Where ever one is in scheme of things each tailored to help maintain peace in the finances
A ton of “wise” in this article!
I’m a Catholic but I loved this article because I know from personal experience that these things work. The best pieces of advice are to pay cash and to put as much money down on big purchases as possible. I would also add that if you use credit cards, pay off the balance each month so that you don’t pay any interest charges. Naturally, this means that you can’t put more on the credit card than you can afford to pay back the next month but at least you won’t go into debt to the credit card companies, which charge outrageous interest rates.
Anyone can live within their means. It doesn’t require any special knowledge, just common sense and self-discipline.
“1 — Get An Education”
My parents were of the opinion that if you just got a university degree, any degree, that you would have a good career. Sadly I bought into their views. If you do not get the right education, you are pretty much wasting your time and money because after a while you will be unhappy with your carrer (even if well paid) and want to switch. Somthing that is both expensive and painful.
What makes it the ‘right’ education? You have to know your talents AND you have to know what kind of acomplishments you see as valuable. When you can identify a career where you can use you talents (not skills) to accomplish something meaningful to you, then that career will define the education that would serve you best. You will not become successful in a career you are not passionate about.
“10 — Use Your Deductible
Take the highest deductible possible when having taxes deducted from your paycheck if you normally receive a refund.”
That might feel good to get a big tax refund, but all that money of yours the government is holding gets no interest. It would be better to minimize tax withholdings and get those savings earning interest via investments, or saving you interest via debt payments.
“25 — Plant a Garden”
Gardening is a good skill to have, but in some cases it is not cost effective. Plan ahead and consider cost of tools, time, supplies etc.
“49 — Shop at the Farmers’ Market”
Not around here. Farmer’s Markets are where to go to by expensive, organically grown veggies. If saving money is your objective, stay away.
Here is a really good ‘trick’ for paying off debts:
Say you have 4 debts, $1000, $700, $500, $100 with minimum payments of 100, 70, 50, 10. So your total for just making minimum payments is $230. Say you budget for debt payment is $250, what you do is put all the extra on the debt with the lowest principle, so in this example you would pay $30 on the $100 debt. That debt will vanish pretty fast, and when it does you just roll that $30 a month up to the new smallest debt, so you would then be putting $80 on the $500 debt and you are still putting $250 a month on debt. You keep doing that until it is all paid off.
I know a lot of you probably think the interest rate should be a factor in deciding where to put the extra money, but this actually works better.
Thanks for posting this. I’m in the middle of writing a book about finances and investing for LDS families. I cover some of these same ideas/tips, but not all.