ARE MOST OF YOUR ASSETS IN YOUR CLOSET OR GARAGE?

Are you the best dressed? Drive the best Car?

In this economy you may look like a million dollars, but what are you really worth? Do you spend your money on cars and clothing? You may look good, but what you are really passing on to your children is a lifestyle of living above their means and consumer debt. Teach your children financial literacy. Know the difference between assets and liabilities. Assets are things that have value. Assets are savings, real-estate, businesses, investments, ira’s, cd and money markets. Liabilities are what you owe.

What’s your net worth?

Add all you assets together, and then add all you liabilities. Then minus you’re liabilities from your assets. That will equal your net worth. Is your bottom line smaller that you thought? How can you improve it? Make a plan.

1. Start with how much you are paying out every month?

2. Take one week and write down everything you spend. After the first week, see what you can reduce.

3. Make a budget.

4. Start saving, save ten percent of your salary. If you make $30,000 a year and saved 10 percent. Your will save $3,000 a year. It may sound like a small amount. In ten years you will have $30,000.

5. Next work on your credit; find out what’s on your credit. Get all three of your credit scores. Don’t fall for credit repair scams. Join a credit guard program. Correct all mistakes.

6. Make a financial plan. Start small, don’t buy that star bucks coffee or that lunch out. Instead for one week put the money into in an envelope instead. At the end of the week see how much you have saved. Next multiply that money times 52. That is how much you can save in a year by cutting back on little things. Now deposit that money every week.

7. Join a 401k plan at work.

8. Buy a home or a condo. Owning is always better that renting. In this current market, there are more homes on the market. You can find a great home for less money than you would have paid during the housing boom.

9. Start a business; you may say you cannot afford to start a business. You cannot afford not to start a business. Use that idea that you have had on the shelf for years. Even if your business makes $300 a month, that’s $3,600 a year. You could save extra $1,000 in an investment

account and watch your money grow. You can put $ 600.00 towards your child’s collage education. With the other $2,000 can pay toward the balance of your credit cards. Also there are numerous taxes benefits to owning a business.

If you spend $300.00 a month on clothes and $500.00 a month on a car note, and $1000.00 a month on rent. That is $21,600 a year. In five years you have spent $108,000. You may live in that fancy high rise building but you are in giving away money. Invest in your future not your landlords.

By making small changes in your spending you can become financially stable. Instead of passing on debt to your family pass on a financial legacy.