Four and A Half Simple Steps Toward Financial Literacy

There are studies showing that millionaires spend an average of 8.4 hours a month planning and managing their finances. Would you like to be a millionaire? Are you spending eight or more hours a month managing your finances? The mistake many people make is just not devoting enough time to their personal finances. What you should do is set up a recurring date on your calendar for your Money Date. That means allocating about one hour or so a week, which certainly isn’t very much when you consider how important your finances are. When you have your Money Date you should update your family budget, review any expenses you have that are upcoming and pay your bills though you should, of course, automate as many of them as you can. Finally, be sure to review your checking and savings accounts for accuracy and discuss any other financial matters that are pressing.

You could actually make your Money Date fun. You might dance, light candles, listen to music or do whatever it is that would make personal finances fun for you. The reason for this is that the more fun it is, the more likely it is that you will continue to have Money Dates and consistency is what’s critical.

2. Spend 20 minutes a week reading about personal finance

Most experts say that it would be a mistake for you to try to learn all about personal finance at once. Instead, you should break up your learning into palatable chunks. As an example this, allow 20 minutes a week (in addition to your Money Date) to read about personal finance. Just choose just one topic a week and read about it until you understand it thoroughly and then move on to something else. For example, if you would like to learn more about managing credit card debt, you might get the book “The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey. Among other things, this book will teach you what Dave calls the “snowball” technique for paying off debt. This is where you organize your debts from the one with the lowest balance down to the one with the highest. You then do everything possible to pay off that credit card with the lowest balance while continuing to make the minimum payments on your other debts. Once you have that first debt paid off, you will have extra money to pay off the debt with the second lowest balance. In addition, Dave’s book will also teach you how to save money and create a budget. If you work your way through this book in small chunks, you’ll master at least one thing about personal finance a week.

3. Find a mentor

As you begin to learn about financial topics such as saving, spending, credit, debt, retirement strategies, investing and so forth, choose people you admire and think of as smart money managers to be your mentors. While there is a lot of financial talks out there, most of what your family members and friends tell you about money is probably wrong. Instead, talk to your mentors and other entrepreneurs that you know that are successful in handling their finances. Be sure to ask them about both their successes and failures.

You can actually learn from the mistakes of others. In turn, this can help you avoid a lot of financial mishaps. Do keep in mind that discussing money can be a sensitive thing for many people. This means you should start small and then try to work your way up into more in-depth conversations. And always thank people for their advice.

4. Test out strategies

Most successful business people learned that the best way to determine if a business idea will work or not is to test it out. When it comes to your personal finances, you should follow the same philosophy. The fact is that some financial strategies work better for some people than others. Think about budgeting as an example. There are dozens if not hundreds of different ways to budget your monthly your expenses and income but you really won’t know what works best for you until you give it a try. You might attempt some different budgeting systems and then discover, as have many people, that the best solution would be a spreadsheet you custom design yourself – based on your needs, your income and your life style.

5. The one-half step

I titled this article “4 1/2 Steps Towards Getting A Financial Education” because there is actually a fifth step but I realize it’s not for everyone. It’s to hire a Certified Financial Planner. A Certified Financial Planner could not only mentor you but he or she would also help you stay on track on your financial journey. Regardless of where you stand financially, it takes dedication and commitment and continued financial education to succeed. If you can afford a Certified Financial Planner and if you believe that he or she could help you better understand personal finance and remain on track in terms of your commitment and dedication, then this could make sense for you. However, if you’re just starting out on your financial journey and you don’t have much money, then you might be better off following the first four simple steps towards a financial education and holding off on hiring a Certified Financial Planner for a few years.

A new free tool called Manilla

A free tool that could help you on your financial journey is Manilla. It would make it easier for you to manage your  bills and other accounts on your mobile, tablet and desktop called Manilla. It’s from the Hearst Company and is free. It’s a secure digital mailbox service where you store all your financial documents. Manilla even includes a Bill Share tool that could help you during next year’s tax season, as it will eliminate the need to gather and organize all of your documents before the April 15 deadline.

Kiplinger’s recently named Manilla to its Personal Finance’s 2013 Best of Everything List. Also, CNBC had it on its list of the 10 best financial apps for 2014. The way it works is that you add all your financial documents to Manilla. It then gives you one secure access point to all your household accounts and services. You can use it to manage and share your household bills, travel programs, entertainment, financial and brokerage, magazine subscriptions and healthcare accounts so that you will always know your balances and due dates. In short Manilla can simplify and organize your financial life. Manilla’s features are even available on the go as there are iOS and android mobile apps available for it that have been rated four stars by its users. This means that you only need one password to get an organized view of all your account information, emails and text reminders to pay bills, check out expiring subscriptions and manage daily deals. Plus, it offers an unlimited amount of storage along with easy document retrieval.

Here courtesy of National Debt Relief is a brief video that explains more about Manilla’s features and benefits …