Personal Finance Explained In Five Words

Personal Finance has different meanings to each reader and to some, the term is complicated and overwhelming. If you don’t read any further into this particular blog you can easily step off the page with this Plan and go about your other web surfing activities:
                       “Spend Less Than You Earn”

Making money does not get you into trouble like spending money does. Spending more money than you have or making slides you blissfully into debt as you acquire more stuff. Debt is the bitch that does not sleep. Everyone should know where they spend their own money and why they are spending it. What matters most is that you have a clear understanding of the value of money that you earn at a job, whether you like that job or not. If you find balance with your earnings, it will provide you some joy today while preparing for your long-term security.
Personal Finance is really all about savings plans and a spending plan. We’ve covered spending plans in other posts and have also posted an expense tracking template to get you started.

I enjoy reading and following other FIRE bloggers who share their methods and tools. I am particularly fond of the new generation of retirement calculators that are remarkably accurate. I recently came across another blogger who is very talented at embedding really cool macros into their blog to simplify one of these calculators. It’s an interactive guide complete with instructions that will pinpoint the time that one is financially free or FI. It will allow you to customize your circumstances and goals such as becoming, debt-free, financially independent, and/or ready to retire. Use the slide bars to take a snapshot of where you are today and model where you want to be.  You will either be encouraged or feel disappointed by this interactive feedback tool. If you find yourself feeling disappointed at the moment you see your results, great, consider it a gift of knowledge. Better to know now than years later.
You do not have to accept it, and you can begin working on deciding to make changes. Measure your progress and after just a few short months, you will find yourself on the other side of disappointed, encouraged, and motivated. If you need a place to start, today’s blog is full of hyperlinks that will guide you with resources to get started.

The bottom line: You can choose when you want to be Debt-free or Financially Independent by making small adjustments to your spending and savings habits.  If you don’t make the choice, then someone else will and you may not like the choice they made for you.   

Get started now and check out the blog below.

https://minafi.com/interactive-guide-early-retirement-financial-independence/

Author: Francis

Started out in science and somehow ended up in sales & marketing. Grew into a results oriented sales professional with extensive experience selling and positioning scientific solutions in the pharma/biotech, life sciences and medical diagnostics markets. In 1998 I created an excel sheet to track spending and cash flow to learn personal finance on my own. They don't teach this in school and by the time one figures it out, most of let all these resources slip through our fingers. It's time to pay it forward to this next gen so that they can shave 15-20 years off for working for "the man" with insights, a library of tools, and motivation from me and plenty of other FI bloggers that I follow. View all posts by Francis