Is your money where it needs to be today?
If you don’t know the answer to that question, figure it out. Your financial future may be at stake — especially with everything that’s happening on Wall Street.
Most people are woefully uninformed about the basics of personal finance and investing. Don’t be one them. Like I was.
You see, I lost a chunk of change when the dot com bubble burst back in 2000. That was a different situation than we’re facing now. But it was still a rude way to realize that I was really, really dumb about money.
I vowed to educate myself, which I did. Because of that, I didn’t panic this morning when I saw that the foreign markets had tanked.
So if you’re not in control of your money, set yourself on a course to change that. And don’t be overwhelmed. There are lots of resources designed for people who don’t trade stocks for a living.
Get a subscription to a financial magazine like Money or Smart Money. Flip on CNBC for a few minutes a day. Find some websites you like. Try these:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/21324812/site/14081545/
Whatever you do, don’t ignore your money — no matter how much you have. Sticking your head in the sand is a surefire way to end up with less than you deserve.
There’s a lot happening on Wall Street, and you need to understand it. Your future financial well-being is at stake.
No matter how much money you have saved, you need to be in control of it. If you have no money saved, I am not a financial whiz. And I have the statements to prove it. Like so many people, I lost money when the dot com bubble burst.
The current crisis rocking Wall Street is different than what happened in 2000. But it is nonetheless, a crisis.
The first — and perhaps most important — lesson I learned from my money-losing experience was that I needed to educate myself about responsible investing. I now preach that gospel whenever I have the chance.
Because I did that, I sleep fairly well through times like this. You can, too.
