What is a financial goal?
Typically these include things like:
- What is important to you financially?
- What age would you like to retire?
- What do you want to do when your retire and how much will it cost?
- How often would you like to vacation, and what will you do on vacations?
Then you can figure out, based on what your goals are and how much money will be needed to accomplish them, how much you’ll need to save or how much money you’ll need on hand.
There are many online calculators that can help with some of these calculations, but I recommend seeking out a financial adviser to help get a complete and clean results. My experience is, get a professional to help you set goals and understand their implications. It usually doesn’t cost any money for an evaluation, and the results of the analysis will require some action anyway - and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) can help you implement the plan.
The first step in planning your finances is to figure our where you really are today.
One of the best ways to get started is to complete a Net Worth analysis for yourself. A Net Worth analysis is a snapshot of how much you are worth financially right now. To do this, you should list all of your assets and liabilities with their associated, realistic values.
Assets are anything that when turned into cash gives you some money. Common items are: your home, vehicle, bank accounts, retirement savings (401K/RRSP), investments.
Liabilities are things that take money away from you (anything you owe). Common items are: mortgage, loan, credit card debt, spousal/child support. More…
I came across this diagram today, depicting the process of financial planning. Following these simple steps you can ensure that your current and future finances are and will be on a firm foundation.
Over the next 6 blog entries, I’ll go into detail for each point and discuss how we can plan for our future.
Feel free to add any insight you wish to the process.
The days of the traditional, expensive movie rental store are numbered.
New, automated, ATM-style systems now available are replacing the need for a regular store. In my neighborhood, we have such a store, called Original Video. The store is open 24 hours a day, and anyone who is a member can go and rent/return a movie whenever they want. The system has the ability to browse movies on the spot by genre or new release. You can recharge your account at the machine (which accepts cash) or with a debit card during “business hours”. The web site allows browsing of titles and reserving of movies. More…
From the Oct 2008 issue of Money Magazine:
- Insulate your attic
- Cover the ducts
- Use a programmable thermostat
- Seal cracks in basement
- Wrap your water heater
- Service your furnace/air conditioner
In some research done by Northwestern Mutual and LLuminari, results say that people tend to feel better about life in general when they are preapred for their financial future.
It makes complete sense to me. How many of us worry about money issues on a daily basis? Its just sensible that those who don’t have to worry about those things, because they have a plan in place and are excuting that plan, are happier people without that stress.
Can we also correlate the large epidemic of depression that seems to have crept up on the world, at least to some degree, to poor financial planning? More…
I recently saw an advertisement for “Fuel Efficient Tires” and have been trying to figure out if this is just a marketing gimmick or if somehow its true.
The ad claimed that Michelin HydroEgde tires would save about $130 (or 33 gallons of gas) over the lifetime of the tires. For Michelin Latitude tires (for SUVs) you would save $300 or 77 gallons of gas. I just couldn’t understand how this could be.
After doing some research, the way they do this is with the tire technology… namely producing a tire that: More…
A lot of people I know get frustrated with their computers complaining they are slow, and its cumbersome to use the internet, multitask, and do “simple things”. A little PC-tuning can go a long way to correcting this situation and save you big bucks if you think the best solution is a new machine. (On top of that, if you don’t learn how to solve the problems… your new machine will shortly become in the same state as your older one).
Here are some tips to keeping your (Windows-based) computer humming: More…
An article in the October issue of Money magazine (”Why Down May Be the New Up”, p17) suggests that when things are looking really bad, its time to start looking for a rebound.
Ask anyone about the economy today, its doubtful you’ll get a positive response.
I had visions (not too detailed mind you…) of a toilet, being flushed. The toilet get filled with filth, and gets flushed; everything goes down and there’s nothing left for about a minute, until the clean water rises back up to its normal level. More…
Birthdays, Christmas, Mother’s Day, Fathers Day… all have gift giving in common. Often the price of gifts add up and overwhelm many in to non-participation. I’ve found that you can turn a hobby or project into a gift for a relatively inexpensive cost.
For example, every once in a while, I get a craving to work with my hands (instead of writing code all the time). So, I’ve made some gifts out of wood and other items. More…
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