Remaining debt-free is not as hard as you may think. Getting debt free and staying debt free demands that you consider your expenditures more carefully before you make them. There - that's not so hard, is it?

The plain, harsh truth is that buying and owning a new car can potentially destroy personal wealth generation more than almost any other expense. This is especially true if you only hold on to that new car for under four years.

Everyday we are bombarded with dazzling images of luxury items we simply "can't do without" and offers we simply can't refuse. All it takes is succumbing to one of these to wipe out an entire windfall. We've been programmed by our culture to seek out instant gratification. We buy things we can't afford rather than plan and patiently wait until we've saved up enough to buy "it" (whatever it may be) responsibly. Thus our money is going out before it comes in.

One of the most frequently asked questions about money management is how to develop a household budget that works. Far too often, people wait until they are in financial trouble before they start thinking about budgeting. Either they get laid off or they find themselves dealing with a large unplanned expense. Either way, a household budget could have helped.

Simply put, a budget is a spending plan. It details how much you earn, how much you spend, and how much is left over. If you have any money left over, then you have a budget surplus. If you don't, you have a budget deficit. If you happen to fall into the budget deficit category, then you have to cut non-essential purchases completely out of your budget. Generally, living and leisure expenses can be modified slightly to fix the problem.

From the moment a baby is born (and sometimes from even earlier on), the parents begin concerning themselves with how to save enough money for that kid's eventual college education. Thankfully, colleges, universities, and the local, state, and federal governments have come up with a variety of programs designed to help and encourage parents to sock money away in stable growth investment vehicles for that (inevitable?) day when young Miss or Mister steps out onto campus a doe-eyed, first-day freshman.

So you think you've tried every way possible to finance your college education. You've tried scholarships and government grants, you've applied for financial aid, and pleaded with every family member you could and still you find yourself coming up short. It would be a shame not to be able to pursue the education you desire, especially when there are still other ways to help you out of this quagmire.

In a word - never. There's your answer. If you're convinced, you can skip ahead to another of this site's excellent articles. If, however, you need a bit more convincing that it's truly never too soon to start planning for retirement, then read on.

Every time you get issued a paycheck, approximately 1/4 of your pay (your gross earnings) is withheld to cover taxes. Wouldn't it be great if the money ordinarily withheld for federal, state, social security, and Medicare taxes could instead be invested to make you more money? The big corporations can get away with deducting most of their taxes. Why can't you? The answer, primarily, is that you just don't have the information on how to do so properly. Until now.

There's no better way to manage your finances than by being keenly aware of the interplay between your net income (how much you take home after taxes) and your total expenses (including fixed expenses like bills and variable expenses like clothing or entertainment). See our companion article "Creating a Household Budget" for an easy path to a clear and cogent financial plan. Making use of software, like Budget Forecaster from Strativia, makes the task even easier.

When buying a car, whether new or used, take advantage of the fact that most car salespeople have quotas to fill.  Therefore, in order to save money, you should shop at the end of the month when car dealers are frantic to fill their quotas, rather than at the beginning when they've got the whole month ahead of them to make their sales.  You're bound to get better deals from a panicked salesperson than from a confident one.

How do we teach our children about money, and when do we start? How do we instill in them a sense of the importance of personal money management? How do you teach them to budget?

Put another way, you don't "make" what you earn, you make what you keep.

There are a number of ways for you to better manage and save your money when it comes to lowering your electricity, home heating, and water expenses.

When buying new appliances, buy only Energy Star or other certified energy-efficient appliances. To find out which ones fit the bill, all you need to do is read the federally mandated Energy Guide Labels affixed to each appliance.

Credit card companies along with other creditors routinely target college students for their products and services. If a student is not careful, it is possible for them to become loaded with debt before they even graduate. Think this is a remote problem? Think again.

Organizations are increasingly offering some form of workplace financial education as part of their employee benefits program. They recognize the long-term intrinsic value of such a service.

With nearly 75% of all employees living paycheck-to-paycheck, personal finance issues can adversely affect the work performance. To combat this growing trend, employers are increasingly offering workplace personal financial education for their employees as part of their benefits program.