It’s been a while since I got tagged with a financial meme. This time, Aryn from Sound Money Matters tagged me to answer the question: What is some of the best financial advice you’ve received?
I grew up in a household that didn’t really talk about money that much — at least, to the extent that I would have liked to. To this day, my father doesn’t really like it when I talk about money; whenever I bring the subject up, he is quick to remind me that “money isn’t everything”. I guess it’s never really been an exciting topic for my parents, who are both hard-working people who have a pretty relaxed view about finance. All I can say is that while growing up, I noticed that my parents never fussed or worried about money (regardless of how much or how little they had of it), which took a backstage to everything else. Money came second to faith, family and community.
But I’ll have to say that one of the most meaningful pieces of financial advice I’ve ever gotten, actually came from my dear old Dad. He told me to study well and to get into the field of technology and computer science. He advised me to pursue a career that was in high demand; if I did so, then I shouldn’t have an issue about keeping a job or making enough bucks.
Well, I guess he was right. 
I have to say thanks to my Dad for the awesome advice!
Now if you’re reading this and you have a blog, consider yourself tagged. Won’t you share with us the best advice you’ve come across?
Now on to financial articles I enjoyed this week!
Recommended Personal Finance Reads
- Five Cent Nickel shares some lessons from the stock market game — a game his ten year old son is playing at school.
- Blueprint For Financial Prosperity shares with us how to sell our gold jewelry. Wait, don’t we need to hold on to our gold now that the economy and the stock market are on the rocks?
- Get Rich Slowly: J.D. tracks the time and money he spends on growing his own food and maintaining his lovely edible garden.
- Mighty Bargain Hunter barely avoided carrying a credit card balance, but worked out a way to pay off the debt on his card.
- No Credit Needed walks us through how he allocates the funds in his savings account for various financial goals.
- Lazy Man and Money: I was amused by these three ridiculous and stupid ideas that can save you money, care of Lazy Man. How about these wild ways to save? Or these equally outrageous ways?
- The Smarter Wallet shares the truth about bank fees — what else can your bank be hiding?
- Frugal Dad offers unique strategies to recession-proof your household.
- Money Smart Life: discusses how busy parents can handle a home-based business. This sure fits our household to a T!
- Gen X Finance: Should FDIC protection limits be raised from $100,000 to $250,000?
- The Sun’s Financial Diary ponders whether gold is a good choice to hedge against inflation.
- Million Dollar Journey brings up the “R” word for “global recession”.
- Brip Blap: could the economic crisis have a hand at devaluing MBAs?
- My Dollar Plan: if you live to eat (who doesn’t
?) then try out this yummy and frugal chicken soup. - Rich Credit Debt Loan shares with us how to get motivated to organize our finances.
- Money Ning gives us 10 activities for the bear market. I’ve written an article along these lines discussing effective strategies to leverage a weak stock market.
Additional News Around The Financial Blogosphere
- Penny Jobs: Why We Should Put Our Hope Back In Capitalism
- So Cal Savvy: I Am Young And I’m Buying Stocks On Sale
- Lance Turner: Credit Crisis Further Weakens Big Newspapers
- Twenties Money: 5 Tips for Job Fair Success
- Green Panda Treehouse: Joint Accounts: How We Budget Deposits and Withdrawals
- Free From Broke: Happy 1st Birthday! Congratulations on hitting your first anniversary milestone, and may there be many years of fun-filled blogging ahead of you!
Recent Carnivals
- The Frugal Duchess: How To Live Well and Save Money
- Money Hacks Carnival: Thank you for the Editor’s Pick. Thanks to The Financial Blogger for featuring our post about the Best Places For Your Money When The Stock Market Tanks.
- Carnival of Financial Planning
- Carnival of Financial Goals
- Working at Home Blog Carnival
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To be honest some of the best financial advice is from this blog. And I am not just saying that to be nice. The problem is that I think people don’t talk about finances enough in the “real world”. There is a perception it should be a private matter. I think this lack of communication and education is one of the reasons so many people face financial problems.
I have one “real world” friend. And we have been pretty open about our finances and its been helpful to talk about what they are doing and what we are doing. And kind of sharing tips as well as past financial mistakes.
Rough financial times in life teach the best way, you gotta experience it to “get it”. The best advice for me has been to keep trying to make money even if you don’t need it at the moment.
1) The power of compound interest (start saving early)
2) The risks of debt (avoid debt, but be willing to take it out when practical – home loans…).
3) Take the time to learn about personal finance. So many people are ignorant about personal finance matters (and make very little effort to change this state) and the costs of ignorance in this area are very high. Personal financial matters are not interesting or fun to some but the cost of not making the effort to learn is very high so unless you plan on making a huge amount of money that you can afford to waste you should make the effort to educate yourself.
Thanks so much for the birthday wishes! I wouldn’t have made it so long if not for the influence of sites like yours!
