Transcripts

Amelia Warren Tyagi:
It's the number one reason couples fight, it's the number one thing people keep secrets about, that they're scared about...number one New Year's resolution to get straight with money.

Amelia Warren Tyagi, co-author of the book, All Your Worth says a good way to get a handle on your money is to divide it into three categories.

The first is your "must haves," that's your rent your utilities the stuff you've got to do every month. The second category is your wants, that's all the fun stuff you don't really need, but everybody should have a little room in their budget for. And the third category is savings and that's about making tomorrow better than today. On the "must haves"... should be about 50% of your take home pay. The wants should be 30% and that savings should be 20%, that's the center of the bull's-eye. That's the sleep easy, get ahead formula.

Amelia says if you have debt that should be your first priority, to get out of debt. There are a million excuses people have for not getting a handle on their money.

Oh, I can't get my money straight because it's my ex-husband's fault he doesn't pay enough support, or I've got kids, or I live in an expensive city and on and on and on. And my point is look; if you keep pointing your finger your life's not going to get any better. That may all even be true, heck it may be harder for you than for other people. That's no excuse for not trying to make it better. This is your life, you can take some control.

At somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.