Financial Literacy Is A National Challenge
On the homepage of Yahoo today is a CNNMoney story about Americans & financial literacy. The study done by Harvard, Dartmouth & "TNS"(?) showed how people don't understand their debt with compounding interest being the biggest misunderstanding, besides the amount of debt being unrealistic.
At least I'm aware of my debt, so recently a friend that's into Tony Robbins stuff told me about Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey to help sort the numbers. I have been looking into it these past several weeks and reading thru his bio and website resources & watching video links there to understand his approach to organizing personal finance and getting out of debt. His site even has stickers for enrollees to say "Debt is Normal. Be Weird." & "Act Your Wage!" but only upon checkout, because then you're on your way and he doesn't take credit cards!! Bank draft or debit cards only.
Now I have been into RichDad for a long time and did the personal balance sheets for a while in our family finance ledger but didn't make a plan for what to save or invest. We had something saved but 9/11's aftermath used that up within six months. We didn't lay anyone off, kept current with the bills with barely any business happening, lived off those savings and hoped business would recover but instead its just gotten worse & more expensive, ugh. Two guys had to get laid off too but thankfully they got new employment rather quickly.
The only plan for money that I've ever had were goals via Market America's goal setting which is all projection really because you're aiming at an income to pay down your debt. Kinda like "how much do I need to....pay off credit cards, pay the mortgage, make a car payment, etc.." That is a goal and not a "this is what I have and what do I do with it NOW" to get where I want to be-do-have.
This time my husband is willing to make time sit down with me and go over this info, he leaves it up to me to run the household monies but when we're continually strapped because its slow season and compounded by the bad economy eating away at our main income from the shop then its unmanageable because the math doesn't work anymore. How can we keep going, let alone save, when its like that? Gotta get on the same page, the stress is hard enough, at least we don't fight about it because we're both depressed. (C'mon MA!! We need to get busy)
So....over the weekend I ordered the kit from Financial Peace University and it automatically came with online access to the "My Total Money Makeover" community with a follow up email. I'll log in today and check that out too. Gotta take action to turn things in the direction that we want them to go in!
Here's a link to the timely article: http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/080226/022608_financial_illiteracy.html?.v=6&.pf=banking-budgeting
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UPDATE: That story was gone almost 15 minutes after I posted the link!! Now its nowhere to be found on Yahoo, I guess they don't want people to know how broke they are and insult them about it or something. Seems that the public is better off not knowing. LOL
At least I'm aware of my debt, so recently a friend that's into Tony Robbins stuff told me about Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey to help sort the numbers. I have been looking into it these past several weeks and reading thru his bio and website resources & watching video links there to understand his approach to organizing personal finance and getting out of debt. His site even has stickers for enrollees to say "Debt is Normal. Be Weird." & "Act Your Wage!" but only upon checkout, because then you're on your way and he doesn't take credit cards!! Bank draft or debit cards only.
Now I have been into RichDad for a long time and did the personal balance sheets for a while in our family finance ledger but didn't make a plan for what to save or invest. We had something saved but 9/11's aftermath used that up within six months. We didn't lay anyone off, kept current with the bills with barely any business happening, lived off those savings and hoped business would recover but instead its just gotten worse & more expensive, ugh. Two guys had to get laid off too but thankfully they got new employment rather quickly.
The only plan for money that I've ever had were goals via Market America's goal setting which is all projection really because you're aiming at an income to pay down your debt. Kinda like "how much do I need to....pay off credit cards, pay the mortgage, make a car payment, etc.." That is a goal and not a "this is what I have and what do I do with it NOW" to get where I want to be-do-have.
This time my husband is willing to make time sit down with me and go over this info, he leaves it up to me to run the household monies but when we're continually strapped because its slow season and compounded by the bad economy eating away at our main income from the shop then its unmanageable because the math doesn't work anymore. How can we keep going, let alone save, when its like that? Gotta get on the same page, the stress is hard enough, at least we don't fight about it because we're both depressed. (C'mon MA!! We need to get busy)
So....over the weekend I ordered the kit from Financial Peace University and it automatically came with online access to the "My Total Money Makeover" community with a follow up email. I'll log in today and check that out too. Gotta take action to turn things in the direction that we want them to go in!
Here's a link to the timely article: http://biz.yahoo.com/cnnm/080226/022608_financial_illiteracy.html?.v=6&.pf=banking-budgeting
~~~~~~~~~
UPDATE: That story was gone almost 15 minutes after I posted the link!! Now its nowhere to be found on Yahoo, I guess they don't want people to know how broke they are and insult them about it or something. Seems that the public is better off not knowing. LOL
How to Get Good Credit Gab is holding an online video contest to raise awareness for financial literacy. The prize is $200 cash! Create a 30 or 60 second video that answers the question “How do I get good credit?” and highlights the benefits of obtaining good credit. Videos must not contain adult content such as nudity, profanity, drugs and alcohol. Videos must also be posted on You Tube, so that we may obtain embedding code to showcase your video. Videos will be viewer rated using a scale of 1-low to 5-high. A viewing schedule will be posted on the blog.
Contest begins and entries are accepted beginning April 1st thru April 30th 2008.
Each week new entries will be displayed on the blog at http://www.HowToGetGoodCredit.blogspot.com. On May 1, 2008, the scores received will be counted and totaled. The video with the highest total rating number wins.
Contact Alton J. Jones, How To Get Good Credit Expert, at AltonJJones@msn.com with questions and notification that your video is available on You Tube.
Good luck.
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