Money Tips Network

Naked With Cash is an ongoing series at Consumerism Commentary in which readers share their households’ finances with other readers. These participants benefit from the accountability that comes from tracking their finances publicly and the feedback of the four expert Certified Financial Planners (CFPs).

For more information, read this introduction.

This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.

Until I reached my early 20s, I believed that my childhood had fewer financial advantages than the average childhood. Once I gained more life experience, I saw that my family hadn’t been as poor as I thought we were.

That doesn’t mean we weren’t poor, though. We wore hand-me-downs, didn’t go on vacations much, qualified for reduced school lunches, things like that. But we were “poor with potential.” When I arrived, my parents were in their very early 20s, and my dad was at the beginning of establishing his farm. While they didn’t have much money at that point, they knew how to manage it. And while they didn’t have much income coming in from jobs, they knew what to do to make that happen. Things started to change when I was a teenager. In fact, my youngest sibling remembers a completely different childhood — vacations and new carpet, but nothing about the really difficult times.

The year 2013 was a milestone for me with lots of life changes. As I step deep into my 30s now, I thought it might be interesting to take a look back at my 20s. If I could go back and give my 22-year-old self some sage money advice (I was just out of college and starting graduate school in a new country), what would it be? Over the years, I have made several statements that started with “I wish I had…” I have tried to recover from them, but I still wish I had never done them in the first place.

If you are in your 20s (or even 30s), here are some money mistakes to avoid.

Money mistakes to avoid in your 20s

Something has captured your imagination or your heart. Maybe it’s an expensive physical item, like a tablet computer or a shiny car. Maybe it’s something like a relationship with another person, either real or visualized.

You get wrapped up in this thing that you want. You keep visualizing yourself with this thing in your life and you begin to truly believe that your life will be better when you have this thing, whatever it might be. You begin to see things missing in your current life and buy into the idea that only this thing you’re dreaming of can fill those holes.

This is one of the most painful psychological traps that a person can push themselves into. It costs you time and money and it often leads to heartache.

As I mentioned a month or so ago, I’ve come to the recognition that time management is a vital part of personal finance. It not only helps your career, it also has an impact on your focus throughout the day and on your other financial choices. With that in mind, I’m writing occasional articles on time management issues.

Most of us have jobs where the work ebbs and flows. Sometimes, there’s not much going on – there aren’t many customers or you’re in between projects. At other times, it feels insane and you’re devoting what seems like all of your time and energy to your job.

Often, it’s your performance during those crunch times that determines how valuable you are in your workplace. The person that doesn’t come through when the chips are down is going to be the first person out the door when downsizing occurs.

All of us have a fear or two that keeps us up through the night. Maybe it’s debt or being unable to take care of your family. Maybe it’s a lack of money for retirement. Maybe it’s a health issue or early death.

My biggest fear, without a doubt, is passing away before my children reach adulthood. I’m not worried that Sarah will be able to provide a good childhood for my children. My worry is that they won’t have the two-parent opportunities that they have now and that they will wonder what kind of person their father was when they reach adulthood.

My second biggest fear is that I’m not doing enough to create lots of income streams for steady income for my family. Let’s say, for some reason, that my arrangement for writing The Simple Dollar ceased. I have some additional sources of income, but not nearly as many as I would like. I’ve dabbled in many things over the years, meaning that I have lots of “trickles.”

Virgil.Texas

These days it seems you can’t surf the Web without running into some self-proclaimed “finance guru” peddling easy, painless answers for complex money problems. These shysters are always going on about “saving money” and “planning for the future” while your bank account gets drained buying their expensive ebooks and PDFs. Well, you can throw their [...]

Why saving money is for idiots from personal finance blog Bargaineering.com.

This blog was posted by Virgil.Texas

One of the most versatile food items in your pantry is not a spice or vegetable — it's a tortilla. Whether you stock your kitchen with flour tortillas or corn, you can expand your menu with these low cost, readily available products. (See also: Homemade Gluten-Free Flour Tortillas)

The many uses include substitutions for bread, pizza crust, and even dessert. Read on for 10 surprising ways to use tortillas in your kitchen.

Welcome to Wise Bread's Best Money Tips Roundup! Today we found some awesome articles on ways to start earning more money, combining your finances, and how much you need to earn to buy a home.

Top 5 Articles

The Easiest Ways to Start Earning More Money Today — If you want to start earning money today, use your tech skills or make something. [Free Money Finance]

How to Combine Your Finances: The 5 Step Guide — When combining your finances, attack your debt and start an emergency fund. [How's Married Life?]