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You know you’re in personal finance denial if you aren’t truthful about money and the role it plays in your life. For instance, do you ignore your bank statements or bills, carelessly keep adding to your credit card debts, have a growing overdraft or keep spending money you don’t have in order to impress others?

If you do any of the above, chances are good you have also experienced the pitfalls of personal finance denial and find money and your relationship with it very stressful.

Personal finance denial is a waste of time and energy. Denying the truth and not taking steps to improve your financial situation is the worst thing you can do.

Your issues with money will not go away if you continue with a negative attitude. By being in personal finance denial you’re actually inviting things to go from bad to worse. Being in denial is like being in a hole and unless you make a change soon you’ll find yourself digging an even deeper hole for yourself.

Money will always have a damaging effect on you and your family members unless you make the decision to let go of your denial and negative personal finance thinking.

In order to get rid of all your negative feelings surrounding money and to let the stress and frustration go about not having enough or not being able to keep up, you have to commit to making a change. You need to take control of your money and the way you use it once and for all.

The first step is acknowledging that you’re in charge of your money instead of your money being in charge of you.

You need to believe that you have what it takes to be successful with money. You also need to accept that you have the power to make a change.

Remove the word ‘can’t’ from your vocabulary and vow from this day on to use the word ‘CAN’ whenever you think of your relationship with money. Instead of saying to yourself, “I can’t afford it”. Repeat to yourself over and over again, “I’d rather save my money for something else.”

Consider also the words ‘love’ and ‘hate’. Hating money and the role it plays in your life is negative whereas saying “I love money” is positive.

In order to love money you need to appreciate it for what it is - a means of bringing good things into your life. Say, “I love being able to manage my money well.”

In order to be a personal finance success you also need to be a positive thinker. One of the best ways to believe you have what it takes to be successful with money is to keep telling yourself you are.
“I will be a personal finance success because I believe in myself and in my abilities to make all my financial dreams come true.”

Believe it or not a simple phrase repeated over and over can really make a difference.

Even though I’m talking about how you can be a personal finance success with positive thinking, the same technique applies to other areas of your life. By repeating positive phrases you can make a change for the better.

To learn more about how to become a personal finance success visit http://www.positivemoney.blogspot.com

Instead of complaining that you never have enough money for the things you really want, be thankful for the money that you do have and the control you have over it.

Good money management involves being truthful about your spending habits, prioritizing what you spend your money on and enjoying the abundance that is already in your life.

Don’t be weak around money - be powerful. Tell yourself that you have the ability to manage your money well.

Get rid of negative thoughts like “I don’t have enough money,” “I hate bills,” and “I can’t afford it.”

Replace those thoughts with positive phrases like “I will always have enough money for the things that matter most,” “I will pay my bills because I appreciate the benefits of the goods and services purchased,” and “I chose to save instead of spending my money on something that isn’t really important to me.”

It’s also important to acknowledge that you have the power to spend money on the things that you feel are personally worthwhile and that you don’t need to give in to spending money on things that aren’t important. Just because other people may spend carelessly, doesn’t mean you have to follow suit. How you spend your money should be your choice - no one else’s.

Personal finance should not be burden - it should be a joy. When you change your attitude about money from a negative to a positive, you free yourself from stress and worry, and open the door to freedom and pleasure.

Remember negative thoughts keep you poor, positive thoughts create abundance.

Sherrie Le Masurier is a columnist who writes extensively on personal finance issues. To learn more about how positive thoughts can create abundance visit her blog http://www.positivemoney.blogspot.com - Copyright.

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That means working on a consistent basis to keep your personal finance house in order. You say really, how do I go about doing this? There are many ways for you to keep your own personal finances in order. Here are some tips on how you can go about doing this:

1) Create a personal finance budget for yourself and your family if you have one. You can do this by categorizing how your money is spent such as; rent, mortgage, food, entertainment, utilities, credit and debit card expenditures, savings, income, travel, etc… You get the idea. Just categorize your budget with what makes you comfortable. You may also want to utilize a software program to assist you with the budget you create. You may want to consider a software program that has a spreadsheet. By the way, you may want to do your budget on a monthly basis. Your budget should assist you in determining where your money actually goes!

2) By all means get your credit report and credit score! You may want consider running your credit report on an annual basis. Did you know that you’re entitled to a free copy of your credit report from each of the credit bureaus(Equifax,TransUnion,Experian) every year? You can secure a copy of your credit report by going through www.annualcreditreport.com. So, go ahead and order your credit report so you can check it for accuracy. If you have any problems with your report, you’ll need to contact the particular credit bureau directly. The contact information will be provided when you’ve secured a copy of your credit report. By the way, you’ll have to pay a few dollars extra to get your credit score separately from the credit bureaus. But, it’s well worth it, to know how your credit is being scored for your overall credit.

