Personal finance: It's no vacation

I read somewhere that Americans spend more time planning for their vacations than their financial futures. Gosh, I love reading stuff like that. It's like, duh! I imagine Americans spend more time raking leaves, cleaning their desks or doing most anything else that doesn't involve personal finance.

Why? I guess because it's boring. And intimidating. And we like instant gratification and the future is a long way away compared with right now.

So two questions:

What would make you care about personal finance?

What's the best piece of advice about money you ever got that you actually followed?

I really want to know.

Now you can go back to planning that exciting trip to Lima, Ohio.

Comments

[jimmy earthworm]

LIMA , OHIO is okay but Im from Columbus, Ohio ; Columbus is a plain vanilla cone no nuts or whipped cream. My favorite in cincinnatti with the river boat fesival; All the river boats form the Deep south come up the OHIO river to meet in Cincinnatti. Anyway I think marrying a rich man or women is the best financial advice I can construe. The average Person doesnt have a chance but buy something in an affordable house and try to pay it off; Lets face it after loosing 50,000 thousand dollars in WCOM I have no faith in the markets or the Government. So Bernie Ebbers is in jail and Im shit pot broke. I should have used the money and bought a MERCEDES .

[jimmy earthworm]

Sometimes in Charlotte I wish I could click my ruby slippers and say " NO PLACE LIKE HOME" but then I am a man and that would look funny becaue I have skinny legs.

[Ron]

The best piece of advise I have gotten so far would be to start my 401k and my Roth IRAs. Even thought I am only 23 I have already started both because I realize that retiring is not going to be cheap so it is best to start saving sooner than later.

[packaok]

To jimmy earthworm: It is YOUR fault that you lost your savings because you chose to bet the entire farm on one horse. You should NEVER invest in single stocks.

Mutual funds are the way to go because they offer instant diversification.

Just because you are bitter about your misfortune does not mean that the markets are a bad investment.

[jimmy earthworm]

People there is a great Depression coming down the tracks and is closer than we all think; I do think their will be a run on the banks by folks who remember the last BANK SCARE; The Markets will fall after MLK day because of ASIAN /EURO markets ; People this is serious and folks are going to be living in the streets with rising foreclosures and job loss; People have closed their wallets and here we go free fall ; My slip is going into and above my head but Im a man and thats impossible. People when was the last time your Governmnet offered money to you , we s in trouble .

[piggy parlor]

Since the U.S economy only created 17,000 jobs I hope the Charlotte Chamber dont come out and say " we created 14,000 jobs right here " like they always say no matter if the jobs are at SUBWAY; We have a Federal Puppet that lives in town that tells People how many jobs were created here; And heres how they do the math; They get Newspapers from all over the U.S. and count JOB ADS . Thats right thats how they figure jobs by Job advertisements. My problem with this is if you have a high turn over rate in the city, or a low turn over rate could throw the math off.

[piggy parlor]

Dont worry plenty of soup lines in Charlotte ; you may have to get behind someone who has been here for the last three years that couldnt find a job though. Sunday soup in vegtable, Monday is bean soup , and the soak their beans no BEANO needed. wednesday and thursday chili MMMMmmmm my favorite and friday peperoni soup thats gives you good flatulance; These are the ones that can fly you to BOSTON . These relieve pressure and stress.

[piggy parlor]

I wanted to run for MAYOR here in Charlotte but they wanted to sew a puppet glove in the back of my suit and I said no to that; Lets face it to be MAYOR here you have to have strings tied to your suit cuffs and pant legs ; SORRY not for me Im from the free STATES

[Jeff]

My best advise is to spend less than you make, save the difference and do it for a long time. It is that simple. I keep track of my PFS (personal financial statement) on a quarterly basis. It only takes a few minutes. I treat myself like a business with a goal, showing profit and improving my net worth. I try to keep good diversity in my assets and limit my debt. I keep about 12% in liquidity, 34% in investments (mostly retirement), 44% in real estate (I'm also a broker/dealer), and about 8% in personal property (autos & household). About 98% of my debt is real estate debt. I have two credit cards and pay them off every month. I had an advantage over many, my family was extremely poor, so I actually thought about my financial future... Just because marketing calls us consumers, doesn't mean we need to spend all our money consuming! The younger generation have had it better than any generation ever (I'm 41). However, they've never seen a downswing in the (normal) business cycle. Those who have been foolish will now suffer.

[piggy parlor]

What happens when the market crashes down about 3000 points and wont stop and a run on the banks and People start panicing; What happens when BOFA annouces a 5000 People layoff right here next week when houses are already in foreclosure? I think the U.S. is in great danger and this is a setup from the ILUMNATI the great pirates of the new world order.

[Silverlining]

Diversification is a good idea. Even the Wall Street analysts are wrong most of the time. The best advice I received was in 2002 to take a serious look at the precious metals (I'm not a dealer or coin collector) market. Gold and silver were at a cyclical low (about $330 and $4.50 an ounce). Now they are at $910 and $17.30 an ounce. I could not have found a mutual fund with that type of return from 2002-2008 (except possibly a gold mining fund!). Few investors consider precious metals (PMs) since Wall Street and its shills don't benefit from precious metals sales and the typical financial products salesperson doesn't include PMs in their financial products repertoire. Many folks don't know they can set up self-directed IRAs with PMs. PMs will certainly not pull a WCOM on you.