It is never too early to start training a child about money-and maybe training yourself in the process. Parents can start teaching children as young as four or five to budget during a vacation or during an outing to a favorite store. As a child ages, parents can insist that part of their allowance goes to savings, a part toward charity, and the rest is for the child's discretionary spending. By the time that child reaches the teen years, one of the best tools for teaching money management is to put that teenager on a budget. First decide who will pay for what-school clothes, athletic wear, shoes, underclothes, winter coats, entertainment, cosmetics, eating out with friends, etc. Once you decide what you will pay for, research average prices. What do you think is reasonable to pay for jeans? For tee-shirts? For running shoes? For flip-flops? Based on your research, come up with a monthly figure you think is reasonable.
It takes training, time, and repetition to teach kids how to budget, handle credit, understand bank accounts, etc. Have your teenager sit down with you when you pay your monthly household bills. Show him or her the breakdown: mortgage or rent, utilities, garbage collection, cable and Internet costs, landline and cell phone costs, medical costs, etc. Show you teenager gas and grocery receipts to see how much those necessities cost you each month. The topper is to pull out your credit card bill. Whether you pay it all off every month or just a portion, have your teenager calculate the interest and late-payment penalties. Credit card costs usually opens their eyes.
If parents can achieve this while their teenager is living at home, it will be a much smoother transition when that young adult goes on to college or whatever he or she does after high school. The college student that already understands what expenses he or she is responsible for will most likely succeed in managing their college budget.
Then consider following the direction of Laura Crowley, a math teacher at the John Burroughs School in St. Louis, Missouri. Crowley has her students pick a college of their choice and determine the real costs of attending: tuition and fees, room and board, books, transportation expenses, recreation costs, and everything else from haircuts to football tickets. Crowley has the students use "recent growth rates to predict the increase in tuition for each year that they will be in college." The total usually shocks her students.
Next, Crowley has her students devise a plan to pay for everything, including jobs, scholarships, loans, savings, work-study, and how much mom and dad can kick in. Crowley's students are required to make a formal presentation of their findings to their parents as well as preparing a paper showing their calculations and a poster for class discussion. During lively class discussions, the students discuss monthly payments and total cost of any loans they would have to take, and how much money parents would have to save each month of their child's life to be able to fully pay his or her college costs once that child turns 18.
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Feb 4, 2012
Money Management and Marriage
Divorce can be summed up in one word devastating.
Putting aside the emotional distress, often times divorce takes a unaccountable toll on you financially. Divorce is not only the separating of a family, it is the separating of finances. Overnight many of your bills for staples such as electricity, cable TV and phones double since they are now not shared. Ironically, research has shown that most divorces occur due to financial distress; this problem is only compounded after the divorce.
Research also shows that both parties in a relationship often times do not have a good understanding of their current financial situation. I have found in my work that the majority of the couples that I consult with do not have a good clear understanding of what their net worth is, nor what their expenses are. Over the decades of being in this business and doing multiple financial analysis I have found that it is rare to find a couples that are prepared financially if their relationship ended in divorce.
Here is a list of things that I advise both parties in a marriage do immediately to have a better understanding of their current financial position:
Putting aside the emotional distress, often times divorce takes a unaccountable toll on you financially. Divorce is not only the separating of a family, it is the separating of finances. Overnight many of your bills for staples such as electricity, cable TV and phones double since they are now not shared. Ironically, research has shown that most divorces occur due to financial distress; this problem is only compounded after the divorce.
Research also shows that both parties in a relationship often times do not have a good understanding of their current financial situation. I have found in my work that the majority of the couples that I consult with do not have a good clear understanding of what their net worth is, nor what their expenses are. Over the decades of being in this business and doing multiple financial analysis I have found that it is rare to find a couples that are prepared financially if their relationship ended in divorce.
Here is a list of things that I advise both parties in a marriage do immediately to have a better understanding of their current financial position:
- Make two lists. First, make one list of your monthly living expenses and another separate list for your expenses that hit annually. Then, plan out 15 years with those expenses growing at 5%.
- List all of your financial assets. Separate the list by assets that can be sold and turned into cash immediately and those that cannot. For the liquid assets place a value on them by using the value given from your statements. On the other assets place a realistic value.
- Putting any appreciation aside, list the amount of income that your derive from these investments. Then separately estimate any appreciation you might realize from your investments.
- Determine how much money you need to have reserved in cash, just in case you lose your employment income or your assets depreciate.
Money Managemen and Sports Betting
Sports Betting is an extremely popular practice among gaming enthusiasts. A large number of people enjoy putting a few bucks on their favorite team in order to make watching the big game even more exciting. But in contrast to a lot of the other games you would find in a casino, sports betting actually gives you a very good chance to have the edge over the oddsmakers and enjoy long-term profits.
In order to do so, however, you need to invest a lot of time and energy to gain an edge. If you are willing to do this and work very hard at it, you might join the ranks of Vegas-based professionals or online sports bettors who make a solid living solely by wagering on professional sports.
