Please Post Your Best Financiall Advice.

[Judique]

All great advice so far! I wish these things were taught in every high school.

Not everyone in the world is impressed with people who have the most expensive car/house/clothes/handbag, etc. Surround yourself with people who's values are less materialistic and your life will be much richer for it - in more ways than just financial.

Never do business with friends or relations.

On your deathbed, you will not look back on your life and wish you had bought more stuff.

It's doubtful if too many high school aged budgeters are on here looking for advice. But - you are correct - this stuff needs to be taught in high school, because if a 30something is on here looking for this advice, it's probably already too late!

 

[Debbie]

PLAN....and BUDGET the PLAN

• plan your meals
• plan your purchases, large and small
• plan your retirement
• plan your vacation
• plan your day
• plan your trips to the ATM
• plan, plan, plan

You can stray from the plan, but with a plan, you are less likely to stray too far. As you make your plan, you can see where you will be spending your money. WRITE IT DOWN!

 

[bellarella]

Teach your children about money and debt early -- really early. Especially:

1. That a credit card should be treated the same as a debit card. If the money isn't in the account when you make the purchase, you shouldn't be buying it.

2. That how you spend your money should reflect your priorities. Even if you can afford to buy something, it doesn't mean you should.

3. Let your children make choices about how to spend their money very early. They will internalize mistakes and learn from them. (But only if you don't bail them out.)

Kids can learn these lessons far sooner than I think most people give them credit for. I remember my 6 year-old looking at souvenirs on a trip. She carefully went through the store and found something she liked. She looked at the price and said something to the effect of "This is $12 dollars. I like it, but I don't think I like it $12 worth. After a couple of weeks I'd probably stop playing with it. If it were $6, I would buy it."

 

[disykat]

Don't be afraid to vacation on a budget, eat out on a budget, live on a budget. That $10 really does add up.

 

[crisi]

Don't forget that the outgo is only one side of the equation - income is the other.

If you have the opportunity to make a little more money, consider taking it. Whether that is switching jobs for a raise, or walking the neighbors dog, or having a garage sale, or even working a second job. That isn't to say that you have to make the most money possible, or that you should be miserable, or that you should work so much you don't have time for life. But having a second job before you have kids and saving that money, or taking a few overtime hours when they are convenient, or saving the cash from getting rid of your old kid's clothes might be the difference between panic and worry, or worry and comfort - sometime in the future.

 

[bpesch]

Pay your credit cards off each month in full. If you don't have the money sitting in your bank account at the time of your purchase, don't use your credit card.

Someone beat me to this one but let me add a footnote to this. If you are unable to pay your credit cards off in full each month, you're living beyond your means. It's very easy to pull out a piece of plastic to pay for things because it doesn't feel like real money.

 

[fireflymedic]

Don't eat out ever (maybe once a month but have a scedule)
pack a lunch for work

If you do eat out keep track of all the reciets for the whole year so you can see if its worth it to you.

Dont spend more money than you make, and every time you get a raise (or have a baby so you get a bigger tax deduction) take 1/2 the raise and put it in a saving account (hopefuly a auta. draft.)

 

[averysmom]

Don't count things like tax returns and bonuses in your budget. We roll over all of dh's bonuses into RRSPs (Cdn version of 401K) and our tax return goes onto our mortgage. We never had that money, so it doesn't hurt making those big payments.

Also, like a pp said, when you get a raise, up a payment that you have. Dh has his RRSPs taken off his cheque - we started at 7% and added a percent every year at raise time. We never noticed it, because it always coincided with his annual raise, kwim? So now we're maxing out. It took us a few years to get there, but we got there.

Hope for the best, but plan for the worst. We always structured our bills so that if something happened to one of our jobs, we could still make it on the other salary (and I don't work full-time). Like we took out a 25 year mortgage, so what we HAVE to pay every week is crazy low, but make extra payments every week, so we only have 9 more years to go.

 

[MissDaisyofTexas]

My advice is:

Stop buying so much stuff!!!

I know a lot of people who are obsessed with getting "deals" and they constantly buy Groupons, hot deals, etc. They are ALWAYS buying things and even the great deals keep adding up!

