7 Great Personal Financial Tips

Author:

Larry L. Taylor






When it comes to personal finance measures, a lot of people get anxious and stressed out, as financial processes and needs could be so confusing. You may not know what you are really doing, which could hurt you in the long run. Instead of going about the process blindly, make sure you know the best strategy starting with these personal finance tips.





1.       Consider signing up for a flexible spending account (FSA). FSA allows you to pay for dependent care expenses, commuting and medical expenses and prescriptions or health insurance co-payments using pre-tax dollars. This simply means that you don\'t have to pay taxes from the funds you use to pay these regularly occurring expenditures.





2.       Carry $10 cash or a debit card to make small purchases. Recent laws allow the merchants to set a minimum purchase amount when credit cards are used. The minimum amount can not be larger than $10 so your cash in your pocket will cover the price of the items you can\'t charge.





3.       Smoking and drinking are two things that you will want to avoid if you want to put yourself in the best position financially.  These habits not only hurt your health, but can take a great toll on your wallet as well.  Take the steps necessary to reduce or quit smoking and drinking.





4.       When in doubt about borrowing money-don\'t.  Interest is extremely expensive, adding up to 20or even more to your purchases, which is the same as making 20less money!  Wherever possible try to save up for a purchase on your own, and buy it later rather than taking out a loan to get it now.





5.       To improve your personal finance habits, keep track of the amount of cash you spend along with everything else. The physical act of paying with cash makes you mindful of exactly how much money is being spent, while it is much easier to spend large amounts with a credit or debit card.





6.       Improve your personal finance skills with a very useful but often overlooked tip. Make sure that you are taking about 10-13of your paychecks and putting them aside into a savings account. This will help you out greatly during the tough economic times. Then, when an unexpected bill comes, you will have the funds to cover it and not have to borrow and pay interest fees.





7.       Shop at thrift stores where you\'ll find big savings on clothes and household items.  It\'s amazing what people donate to these places!  Often you can find brand new items with the store tags still attached.   Other times the used items you find there are as good as new.  The thrift store price is often only pennies of what items cost new.





If you are ready to gain your greatest edge in personal finance, you can use these tips to get a great stance within your financial matters, able to understand the logistics and the strategies that are essential in each process you go through. Don\'t create more stress for yourself than you have to when there are great resources to teach you more.


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