Personal Finances: Are You Planning Ahead?

One of the most important aspects of getting your personal finances in order — and working for you — is planning ahead. My Dollar Plan has a great post on some areas that you should consider when creating a financial plan:

1. Saving for college.
2. Pick a house for your intended family size.
3. Plan ahead for financing needs (when borrowing for large purchases like homes and cars).
4. Start saving for retirement NOW.
5. Get a marketable degree.
6. Match your goals with your finances.

I think the point here is that you need to plan ahead. You won’t be successful in building your personal finances if you don’t make a plan. This means that you need to sit down and really think about your priorities — figure out what is important to you.

While we are setting aside money for our son’s education, it’s not actually a high priority. (You might have a different priority.) We’re just getting the account started. It will be up to him to do most of the funding. I think that my son should contribute to his education. My parents helped me with living expenses, but always made it clear that I would be responsible for my own tuition. (I worked hard for scholarships as a result.) I plan to do something similar for my son — teaching him the importance of planning ahead

Think about the expenses that are likely to come up in your life, and make a plan for dealing with them. And one thing that I thought should have been on the list was this: Set aside money for a rainy day. Because sometimes you can’t always plan for everything.

image credit: sxc.hu