I'm sure this board will be very informative and lots of fun. Looking to finally become a "financial adult"... I have been paycheck to paycheck my entire working life and haven't ever successfully saved or invested. Things have changed and I need a firm grasp on investing, credit, stocks and retirement asap. Thanks for having me and thanks for the referral, JR Ewing! What up Turbo?!
Welcome aboard. Congratulations on the desire to get your financial house in order. We all started somewhere, so no worries. Do you have any saving and investing goals in mind?
Welcome! Paycheck to paycheck definitely isn't a way to go in the long term, so it's great that you've started to change your financial ways. Do you have a specific strategy that you are going to follow from now on?
Immediate Goals 1: Establishing better credit for myself and my wife so we can buy a house. Both of our scores are piss poor right now... 2: Eliminating current debt 3: College money put aside for the kids 4: Quality life Insurance for us and our two kids 5: Planning retirement 6: Living from investment income to pursue professional passions We have zero strategy and know nothing about how to do this, thus why I am here!!!
Congrats on the new financial life goals. I adopted a debt-free life style in my mid 20's and never looked back. Don't let people discourage you because it IS possible. Stick to your guns and don't give up.
If you've got any outstanding bad debt, you might consider putting your investment dollars into some sort of LLC or other corp or trust structure to keep it away from any creditors.
Some suggestions. since you admit to being new to the "game", the best way to come on board is to do some light reading first. There are many books on the subject but are mostly worthless, extremely technical, esoteric etc. however 2 quick recommendations : The Coffeehouse investor - Bill Schultheis The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read - Daniel R. Solin Both are easy reads. Coffeehouse uses the hands OFF principle of being a "Couch Potato" Do you have a 401(k) at work? Maximize it to get company match - free money. Set up a Roth-iRA, not regular IRA. Then practice financial discipline, DISCIPLINE ! Take small steps at first then pick up the pace. I'm 72, been there, and then some ! Good Luck
Some ideas, not necessarily in order. First round of actions. (1) Household fiscal discipline: separate wants from needs. (2) Many credit cards? Get the number down to a few -- say, 2 cards, one each selected from Discover, VISA, and Mastercard -- and pay off the smaller balances to get rid of the nuisance hanger ons and actually cancel those cards. (3) Don't miss a payment under any circumstances. (4) Eventually pay off credit card balances in full each month. Second round of actions, not necessarily all of them and maybe not all. (1) Build -- slowly if necessary -- a cash reserve sufficient to live on for a few months should something happen to the job situation or a medical emergency. (2) Pay yourself first, even if just taking cost of living or salary increases, into an accessible account to use in the future for, say, college expenses. (3) Each year make one or more extra principal payments on the household mortgage. Biggest bang for the buck occurs in the early years. (4) Take advantage of employer pension or profit sharing offerings. Did I say fiscal discipline? Good luck. HTH. YMMV.