3) Work on determining from your budget and credit report what problems you may have with your finances. These tools should assist you in what you need to do to improve or maintain your finances. It’s like a snapshot of where your money is going. So you don’t have to ask the question, where did all of my money go?

4) Consider working on adding if you haven’t already done so, savings to your budget. You may be saying, I barely have enough to make ends meet, how can I save money? Well, you can! Just say yes you can to yourself. A good way to start is by saving your change. That’s right just start by saving your change. You’d be surprised the amount of money you can save by doing this. You can also, set aside a certain amount of money on weekly, biweekly or monthly basis that you’d like to save. Make the amount of money you save realistic, so you can stick to your savings plan.

5) Set future financial projections for where you want to be with your budget in say one to five years. You may want to consider doing this to achieve your possible short and long term goals. For example, if you decide that you want to purchase a home in two to three years, a future financial budget projection may assist you in knowing how much money you need to save to achieve this goal. Or, maybe you plan to retire in five years, again your future budget projection may assist you with this plan.

6) Take a closer look at your credit and debit card expenses in order to assist you in tracking how you are spending your money. This may help you determine if you’re spending too much money in certain areas if you’re trying to save.

7) Check to see if your financial house is in order in reference to your insurance such as; vehicle insurance, medical insurance, rental insurance, homeowners insurance, life insurance, disability insurance etc… Make sure you have the insurance you need for yourself and your family. You may want to consider doing an annual check-up on your insurance, before the renewal due dates. This will give you the opportunity to reassess the insurance you currently have. You’ll be glad that you did!

So, now you have it! That’s what doing your personal finance homework means. You should be on your way to getting a handle on your personal finances if you have not already done so. You’ll be better prepared to manage your finances.

Nocita Carter is a writer and web designer that creates websites providing informative tips on various subject matter including personal finance tips on your personal finances at http://www.personal-finance-tips-for-you.com ; dating tips at http://www.mydating-tips.com and your choice of ebooks at http://www.ebook-corner-for-you.com

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One of the most important part of our lives, unfortunately a necessity, is finance. We are all in different circumstances, so it will certainly depend on these, to determine how finance will affect each of us individually. Of course, our “individuality” might be in fact the way that a partnership like marriage would view a financial situation and thus determine what sort of lifestyle that could be followed.

Finance for most people, firstly and foremost, would constitute a salary. This in itself has a major bearing on how we lead our lives. The days of the cash pay packet seem to be dying out. Probably very sensible, if only from a security viewpoint. So, there may be a day to day sortie to check balances, if finances are not in the healthiest of states, to find out exactly what cash is available at any given time. The handling of finance, quite understandably, is determined by exactly how much we earn. That is certainly the basis for all our budgets. Unfortunately, it may be said, that finance is really too easy to attain nowadays in the form of loans, exerting extra pressure to accept greater debt and therefore diminish spending power because of taking on the extra loan.

Finance may well come in other forms. We may have throughout our early lives, worked out a strict strategy in budgetary considerations, taking into account the fact that allowances need to be made for the future. It all sounds very simple, but folk need to be particularly strict with their spending habits, to fulfil their aims. However, this is achievable in many cases, by perhaps using some of our earned finance by investing in say, shares or some other form of stock.

At different times of our lives we need to be more aware of finances. The very fact that within relationships, children do come along, may indeed put an extreme strain on finances and also in these set of circumstances, care has to be taken when budgeting for their clothing, upbringing, education, allowances etc. Finance has a way of being very unforgiving if this allowance is not made in a number of eventualities. Children being a prime example.

Once the family grows up, we have to plan other things. This is as sure as night follows day. We need to look to preparation for old age. We have used our finances to buy homes, raise children, take a few vacations and with luck, save a few dollars, we now have to try and think about our retirement benefits.

If we have been frugal enough in younger days, there is a good chance that we have allowed from of our finances, a sum to be placed in a fund for us to use when we reach whatever retirement age we have chosen. Self-financing seems to be the vogue when making the decision on how our money will look after us. With luck there will be enough to see through to “the end”.

It doesn’t need a genius to recognise that this necessary evil called finance, is with us at all times and if we take a look back at what we have achieved throughout our lives, it would have to be said that no decision would have been made without first considering the financial implications.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Finance

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