The World of Money

Everyone is working, at least in part, to make money. Some use this money to provide bare necessities for their families, and some as a way to boost self confidence, but at the end of the day, people work to make money.

For all these hours worked, and stress of waking up early in the morning, going through traffic, work politics, and the turmoil of any given work day, spending money on transportation, networking, and dressing in a certain way, what do workers do with the remaining money? Save it? Great idea, but how?

Perhaps it has to do with not growing up in this country, and so the concept of credit was a little far fetched for me. it took me years to figure it out on my own. I tried taking the finance-world tour several times actually, but it has always been too complicated for me. There are so many options that should help people save/invest their hard earned money that it just gets tiring and overwhelming to a simple-minded mortal like myself.

I still work hard, and I still want my money well taken care of. I just want my options to be clear and easy to understand. Is this too much to ask for? So far, yes.

Saving should be easy, right? A piggy bank or a used jar, fill it up with unused money and tataaaaa. oh, no, but you can save money before tax or after tax. And, of course, if i keep it in the bank, I am paid interest. Good, so bank it is. Oh, wait, but if you invest it, you get more money out of it, so investing must be it. Here i am, with money in my hand, ready to invest. Now what? Well, there are way too many options down that road. Result, I back up and stop at the bank savings option. Oh, but still, if I lock some money up in a "CD", then I can make even more money. On and on this tour goes and at the end of the day, I am cross-eyed, my money is all over the place and don't quite have a good grip of my accomplishment with this saving project.

I can't help but ask though, Should saving/investing really be that complicated and inefficient? People work hard, they earn money, they try to save for a rainy day, but they can't find a clean cut layout of their options to do so. Is this part of why there are some who tried to do the right thing and ended up on the street? If they "knew" better, would they have been on the street today? Maybe, but maybe not. And for those of us who are learning a lesson from this economic situation, what can we do to keep our head above water for the next recession?