Straight Talk on Debt: Timeless Financial Advice

Every time I think about my personal financial situation I look back to the way I was raised and say to myself, "How did I ever get into the financial messes I have been in, my parents never seemed to have these troubles?"

I often wonder how my parents survived, raised us kids, sent us to college and built up a hefty retirement fund; together they made less money than I do today.

Of course there has been inflation, and maybe I don't know about all of the struggles they may have had a long the way. Still we always had what we needed and never went without.

My father saved up until he could pay cash for their home, cash for their cars, and cash for our college education. Sounds impossible right? I thought so, and I had to ask him, "How did you do it?"

My dad's timeless piece of advice, "If you can't afford it, you don't need it!"

If only I'd followed that advice...sigh.

Today's post includes some more timeless pieces of advice from some of my favorite personal finance blogs.

Budget for Tomorrow 

• Money Straight Talk: What's Your Financial Backup Plan? @impulsesave "No matter how secure you feel in your employment, take the time to plan for disaster. If you never need to put the plan in action, that's wonderful! But if you do, you won't be blindsided by a situation with no easy answers." 
• Why "Go Big or Go Home" is Destroying Your Budget @enemyofdebt "In the U.S., we like our space and we like big. We drive big cars, we like big houses, and one of our favorite phrases is even "go big or go home." We are obsessed with size in every way, shape, and form, and it is destroying our budgets." 
• 5 Myths of Budgeting @MoneyTalksCoach "The budget is the starting point of all things financial. You can't make informed decisions about your money until you are know (and ideally are controlling) where you spend your money." 
• Talking To Your Parents About Their Financial Future: Part I @GoGirlFinance "For most of us, the thought of talking to our parents about their money situation conjures a similar kind of pit in our stomachs-and given all the things we balance as adults (including our own finances), raising this incredibly awkward subject with either or both of our parents is usually one of the last things we want to cross off our list. 

• Stop the Cycle of Financial Debt and Future Mistakes @ReadyforZero "I fear that when I become completely debt free, I'll slowly find myself back in debt because I wasn't being careful. For a good part of my life I grew up thinking I will always have debt payments and that debt is "normal". It can take a lot of effort and time to reverse that wrong type of thinking. If you want to change your future, and avoid future financial disasters, these steps will help you along the way." 

Tax Advice you Won't Want to Miss 

• 37 Must-Read Posts for Tax Savings @jeffreytrull "In a quest to understand taxes to the best of my ability, I've compiled a list of the best posts to help you maximize refunds and minimize stress in the tax season!" 
• Your Tax Document Checklist: The No-Stress Guide To Filing Your Taxes, Part 1 @MoneyUnder30 "Shelling out a couple hundred dollars (or more) each year to get your taxes done by someone else may seem like an easy choice, but it's not always necessary. If you're young, single, and not yet a homeowner, doing your taxes on your own is easy. And for almost everybody else, tax software like TurboTax can walk you through your taxes step by step. And, if your taxes are simple, filing a federal return with TurboTax is even free." 

• 7 Basic Tax Strategies For Salaried Employees @TheDigeratiLife "There are but few words in the financial vocabulary that strike fear in me, and TAX is one of them. The annual chore of preparing and organizing my financial documents that comes around February or March never fails to raise forth in me just a tad bit of anxiety, perhaps because at the very end of the exercise, I find out, like in most years of my existence as an income generating individual, that I will once more pay out what seems like an enormous sum from my coffers - a sum that was just getting comfortable where it was situated in my savings account, kicking off a few nice rounds of interest and dividends."

Think Outside of the Box 

• How to Break Your Credit Card Addiction @DoughRoller "Our society has grown so accustomed to using credit cards that we use them without even thinking about it. The charges pile up each month to the point where we can't afford to pay off our cards in full. As our debt rises, we become even more dependent on credit cards just to get to the next paycheck. To break this cycle, we'll have change many of our behaviors, attitudes and expectations. And the first step is to understand how we got into credit card debt in the first place."  
• Perfection Not Required @MintingNickels "You can go to Craigslist and Fiverr and find all sorts of people selling their services for things they may not be experts at doing. But that's not stopping them. It's easy to listen to those voices inside our heads telling us we're not good enough. Telling us we can't do it, because we aren't masters. But non-masters do great things every day...and get paid for it. The key is knowing you don't have to be perfect to make money."
• Is Multi-Generational Living For You? What Are The Pros And Cons? @MoneyMatters "Between a tight economy and the demands placed on the sandwich generation (that group who finds themselves both helping to take care of their aging parents while continuing to raise their own children to adulthood), more and more families find themselves living in multi-generational households. According to Money Magazine, "Roughly 16% of the population is living in a house with at least two adult generations." This is the "highest level in 50 years." 
• 3 Awesome Challenges to Try This Year @BudgetsAreSexy "One of things I love about Januarys, is that the goals and missions all over the place blow up and motivate people. I think that's awesome (and really the only cool thing about January - it's so bland!). The problem, of course, is that usually this passion and excitement dies out after a few weeks. But those rock stars that stay on top it, and continue pushing forward, are very handsomely rewarded!" 

Photo Credit

Suzanne Cramer  

Suzanne is a certified credit counselor and a Social Media Specialist for CareOne Debt Relief Services. Suzanne writes for Divorce, Debt and Finances and A Straight Talk on Debt. Follow Suzanne on Twitter @SuzanneCramer1  and @AskCareOne where she shares her insights on divorce and managing your finances.