We are in the middle of a "30 Days of Nothing" challenge with some online friends, meaning we are going a full month of buying nothing but gas and groceries. No going out to eat, no Starbucks, nothing at the mall. Food and gas only. And it's hard, but it has made us realize just how much we spend on frivilous stuff. We've been taking the kids to parks all month as entertainment, and they are having a blast!

 

[semo233]

YOU CAN BORROW MONEY FOR ANYTHING, EXCEPT RETIREMENT!!

This is the main reason why you need to start saving for retirement as early as possible. Then, the need to know about compounding interest.

 

[mrsklamc]

1. Give.

2. Save.

3. 15 year mortgage. As an example, we bought our house 6 years ago. 6 years in would you rather have 9 years left to pay or 24?

 

[Marionnette]

Plain and simple: Don't spend money that you don't have. If you don't have the money in the bank to pay for it at the time of purchase, you cannot afford it.

Never, ever, EVER rely on a commission, bonus or tax return to pay for something until you have the check cashed and the money is in your account.

 

[Fyrefly]

My advise and priorities are a bit different. I'm a 22-year-old graduate student and will be one for several years (Hoping I pass my PhD candidacy exams! ) and it also means I've taken a vow of poverty, as it were. So I can't really give advise about kids and mortgages and retirement because I have no kids, rent, and don't get any retirement as a student. But I do try to put away as much of my cash as possible so I won't be starting at 30 or something trying to save for the future.

1) Track all your spending. I have a spreadsheet. I pay most things on credit card since as a woman I don't feel comfy carrying scads of cash with me to buy groceries each week. But all credit card purchases go in, all utilities, rent, whenever I take cash out, that goes in. And I track from month to month, semester to semester how much I'm saving. Obviously it goes higher when I have one of my yearly major expenditures (an anime convention I go to every year, Christmas presents, etc.) but I have never spent more than I made in a single month. And I think that's the biggest thing.

2) Buy the store brand. Seriously. The black beans in a Giant Best Value can for $0.89 taste just as good mixed into your tacos as the $2.00 brand ones. Little bits add up.

3) Buy meat in bulk and freeze it. Costs way more to buy meat each time than it does in packages. Try to watch for sales on meat and stock up then. But I'm finding those are becoming far and few between lately.

4) COOK! I can't believe how many of my fellow students (heck, even you proper adults with actual salaries ) are spending on food when every single lunch is eaten out. Pack a sandwich. Do the math on a dish you make and be amazed at how much cheaper it is than an equivalent meal at a restaurant.

5) Meal plan smartly. Always have your groceries for at least the week laid out so you don't have food waste. And if you're getting a specialty ingredient, plan more meals to use it up. We make a curried fish and rice dish with curry paste recently. You don't just keep that in your fridge like milk and eggs and it would go bad. So we're doing Chicken Korma this week to make sure we get our money's worth out of it. Don't waste anything! Letting food spoil is like throwing money away.

6) Call cable/TV/phone companies and make sure you're getting the lowest rates possible. If you're in an area with competition, threaten to leave. Actually leave if you have to.

7) Have the cash for something before you buy it. Just because I use CC's doesn't mean I carry a balance. Never have, hopefully never will. I took my Disney trip after researching to make it as inexpensive as possible for what I wanted and then made sure I had enough saved before doing it. It's not that hard. If there were no such things as credit cards we wouldn't be able to spend what we didn't have. So why does plastic somehow make that okay to do?

8) And my controversial tip, splurge smartly! It's depressing as heck to feel like you're pinching pennies all over and never getting to do anything "fun." One major trip or event or whatever you're saving for can sometimes not feel worth it. So indulge, but in a good way. If you have a coupon, go to the restaurant. Buy a fancy coffee drink - just don't do it every day. Something I like to do is buy lunch while I'm in the office, but on the cheap. I'll bring my drink/chips/etc from home and just go get a fancy takeout sandwich and bring it back. I get the feeling of treating myself, but I only spent $4-5 instead of $10 for the whole meal.

