2 Tasty Financial Treats You Might Enjoy

“The Trick to Money is Having Some” - (the title of a great book by Stuart Wilde)

Hey you guys, this week I found two really cool resources about money management and investing and thought I’d pass them along to you, because as we all know, money and creativity DO mix!

1. Cameron Reilly, creator of The Podcast Network and host of G’day World, interviewed his friend Steve, founder of a company called Rentoid out of Austrailia. Steve is quite savvy about investing and shares simple, down-to-earth investing principals for beginners. Listen, learn, and laugh, here. (It’s available via streaming audio or you can download it for repeated listenings.)

2. While walking through Barnes & Noble the other day, an eye-grabbing book title stopped me cold and made me laugh. (You already know how important I think a good title is.) The book is called, You’re Poor Because You Want to Be: How to Stop Getting By and Start Getting Ahead by Larry Winget. It’s a no-nonsense, no B.S. wake-up call, and I’m relating to more than a few things in it!

Hope you enjoy!

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“Formal education will make you a living. Self-education will make you a fortune.” - Jim Rohn

In my previous post, I talked about learning basic financial terms as a way to gain confidence about your finances.

Another thing that helped me was to give myself a crash-course in personal finance. I spent a little bit of time every day focusing on a particular subject - like mortgages, or IRAs. I’d study each one that I was interested in until I had a basic grasp of what they were about.

Beyond the definitions, and beyond making money itself, here are the basic actions most financial experts agree we should take:

1. Get health insurance.

2. Don’t spend more than you earn. Avoid credit cards whenever possible - pay cash or use a debt card instead. Even if you pay off your credit card every month, studies show that people spend 12-18% more with credit than they do with cash. (That’s why McDonald’s started accepting credit cards!) 

Establishing financial goals is also a good idea. Do you want a house? A car? Want to retire comfortably? Setting inspiring goals might stop you from buying that $40 concert T-shirt.

3. Keep a budget. Write down how much money you earn every month. Then write down how much you spend, including the little things, like that Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. $3 per day seems like nothing until you realize that’s $1,095 a year. Multiply that by 20 years - that’s almost $22,000! And that doesn’t include interest earned from investing.

4. Save three to six months worth of living expenses in an emergency fund. Create an “emergency” savings account, and deposit money there automatically & electronically every month. (Dave Ramsey suggests beginning with a $1,000 emergency fund as an initial goal, then building from there.)

5. Pay off all debts, smallest to largest. All that extra money you’re paying in interest to your credit card company could be invested in your personal savings.

6. Open a retirement account as soon as possible - an IRA or Roth IRA (there are several types) through a broker like Fidelity. Put the same amount of money in there every month (”dollar cost averaging“). Do this as soon as possible to take advantage of time and compound interest.  Again, make it automatic through your bank & broker. Once your retirement account is open, invest the money in mutual funds. What type of mutual fund(s) you invest in depends on your age, goals, and the amount risk you’re willing to accept.

These are the basics…again, just a few of the ABCs. There’s obviously a lot more to it, but the idea is to begin some of these simple steps if you haven’t already. 

If you have helpful tips or thoughts to share, leave a comment!

“All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.”
  - Spike Milligan

If you’re like most artists, you were born a dreamer with your head in the clouds. Growing up, you probably thrived in Art, Music, and English classes. You excel at painting, writing, cooking, or acting. Your friends think you’re a creative genius. You even graduated from college!

There’s just one problem - when it comes to money and finance, you feel like an idiot.

How the heck did that happen? Here are some reasons:

• Basic financial education isn’t taught in school.
• Artists generally care more about making art, not money.
• Art schools teach you how to paint, but they don’t teach you squat about money.
• Your well-meaning parents just didn’t teach you enough about financial management.

So here you are, thrust into this mysterious world of mortgages, credit cards, IRAs, and the stock market, and you feel like a dumb tourist lost in a land where everyone speaks the same language except for you.

Here’s the good news: you’re not alone, and you can fix the problem.

Where do you begin? You can do what I did - start educating yourself. The financial world has it’s own vocabulary, rules, and steps to follow, just like painting, knitting, and writing do. You’re not stupid because you don’t understand it. You just haven’t learned the language of money yet. 

Here are some simple ways to improve your financial IQ:

1. Start learning the vocabulary: whenever you hear a financial term you don’t understand, jot it down and look it up on the internet. Keep a notebook. Keep the notebook in your bathroom or someplace where you can review it easily.

2. Watch the financial channels on TV. Leave them on in the background. Absorb the lingo, watch the panelists. Take notes.

3. Listen to The Dave Ramsey Radio Show. Dave’s “ministry” is to teach basic financial principles to regular folks like us. He offers sound, hopeful advice and encourages a debt-free lifestyle. You can subscribe to his podcast on iTunes, or listen to his archived shows via his website.

4. Read these books: The Trick To Money Is Having Some by Stuart Wilde, and Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

Once you start learning the language of money and finance, the more confident you’ll feel, and the better informed you’ll be when making financial decisions.

Do you have any advice to share about becoming financially savvy? Any resources you recommend? Leave a comment!