Personal Finance for a Dummy

by Brad Homer

When it comes to personal finance, some people just don't feel up to the task. They feel overwhelmed by all the options and complexity of high finance. I'm here to tell you, personal finance isn't that complex. The basics are pretty simple. I will, however, attack the problem in a different way than you might be expecting. 95% of what's important in personal finance is all about your attitude about money. If you think and feel money is somehow bad - bad is what you will continue to get. Focus on practicing positive thoughts about money.

Practicing positive thoughts about money isn't easy at first. It takes work. Every time you start talking about how much money you don't have, stop. Think about how great it will be when you have plenty of money to meet your needs. Be on guard constantly, but don't obsess too much because you'll drive yourself crazy if you do. Cut yourself some slack for being like almost everyone else as you struggle through getting your thoughts on a consistently positive spin. Once you're properly focused on the 95% important part of thinking positively - then it's time to do the simple, basic, personal finances part: you need to spend less than you earn.

Spending less than you earn is where it starts - understanding how much you earn and when. Then, understanding how much you're spending, where and when, is next. In other words, you need a budget. If you've got bad feelings about the word budget, go back to the first two paragraphs of this article. You need to feel good about money and the tools for kicking it in the butt and telling it what to do. You need to learn to feel good about budgeting. Once you've got simple budgeting handled (and it is simple -it just feels ten times harder than it really is when you first start out)... the rest is easy.

Brad Homer offers free-to-try budgeting software to help you quickly and easily with your personal financial planning. At his website you can also find more personal finance articles like this one.

© 2007 Homerworks LLC. All rights reserved.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brad_Homer