Thanks for mentioning MSL’s article on handling a home based business. I appreciate it!
What is some of the best financial advice you’ve received?
Since I was brought up in an environment where ‘Money is not everything’ and ‘Money is the root cause of all evil’, you can’t expect much of financial advice. Instead, focus was given on education of oneself to secure a promising job and hence, a bright future. (Reminds of of the famous book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad).
However, if you ask me what is some of the best financial lessons I’ve learnt, then, I can point out one or two.
Compounding interest will definetely be an eye opener for me to the financial world. When I was about to purchase my house, I started to look into all places where I may possibly have stashed away some cash.
My search revealed a mix of good news and bad news.
The good news – I had some amount of cash stashed away.
The bad news – I had it for a few years and it was all kept in a normal savings account!
Savings account only gave a miserable 0.2% interest per annum. At least if I had the initiative to transfer them to Fixed Deposit account, I would have made a 3.5% – 4.0% per annum. Hmmm.. looks like my money was resting in a corner without doing any work for me. My mistake!
Two pieces of advice from my family:
1. Save before you spend.
2. Work hard to get into a position where you make as much as you need, then enjoy any extra you happen to get, share it, and get on with life.
One of the most vivid images in my head about the stock market is seeing my grandpa watching stock quotes on CNBC.
Every time there was a major crash in the markets, I used to see him looking at the ticker, laughing loudly and calling up his broker to buy more stock.
This was really different from my dad and his brothers, who were all fussing about the losses that they made in the market crash etc. My grandpa was really cheerful about his losses and looked at these as great opportunities. It took me about five years to understand why he used to laugh. But now I understand what he meant when he said “when others are fearful, you should be greedy, and when others are greedy, you should be fearful”. That’s the best investment advice I got.
Manshu,
Wow, that’s a great saying! I want that in a plaque!
It’s another form of the contrarian thought of “buy when there’s blood on the streets”.
Many also say “buy low, sell high”. But I prefer your grandfather’s recommendation… it’s so much more colorful.
I answer an online advice column about debt and credit. The best advice I’ve ever heard (and subsequently given) is that no matter how complex things become, the basic rules still apply. Keeping debt to a minimum, paying your bills on time, and saving for your future are always smart money moves.
Best financial advice?
Learn to invest for myself. No one cares more about your money than you. After learning about investing I fired my “personal financial advisor”…best move ever.
Your dad had some pretty smart advice. Thanks for sharing!
Spend less than you make, and save what you don’t spend for retirement. Learn what you can from financial analysts, but do the leg work yourself, and get rid of them once you know what is going on.
@manshu that is the type of advice that you patent and put in books.
Best financial advice I ever received was very simple “Live below your means”. I am absolutely horrible at it but continue every day to try and discipline myself into such a mindset.
The best financial advice I received lately doesn’t even sound financial at all. Sometime ago, I was describing my struggles to a friend whose financial expertise I have high regard for. I was telling her how difficult it was for me to be raising a family with a small income. My wife was currently looking for a job but with no luck yet. I was seriously considering a weekend job to augment my finances. We didn’t even have our own house yet and we were living (actually, overstaying already) with relatives. I felt like I was on a sinking ship. My friend simply said the following: “Things will be fine. You’re a good man!”
I don’t know why or how but this made me feel absolutely good. It actually inspired me to continue struggling because that is what life is really all about. I know that there is a time for everything. The right job for me is out there and I will eventually get it. The same goes for my wife. And I know that eventually, we will be able to get a place of our own.
Great article and thanks for mentioning my article. “Why We Should Put Our Hope Back In Capitalism, Not Socialism or Government Intervention”
One of the best pieces of financial advice I received was the capabilities of a DAILY IRA. If you don’t have a big chunk of money, you may know, one of the best ways to save money is to put away a LITTLE Bit every day. Like 1 or 2 dollars. Here is a strategy that will force you to save a dollar a day, and you won’t even have to do anything… nor will you notice it! It is automatically withdrawn from a checking account each day.
Grandpa always said, “The only two things in the world worth taking out a loan for is your home and your educationâ€. I guess this is why I could never take out a loan to buy a fancy car. I don’t have kids but if I do, this would be the one piece of family wisdom that I pass onto them.
I have often thought about the financial advice my parents gave me. Like the author of this post, we didn’t talk about money a TON in my house. Mostly meaning that we had no idea how much or how little our parents had. I must say, I’m glad of that. But, the one thing I remember my dad saying that stuck the most was to work hard, work smart, and work honestly. That will get you the money you need and the respect necessary to continue in your field and get opportunities to produce more money and a brighter future.
The best financial advice I’ve ever received was to draw up a budget. It doesn’t have to be complicated and you don’t need accounting skills to do it. No matter how basic it is, it will be better than not drawing a budget at all!
Selling your old gold jewelry is definitely a good idea, but not all of the gold buying services are reputable, everyone should check with the BBB before sending any gold their way.