Thoughts About [Money]
Sep. 6th, 2005 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tcepsaMoney is something that I have almost always had a hard time talking about. I think my parents were probably more open with me about sex than they were about money management. For example, my dad tried to teach me how to use Quicken and balance my checkbook and create a budget, but I don't remember us ever sitting down and having "The Talk" about finances (whereas I can remember that we did have "The Talk" about sex). So I had some of the technical knowledge of how to balance a checkbook and keep track of money, and I understood that I wanted to keep it out of the red, but beyond that I didn't have much. And I didn't really have any classes on the subject, either, that I can remember. We might have touched on it a little bit back in Family and Consumer Sciences (about 10 or 11 years ago), and I had one Econ class in college that was just painful for me, and that's about it. To me, investing and things like that were something that I would learn about doing "once I grew up."
It's slowly dawning on me that it is time for me to grow up about money. It's time for me to get my head out of the sand and take a more active look at--and role in--my finances. Up until this point I've basically been focusing on staying out of the red. I think I've pretty much got that down now, and I'm looking to learn more about how I can put my hard-earned cash to work for me. I'm currently working my way through some of the Rich Dad books, which seem to be a very good starting place. Right now I'm focusing on absorbing as much of the material as possible, but soon, in a month or two, I will want to start actually doing things as well. For example, a message I'm seeing pretty consistently is "find a competent financial advisor." How does one do that?
I would be surprised if there aren't at least a few LJ communities out there that talk about money management, and I intend to search for them. And if there aren't, or if I don't find one, then I'll probably try to create one. I'm interested in joining, or opening, a dialogue about money. Getting it out of the closet and taking a good look at it. Dusting it off, oiling it up, tinkering with it, seeing whether I can get it to work for me instead of sitting in a bank working for someone else. I know that seems a little bit against the American way, where people talk about money in hushed tones, with shyness, embarassment, fear, or anger (either because they don't have as much as they want, or they have more than their neighbors, or--as I suspect is often the case--both). But I also know that some of the people reading this don't care as much about what other people think, and are more interested in taking beliefs (both their own and others') out and giving them a thorough examination, holding them up against as objective a perspective as they can get. That's all I'm really suggesting here, but instead of beliefs about God and the Universe, I'm going to start looking at beliefs about Money and the Economy. Just as I think it is important for me to have many perspectives when I am pondering the spiritual, I think it is also important for me to have many perspectives when I am pondering the financial.
To that end, I'd like to invite you to comment (anonymous is fine if you're more comfortable with that) on this and subsequent [Money] posts.
It's slowly dawning on me that it is time for me to grow up about money. It's time for me to get my head out of the sand and take a more active look at--and role in--my finances. Up until this point I've basically been focusing on staying out of the red. I think I've pretty much got that down now, and I'm looking to learn more about how I can put my hard-earned cash to work for me. I'm currently working my way through some of the Rich Dad books, which seem to be a very good starting place. Right now I'm focusing on absorbing as much of the material as possible, but soon, in a month or two, I will want to start actually doing things as well. For example, a message I'm seeing pretty consistently is "find a competent financial advisor." How does one do that?
I would be surprised if there aren't at least a few LJ communities out there that talk about money management, and I intend to search for them. And if there aren't, or if I don't find one, then I'll probably try to create one. I'm interested in joining, or opening, a dialogue about money. Getting it out of the closet and taking a good look at it. Dusting it off, oiling it up, tinkering with it, seeing whether I can get it to work for me instead of sitting in a bank working for someone else. I know that seems a little bit against the American way, where people talk about money in hushed tones, with shyness, embarassment, fear, or anger (either because they don't have as much as they want, or they have more than their neighbors, or--as I suspect is often the case--both). But I also know that some of the people reading this don't care as much about what other people think, and are more interested in taking beliefs (both their own and others') out and giving them a thorough examination, holding them up against as objective a perspective as they can get. That's all I'm really suggesting here, but instead of beliefs about God and the Universe, I'm going to start looking at beliefs about Money and the Economy. Just as I think it is important for me to have many perspectives when I am pondering the spiritual, I think it is also important for me to have many perspectives when I am pondering the financial.
To that end, I'd like to invite you to comment (anonymous is fine if you're more comfortable with that) on this and subsequent [Money] posts.
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no subject
Date: 2005-09-07 05:38 am (UTC)An exception being for the first time purchase of a home. You can withdraw up to $10,000 without penalty (taxes still apply) if you are using it to buy a home.
So, as long as the closing costs of the home purchase + interest for the tax year is greater than $10,000 you can use the full amount without any additional tax liability.