Tuesday 31 January 2012

Money Matters: 5 Parts Of Understanding Financial and Money Terms

By Debra L. MOrrison


We can agree that money matters. This is the foundation of commerce and how we pay for what we need to survive. Yet understanding financial markets, how money works, money terms - well, that feels like a great topic that overwhelms even the most sophisticated minds! The sole way to master the subject is to slice it down into digestible bites and build out from that firm foundation. Here are 5 beliefs of money that while they might seem to be insultingly basic, they're where each of us has to begin so as to master money matters.

1. Making Money

Most of us make money by getting paid. From a job, a career, from exchanging a service for a monetary payment. Some folks earn money from an investment, or savings account. And then there used to be the ability to get additional funds from your house - as it might appreciate (grow) in value. Those days may return at some point. Other possessions grow in value , and when sold can earn money. Art, collectibles and jewelry would be an example here; a vehicle would not be an example, unless it was "highly collectible."

2. Shielding Money

Once you have cash in an account, how do you protect it, put it aside, grow it. In this modality, you would look at tax discounts and other money saving avenues so as to defend yourself from administration fees or tax levies, sales folks and others from taking it from you.

3. Budgeting Money

You manage your cash best when you can live within your means. This is best accomplished by making a budget and staying inside it. This way you achieve both of the above elements. How well you can live, whlle staying on budget, can be an amusing game, seeking out coupons, offers, deals and reframing what really matters vs what looks "rich" and excessive. For some, this the true art of living!

4. Leveraging Money

Here is where you have got to be smart, and a lot cautious. You will have most likely heard the term, Return on Investment (ROI)? This is the rate of return you receive from an investment. Here, you put surplus money - the most notable difference between what you earn and what you need to live on - into an investment instrument and expect that cash to work for you, both with appreciation and with an interest or dividend paid out occasionally. When you have a solid concentration on ROI, you'll find it impacts expenditures too, as you ask, "is this purchase truly going to bring the most fulfilling rate of return? Or would I prefer to put this money away so that I can buy... Later?"

5. Educational Money

A Finance Planner will make it clear that "financial information is 75% working with money, and 25% understanding what you are doing." The deeper your knowledge of money, the wiser financial decisions you make, the more ways you discover to stop cash loss and the speedier you recognize trends in the market. You also begin to develop that illusive, but vital money mind-set. It could be a powerful feeling, to know that you "get" money!

Of course, as you find out more about funding, so you will need to sharpen your ability to distinguish between "real reports" and "content for the 24 hours a day financial news channels". With more than just the news media, with magazines, and investment salespeople that you meet, you need to filter what you hear from what you know to be true. You are going to want to become assured enough to ask as many questions as it takes to assuage any doubts on where data comes from and what it is truly telling you.




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