What the heckin’ is personal finance?
Tue Nov 25, 2008 | | Posted in Finances
You know I started this blog named “personal finances.” I look for articles and essays, news of the day, news of last week and financial news, just in general. And I write a post or sometimes two a day. At least, I try to.
I consult Wikipedia a lot for definitions of terms that I don’t understand. Some words I never even heard of before this economic crises.
Wikipedia has some explanation of personal finance. They have the definitions and all in a what is generally referred to as bullet form. It is great. I think most people would know about those things. I mean what’s involved and all that.
That’s personal finance. If the majority of us, especially those who are facing the most hardships, follow these “guidelines??”, you think they would still be in the bad situation, to say the least, they are in?
There are a number of ways one can get into extremely high debt, high enough to declare bankruptcy. I can name a few:
- You don’t make enough. You borrow just to survive.
- You make good money. You still spend more than you make, so you borrow and keep borrowing.
- You make very good money. But then you are at a higher status than the above. You still spend more than you make. You borrow to maintain your higher status.
- You make extremely good money. But then you are yet at a higher status than the above. You may or may not spend more than you make. So you may or may not accrue debt or some debt. Ed McMahon is one example. He made lots of money. But he accrued lots of debt too.
- You are, what some call, shopaholic. You need a therapist. Go see one. Period.
How many of us follow those “guidelines??” from Wikipedia. I think the majority of us understand those things. The American people are smart enough to realize that we have spent more than we have earned.
Some of the above ways are in our control. We just have to set our mind to it. We have to live within our means – not to live a good life, mind you, but just to survive. Not only that, we must realize to save.
The same is true for financial and other kinds of institutions. GM just canceled a contract with Tiger Woods. The contract was worth $7 million for the advertisement and the commercials. You think because of those and similar ads people would buy GM, Ford and Chrysler. So why didn’t they? Such huge companies and they didn’t have a feedback mechanism set up? Hard to believe.
People buy their vehicles because of the manufacturers’ reputation for workmanship, quality and their engineering and not because a celebrity is doing a commercial for that vehicle. I am almost sure Tiger Woods is driving a European car.
What do you think?
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Information contained herein is general in nature, and is provided for informational and educational purposes only. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Talk to your financial adviser.
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