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Traditional Personal Finance

The “new normal” means we each have an opportunity to start from where we are to create successful future outcomes from this moment on. That is, if we choose to release mainstream media’s “normalcy bias” perfected over generations to perpetuate (no matter what) the illusion of normalcy! Central to the normalcy illusion is a consumption-based definition of success designed to override concerns in a shifting economic landscape. Yet all around us hard evidence virtually screams the naked truth of the many ways the “normal” we once knew, no longer exists. Below are my personal-finance recommendations that dovetail but do not exactly match those of traditional advisers. Why? Traditional recommendations typically ignore the risk factor represented by how money works in context of its monetary system. Same as with health issues; without knowledge of the cause of symptoms, treatments generally lack full effectiveness.

When it come to personal-finance success, responsibility for how we earn, spend, save and invest is obviously essential. However, financial objectives can easily elude us if we lack the whole story about money. The missing piece is systemic in nature. Overlooked and under reported, impersonal monetary-system mechanics grind away to leave families vulnerable; undermining goals of stability and wealth-building. Central banks worldwide (Federal Reserve for the U.S.) issue currency at the precise moment it is borrowed via an automated procedure called fractional-reserve banking. Therefore, money is actually a debt instrument (Federal Reserve Note). This private profit, interest-delivering system was designed centuries ago.

Over time debt grows per compounding interest and purchasing power diminishes with increased cost of living. The cost of living rises as businesses add their interest cost from bank loans to the cost of the goods and services we purchase. That brings me to the pivotal issue of how much purchasing power $1.00 has in the marketplace today. One dollar is only worth 4.5 cents and an online inflation calculator proves my point. An item purchased for $1.00 in 1913 (when the Federal Reserve System was created) would cost $22.10 in 2010; a 2000% increase in inflation!

It’s a fact: Skilled advisers are definitely helping families lower their debt-loads and modify their budgets. That said, the “good-debt, bad-debt” conversation remains as conventional truth; leading individuals and families to believe they can tweak their budget and lifestyle here and there to make it through to better days. Unfortunately, such household gains may not last. Without a working knowledge of money as debt, even the most sincere efforts may falter as a rising cost of living erodes hard-won forward movement. When following conventional financial wisdom, the solution to keeping up and making ends meet could well end up, once again, as participation in the vicious cycle of credit and debt. Who benefits?

When we add the missing-piece about money to our knowledge-base and decision-making process we also gain additional financial strategies. Those who set out to explore alternatives outside-the-traditional-personal-finance-box tend to develop a new part of their brain.They uncover a world of possibilities (perhaps previously under-valued) along with the thousands of others on the very same mission! Here are my personal finance action-steps formulated to help individuals and families build a solid financial foundation. Savings and investments are very important but in the 2011 economy they will be most SUSTAINABLE when a solid present-day foundation has been attended to first. You’ll know you have completed the “foundation” step once you have more money coming in to your household than going out for at least four consecutive months!

Tags: Bank Loans, Central Banks, Compounding Interest, Debt Instrument, Economic Landscape, Financial Objectives, Fractional Reserve Banking, Issue Currency, Mainstream Media, Missing Piece, Monetary System, Naked Truth, Personal Finance, Pivotal Issue, Precise Moment, Private Profit, Risk Factor, System Mechanics, Traditional Recommendations

Personal Finances is a Useful and Profitable Choice

The basics of this advice are to try and help you become disciplined in your spending. Most of the time, the extravaganzas are done on the spur of the moment and this is what causes the most strain to your budget. While occasional spending sprees are fine and in fact, normal, making them a habit are what is risking people that are on a tighter budget. And you definitely wouldn’t want that. Also, it is important to effectively manage your personal finance today so that you can save some money for the future. You never know what the future is like and with a global economic climate that is uncertain at times you may want to stay on the safe side.

So the first thing to do in order to sort out your personal finances is to get a good idea of what they are. You must be well aware of what ‘needs’ your money and what ‘wastes’ your money. The first part includes those things that are absolutely essential: things such as food, groceries, health, education, transportation costs, mortgage, etc. These are those expenses that you cannot do away with because they are your daily-life necessities. Still, you should know how much they cost you. The second part is about the things that you spend on but which are not absolutely important for a decent lifestyle. It is the things like dining-out, trips with friends and shopping for fun. It’s good to spend on these things but if you stopped doing so, they won’t have a great impact on your lifestyle.

Once you know these details, you are in a position to trim down the expenses. How do you do that? Once you have made a list of both types of expenses, tick off the things that can be removed or at least reduced. For example, when it comes to trips with friends, you can eliminate them or reduces them from once a month to once every 6 to 8 weeks instead. The new routine may be a little difficult. But soon, when you find yourself with a handsome amount of money saved by the end of the month, you’ll start to feel better about things plus, it will let you do a lot of things you’ve been planning, for instance, taking your family on a long trip or exchanging your car for a better one. Or perhaps you can ready yourself to pay the expenses of your kids future as they move from high school to college. In either case, a good management of personal finances is a useful and profitable choice.

Tags: Amount Of Money, Decent Lifestyle, Economic Climate, Education Transportation, Essential Things, Health Education, Life Necessities, New Routine, Personal Finance, Personal Finances, Profitable Choice, Safe Side, Spur Of The Moment, Transportation Costs

Personal Finance Reviews

Now the recent recession sent them all packing though, as home prices plunged, and so many paper millionaires who had invested everything in real estate were left penny less. So then where are all those investment advisers now with their fool proof plans on how to get rich with interest only home loans?

The answer to that is that they’re all probably all hunkered down in their dens writing new books on how to get rich buying stocks on margin in the upcoming stock market boom. After all as the old stock market saying goes “whatever goes down must come back up”. Or perhaps they are busy advising everyone to buy gold and silver because in the same way that the real estate market did for a number of decades, prices just seem to keep going up with no end in sight. What they of course will fail to mention, is that it’s the folks selling gold at $1,500 that are really making the money.

Speaking of gold, are you aware that there’s not one person’s name to be found in history books that became wealthy from mining gold in the great California gold rush? Not one. This in spite of the fact that untold millions and even billions of dollars were pulled from the ground in the two decades after gold was discovered in 1848. On the other hand, the books that chronicle that era are chock full with the names of men who built huge fortunes through merchandising and land speculation. Men with names like Levi Strauss and Leland Stanford who fanned the flames of gold hysteria to drive prospectors from one town to another where they had set up stores and or bought and subdivided land.

So then what are the lessons to be learned though it all because with so much gained and lost there has to be something in the way of wisdom you can pick up? Both from those who lost as well as those who gained. Perhaps something that’s not too complex to digest easily. The answer to that is that there are plenty of lessons to be learned but the most important one is that there is no such thing as a “no or low risk” investment with a high rate of return. The problem here though, is that all too often new investors tend to focus too intently on the potential gains, when they should be giving the risk level equal attention time.

Tags: Buying Stocks On Margin, California Gold Rush, Fool Proof, Gold And Silver, History Books, Interest Only Home Loans, Investment Advisers, Land Speculation, Leland Stanford, Levi Strauss, Mining Gold, New Books, Paper Millionaires, Personal Finance, Something In The Way, Stock Market Boom, Untold Millions