One of the most important first steps to becoming a winning sports bettor is specializing. This means to focus your energy on either a few teams or a particular conference or division (for example the Big Ten conference in college football or the National League East in baseball.)
Specializing is key because it gives you more knowledge on those teams than the regular betting public, which will allow you to identify betting lines that give you an advantage.
Professional sports bettors do not bet every single contest. Instead, they only place a wager when their own research shows that the odds being offered by a sports book are not equal to the true odds for that contest. This divergence is exactly what sports bettors are able to exploit and make a big profit.
The next key trait to being a successful sports bettor is learning how to manage your sports betting bankroll. In order to withstand natural downswing periods of bad luck, the professional must dedicate a large amount of money to the endeavor and make sure never to wager too significant of a percentage on one game. As a rule of thumb, you should strive never to bet more than 2% of your total bankroll one a single contest. No one game should be so important that it would make or break your sports betting success.
Each sport has a slightly different structure for betting and a few quirks that set them apart from the others. With bankroll management and specialization in mind, you are well on your way to becoming a successful sports bettor.
In order to do so, however, you need to invest a lot of time and energy to gain an edge. If you are willing to do this and work very hard at it, you might join the ranks of Vegas-based professionals or online sports bettors who make a solid living solely by wagering on professional sports.
One of the most important first steps to becoming a winning sports bettor is specializing. This means to focus your energy on either a few teams or a particular conference or division (for example the Big Ten conference in college football or the National League East in baseball.)
Specializing is key because it gives you more knowledge on those teams than the regular betting public, which will allow you to identify betting lines that give you an advantage.
Professional sports bettors do not bet every single contest. Instead, they only place a wager when their own research shows that the odds being offered by a sports book are not equal to the true odds for that contest. This divergence is exactly what sports bettors are able to exploit and make a big profit.
The next key trait to being a successful sports bettor is learning how to manage your sports betting bankroll. In order to withstand natural downswing periods of bad luck, the professional must dedicate a large amount of money to the endeavor and make sure never to wager too significant of a percentage on one game. As a rule of thumb, you should strive never to bet more than 2% of your total bankroll one a single contest. No one game should be so important that it would make or break your sports betting success.
Each sport has a slightly different structure for betting and a few quirks that set them apart from the others. With bankroll management and specialization in mind, you are well on your way to becoming a successful sports bettor.
Money Management and Caregiving
Taking care of money matters can be frustrating, overwhelming, and even scary for senior citizens. Many people, including my grandmother, frequently go to the customer service department at their bank for help balancing their checkbooks. This is a good solution, but there are other easier ways to avoid problems. If you have an in home caregiver that is able to help with finances, the senior citizen can avoid the scariness that emerges from missing money and at the same time, avoid an extra trip out to the bank.
Great money management skills are necessary for this task. Most seniors are on a fixed income, either solely Social Security benefits, or perhaps a pension or an annuity payout in addition to Social Security. Either way, a budget is a necessity. Evaluating how much money is coming in and comparing that number to how much is going out in expenses is a very good place to begin. The best way to commence with this is by starting with the absolute necessary expenses. Take their monthly income and subtract these expenses off the top. This includes rent/mortgage fees, groceries, utility bills, and any medication or medical bills that exist. After this, the remaining money can be used for more discretionary purposes. Entertainment should also be considered-everyone needs to have fun and relax at some point during the day. This might come in the form of a cable bill, books, magazine subscriptions, or even investing in a video game system. In all honesty, it doesn't matter what they do for fun; as long as they are having fun and not sitting around in boredom, entertainment is a good expense.
More than good money management skills are necessary when dealing with a senior citizen's finances. You need to be trustworthy and professional as well. Nobody wants to turn over their personal finances to a stranger, so you need to be as soothing as possible when dealing with a senior. Remember that there is a strong human element in this type of task. Yes, you are helping with finances, but you are dealing with a person's finances. Don't forget this.
An optional task that a money manager might encounter is providing funds for appointments. Making sure that there is enough money available in their checking account might be part of your duties as well. As a caregiver, you need to ensure that the senior you are caring for has the appropriate medical help. If they are unable to budget for doctor copayments, you will quickly run into problems. Balancing checkbooks properly and maintaining the right amount of money in their checking account will be an absolute necessity for giving your client the care that they desire.
Great money management skills are necessary for this task. Most seniors are on a fixed income, either solely Social Security benefits, or perhaps a pension or an annuity payout in addition to Social Security. Either way, a budget is a necessity. Evaluating how much money is coming in and comparing that number to how much is going out in expenses is a very good place to begin. The best way to commence with this is by starting with the absolute necessary expenses. Take their monthly income and subtract these expenses off the top. This includes rent/mortgage fees, groceries, utility bills, and any medication or medical bills that exist. After this, the remaining money can be used for more discretionary purposes. Entertainment should also be considered-everyone needs to have fun and relax at some point during the day. This might come in the form of a cable bill, books, magazine subscriptions, or even investing in a video game system. In all honesty, it doesn't matter what they do for fun; as long as they are having fun and not sitting around in boredom, entertainment is a good expense.
