Yogi Berra once said: "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else."
This is funny but very true. It’s important to have a plan in life. Emergencies will happen it’s a fact of life. It’s good to be prepared.
So I’ve dabbled in personal finance forums for a few years now. I figured I’d start a blog to share some of the things I’ve learned along the way.
Here are some basic principles my parents taught me.
1. Put God first and trust Him to provide for the rest.
2. Always save for a rainy day (also called an Emergency Fund).
3. Put money away for giving (10%), saving (10%), investing (10%) and a rainy day (10%) every time you make money.
4. Spend less than you make.
We’ve found that giving, having an emergency fund, budgeting, and saving makes our money go a lot further. It also give us peace of mind and we can be even more generous to those in need.
The first thing I’d recommend is to start an emergency fund to pay for any emergencies you may have (car repairs, doctor visits, etc.). Emergencies can and will happen. It's best to be prepared.
Remember too contrary to popular belief credit cards are not for emergencies. They are for rewards such as free mileage or cash back rewards on purchases you would normally make anyway. And that is only if you pay off the credit card balance every month.
We have become very allergic to interest. If we can’t pay cash or pay off the credit card at the end of the month then we wait to make the purchase. While we don't often use cash we’ve found that paying cash you can often get a discount on large purchases.
More to come soon! Thanks for stopping by.
~ J
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