When you begin life, money does not seem important until you want something and realize there is a thing called "money"

 

What is "money"

 

As a child

As a teenager

As a young adult

As a married person

As a divorced person

As a retiring person

As an elderly person

As a dead person

 

Throughout life, our choices can be dictated by our lack of or abundance of "money".

 

Build your credit young with a gas credit card as soon as you have a car.

 

For example, Use it once a month for like $50 and pay it off. Do that for 1-2 years and then close the card to give your credit report and history a little positive check mark.

 

Between the age of 30 and 50, understand and use compounding interest.

 

For example, each paycheck you receive per week, every two weeks or month, put away in a separate safe account 10%. After the first few months, look at the rate of growth and be astonished. If you need it for a rainy day fund just in case all heck breaks lose, that's okay to dip into it. That is what it is there for. Last but not least, if you live to be old, that little fund might become a large fund that you can just enjoy and not have to be double taxed on.

 

Understand the difference between spending a dollar versus investing a dollar.

 

Opportunity cost and sunken investments are two words that are good to learn.

 

After age 50, learn that saving is like dying. You can do it, it just takes on a new look and form.

 

Personal note: Interesting fact: though I could not balance a fake checkbook with $100 in 9th grade finance class taught by a basketball coach who gave me a C when I could have earned an A, within a few years by the age of 19, I could settle, audit and manage a 24 million dollar annual group command budget and quarterly report  in the US Army, by myself without financial and accounting training, just quartermaster supply training.

 

more to come...