Financial Fundamentals

By Tracie Shapiro, SPHR SHRM-SCP

It's amazing how many people do not balance their checkbooks or don't participate in their companies 401(k) or 403(b) plans. Or they are so far in debt they fear they will never see daylight. In many cases, these are not uneducated people; this just happens to be an area of their lives where they have received little to no guidance. So they do the best they can with what they do know. Financial Fundamentals not only shares practical information such as how to balance a checking account and how to set up a budget, but also asks many questions designed to help the reader think through why their current financial situation is in the shape it is. While there are many books that go into a lot more depth than Financial Fundamentals, this book was written for anyone who may be just getting started, may be starting over, needs to get a better handle on the basics, or just needs to know that there is a way to a better life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781643007854

Book preview

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Financial Fundamentals

Tracie Shapiro SPHR, SHRM-SCP

ISBN 978-1-64300-784-7 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64300-785-4 (Digital)

Copyright © 2018 Tracie Shapiro SPHR, SHRM-SCP

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Introduction

I am one of those people that would tell you everything I knew if I thought it would help you. And there aren’t too many topics that I consider off-limits. One of the things that I believe I can be helpful in is in the area of finances. While coleading Crown Financial Ministries classes at my church back in South Carolina and Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Classes at my church in Kentucky, I realized that many people don’t have a good handle on how to responsibly handle their finances. And by watching and listening to how family, friends, and coworkers handle their finances, I have come to the conclusion that everyone should go through a course in basic money management.

One of the problems I see today is the number of people that are not going to be able to retire —unless they start now, making some major changes in their lives. And while you or I may not want to retire when the time comes, it would at least be nice to have the option.

There are many great books and resources on finances, and I have included several in the resources section. However, I realize that many people don’t have the time or the desire to read everything they could. For this reason, I have purposefully made this as straightforward as I know how in the hopes that the ones who read this will at least have a basic understanding of how finances work and how they can improve their individual circumstances.

In the following pages, there are some basic information and tips that I believe everyone should know. It’s amazing how many people do not balance their checkbooks or don’t participate in their company’s 401(k) or 403(b) plan. Or they are so far in debt they fear they will never see daylight. In many cases, these are not uneducated people; this just happens to be an area of their lives where they have received little to no guidance. So they do the best they can with what they do know.

Your Money Habits

Who Taught You How to Handle Money?

Chances are, no one ever sat you down and told you how to responsibly handle financial matters. And because of that, your spending and saving habits are largely the result of how you saw money handled in your home. And as an adult, you developed your own ideas about how much and what kind of spending and saving was acceptable.

The problem with this approach is that many, if not most of us, flounder around and make many mistakes that could have been easily avoided if only someone had taken the time to show us the basics of money management.

My primary goal in writing this is to give you the tools to improve on what you may already know. The ideas are not new, they are a collection of things that I have picked up from reading books and articles, coleading finance courses in my church, my own trials (and errors), and from listening to what has worked for—and happened to—others.

As you are reading this book, there will be questions that will need to be answered. In order to get a clear picture of where you are financially, it is important that you are honest with your own personal situation. And keep in mind that while we can be exposed to all sorts of ideas that will work, we have to make a conscious decision to put those ideas into practice if we ever want to see any positive results.

Attitudes toward Finances

My husband and I have different attitudes about finances. I’m the one who finds money or gets unexpected checks in the mail, so my thoughts are that there’s more where that came from. As a child, I never thought about whether we were rich or poor. We didn’t get everything we wanted, but we did get everything we needed. As children, we earned money by collecting and selling drink bottles, picking blackberries to sell in our neighborhood, and making As on our report cards. As we got older, my sister and I had babysitting jobs. Today we all have regular jobs.

My husband came from a rather large