Finance Beyond Budgeting | All About Women

NAME: Lily
STATUS: Embracing the joys of moderation
GOAL: Get organized
PEEVE: Wilting container gardens
GLEE: The perfect shade of red

As one of the legions of under-employed, I?m very interested in hearing about life journeys these days: tales of reinvention, new passions discovered, avocations that turn a profit. So my little ears always perk up whenever I hear anyone talk about starting a business.

Did You know?

Martha Washington is the only woman whose portrait has appeared on a U.S. currency note. It appeared on the face of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1886 and 1891, and the back of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1896. source

Parker Brothers printed more money for its Monopoly games than the Federal Reserve has issued in real money for the United States. If you stacked up all the Monopoly sets made, the pile would be more than 1,100 miles high. source

A $1 bill lasts 18 months; $5 bill, two years; $10 bill, three years; $20 bill, four years; and $50 and $100 bills, nine years. Bills that get worn out from everyday use are taken out of circulation and replaced. source

I don?t come from entrepreneurial stock. My relatives prefer the illusion of security that lies within the confines of a government job or a well-paid position at a large corporation. Since the latter didn?t exactly work out well for me, however, I am more and more interested in alternate ways to make a living.

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Let?s face it: Plenty of people start their own business. The question is how. Mostly, how do they get the money to launch a boutique or caf?? Do they start out wealthy? Cash in a 401(k)? Borrow from friends? Make a snazzy PowerPoint for a loan officer? I know in the big pool that people find investors, but I?m barely in the baby pool and I couldn?t begin to figure out where to find someone with money. All my friends are of fairly modest means, and even if they weren?t, I don?t know if I could borrow money from them.
That?s a pitfall I learned a few years ago. My friend T. ? or should I say my former friend T. ? was in kind of a bad way and asked to borrow a few hundred bucks. I had the money at the time, and I saw no downside in giving it to him. After all, I trusted him. He even set up his own payback plan, a monthly installment with a due date he set himself. He did everything but charge himself interest. I thought I was just doing a good deed for a friend in need.

Until the first payback date came and went with no word from T. I was a little irritated, but I didn?t want to get too bent out of shape. I figured, hey, the guy?s been having money problems, let?s cut him some slack. And then I found out he?d been treating some of our mutual friends to dinner. And drinks. And in the case of one non-natural blonde, a piece of jewelry.

That?s when I started to get genuinely angry. So I called him. He had pretty words of apology and a long line of excuses. What he didn?t have was any of my money. Not that month. And not the next. And not the month after that. It didn?t take long for him to start ignoring my texts. So that?s how it?s going to be, I thought. Eventually I had to choose between staying furious and resentful or letting go of the idea of ever seeing that money again. I let go of the money, and I let go of the friendship, too. I found out later that he was sort of known for bilking money out of so-called friends. I guess he was pretty good at it. If nothing else, he taught me a valuable life lesson about money and friendship, and how dangerous it is to mix the two.

I didn?t realize it at the time, but T. was a lousy investment. Had I paid any attention to his lifestyle, I would have figured that out. Certainly I?m not averse to taking a risk with my money ? hey, I?m always on time for Poker Night ? but I?d rather bet on something more sure. Like myself.

Q: How can I work to get out of debt when I?m barely making enough to keep up?

Find out the answer to this and more ways to make the most of your money with financial planner Melissa Hammel.

All the above information has been reviewed by this week?s expert.

Source: http://allaboutwomen.org/2011/08/10/finance-beyond-budgeting/

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