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Money Matters |
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Money is the driving force behind a lot of the world. In American society we have been taught to believe that money is incredibly important. While its true that you become homeless if you don’t have enough, money doesn't solve all your problems. In
real life you will have a job at some point. Whether you work for yourself or a
company you will have a job, you will go to work, and you will get paid. You
will regularly be paid the same amount. Another fact of life is that you will
have taxes. As Mom always says, "There are only two things you can count on
in this life, death and taxes." Boy was she right. The government tries to
help you remember to pay your taxes by taking approximately a third of your pay
check before you even receive it. The federal government takes around 23%, the
state government takes around 7%, and the social security administration (FICA)
and Medicare take another 7%. So, to put it simply, about a third of your money
is gone before you see it. With the other two-thirds of your money you have to pay for expenses. An expense is anything that costs you money. That could be anything from rent and groceries to car payments. Another expense that isn't generally thought of as an expense is saving. Saving your money is basically taking it out of your use at the moment and storing it for the future. It is important that you adopt the habit of saving early on. Even if you save very little you need to put yourself on a regular saving schedule. Don't worry if you can only save $20 a month, its something. And next time your car has problems and your suddenly hit with a $300 repair, you'll be glad you put some money by for the future. Another thing that happens with your finances is debt. Debt is really just failing to plan ahead in most instances. Most people's debt accumulates on their credit card and they pay some of it off at the end of the month. Sometimes they use other credit cards to pay off their credit card debt. Eventually this cycle of debt will catch up with you and you're going to have problems. Loans, creditors, bankruptcy, believe me, you don't want to deal with it. Especially when you're just starting out in life, cash is always the best policy, if you don't have the money you can't spend the money. You can't just whip out your credit card and figure out how to pay for it later. Large items like cars and houses are handled with more formal loans. You will end up paying your loan on a certain time schedule, say on a monthly basis. If more than 20% of your income goes towards paying for your debts you are considered to be, heavily in debt. The only way to get out of debt and achieve financial freedom is to cut back on expenses. This may not be easy. You may have to give up a few of life's comforts in order for your budget to balance, but it will be worth it in the long run. What you gain in the process is a sense of control of the situation More Info There is no way we could attempt to give you comprehensive advice on money, finances, or saving. What we can suggest is to look into other sources of financial information. Read websites, check out books, whatever you can do to help you with your financial future is well worth an investment of time and energy. | |||
Money management can be fairly
complicated. To survive in the real world you need to learn to control your
finances, explore your financial options, and manage whatever you have wisely.
