Financial Planning
What are you doing to reach your financial goals?
Financial Planning Week which is October 5–11, 2009. This is going to be FPA's (Financial Planning Association) eighth annual Financial Planning Week.
During Financial Planning Week, FPA is going to try and build the public's awareness of the financial planning. Many people are so busy with life itself they forget to take care of finances. We remind people everyday that it is important to manage their finances wisely with financial literacy and monthly articles on our website. “Financial Planning should not be confined to investments. It should include the wise and sound use of credit; and when the use of that credit has exceeded the families ability to pay, a reputable credit counseling agency, like A New Horizon, should be consulted” said Steven Stark Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of the agency.
Ways to Celebrate Financial Planning Week you can:
- Make sure you checkbook is balanced. Balancing your checkbook can give you a firm knowledge of how much money is in your account. It can help prevent you from bouncing checks, make up a simple budget, and detect errors from your bank.
- Open up a savings account for your children. Teaching your children about the importance of saving money when they are young will hopefully help them learn good money management when they are older.
- Pay above your minimum on your credit cards.
- Make a budget worksheet and see where your expenses are going. Creating a budget worksheet and seeing where your money is being spent will allow you to stop overspending and start saving and is a necessity for successful money management. Some people feel that a budget is restraining and limits their freedom. When in fact the opposite is true. A budget grants you more independence and freedom to achieve lifetime goals.
- Start to save for the holidays and make a budget for it. Don’t go overboard with gifts, maybe do a grab bag so you only buy gifts for one person and not everyone in your family.
- Get with a financial planner and plan for the future.
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- Set monthly financial goals and try and keep them. Understand the difference between needs and wants. Wants are things that would be nice to have, but not necessary. Needs are things that you must have to survive. Prioritize your goals (and your spending) Goals may change over time due to life circumstances so it is important to revisit from time to time. Once you have a clear picture as to what your goals are, you need to assign price tags.
- Instead of going out to eat often eat at home. You will be surprised how much you will save by eating home everyday instead of going out to eat.
- Make a savings jar that your family can put change into that you have left over at the end of the day.
- Go over all your bills and cut where you can (Ex : Cable bill, cell phone bill). Don’t get largest cable package, do you really need all those stations? Lower your cell phone bill to a reasonable plan maybe cut down on text messaging. Check to see if some of your providers like phone or cable have bundle packages that are cheaper than what you are paying now
Just doing some of these may help you financially and assist you in continuing doing them in the future. “It’s like the old adage I have seen from Hugh D, Culver about Time Management “people don’t plan to fail, they just fail to plan”. It’s the same principal for individuals and families to achieve financial wellness.” Said Peter Carvalho, New Business Development.
There are many other things you can do for financial planning week as well. Below are articles that can assist you with your money management:
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