- Who's Pushing "Financial Literacy"?
Is there some national imperative to get the populace interested in,
educated in, and practicing good personal financial habits? Yes, and
you might be surprised who all is in on it.
Read More...
- Are You "Financially Literate"?
How do you feel about your current level of knowledge of financial matters?
Take this little quiz and see how well you do.
Take the test...
- Are You "Economics Literate"?
This is a companion quiz to the preceding Financial Literacy test.
Take the test....
- The Basics
Now that you've taken the two tests above to find out how much you know, we're
going to backtrack all the way to the basics which affect your financial well-being.
Start here.....
- Gross Income
This component of your overall financial life is just what the name implies:
your total income combined from all sources...Read more...
- Taxes
This is probably one of the most misunderstood of all the topics vital to
a person's financial well-being, but one of the most important tools that
can be used in short and long-term planning.
Take these short personal assessment tests to see if you comprehend some
of the fundamentals of tax return issues: Here
- Net Income
One way to potentially increase your Net Income is
not to pay Uncle Sam too much from your periodic paycheck. Check your
withholding rate and "tweak" the amount you pay as you go. You may be
paying too much, if you get a large tax refund each year. Look at
how you can adjust your monthly tax bite:
HERE
- Expenses
There's not a lot one can say on decreasing expenses,
except that this is the first line of defense in being solvent each month,
plus generating some extra for savings.
Start with the budget templates shown below and build a consistent record
of where your money goes each month, so that you can plan. If you don't
know where you are at each moment financially, you are highly unlikely
to be successful at planning a satisfying future.
Here's a good article to help you get started with some financial planning:
From ACEC, Americans for Consumer Education and Competition.
In .pdf form
Or in Word document form
HERE
- Business Finance
The Federal Governement is providing a series of useful business finance
oriented articles on their website, including:
- Estimating Costs
- Financial Statements
- Grants And Funding
- Equity Capital
- Contract Surety Bonds
- SBA Loans
- Accepting Payment
- Extending Credit
- Collecting Debts
To access these articles, look HERE
- How Do I Learn About Laying Out a Budget?
Start here.....
- Learn How To Manipulate Numbers with an Excel Spreadsheet
For a free online tutuorial on Microsoft's popular and very useful Excel spreadsheet,
look HERE
- Convenient Budget Templates: (Opens in Excel spreadsheet)
These spreadsheets can easily be modified to reflect individual budget item choices.
Budget Template 1
Budget Template 2
Budget Template 3
