Personal Finance Advice

You hate your job.  You want to quit right now, but you know that there are things you should do first in order to make sure that your personal finances are in order before you march into the human resource office and triumphantly hand over your resignation letter.

Quitting your job at the spur of the moment can be a disaster for your personal finances, especially if you’re already living paycheck to paycheck and have a great deal of debt.  If you have the idea in your head that it may be time to get another job, or if your job is causing you so much stress that you’re afraid any day you’ll just empty your desk and head out, you need to take action now so leaving your job won’t be so financially devastating.

If you are contemplating quitting, start doing these things now:

Update your resume.  You want to be as ready as possible if the time does come for you to quit your job.  If you have your resume updated and ready to send out to potential employers.  If your personal finances are already stretched thin you can’t waste time getting your resume ready after you have already quit your job.  You should be ready to hit the ground running in your attempt to find a new job.

Start looking for another job.  Even if you aren’t sure if you will actually quit or not you should still make an effort to find out what positions are open that you might be qualified for.  If you’re in a very specific field then this talk may be more difficult than if you are able to accept many different kinds of jobs.  Be careful not to get too aggressive in your pursuit of a new position because word might get back to your present employer quicker than you wanted. 

Build up your emergency fund.  Now is the time to pad up your savings account so you can have money stashed away in case it takes you a little longer to find a new job than you thought it would.  You never know if your new employer will make you wait a couple of weeks before starting, and you have to wait for your new payroll checks to start rolling in before you can get financially comfortable again.

Pay off some accounts.  If you have several small credit accounts then this is a great time to pay them off so you can have access to the extra cash that would have gone to these bills every month.  It will be a much less stressful time if you have fewer bills to pay.

Stay calm.  If you hate your job then it can be difficult to stay calm, but try your best to not panic and to try to keep everything in perspective.  Have you considered talking to your current boss to see if you can get transferred to another department or maybe even get a big raise? You never know how well things can turn out unless you refrain from having a huge meltdown.

Keeping your finances in control when switching to a new job can be really tricky.  The best thing you can do is to get your money situation under control before quitting so everything isn’t too stressful.

Think about what an abstract concept personal finance can seem like to young children.  Unless you have taken the time to explain the nuances of personal finance to them then it’s likely that from their perspective, buying stuff is as easy as taking a debit or credit card out of a wallet and swiping it in a terminal.  Do your kids know that these cards mean more than a simple swipe? Do they know that you have to actually work to earn money to buy things?

If you haven’t explained it to them, there’s a good chance that they don’t know.

You may not think that there is much merit to teaching a young child about money since they’re not going out and making it and managing it at their age.  Think again.  You should be teaching kids about personal finances as early as possible for a few reasons:

1.  They’ll have a greater appreciation for what it takes to earn money.

2.  They might not be as prone to demand money as though it grows on trees.

3.  They will learn to manage money at an early age, which is something many adults haven’t learned to do.

As a parent, it’s your responsibility to equip your kids with the skills they need to succeed when they grow into adulthood and move out on their own.  For one reason or another, many parents don’t teach their kids the lessons they need regarding personal finances.  Maybe parents don’t feel as though the kids are old enough to learn about money, or perhaps parents are reluctant to talk about finances because they are ashamed of the state of their own finances.  Whatever the reason for the reluctance, it’s still no excuse to not give your kids the financial knowledge necessary to someday prepare them to handle money on their own.

Start introducing your children to the family’s finances.  Explain financial transactions to them in simple terms that they will be able to understand.  Instead of ushering them through the line at the grocery store, tell them what’s happening.  Explain to them how the debit card you swipe is linked to your bank account, and how you’re bank account has money in it that you earned from working.  Consider giving your children allowances so they can learn about working to earn money.

 Most financial institutions have savings accounts and educational materials for young children.  Check with your bank or credit union to see what they have available for your children so you can start giving your kids the knowledge they need to someday handle their own personal finances.

Online auctions can be a great way to get good deals.  Sellers offer both new and used items as well as some hard to find items that shoppers would otherwise have to search far and wide for if it wasn’t for the Internet.  Some online auction sellers occasionally sell items as they no longer need them, but other sellers actually make substantial livings by selling merchandise in these auctions.

Using the auctions wisely can save you a lot of money.  Chances are you can find plenty of deals on items you would spend much more money for then if you had bought them in a regular store. 

There is another side to online auctions.  Your personal finances can take a big hit if you get so caught up in the bidding that you wind up spending a lot more for items than you originally planned on spending.  You may also find that items you “win” cost a lot more once the shipping costs are factored into the equation.   

Here are some do’s and don’ts for keeping your personal finances in shape while delving into the world of online auctions:

Do:  Look for the best deals.  If you have the time to spare then you can search through all the offerings of the online auction and find the items you want at the lowest prices.  The appeal of online auctions is that you can sometimes find outrageously good deals, especially if you happen upon something that nobody else has bid on.

Don’t:  Get caught up in a bidding war.  Always keep in mind that you’re simply looking to buy something.  It’s not a competition.  Far too often people get so caught up in the bidding aspect and take it as a personal insult when someone outbids them.  This results in the buyer upping the bid to spite the other bidder.  The only person who wins in this scenario is the person selling the item that caused the bidding war to begin with.

Do:  Check the shipping and handling charges.  Sometimes sellers inflate the shipping and handling charges in an effort to make more money while other inflate the charges simply because they don’t know how much it will truly cost to send the item to the buyer.  If you see an item at a low price don’t leap right into bidding; look at the shipping and handling charges too.

Don’t:  Lose track of how much money you bid.  Suppose you log on to an online auction to look for one particular item but then start browsing around.  You put in a bid here and a bid there, and then the next thing you know you’re the winning bidder for several items.  It’s really easy to bid on more items than you realize you’re bidding on, and this can cause big financial problems since a winning bid is a legal contract to pay in most instances.

Do:  Stick to your budget.  If you’re planning on browsing through an online auction you should first set a budget.  Figure out how much money you’re willing to bid before you start submitting bids because this will ensure that you don’t spend more than you meant to.

Most online auctions prefer services like PayPal for payments, and this is a great idea because the seller never actually gets to get a glimpse at your personal financial information since the money is sent through a third party.  Think twice before sending a personal check to someone who you don’t know, and don’t even think about sending cash or giving your credit card number directly to the seller.