What You Say Can Impact Your Finances

Did you know that what comes out of your mouth actually has a big impact on what happens in your life? If you are going around saying you are poor, even if you are not poor, you will likely become poor or you will always feel poor just because that’s what you are saying.

Most of us say what we truly believe. For the most part, if we don’t believe something we don’t say it, unless we are pathological liars. But just what is my point? Well, if you are someone who always says and thinks that they are poor, then that will become their reality even though it could have been easily avoided.

Now, there are truly poor people in the world. But there are many other people in the world who never have been poor in their lives, who have never even experienced what being poor is like, but just the same, they think that they are poor.

Here is my challenge to those who find themselves often saying they are poor or that they cannot afford to buy this or that: Stop saying that unless you really do want to be poor!

November 20, 2013

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