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Personal Financing

It is nearly impossible to take a breath today without considering personal finance. The morning news and talk shows never fail to have segments on how to save money and on what sector of the market has taken the biggest battering this week. As much as we would all just like to curl up under a desk until it all goes away, that will only make things worse. Avoiding the issue of money management will not make the problem go away.

The question is deciding what to do. Unfortunately, there is no one right answer for everybody, nor is there a Magic 8 Ball to make certain we’ve chosen the right course to manage our money. Economics have always been tricky and the most honest economists will tell you that genuinely predicting the future with any kind of certainty is problematic at best. Worse, no two will give the same advice. This chaotic state is no excuse not to make sure one’s financial affairs are in order.

Personal finance is more than just making it from one week to the next within one’s income-- it is also taking the future into consideration as much as possible and doing what can be done to assure the future of any of our dependents. As depressing as the concept is, this can include pre-paying for funeral arrangements and keeping up on life insurance.

That’s where things get tricky. Some experts on the economy will advise that the best way to manage money right now is to buy stocks in anticipation of the market going back up, others will advise money markets, bonds, CDs, etc., -- the slow and steady way. This form of economic planning will not bring a quick return, but also has more government backing and security. The most common-sense advice has traditionally been a mix of high and low-risk funds to make sure the risk/benefit ratio is balanced, but even that advice is changing in the current world.

Regardless of the personal finance choice anyone makes, it is important to be well informed about the entire state of one’s affairs: how much debt, what kinds, one’s credit rating, whether there is enough insurance or too little. It might even be possible a person has too much, or the wrong kinds of insurance and that cutting back can be an economically sensible move in the process of managing money.

The other crucial aspect of making sure one’s personal finances are in order is to not go it alone. A good accountant or other trustworthy financial advisor can steer the client toward good investments and point to areas of money management which she never considered, but which need attention in order to secure both present and future.

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