“Personal Finance: Why Didn't My Parents Warn Me? - Associated Content” plus 1 more

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Personal Finance: Why Didn't My Parents Warn Me? - Associated Content Posted: My parents did a decent job raising me (if I do say so myself). It's easier to look back and gauge their successes and failures now that I am a parent myself. They taught me many valuable lessons as a child and into my young adult years, but personal finance and financial management were not their strong points. As two former hippies, they  were not what you would call financially savvy. Many of their money lessons came in the form of ways to do without or ways to make more with less (which are actually quite valuable in many cases). But they weren't the kind of people who went out of their way to show me how to pay bills, explain credit card usage, discuss retirement planning, and similar subject matter. While my grandfather and uncle filled in some of the gaps, there were still a few financial revelations that weren't explained to me until much later in life. Here are a few of the most major. Income Taxes are How Much? My parents were not big into sharing income information with me. This may partially have been because my mother was going to school for much of my childhood and I only spent every other weekend with my father. At the time, neither of them had what you would consider a great job, and therefore sharing the family finances wasn't too high on the priority list. However, I think it would have helped to form and guide my future income expectations by knowing just how much they made, and in turn, how much the government took. I still remember getting my first paycheck at age 15 and being stunned by how much money was deducted for various income taxes. This is probably information I will share with my son before he heads off to his first job, if nothing else but to reduce the shock he will likely encounter when he sees his withered and tax reduced paycheck. Property Taxes Come Each Year This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

How College Helped Form My Personal Finance Future - Associated Content Posted: As a young adult, I ventured off to college with my heart in my throat. I had no idea what to expect. I was going to be left on my own to make all sorts of important and life-altering decisions, and had no one there  to guide me through my first taste of life on my own. It turned out that college quickly became one of the most wonderful and educational experiences in my life. Not only did I end up meeting interesting people, getting a great education, and learning how to be self-sufficient, but I learned numerous personal finance lessons as well. Here are some of what I consider the most important financial takeaways from my college experience. Loan Learning While I had enough money saved to pay for a portion of my college costs, I soon found myself at the point of needing to take out student loans. This was the first time I had ever experienced debt -- and frankly, I didn't like it. I found that owing money to someone else and having that debt accumulate further debt due to interest rates and fees was something I certainly did not care for and sought to avoid as much as possible moving forward in my financial life after college. This was a valuable lesson however, and luckily the interest rates on the loans were reasonable. Even that did not dissuade me from paying them off in their entirety the first year after graduation. Expense Tracking The arrangement upon heading off to school was that my college costs were to be split between my parents (divorced) and I -- each of us paying a third. What this meant for me financially was that not only was I going to have to find ways to finance my portion of the bill, but I was going to have to keep up with and track my expenses in order to give a proper accounting of the bills to my parents each year. At the time, I found this kind of a pain in the behind, but as I grew accustomed to noting each of my expenses, saving receipts, and keeping a journal of such costs, it started to become a habit; one that carried over into my adult life and has proven quite valuable. Budgeting This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php Five Filters featured article: Collateral Damage - WikiLeaks In The Crosshairs.

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