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Help To Make Smarter Personal Finance Decisions

You are considering a program of personal finance. What are your long-term and short-term goals? Are you planning for retirement or just for a nice vacation next summer? Once your goal is clear, you have to get very practical. How much money is coming in? What are the risks and rewards of a given plan?

To stay on top of your money, create a budget and stick to it. Write down your income and your bills and decide what needs to be paid and when. You can easily create and use a budget with either pen and paper or by using a computer program.

Choosing the right schools can affect your personal finance. One of the most cost effective ways to get a prestigious degree or certification is by attending cheaper schools for part of your education, and switch over to a more expensive or better-ranked school for the remainder. Your credits will merge from the previous school and you will still gain the graduation benefits from the new school.

Hiring a credit repair company can help you with some of the legwork involved in cleaning up your credit report, but beware of shady companies that make false or misleading claims. These companies may allege that you can start fresh with a clean credit report by using an Employee Identification number (EIN) rather than your Social Security number. However, they neglect to tell you that requesting an EIN from the IRS for this reason is a federal crime.

Take a look at your investments. If it’s been a while since you did any financial shifting of assets, it might be time to do that. With the changes in the economy, what used to be a good safe bet, and what used to earn lots of interest per year, has changed.

You and your children should consider public schools for college over private universities. There are many highly prestigious state schools that will cost you a fraction of what you would pay at a private school. Also consider attending community college for your AA degree for a more affordable education.

Spend less than you make. Living even right at your means can cause you to never have savings for an emergency or retirement. It means never having a down payment for your next home or paying cash for your car. Get used to living beneath your means and living without debt will become easy.

Talking to a good friend or family member that has worked in the financial services industry can be a good source of free information on how to better manage your finances. If there aren’t any family members that have finance experience, close friends are also a good choice to turn to.

If one has a knack for painting they can develop it into a side job or even a career that can support their entire personal finances if they desire. By advertising through newspapers, fliers, word of mouth, online advertising, or any other means can build ones base of customers. Painting can yield income for ones personal finances if they choose to utilize it.

Offering one’s services as a cat groomer and nail clipper can be a good choice for those who already have the means to do so. Many people especially those who have just purchased a cat or kitten do not have nail clippers or the abilities to groom their pet. An individuals personal finances can benefit from something they already have.

Make sure you always pay your rent on time. Landlords are more likely to help tenants who are in good standing with them. If you make them wait extra time to get there rent then you can guarantee that when you have a problem they will not be in a rush to help you.

One of the things that you need to remember when trying to manage your personal finances is to only buy the things that you can afford. Whenever faced with a dilemma of purchasing something, think quickly about paying it in cash. If you cannot pay for it using cash, then you probably can’t afford it.

Like dieting, budgeting can be very painful if you are unreasonable in your goals. Severely restricting yourself will invariably lead to failure. Instead, set realistic goals for saving and spending your money. Setting extreme limits for yourself will make it much easier and tempting for you to fall off the wagon.

If you are young, ignore the conventional wisdom of investing in 80 percent stocks and 20 percent bonds, and instead aim for a 50-50 balance. Given the volatility of the market, you can still lose quite a bit by putting most of your money in stocks. Having a mix of both may reduce your returns a little bit, but it might also cushion you against huge losses.

After reading these tips you have probably already sketched out a plan in your mind for achieving your goal. If that goal is a trip to the French Alps next summer, you will have checked out airfares and hotels. Whatever the goal, practical planning now will enable you to achieve it.

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