- Budgeting
- Cash Management
- Introduction
- Realize the Importance of Good Cash Management in Achieving Your Goals
- Understand the Different Cash Management Alternatives and How to Compare Them
- Know the Different Types of Financial Institutions
- Understand the Time Commitment Necessary for You to Effectively Manage Your Finances
- Summary
- Assignments
- Consumer and Mortgage Loans
- Debt and Debt Reduction
- Time Value of Money 1: Present and Future Value
- Time Value of Money 2: Inflation, Real Returns, Annuities, and Amortized Loans
- Insurance 1: Basics
- Insurance 2: Life Insurance
- Insurance 3: Health, Long-term Care, and Disability Insurance
- Insurance 4: Auto, Homeowners, and Liability Insurance
- The Home Decision
- The Auto Decision
- Family 1: Money and Marriage
- Family 2: Teaching Children Financial Responsibility
- Family 3: Financing Children’s Education and Missions
- Investments A: Key Lessons of Investing
- Investments B: Key Lessons of Investing
Understand the Time Commitment Necessary for You to Effectively Manage Your Finances
As the authors of The Millionaire Next Door point out:
People who become wealthy allocate their time . . . in ways consistent with enhancing their net worth. [They] allocate nearly twice the number of hours per week to planning their financial investments as [those who do not become wealthy] do (Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, The Millionaire Next Door, Pocket Books, New York, 1996, 71).
If those who become wealthy allocate nearly twice as many hours per week to planning their financial investments as those who do not become wealthy, shouldn't we, who are trying to become financially self-reliant, do the same?
We all have the same twenty-four hours in each day to spend however we see fit. It is important that you plan and spend sufficient time on your financial responsibilities each week to ensure that you are moving towards your financial goals. Unless you are spending one or twohours per week on your financial responsibilities, such as your goals, budget, insurance, retirement, and investment framework, it may be difficult for you to reach your personal and financial goals.
Set aside time once a week to review and update your goals and review what you want to accomplish in life. Update your budget. How are you doing at maintaining your budget? Balance your cash management accounts and ensure that all charges and balances are correct by comparing them to your credit card and electronic fund transfer statements. Be alert to the possibility of human error and computer problems; these kinds of mistakes can happen quite often.
Use wisdom in your cash management framework. Never deposit cash in an ATM, because there is no way to confirm that deposit. If you do find mistakes in your statement, contact your financial institution quickly and correct the error. Write or call your institution within sixty days of receiving your statement, state the problem, and correct the error. If the problem cannot be resolved, write to the address below:
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Division of Consumer and Community Affairs
20th and C Streets, N.W., Stop 801
Washington DC 20551
