Top 10 Personal Finance Articles – September 2009

Here is our usual monthly list of the top 10 read articles on shrewdcookie.com in September – there are some surprising entries!

19 Essential Money Tips for Students

Thousands of students will be leaving home and heading off to places new, far afield, in search of education and trying to avoid poverty. Here are 19 tips which helped me through Uni on a tight budget.

Top 10 Personal Finance Articles – August 2009

The following is a list of the top 10 read articles in August.

1. Pay Yourself First – the first step in wealth creation

This article discusses the need to save from income before spending it! This is a form of deferred consumption and by saving first and then spending what is left you can build a solid foundation to your financial future.

Tip – aim to start saving 10% of net income each and every month – it won’t be easy at first but your budget and lifestyle will adapt over time.

Buy a Financial Calculator

Anyone who is committed to increasing their personal wealth would be strongly recommended to buy a financial calculator.

I bought my first financial calculator when I was at University some 18 years ago, it was a Hewlett Packlard 10B Business Calculator, and I still use it today. The model has been updated now – Hewlett Packard 10BII – but the new model still offers the same great facilities I have come to know and love.

Small Increases in Income Make a Big Difference!

When considering income and expenditure, we need to calculate total expenditure, and then deduct this from income. This gives what I like to think of as “true disposable income”. Any small increase in income can therefore have a leveraged effect.

Retirement is an income, not an age

It occurred to me recently with all this talk about the need to raise retirement age in the Uk due to our ageing population, that many people have got it wrong.

Top 10 Articles – June 2009

The following is a list of the top ten articles visited in June 2009.

1. Pay Yourself First – the first step in wealth creation

Those who save first then spend invariably end up better off than those who spend first and save what is left.

Cashflow Forecasting – planning income and expenditure

Historically, cashflow forecasting was a method used by business owners, managers and accountants to analyse income and expenditure over a set period ot ime. By analysing inflows and outflaows of cash for each period, e.g. each month, they were able to see what strains they would have on cash at any one time – e.g. was there any particular month or months where they needed to draw on other sources of cash. Download your own cashflow forecast template here

Needs and Wants – the Basics of Budgeting

In order to make decisions about what steps to take with the various aspects of your personal financial planning it is important to take a “snapshot” of where you are at at this moment in time.

A plan is just that – a plan – you decide on where it is you want to “arrive”, consider your current “position” , weigh up the various methods of getting there and choose the path which seems most appropriate to your current family situation, income profile, future employment prospects.