More than good money management skills are necessary when dealing with a senior citizen's finances. You need to be trustworthy and professional as well. Nobody wants to turn over their personal finances to a stranger, so you need to be as soothing as possible when dealing with a senior. Remember that there is a strong human element in this type of task. Yes, you are helping with finances, but you are dealing with a person's finances. Don't forget this.
An optional task that a money manager might encounter is providing funds for appointments. Making sure that there is enough money available in their checking account might be part of your duties as well. As a caregiver, you need to ensure that the senior you are caring for has the appropriate medical help. If they are unable to budget for doctor copayments, you will quickly run into problems. Balancing checkbooks properly and maintaining the right amount of money in their checking account will be an absolute necessity for giving your client the care that they desire.
Do you want to be a Billionaire - Money Management Systems
Managing money starts with knowing where your money is going and having the control as to how it will be spent, invested and grown. First, you have to divide the money that you receive every paycheck or whenever you receive any money, into specific purposes or expenses.
Billionaires are not any smarter, they only have better money management habits.
Generally, your money must be divided into six different parts:
Financial Freedom Account (FFA) - 10%
This is the money that you set aside for business and investments. This is not a savings account, rather it is called an investment account. You do not spend this money in any way possible unless it will be for a certain business venture or an investment opportunity.
Savings for Expenses (SFE) - 10%
This part is for spending. If you want a new phone, a new gadget or a new car, then this account will supply the money for that. Keeping a savings account for this purpose eliminates your chances of going into debt and in overspending.
Financial Education Account (FEA) - 10%
Learning more about financial education helps you more in becoming financially healthy and free. Invest on books, seminars and trainings. If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Rest and Recreation (RAR) - 10%
Depriving yourself will not help you achieve financial success. Overindulging will not help you either. The key is balance. This account if like a reward. Spend it for yourself every month or every quarter. It is mainly up to you as long as you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Everyday Expenses (EE) - 50 - 55%
This account includes your daily allowance, transportation and food expenses, utilities and other necessities. Ideally, 50% is enough, but if it is quite hard to start with, 55% is still good.
Gift and Contribution (GAC) - 5 - 10%
Charity is a fulfilling way to say thank you to every blessings that comes your way. This money can go to your church, a foundation that you support or even to a friend who unexpectedly needs financial help. The key is to always have an amount ready to be given to others. The more you give, the more you will receive.
This may be as simple as they look, but they are really powerful. Some people find it hard to start as they believe they would always run short, but it is actually the opposite. Keeping this habit will help you have more control with your money as in comes and goes.
If you feel that you cannot follow all the other divisions since your expenses are quite big, you may follow this:
FFA - 10%, SFE - 1%, FEA - 1%, RAR - 1%, EE - 86% and GAC - 1%
This way, you will still be able to follow the management more comfortably. Remember, it is not the amount but the habit that is important. A few hundreds today may soon be billions with the help of these six different money accounts.
Billionaires are not any smarter, they only have better money management habits.
Generally, your money must be divided into six different parts:
Financial Freedom Account (FFA) - 10%
This is the money that you set aside for business and investments. This is not a savings account, rather it is called an investment account. You do not spend this money in any way possible unless it will be for a certain business venture or an investment opportunity.
Savings for Expenses (SFE) - 10%
This part is for spending. If you want a new phone, a new gadget or a new car, then this account will supply the money for that. Keeping a savings account for this purpose eliminates your chances of going into debt and in overspending.
Financial Education Account (FEA) - 10%
Learning more about financial education helps you more in becoming financially healthy and free. Invest on books, seminars and trainings. If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
Rest and Recreation (RAR) - 10%
Depriving yourself will not help you achieve financial success. Overindulging will not help you either. The key is balance. This account if like a reward. Spend it for yourself every month or every quarter. It is mainly up to you as long as you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor.
Everyday Expenses (EE) - 50 - 55%
This account includes your daily allowance, transportation and food expenses, utilities and other necessities. Ideally, 50% is enough, but if it is quite hard to start with, 55% is still good.
Gift and Contribution (GAC) - 5 - 10%
Charity is a fulfilling way to say thank you to every blessings that comes your way. This money can go to your church, a foundation that you support or even to a friend who unexpectedly needs financial help. The key is to always have an amount ready to be given to others. The more you give, the more you will receive.
This may be as simple as they look, but they are really powerful. Some people find it hard to start as they believe they would always run short, but it is actually the opposite. Keeping this habit will help you have more control with your money as in comes and goes.
If you feel that you cannot follow all the other divisions since your expenses are quite big, you may follow this:
FFA - 10%, SFE - 1%, FEA - 1%, RAR - 1%, EE - 86% and GAC - 1%
This way, you will still be able to follow the management more comfortably. Remember, it is not the amount but the habit that is important. A few hundreds today may soon be billions with the help of these six different money accounts.
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