What some people fail to realize is, goals are the life blood of your dreams. Setting personal financial goals and striving to achieving these milestones will bring you closer to your big picture. You can “wing it” and see how far you get, but I think most of you have already tried that. Setting goals will get you to your destination much faster than not… Why do you thing banks ask to see a business plans before issuing a loan?

Your goals do not have to be extravagant, with all types of complex details. Your goals can be simple steps you need to complete in order to get you closer to your dreams. For example: you will need to have a certain amount of money saved to secure a mortgage loan for that house. Figure out how much you can save from your pay check each week and every time you get paid save that amount. Every time you put some money towards that account you will come closer to your ultimate goal.

People turn their dreams into reality everyday and you can too, you just have to be realistic and make your goal easy to reach. If you set unrealistic goal you are setting yourself up for failure. Keep you goals simple and easy to achieve, then make large goals as you become comfortable and remember to always keep in-line with your big picture.

I am a do-it-myself-on-paper kind of guy, but I realize that this is the age of the Internet there are better was to manage your personal finances. Web based personal finance managers are all over the net, with features you can not get from a pen and a notepad or even some windows based financial management programs. I have put together a short list of web based personal finance managers for those of you looking for a better way to manage your finances. Be careful and put in some research time before you choose a site as they do require you to provide your personal financial information.

Mint

Strands money

Yodlee

ClearCheckBook

FnCentral

Wesabe

Thrive

Expensology

Prefios

Geezio

Jawaala

There you have it, eleven web based personal finance managers for you to choose from. Managing your money can be hard, but these sites should help make it a little easier for you. They all have great features that are explained on each website, so I will not go into which is the best or worst. Take a little time a read their blogs to get a feel of what the users are saying about the service you might even learn some tips for saving money.  I will leave it up to you to choose the one that is best for your needs. I hope one of these will be the key to changing your financial situation and starting you on the road to financial security.

]]> http://www.jinij.com/list-of-the-11-best-web-based-personal-finance-managers/feed/ 3 http://www.jinij.com/personal-money-management/ http://www.jinij.com/personal-money-management/#comments Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:40:33 +0000 Daniel http://www.jinij.com/?p=187 As I have mentioned many many times before personal money management is very important. Keeping your life and money organized will help you to know exactly where it all needs to go and where it really ends up. This is not an over night process by any means, it will take time, persistence and Patience to get the hang of it all. Most importantly, you have to change your habits to include the new budget plan. Entertainment seems to be the cinch where people impulsively spend and tend to use up monthly savings. You have to make it a part of your everyday life by sticking to your budget, monitoring your money and actively working towards your financial goals.

When most people realize the need to learn personal money management they are in a critical situation. I suggest you take baby steps when you first start and try to read and learn as much as you can in order to build a good foundation. Take the time to learn why and how to automate your money before you run to the bank and set up a bunch of savings accounts. Knowing what a budget is and the purpose for one will make it much easier to create one and stick with it. Personal money management is a life skill that you will continue to use for years to come so, rushing and taking short cuts will only hurt you in the long run. There are many blogs/website, seminars you can attend and book you can read to get you started on the road to the riches. The local library has all the book you could ever want for free, all you need is a library card.

I know many will read this and want to take action, but will never take the first step. If you found your way to this site and have read this far it is very likely you need to learn to manage your money better. As far as I know for one reason or another everyone needs money and it does not matter how much you have you will always think you need more. There will always be new things to buy, places to go, bills coming in the mail and they all require money. The more you know about personal money management the easier it will be to buy these things, go to these places and pay your bills on time. So, not taking the time to learn is your option and it will always be true that not knowing is not an excuse. I will even go as far as to suggest a few books for you to read. I will teach you to be rich by Rami Sethi, personal finance for dummies by Eric Tyson, Think and grow rich by Napoleon Hill (Any of his books really) and The millionaire next door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko the rest is up to you.

Till next time remember money is only a means to an end.

I am a planner, I plan every little move I make. I am so good at it I only write down my mid term goals and long term goals. This has help me to complete almost every thing I have done through out my life financially and other wise.  If you take a look around you everything you see was planned in one way or another. It was the plan of Sony, Compaq, Gateway, Dell, Apple, or which ever brand of computer you are using to get you to buy it. If Apple had failed to plan its design, manufacturing, advertising, and distribution you would be using another brand right now.

Everyone needs to have a personal financial plan, without it you will be flying blind, you would not know where your money needs to be or where it is going, but amazingly almost everyone I know has a stupid look on their face when the subject arise. Yes, it will take time and research to put together a good financial plan and yes it is just as boring as watching a box of printing paper, but take a minute and think of the alternative. Think about how much planning it takes to put together a decent birthday party, and think what would happen if you did not take the time to plan said party. Your little sister might end up being the DJ, Pizza Hut would be the caterer, your living room would be the dance floor and only the people that feel obligated to celebrate your B-day would drop what they are doing for your last minute invitations. Well, finances are far more important than any birthday party, but most people spend more time planning a party then they do their financial future.

The #1 answer I get when I ask why don’t you have a Personal financial plan is “I don’t know where to start.” In his book I will teach you to be rich Ramit Sethi makes two unarguably point. He states that you don’t need to be a financial expert and starting making your financial mistakes early is better than not starting at all (Not his exact words but I’m feeling too lazy to go and get the book right now). The odds of you making a catastrophic mistake is pretty much the same as not having a personal financial plan at all. So, my answer to everyone that gives me the “I don’t know where to start excuse” is “$1,000 in a Roth IRA will earn you no less that $3000 in profit you never have to worked for In 40 years. If you add another $1,000 a year you will earn over $100,000; now thats a pretty expensive excuse.”

I do not think personal financial planning should be an option, it should be taken out of people salaries along with taxes, but it is an option. It is left up to you to prepare for your future and you can make all the excuses you want because your not cheating anyone but yourself and your children.