Finance Information

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By SJHubber



Everything you wanted to know about finance but were afraid to sit through accountant-speak to learn

Without a strong knowledge of Finance, you will always be poor. Sadly, most countries don't teach finance as part of their core curriculum, only mathematics and accounting.

The fact is, learning how to take care of your personal finances is one of the very most important but overlooked areas in the typical American's life. Every last person on Earth needs to know how to do things like properly balance their checkbook, save for college, plan their retirement, and so on... But is this something they teach us in school?

No. This is because there are plenty of businesses out there that would like to do these tasks for you, for a fee.

But depending on others to watch your money for you is very dangerous! EVERYONE should have a strong foundation in personal finance, or they will surely find themselves in horrible financial shape for some or most of their lives.

This hub will attempt to get you started learning the core tasks of personal finance. Much of the information here will be aimed at Americans but there is also some good information that applies to the rest of the world, too.

Speaking of which, here are a few of my favorite, general-purpose financial websites to get you started:


Saving for School

We all have to save for education at some point in our lives... Either for our own or for our children's.

Luckily for us all, many of the world's governments have put together a series of excellent education savings plans that are more powerful than most retirement plans in terms of growth per year.

The following website is a must-read if you have young children or you yourself are thinking about returning to school one day in the future... Just remember, you should be planning this DECADES in advance, not just a few years!

Retirement - Not as easy as you think!

Very few people are planning for retirement properly anymore. Most think that they will have enough money to retire on by age 55, but the fact is that very few people with less than $1 million US dollars in the bank by that age actually do have enough to survive the rest of their life in comfort!

In the US there are nearly infinite salesmen all telling us how to retire with their stock plan, their mutual funds, or their IRAs... Most of which won't help you as much as they are likely to hurt.

So the ONLY way to know how to properly retire with enough money is to read up on it yourself, and I've found just the resources for you to do that with, for free:

Your Traditional Investment Options

Think throwing all your spare cash in a savings account at the local bank is 'good enough' to save your money with?

I'm sorry to tell you that even the best Savings Account rates these days can't keep up with inflation anymore. That means that putting money in a savings account and letting intrerest build up over the years is the same thing as LOSING money because the cost of things will be higher when they come out by a factor bigger than the interest rate that you saved it with!

So the bottom line is to save any money at all, you have to use a more serious investment option, such as Certificates of Deposit, Savings Bonds, bond funds or Mutual funds.

Here are the best websites online for research those traditional (a.k.a safest) investment options:

Loans & Mortgages

We all need a loan at somepoint in our lives for some reason. It's inevitable, you'll always want something just outside your reach and there will always be lenders there ready to help you get it.

A Mortgage for a house is the most common type of loan, but there are also financed deals on cars, jewelry, and just about anything else that costs more than a standard 2-week paycheck provides.

Below are two great sites on loans. The first teaches you about the nature of the different loans you can get, and the second helps bail you out if you've gotten over your head! (As over a quarter of American Homeowners now have.)

Riskier Investment Options

CDs, mutual funds, and savings bonds are pretty safe and steady, it's true, but let's face it...They aren't going to make you rich within this lifetime. If you want to use your investments not just to safeguard your money but to actually grow it to the point of early retirement, then you need a more aggressive plan.

The more risky, but still pretty safe (when you know what you are doing) way of investing almost always involves investing in Stocks or Real Estate. Sometimes both at the same time.

Below are the very best websites online to teach you the basics of aggressive investing and making your fortune with investments.

Life Insurance

Last but not least, one other investment-related decision we all must face sooner or later are in the form of life insurance.

If you're still really young and have no dependents, then you can likely pass this section by for now. But as soon as you near your mid-30s, get married, or especially have children, it's time to give the subject of LIfe Insurance a fair chance.

There are many types of life insurance options, some act as investments where you can withdraw the money early for any purpose you want, (mostly for emergency cash) and others that are strict and rigid but their interest rate climbs higher than the others building you to your goal faster.

It's vital that you read about the different types of life insurance and decide which is best for you and your lifestyle choices. Here are a couple of excellent websites that will get you started learning about them:

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What's Your Opinion On All This?

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LorraineH  says:
2 months ago

Great article

KoHoNeZ  says:
3 months ago

Yeah, that's true, i need to get started about learning the core tasks of personal finance. pretty cool links by the way.

Lady Snapdragon  says:
3 months ago

Thanks for a great artcle on finances that is easy to understand and navigate.

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