Do you understand your personal finances?
 

If the answer is yes, then how do you manage it/ what is your total wealth allocation.

If the answer is no, what form is your wealth in and who handles that?

Curious to see what people say as in the finance forum alot of people's parents and friends dont know and dont care about their money positioning at all.

Re: Do you understand your personal finances?
 

yes, I am a huge personal finance nit. I use Microsoft Money and a couple of Excel worksheets. I like index ETFs.

Re: Do you understand your personal finances?
 

I don't know nearly enough that I'm happy with it.

My wealth is currently in the form of student loan debt.

Re: Do you understand your personal finances?
 

Great topic...I am also a personal finance nit. I have MS Money 2007 but don't use it much.

I use yodlee to track basically everything.

I use ING electric orange checking (4.0% on checking) but barely keep any money there and ING Savings for my emergency fund. I use my 2 main credit cards for basically all spending (American Express Starwood for travel resorts, hotels, frequent flier miles) and Chase Platinum Plus Rewards (5% cash back on all purchases) and then wire money to pay them in full each month.

I use vanguard for my Roth IRA and regular mutual fund purchases, and use Scottrade for individual equity and ETF holdings.

For asset allocation, I am about 90% equities and 10% bonds currently with 30% INTL exposure in the form of Latin America, Asia, and western europe emerging/developing markets.

Re: Do you understand your personal finances?
 

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Curious to see what people say as in the finance forum alot of people's parents and friends dont know and dont care about their money positioning at all.

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Are these people's friends dim? I don't think I know anyone who doesn't.

Re: Do you understand your personal finances?
 

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Curious to see what people say as in the finance forum alot of people's parents and friends dont know and dont care about their money positioning at all.

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Are these people's friends dim? I don't think I know anyone who doesn't.

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I meant that they have them stashed in some fidelity retirement fund recommended by some financial advisor. The thing is they place blind trust in that person and dont want to be bothered to understand or double check the allocation.

Re: Do you understand your personal finances?
 

Is understanding just knowing where everything is, or understanding the fundamentals behind where your $$ is?

Re: Do you understand your personal finances?
 

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Is understanding just knowing where everything is, or understanding the fundamentals behind where your $$ is?

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Id like to think its understanding why your money is where it is so you can tell if the person managing it is competent. You dont have to understand all the financial jargon, but you should know a few principles or why this guy is putting your money where it is.

Re: Do you understand your personal finances?
 

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Curious to see what people say as in the finance forum alot of people's parents and friends dont know and dont care about their money positioning at all.

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Are these people's friends dim? I don't think I know anyone who doesn't.

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I meant that they have them stashed in some fidelity retirement fund recommended by some financial advisor. The thing is they place blind trust in that person and dont want to be bothered to understand or double check the allocation.

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how many people you know have skills, smarts, and time to double check the expert they hired to do professional work for them?
Do you do this for lawyers? Acc'ts? Dentists?

As always, the key is to hire the right person, use recommendations, referrals, etc.

Re: Do you understand your personal finances?
 

right, but as it turns out most of these professionals are a big waste of money, yet few people know that.