There are loads of things in the press (paper based stuff) talking about the year ahead... the two main focuses were financial and dieting or weight loss. The topic for this post is financial goals for 2008 and beyond.
If you want to look at financial goals it may benefit you to take a look at where you are at just now. How much debts are you in just now and where are you paying the most interest? What do you waste money on the most? My key money loosing tip is eat out too often and pay ten times the price I would pay if we cooked more at home… This is the first thing that I want to reduce (not eliminate, just reduce).
Ideas on how to build up wealth vary from person to person, but I imagine that the best people’s advice to take are people who have started at a similar point in life as you and grown to be at whatever stage you would like to go to financially.
When I say take ‘advice’ from people I don’t just mean talking to people who are financially sound or ‘loaded’, as many people out there do not have access to people who have the financial wit about them that they could learn from.
One of the funny things in life so far is that most of my financial advice has come from people who are in a financial mess themselves, even when I was heading into bankruptcy I made the mistake of talking to a financial advisor who did not have a clue about the options that I may have had (Oh well, live and learn).
Some of the books that I have learned from are:
- Rich Dad Poor Dad series, by Robert Kiyosaki.
- Felix Denis, How To Get Rich.
- The Instant Millionaire, By Mark Fisher.
- What Not To Spend, by Alvin Hall.
- The Millionaire Mind, Thomas Stanley.
- Why We Want You To Be Rich, By Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki.
- 30 minutes to make Yourself Richer, By Niki Chesworth.
More business biography books that I found useful:
- Anyone Can Do It, Duncan Bannatyne.
- Business The Richard Branson Way, By Des Dearlove.
- Richard Branson, The Autobiography, By… you guessed it, Richard Branson.
- Screw It Lets Do It, By Richard Branson.
- Charan Gill, Tikka Look at Me Know, By Charan Gill.
Looking at some of the titles that I have read over the past few years I have invested a lot of time and effort into my financial education, after having been what I would consider to be ‘financially illiterate’ I now feel confident that I have a greater understanding of the basics of financial management, savings and investments. There is still much more for me to learn about different areas of investment and it will take even more time to build up my investment portfolio (from nothing) up to something worth talking about.
I think the main financial message is as simple as losing weight, diets only work short term and you have to look at changing your lifestyle choices and the way that you look at money (or fatty grub).
Another great book that I have read recently is ‘I Can Make You Rich’ by Paul McKenna and forwarded by Sir Richard Branson. Reviews can be read within the blogs but as far as financial savvy goes Paul McKenna seems to wrap it all up in one package within his book. I am actively using ‘I Can Make You Rich’ as it includes exercises and a hypnosis CD that helps you feel more able to achieve your financial goals.
The things that have stood in my way in the past have been, repeating old habits, being scared of change, fear of risk and not believing in myself (self doubts and self sabotage). I have begun to unwrap issues that lie within me and deal with internal programming that has been holding me back.
One exercise I have seen in loads of personal development and financial material is to look at the 5 or 6 people (I suspect it would be the adults) that you spend most of your time with, work out there income per year, add them all up and divide by the number of people (5 or 6) that you chose and that is roughly where you are presently comfortable in your earnings (give or take 20 per cent).
The last exercise is just one of many to help you think about money and how it works in the world, people who have wealth tend to be the same types of people who if they lost the lot today would be able to get moving and earn it all back again (with some hard work).
If you are just looking at short term financial stuff and are not interested in becoming rich then you may want to look at some of the basic:
- Look at where you spend money just now (note every penny you spend for a month, and when I say every penny I mean every penny).
- Reduce the amount of money you spend on things you do not need.
- Pay yourself first – aim to pay many into savings each month before you pay anything else… (this does not mean that you go and ignore the bills, just look at small percentages that you could pay into savings first).
- Aim to save between 3 months and six months salary, this is my first goal and may take some time to get there, but I am sure it would offer a great amount of security if I were to suddenly lose my job or take unwell for any length of time.
- Pay of bad interest debts first – store cards are generally the worst. Some car finance is killing people’s pockets each month and others its that overdraft going into the red.
- Look at saving money into local Credit Unions if you have a poor credit history, this may help you in future months get small loans at a competitive rate.
- Avoid consolidating all of your debts unless you have really looked at all of the options.
- If you are in bad debts then get in touch with your local Citizens Advice for more information, support and advice. This can be a good way to find out more about your rights.
- Look at tax free savings such as cash ISA’s and other ISA’s that enable you to have over £7000 in tax free savings*. Other tax free savings options are available to you through schemes such as EIS, these are environment investments such as wind turbines for example.
- Set financial goals with a short, medium and long term time frame.
*the information provided was correct and up to date to our knowledge at the time of publishing to the internet.
No comments:
Post a Comment