The Importance of Personal Financial Management
Personal financial management is one of the most important tasks every individual must undertake if he or she wishes to have a comfortable life without having to constantly worry about his or her financial future. Financial planning is the process of controlling what one does with his or her money in order to reach a desirable individual economic standing and to secure one’s financial future. This can include spending, investing and saving. There are many important steps in creating and executing a fiscal plan for oneself and one’s family.
Prior to taking this course, I knew very little about financial planning. I had seen many people create a budget, use credit, or even talk about investing for retirement, but I only had the slightest idea of how to do so I read once that eight out of every ten Americans is indebted (“Eight out of Ten Americans in Debt: Study,” 2015). After reading that article I thought that money management was going to be a tedious and strenuous activity since so many people have failed to manage their finances successfully. However, once I began this course and began using the same methods on my own finances, I realized that with a little planning, financial management is simple and can secure a better financial future for yourself.
The first chapter of this book, Personal Finance Basics and the Time Value of Money, opened my eyes to the important steps of managing one’s finances. There are a total of
Despite the importance of finance, accounting, and consumer intelligence, these topics are typically neglected in high schools. Unfortunately, personal finance is often learned by trial and error. The problem with this method of learning is that it only takes one costly financial mishap to set you back for years. This is why I created a basic personal finance book for total beginners. With these concepts you can use the other books in the Smart Money series to further build your knowledge of personal finance topics.
1. Describe two examples of important things that financial planning skills can help you do, and explain why
The author of this book, Dave Ramsey, is a man who has gone through many struggles in his life. Throughout his book he talks about the times when he went bankrupt and couldn’t provide for his family. Dave Ramsey sat down and wrote a plan on how to be smart with your money. Ramsey says, “The principles are not mine. I stole them all from God and your grandmother” (xi). He talks about how these are not new ideas and that these are not theories because they are proven to work every single time. The central concept of this book is to help people succeed in life with money but also their personal relationships. Ramsey wants to give people hope and happiness by playing a small role in their financial freedom.
1. Describe two examples of important things that financial planning skills can help you do, and explain why these things are important to you personally. (4-6 sentences. 2.0 points)
Whew, where to start? The personal finance class through Dame Ramsey’s Foundations in Personal Finance textbook and video series really had a lot of useful information, and it is hard to pick out the most impactful chapters and topics. However, I think the most important stuff for me was his five foundations for financial success, which were reinforced throughout the course. I am not downplaying the other important stuff in the course, including learning about the history of credit, budgeting, consumer awareness, investing, insurance, and taxes, but I think that mastering the fundamentals is important, which is why I am choosing to highlight them in this paper.
1. Describe two examples of important things that financial planning skills can help you do, and explain why these things are important to you personally. (4-6 sentences. 2.0 points)
This course provides an overview of the elements necessary for effective personal financial planning and the opportunity to apply the techniques and strategies essential to this understanding. Primary areas of study include creating and managing a personal budget, understanding and paying taxes, working with financial institutions, wise use of credit cards and consumer loans, financing automobiles and homes, and the use of insurance for protecting one’s family and property.
1. Describe two examples of important things that financial planning skills can help you do, and explain why these things are important to you personally. (4-6 sentences. 2.0 points)
1. Describe two examples of important things that financial planning skills can help you do, and explain why these things are important to you personally. (4-6 sentences. 2.0 points)
In the article, Advisors Involved in Financial Planning, authors Mendlowitz and Kess talks about how financial advisors are people oriented and want what is best for their clients. The authors prove that the difficulty of the financial advising processes is typically overlooked by others by stating, “The different kinds of financial advisors and their role in the overall financial planning process is difficult” (Pg.66). Many might think that financial advisors have an easy job, but there is more to it than telling people to save small amounts of money here and there. Advisors must go through several specific steps to figure out the exact amounts their clients must save. The author of this article talks about situations that a financial advisor might go through as well as how the advisor should
1. Describe two examples of important things that financial planning skills can help you do, and explain why these things are important to you personally. (4-6 sentences. 2.0 points)
This course has been an eye opening and empowering experience. It has encouraged me and reaffirmed my thoughts on debt, but it has also brought to my awareness that although saving money is great, not investing any of it is a great mistake.
Although the reliance on student loans continues to increase for college students across the nation, the vast majority of American teenagers are not required to attend and complete a Financial Literacy course before graduating high school. According to Jillian Berman, only five states scored an A on the 2015 Report Card on State Efforts to Improve Financial Literacy in High Schools, and those same five states are the only states in the country that require students to take a dedicated semester of personal finance courses before graduating (Marketwatch.com). There is an obvious problem with the state efforts to properly educate finances when 14 out of 50 states rank in at a failing grade. Money is an essential asset to life on Earth, and proper education on financial management is vital for the basic requirements to sustain life. Education on how to manage money in order to afford food, shelter, clothing should be the main priority of the Financial Literacy courses. More in-depth are topics
This statement is rather shocking but proves why high school students should be taught financial literacy. Financial literacy is the ability of learning how to manage money. Financial literacy should be taught because, more people have been going bankrupt at a younger age, they have more debt options, and lastly are unable to manage money because they have never been taught. This is not just a problem for an individual, but potentially a huge problem in this country’s future.
While taking the personal finance course this past spring, I learned many valuable lessons that will greatly assist me throughout my life. One lesson I learned is the importance of paying yourself first. To put this into action, I will save money in an emergency fund to have enough money to live comfortably for 3 to 6 months, in case of emergency. Furthermore, this course has taught me the importance of budgeting. Using budgeting, I will make a plan for my money, so I can avoid over drafting and bouncing checks. Another lesson personal finance taught me is to pay all bills and loans on time to develop a good FICO credit score, which is what companies use to evaluate the risk of loaning to an individual. Knowing this information will help me