As I wrote in the FinancialVerse – A Common Sense Approach for Your Money, there are 10 Must Do’s to manage your financial life. The first of those is to spend two hours per week learning and studying the world of personal finance. In part 1 of this blog post, I explained why you should make it a priority to spend 2 hours per week on financial education activities. In this post, I will direct you to some resources I have used in expanding my own education.
Websites That Can Help
These sites focus more on personal financial issues versus those that look at starting a business, entrepreneurial ideas, and business management. There is a tremendous amount of free information available that can make your financial journey better each day. Find one or two you really like, and consistently visit them.
MarketWatch.com
Publications Worth the Read
I read three financial publications on a regular basis; reading the daily, weekly, or monthly issues of the publication. They provide great sources of information, practical ideas, and suggested strategies for what can be done with money and how to address certain financial risks.
The publications are:
Podcasts of Importance
I am also an avid listener to podcasts and subscribe to about thirty on a regular basis. What are podcasts? For those of you who haven’t joined the trend yet, think of them as seven- to thirty-minute audio or radio programs you can listen to on a variety of topics. You can listen to them on your phone, desktop, or tablet while you drive, exercise, or walk.
I usually listen to them as I complete my morning walk. You can subscribe to them using Apple Podcast, Google Play, iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and the Stitcher applications, for example. These applications are free to access and use. I have chosen these podcasts based on my experience with the quality of topics discussed and keeping my interest.
My recommendations are:
This Morning with Gordon Deal (general news with an emphasis on financial matters)
Resources You Should Consider in Your Education
There are a number of other financial resources available on an online basis to assist you with your journey including financial planning software, financial calculators, detailed product information, retirement income, and investment-planning applications.
These applications can be obtained from your local banking institution, LifeHappens for life-insurance-related materials, Life Insurance Marketing and Research Association (LIMRA), the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and from investment management companies such as Fidelity and Charles Schwab.
Summary
I cannot stress enough the importance of spending two hours per week (Spend2) on your financial education. In my opinion, the key reason people fail in their financial journeys is that they didn’t have the necessary education and information to make the key financial decisions in their lives. People go through life financially illiterate and expect things to get better for them, when in fact, they have not taken the actions to educate themselves. Today so much quality information, advice, and ideas are available on the internet, podcasts, blogs, and from general financial media that can help people make the decisions necessary in the FinancialVerse.
Spend2 supports the priority you need to make on your financial education. Knowledge is power, particularly when it comes to financial matters. Spend2 – it will change your financial life.