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Learning More About Finances Columns & Fact Sheets | Educating
Yourself & Youth | Setting Goals If you have general financial questions and want to learn more about a financial topic, check out the “It’s Your Money” columns. They are my best thinking on many topics and often indicate useful Web sites for more information. CSU Cooperative Extension Fact Sheets contain in-depth information about certain topics. Educating Yourself and Youth Making decisions about money goes far beyond managing money. George Kinder explains that goals must be core to who you are to be worth reaching. Use these questions from Seven Stages of Money Maturity to identify your core beliefs and feelings that you want to accomplish during your lifetime:
Copyright by George Kinder. Printed with permission. Write down all of the goals you want to focus on first and keep them in a place where they will be in your mind. Do this exercise by yourself once a year to determine if these are still the most important goals for you. Develop a language to express your most important dreams and goals to your partner and family. Share what you learn. Talk about how your dreams might be achieved and how you can turn these ideas into small goals so you can measure progress. Focus your attention and dollars on achieving the things that are MOST important to you.Team up with your partner or friend to eliminate hurdles to achieving your dreams. Be mentors for each other in overcoming negative messages that are self defeating. Start a tracking program to find out where your money is going. When you have a good idea of how you’re spending your money, develop a plan with specific target amounts for the year and stick to it. The prize will be getting what you really want. One of the best programs for keeping track of checks, cash and credit purchases is the checkbook method. The directions are simple and are available at the Montana State University Cooperative Extension publication site. In addition to your checking account, you’ll need a place to put your short-term saving and emergency funds. A good place is a money market mutual fund. Each family of funds usually has a money market fund that pays more interest than an interest-bearing checking account. Most of these funds allow you to write checks for a minimum amount (often $250 - $500) and can be used for large purchases. You can link your checking account to the money market account and move funds on a monthly basis into your money market account and back to your checking account when money is needed. Check out low-expense money market mutual funds such as Vanguard. Debt can either reduce your wealth or potentially increase it. Credit card balances that are not paid in full each month decrease your wealth. Debt used for education, homes, a business, investments, and even a car have a high likelihood of increasing your wealth. Use credit to increase your wealth and not decrease it. If you have existing credit card debt, pay it off as soon as possible and then start saving the amount that has been going to debt payments. If you have too much debt and would like some help getting it paid off, contact the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, a non-profit organization established to help consumers get out of debt. You can find a local Consumer Credit Counseling Service at. A good resource to help you learn how to invest is the “Investing for Your Future” Web course, developed by a team of Cooperative Extension financial educators. It is available to you for no charge 24 hours a day. Start this month and commit to doing one unit each week. Retirement planning is essential in your financial plan. To get an idea of how much money you need to save to enjoy a life style similar to the way you’re living now, go to Colorado State University’s Financial Security in Later Life Web site. The Excel planning tools are for people who have defined benefit plans as well as people who have defined contribution plans. This will give you an idea how much you need to save each month for your retirement. Net worth statements measure your financial progress. Do a net-worth statement this year – a simple and useful version can be found at Utah State University. Your job is to make your net worth grow every year. To do that, you’ll need to know about investing. As much as we may hate to deal with paper, records are necessary. The biggest challenge is to have a system where you can find a record if you need it. Whoever organizes the system also needs to leave detailed instructions for others so they can locate records if necessary. Check out record-keeping suggestions at the North Dakota State Web site. You know that a will is important, but if you’ve never gotten around to drawing up one for yourself, read Colorado State’s fact sheet, “How Property Passes At Death”. This fact sheet explains what happens to your money and assets if you do not have a will. Even young families need a will, especially to determine who would be responsible for children if both parents died in an accident. Another valuable Cooperative Extension fact sheet is titled, “Estate Planning for Parents of Young Children”. Play around with Web-based calculators to figure out how to squeeze out more dollars for your goals. Read my “It’s Your Money” column for information about useful sites. My two favorite books are Seven Stages of Money Maturity by George Kinder and Making the Most of Your Money by Jane Bryant Quinn. You can buy new or used copies at www.amazon.com. I suggest you read the entire book by George Kinder. He believes that it is easy to sabotage financial decisions if they are not tied to personal and deeply felt goals. I use the Quinn book for reference. Her style is light and easy to read, and she is always on your side in demystifying money decisions. When you have a question about money, turn to Quinn as one of your first sources of information. You will be much better prepared to ask questions and focus on what you want and need when you enter the financial marketplace. You can find Quinn’s Washington Post columns at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/business/longterm/quinn/quinn.htm |
Home | About Judy McKenna | Services Offered | Fees | Code of Ethics What Others Say | Financial Planners | Learning More About Finances Judy McKenna Financial Services 725 Bonita Ave - Fort Collins , CO 80526 - (970) 206-0303 Email: jesmckenna@comcast.net |