Personal finance rants and discussions!

I am looking forward to having a forum to discuss my favorite topic...personal finance! My plan is to use this blog to post my personal experiences with personal finance issues (I will share both my successes and failures), and share information I've learned about the topic of personal finance.

I have worked in the financial services arena for over 15 years, and I spend much of my free time reading or researching various money related topics. I have used this knowledge to increase my FICO score, save money on expenses, learn how to successfully negotiate for favorable terms on big ticket items, grow my investment portfolio, etc. My plan is to discuss many of those topics here.

There are topics that I will discuss that you will agree with, and there are topics that you will probably think I'm way off base. That's ok. Everyone is different and everyone's situation is somewhat different. My hope is to present topics here that will make people think and possibly evaluate their personal situation.

The ultimate goal in personal finance is not that you get everything perfect. The most important thing is that you TAKE ACTION!

I talk to people all the time that have put off doing vital things like starting their 401k at work because they are unsure what investments they should choose. These are college educated people who procrastinate for years starting their 401k and pass up on free money (employer matching and tax deductions) because they are too afraid of making the wrong decision.

Other people complain about being sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck, but they won't put forth the effort of doing a budget. They are unwilling to take control of their personal balance sheet. Ironically, many of these people have jobs that require them to budget and forecast on a monthly basis, but they seem unable or unwilling to do the same for themselves.

You've probably heard some of these same people, or maybe you are a personal finance procrastinator.

If you have any personal finance topics that you would like to see discussed on this blog, reply to this post or email me at averagejoeintexas@tx.rr.com.