Personal Money Management

This new world economy is forcing many families to re-think thier current action plan

What else besides traditional investments can you do to build equity and secure your financial future

Let's talk about personal money management. For those of you who are not residents of the United States (like myself) you may not know much about how our current economy and government fiscal activities is affecting the finance of families here and worldwide.

But I am sure that regardless of which continent you live on there is one common theme we all face. We want to enjoy the life we have now and feel rather certain that we won't be struggling during our golden years.

Where is your money going now?

Several years ago my family and I experienced a shock to our household income. The employer I was with at the time suddenly decided to implement a complete reorganization. In the aftermath I was left without a job after spending 18 years of my life with them. My wife and I fully expected to retire comfortably at the end of my career with this company.

During my tenure with this employer I was fortunate enough to receive advise that helped me devise a personal money management plan that allowed us to accumulate a great deal of equity that would be the base for our future income during our retirement years.

Ironically, for many years, this personal money management plan was working so well that I become very complacent with regards to diversifying our portfolio as well as tracking where our monthly income was coming from and going. Because things were going well we simply didn't feel the need to look more closely at our cash flow.

When the loss of my job occurred it came as a total shock. For several weeks I had no idea what to do next. A period of 18 years had passed during which I never had to conduct a job search or a job interview. The thought of going out there and competing for work was somewhat frightening to me.

In time I began to closely examine every aspect of our cash flow. I soon discovered that the only reason we had any money saved up is because of a "forced savings plan" that I had taken part of through my employer. They even provided the money managers for me. In other words, I had become spoiled and lazy with regards to how I addressed my personal money management.

Now it was time to investigate and research every expenditure and make tough decisions. I began to look at my finances the same way I had done for my clients. Were these expenditures necessary and could we do better? I would review every detail of my utility bills, credit card statements, bank statemtents, grocery receipts and especially my investment portfolio.

This led me to discover some bad decisions we had made. One of the most important discoveries I made was that we did not have enough direct control of our income streams.

As I shared my situation with some friends and colleagues I began to realize that they had done a far better job of being "involved" with the finances. As a matter of fact many of them were making decisions on a weekly basis that impacted their personal money management for the better. They were able to see the benefits of their decisions very quickly. In my case, the decisions I had made were done many years ago and had been left alone.

My advise to you is - stay involved by constantly evaluating the status of your finances. Where is the money coming from (and how much), is it secure, and how long will this income stream last? And most importantly, where is it going after I receive it? Don't be afraid to admit that you need help and seek it out quickly and often. Start thinking "outside the box".

How are you generating income.

During this phase I was not able to find any employment in my field. It provided for an opportunity of self-examination. I felt a great deal of pressure to avoid the mistake of counting on others for my financial security. My job loss made me realize that my employer was not as loyal to me as I thought he was. When times got tough he sought a position of self-preservation at any cost (my job).

As a result I relunctantly looked at offers for "sales" positions from a number of firms. After accepting a job from one of the "dot coms" here in the States I quickly learned that personal money management was going to be critical to my family's financial security.

It was while working for this firm that I learned "income diversification" was a critical element in any families portfolio. I watched my employer invest in many related businesses that could "shore up' the companies revenue stream and provide what we needed to keep on going during the expected slow times of the core business.

We typically think of personal money management as wisely using what we have so as to preserve it. However, in our current global economy we must now always consider possible income streams that we can use NOW and in the FUTURE when we are ready to retire.

Some examples of "income generation" as a part of personal money management for families to consider are:

*freelancing

*part-time work from home

*network marketing

*developing computer skills

*take time to study money management

*consider using money management software

*teach your teens how to manage money - help them avoid the mistakes you made by playing "money management games"

*making money online - this is one of the best options for households with very limited income, with very little risk and expenditure they can now compete profitably on a worldwide basis for the money being spent online

If you have been investing your money in various markets then you've done more than most people. However, this world economy will be extremely volatile for years to come. However, those of us who take the time to continually educate ourselves well be better suited to survive and thrive regardless of market conditions.

Make the decision to enhance your personal money management through a combination of ongoing education and taking action with what may appear as unorthodox measures. Be prepared to take advantage of the many opporutnities that fall below the radar of most people.

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