I realized a lot of my tips focus around food... I guess since that is my major expenditure and pretty much the only thing I can control (Rent, utilities and insurance are about the same even with cost-saving measures in place) it's where I try to save a lot of my money. Plus they say students are rather fixed on food anyway... So I hope this was interesting/informative for someone!

 

[Snoozan]

My DH and I have a motto - "Want vs. need". We evaluate most purchases by asking this question beforehand. And, alot of the time, we talk ourselves out of the purchase. Not to say we don't treat ourselves now and then, but we've also been able to put away quite a bit towards our retirement and we don't think we're missing out on much of anything. Our families may think we're 'cheap'(I prefer frugal)at times, but I can tell you we're probably going to be one of the first to be able to retire out of the 10 siblings.

Another big money saver - DON'T SMOKE! and use alcohol minimally. Do you realize how much is spent on such vices? And how bad for your health they can be? Just staying healthy is another way to save.

 

[fromscratchmom]

Be happy. Learn to talk to yourself positively rather than negatively. Intentionally keep a positive attitude; you can train yourself to do this. Depression and negativity both snowball and can both cost countless dollars directly and indirectly.

Be sure to budget entertainment. This doesn't have to be expensive. It can even be free. But you need to be intentional about it rather than haphazard or just as bad by not ever allowing R-n-R in your life. Also make sure you really get "Rest And Relaxation" out of your entertainment plans. If you don't later feel less stressed or happier, or more rested in some way or on some level you are doing it wrong. Pay attention to your own moods and learn what makes you a happier person.

Count your blessings and be happy with what you've got. As my DH tells our kids: "Think of what you have not what you don't have. Even the richest person in the world has less than what they don't have," (as compared to how much "stuff" is in the entire world). If I can budget a trip to Disney and stay at a value resort as we did in 2006, I should (and I was) very happy about that. It was a great blessing. I've always wanted to stay at the Poly and I mean since I was barely old enough to have a memory of the time in the early seventies. But that is fine to have a dream and still be contented and thankful with what I got, which was a magical vacation with my loved ones.

 

[buckirj1]

Lots of good advice so far. I think somebody touched on this earlier, but I'll be more blunt. Never give up your financial independence. Sooner or later you're likely to be left alone. Do not marry unless you're totally able to support yourself. Do not have children unless you're totally able to support yourself and your children without assistance from someone else's income. Too many people ruin their lives by being unprepared for sudden independence.

 

[Dr.Girlfriend]

I like to go to resturant.com and get some money saving coupons for fine dining.

...and then charge off that CC debt and brag about it.

 

[crashbb]

Plain and simple: Don't spend money that you don't have. If you don't have the money in the bank to pay for it at the time of purchase, you cannot afford it.

Never, ever, EVER rely on a commission, bonus or tax return to pay for something until you have the check cashed and the money is in your account.

I may be somewhat excessive, but I don't even count on my INCOME (salaried, non-commission). If the actual cash is not in my account on the day of the purchase, I don't make the purchase. I only pay my credit card once a month, but the cash is there (I do pay it off earlier if I made a largish purchase, even if I'm no where near my credit limit - just a mental thing with having a more than a certain amount showing on my card).

I should say that rent is an exception - I don't keep a year's worth of rent in my account (though I do have at least a one month cushion).

And, at least for me, credit cards are not the root of all evil. However, be smart about it. Looking at the different cards. Paying a yearly fee may be worth it, if the benefits outweigh said fee. For example, I pay a fee on my card. However, it means that I don't need to get insurance when I rent a car (I would have to pay for the insurance with the no fee version); a two day rental pays for my yearly fee. Add in the cash-back, travel insurance, purchase insurance, etc. and the yearly fee is worth it (to me). For others, a card giving frequent flyer points may be a better deal. For others, a basic card with no yearly fee is best.

 

[fromscratchmom]

You know restaurants.com is great and I found some great deals for my area. So of course since we do eat out occasionally I thought great "we'll spend less when we do"... but then DH just did not ever agree to trying the restaurants I'd bought the certificates for and then they were wasted money. I could have cried. oh well. lesson learned. I either won't use that site or any similar site or I'll have to get him to look at with me.

 

[OrangeCountyCommuter]

Take free advice from internet sites (including this one) with a healty dose of doubt!