We normally have control over fixed expense decisions at a time and then we are caught in the payment as long as the loan lasts or until we refinance with extra expenditure incurred during the process. Decisions to be made regarding which home we should buy or which car for that matter are very important in money management as they are normally the biggest payments that we will have in our budgeting. Such decisions will make us happy but they could also bring us a lot of grief if we are trying to buy something that we just cannot afford.

A general rule that is normally used for mortgage is to make sure your payment does not exceed your salary for one week. And if you would rather go in for a more conservative rule then it would be your net salary for a week. The rules that mortgage companies usually allow you for all kinds of debt may be a bit too liberal forcing you to work out some really strict budgeting. Don’t go solely by what they tell you but take into account your own situation, your personal finance and your common sense to know what will work well for you. This way you can practice good money management.

Investing in the stock market is tricky to say the least and it’s getting trickier as time goes by. Heck, most major investment banking houses hire entire divisions full of mathematicians and theoretical physicists… theoretical physicists!  How can I expect to handle my own finances and invest in the stock market with any degree of certainty when I’m going up against theoretical physicists and mathematicians?

One answer to this problem is to simply hire a money manager and if you have considerable assets, at least 0,000-0,000 or more, then this may make sense for you. But most people don’t know what to expect when it comes to hiring a money manager and that is exactly what I’m going to talk about in this article today.

First of all, what exactly should you expect to have to pay a money manager? Usually they will charge you an annual fee that won’t be more than 1.5% of the value of your stock investments under their management. Most managers and financial advisers will also charge you a minimum fee of about ,000 per year and that makes sense because there are simple administrative fees that will need to be covered such as printing reports and managing paperwork and paying secretaries to answer your phone calls to them etc.

In 1997 I picked up my first personal finance book, The Millionaire Next Door. I had heard that the book revealed to the world that millionaires were cheap folks who drove old cars and didn?t send their kids to college. Nothing could have been further from the truth. In fact the book revealed to me the common qualities of millionaires and that becoming one is not that far fetched an idea. They have certain characteristics and habits and developing them is the surest way to join the ranks of the world?s millionaires.

Truthfully, personal finance books are a dime a dozen. You cannot roll a boulder without hitting one. What makes one book better for you than another? Since 1997 I have read 10-15 personal finance books per year. Well over 100 books later, there are only 10 who have made a genuine difference in my life. The rest were filler. At 10 dollars a book that is a lot to spend on filler.