A temporary market decline, no matter how steep, is just a hypothetical loss on paper. Selling out during a market decline, however, takes a theoretical and temporary loss and makes it both real and permanent. The damage can be devastating, and there is really no way to repair it.

Bedtime stories. One fun way to introduce the topic of money is to read books which offer a starting point for a discussion about money. Financial situations are so fundamental to the daily life of human beings that many books deal with or have an undercurrent of economic themes. Rags to riches, the struggle of the poor, the standard of living enjoyed by the characters, are all themes which can be used as a jumping off point for a discussion about money. Talk about the experiences of the book characters. What might they have been able to do differently? Did their actions change anything for them? What worked? What did not? Look for books which offer worksheets either in the book itself or through the publisher’s website.

The Fed announced that it would extend low rates until mid 2013. Folks are seeing only pennies of interest on thousands of dollars held on their monthly brokerage statments. Care should be taken to not get pushed into higher risk assets in a search for yield as this could be precisely the time we may be slipping into recession, which will put many assets at their highest risk. If we are headed into recession then the Stock Market could have a long way to go to reach its next bottom.

If you need to make money at home, you’ve no doubt starting looking for work at home opportunities. Every men and woman who wants to start their work from home residual income has traveled down the same path. Unfortunately, that path is littered with scams and traps to take money and time from honest women looking to make money from home. With a little common sense and extra research, you can find legitimate work from home residual income opportunities.

You went out of your budget and bought your dream house. That is fine, but it takes up a lot more money than you were planning to allocate to a mortgage every month. Now because of this your money is tight every month and does not allow a lot of wiggle room for surprises. Well surprise, your AC is out. Your repair man says that he will have to update the whole system as well as all of your insulation. You can Finance with their company but the interest rate is astronomical. What are you to do? You could use a personal loan. A personal loan is great for life’s little surprises. It will help you fix that AC unit and not have you waste more money in high interest.

A huge mistake that many people make is investing too much of their 401k into their companies Stocks. The lesson learned from Enron points out the problem of doing this. When this incident occurred, people lost basically their entire investment. A nice medium is to invest about 10% of 401k into company Stocks. Another mess up that many people fall victim to is taking a loan out of their own 401k. It seems like it would be a good idea, however it has landed many people in hot water. When you are unable to pay the loan off you forfeit your entire 401k. Because of this, it is recommended that you do not do this.

Answer: Not necessarily. Each department’s situation is different and should be examined by its own goals, situation, and future prospects. Having a large savings account for no purpose and borrowing money is ALWAYS a more expensive method of paying for trucks. No matter what return you think you’re earning on your investments. If you’re consistently earning more on your investments than the loan interest rate, you are taking on a lot of financial risk.

Even while you own your own home you still have to be able to enjoy yourself to a certain degree. So you have to make sure you have money every month in your budget to have some fun. You should be able to afford a family vacation at least once a year. You might want to go out for supper once in a while. You need to remember you may still have student loans to pay and almost always there are credit card bills.