Recognizing Your Financial Strengths and Weaknesses
If you’re currently involved with someone and considering a serious commitment, or if you’ve never discussed your spending habits with your spouse or significant other, take some time to talk about your financial mindsets.
Identify your differences and spend some time planning how you want to handle them in your relationship. By dealing with your financial differences, you’ll not only cut down on arguments later in life, but you and your partner will become a united front working for common financial goals.
You may well find that your significant other is a spendthrift and you’re a miser or vice versa opposites tend to attract each other. One reason opposites attract may be that on some unconscious level, people are aware of their own weaknesses and shortcomings and know almost instinctively what they need to “complete” themselves. If you have trouble keeping to a written budget, you may choose a life partner whose greatest joy is keeping detailed written records of every flower growing in the yard or every penny spent on bubble gum by the kids and imagine you balance each other out in the process. Having differences is healthy, but we also know from experience that these differences can test your limits of grace and reason.
Protecting Your Money and Assets
Once you do get a grip on your finances and manage to start your nest egg, you may notice that your egg attracts predators and has become vulnerable to new dangers. One growing danger is that of identity theft, and you need to know how to avoid falling prey to those who would use information against you in order to take away what’s yours. And where do you keep your money? In the bank, right? Well, banking itself has gone through the online revolution, and it’s a very good idea to know options and pitfalls in this area.
The main way most people avoid financial disasters in their lives is by buying insurance, which (knock on wood) pays things off when bad things happen. Besides health insurance, which we cover in Book II, there are three other main forms of insuring yourself against catastrophic losses: homeowner’s insurance, auto insurance, and life insurance. We tell you what and what not to look for in all three categories.
There’s one other “predator” out there that drools over the thought of your moolah: That would be the government, which seems to want a piece of everything you do. It’s all very well and good, of course, to pay your fair share to enjoy the benefits of living in a modern society, but there’s no reason to pay more than that out of ignorance, is there? That’s why we include a chapter on how to deal intelligently with your tax bill and how to avoid tipping Uncle Sam unnecessarily.
Categories: Assets, Finances, Money, Secure Tags: Assets, Money, Protecting Money and Assets, Protecting Your Money and Assets
