MANAGE YOUR MONEY

Managing Your Money

    I would suggest that if you are going to manage anything, especially your money, you need to have goals.

Managing your money includes activities such as earning, budgeting, spending, saving, and investing.  Without goals you cannot make a good decision about which activity you need to perform at any given time.

Your goals should be specific enough to give you some guidance about how to manage.  Consider the following goal statements.

I want to go to college.

I want to get a degree in (your choice) from (your college) and graduate debt free.

Specific goals help you to understand how other decisions you might make impact your goals.

Specific goals also help you to break things down so that you can understand how to actually accomplish your goals.  You should have long term, intermediate term and short term goals.  The shorter term goals should support the accomplishment of your long term goals.

You should then develop a specific action plan to accomplish your shortest term goals.

Education is key to understanding what alternatives are available to you.

Circumstances change, plans change, and there is always the unknown and unanticipated.  But, if you actively manage your goals, you will be well positioned to make good decisions in managing your money.