Just as it is important to keep personal finance simple, it is also important to keep it fun.
Why?
Because most likely this is not at the top of your fun list. Yet personal finance is one of those things that will ENABLE you to do all the things on your fun list!
And to be honest with you, if you start implementing some of the personal finance ideas out there, you will find that you enjoy the “game” of personal finance a lot.
Paying off my first credit card, and my first car loan was a very exciting game.
The credit card was a little hard to manage at first, but I eventually got it down.
I am happy to say that I paid off my first car loan ahead of schedule. And also happy to say I paid off my second car loan even faster and have been driving my paid off car around for quite some time. Everyone says I should buy a new car, but I enjoy the game too much. I want to be the proud owner of car that has over 200,000 miles and is still running like a champ.
It was also fun to save up my first emergency fund which will currently allow me to live for 6 months without any income at all. I did this by simply asking my employer to automatically deposit 10% of my check into savings.
It is actually fun for me to plan future purchases, and future trips. Each bit of money I save for that goal makes me more excited to get there. Currently I am looking to buy some more camera equipment.
There are a plethora of ways to make personal finance into a game. (and yes, I just wanted to use plethora in a sentence.)
If you enjoy the pleasure of achieving goals, then you will love personal finance more and more as you achieve those goals.
How would you like to buy a car, use it for two years, then sell it back to someone for the same price you bought it at? With personal finance ingenuity you can do it.
How about pay off your house in less than 30 years like everyone else out there who pays too much for a house? How about in less than 15 years? Maybe buy a house in cash? It can be done with personal finance skills.
Maybe you simply want to get out of debt? Personal Finance can help make it easy, automatic, and inevitable. Just whip up some fancy graphs and charts, or whatever works for you. Pay some debt down each month, and track how fast it will take you to get to the bottom. Progress is exciting to watch. And if you play the game well, you will win!
Personal Finance doesn’t have to be a dry, boring subject. It is only that way if you make it that way. If you can get excited about all the possibilities that having personal finance skills opens up in your life…
Well,… then the world is your oyster!
This is our 20th challenge in The Personal Finance Challenge Series…
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