Manage Your Money ($.€)

[Rasputin]

Let's face it,we all love money and love to spend that money. But, think for a second. Would you rather have a little money now, or more money later?

Steps

Save as much of the money you make as you can.

Once you have enough, ask your parents to open up a savings account for you. This will eliminate the temptation of wanting to spend that money.

If you're making minimum wage (about $6.50 an hour), that is about $200 a month. Think how much you'll have after just one year of saving ($2,400).

If you are not old enough to get a job, work various jobs around the house, picking things up when you are not asked, or working extra hard on something that could earn some money. Also, work out a deal with your parents involving your grades--for example, for every 'A' grade, you get $5.

Start saving young. Let's say you get $10, save $5, and have the other £5 for yourself. After a while, this can really add up. If you save £5 a week, that is $240 a year. If you keep that up until you get a job you can have quite a bit of money saved. (i.e. lets say you start when you are 12 years old. $240 per year * 5 = $1,200. You could have $1,200 saved up for when you reach 17 and are in need of a car.

Tips

Try to save half of what you receive. Or, if possible, ALL of what you receive.

Try to start saving young.

Don't touch it til you are old enough to drive. This can really aid in getting a decent car instead of a jalopy that you'll end up junking within a few months.

Or, if your parents buy your car, you can have that money saved up for possible shop work on that car.

Warnings

Try to avoid spending money on that junk food. It can really help in the long run.

If you need to ask your parents to hold on to your saved money, do so.

Eliminate that burning desire to spend it in any way possible.

Avoid having money in your wallet when you are downtown or at the mall. It'll only make you want to spend it.

[Rasputin]

good to know.

[MambaLeyla]

Manage Your Money €

Lets look at tried and true ways to manage your debt that wont leave you scrambling to meet unrealistic goals. Perhaps the most important component of debt consolidation is canvassing your cash flow system to determine where you are losing money, how much your money you are losing per month, at what rates you are losing that money, and how your spending habits have evolved over the past six months to two years.

Debt consolidation experts can help you with the accounting. But doing a budget is essential to any debt consolidation mandate. In other words, until you name the problems you have, you wont be able to identify discrete solutions that can fit neatly with your financial goals. Of course, debt consolidation is complicated because most individuals lead somewhat unpredictable lives.

Even married couples on fixed incomes with few debts and numerous assets can get into financial troubles, since the tumultuous economy continues to evolve around them. Interest rates go up, impacting mortgage payments, which in turn impact monthly budgets, for instance.

The way to deal with this constant economic change is to create a budget thats flexible enough to allow you a degree of debt consolidation and yet provide enough “free cash” in your accounts to let you reach your goals comfortably.

In other words, you cant budget out every dollar you spend under most circumstances, since the time cost benefit of doing so generally doesnt make sense. For instance, if you spend 30 hours every month figuring out what you spend down to the penny, you are likely wasting at least a dozen hours that you could otherwise be using to work and thus earn more money, invest and thus make your money work harder, or simply have fun.

Another debt consolidation idea is to draft a savings plan that will slowly accumulate an emergency fund for you and your family. Budget experts recommend that this fund should store up at least six months worth of living expenses, but dont try to sock away all that money at once. Allocate a certain amount of cash in your budget per month for your emergency plan, and protect that money from your general spending accounts. And finally, look into a debt consolidation loan to help you reduce reliance on expensive creditor loans and simplify the planning process.