Anyone who has worried and stressed about their finances has probably also had a lot of concern over doing a good job with the budgeting and money management of their personal affairs. It is important to have good money management skills in this day and age so that you are able to enjoy the many things that life has to offer, rather than constantly worrying that you just don’t have enough money to get by.

Learning the ins and outs of personal financial budgeting and management is something that is ideally taught to youngsters at an early age so that they can develop good money management skills right from the start. The later someone begins to take financial management seriously, the more potential there is for them to get into personal money management problems and even into serious financial straits that can be difficult to recover from.

It is always best when children and teens are able to learn about budgeting and money management because this education and turn into a set of money management skills that will be with them for the rest of their lives. When people don’t have the chance to learn how to manage credit and their personal finances, they will most likely waste money and burn through it as soon as they earn it, and they may get themselves into debt way over their heads.

There are many people who enter adulthood without having learned about budgeting and personal financial management. They find themselves exhilarated at the money they make at their first full-time job, and often such exhilaration leads to overspending and a lack of preparing for the future, of not being prepared for emergencies and of overusing credit cards and other credit vehicles that can soon lead to serious debt.

If a person sinks deeply into debt when they are still in their twenties, because of immaturity and poor money management abilities, then they can end up spending the next twenty years, or more, trying to dig out of the hole of consumer debt that they put themselves into. Even worse, poor money management and significant debt can also lead to bankruptcy all too easily and this is a blemish on a person’s credit record that lingers for over a decade.

The ramifications and consequences of bankruptcy are more than just a matter of clearing away excessive debt and having your credit damaged. There are many other underlying issues that arise and filing for bankruptcy can affect your ability to get a good job, affect the insurance rates you pay, affect the interest rate on a mortgage, auto loan, and other types of loans, and can be an embarrassing thing to have to try to explain every time someone needs to pull your credit report.

The fortunate thing is that people who make the effort to learn about budgeting and money management will stand a good chance of averting personal finance money management disasters, such as bankruptcy. Indeed, it is never too late to start improving financial management in your life, yet starting sooner rather than later is always recommended.

I have read many personal finance blogs, most discussing about being frugal and saving money, but is this the option? Should we all take every cent and stash it under our bed until it becomes noticeable? I don’t think so. There is a difference between spending money and spending money wisely. We’ve been brought up in a consumer world, buying our flat screen televisions, luxurious cars and beautiful homes and receiving a letter in the mail informing us have we forgotten about the bank. Many haven’t realised how much debt we as a world have accumulated and in some sense, this whole credit crunch and lack of funds have made people understand and appreciate money even more. I’ve been taught to only buy what you can afford and save the rest. There is no need for luxurious items when your young and free or old and wise for that matter. However, life pressures get to us and it gets harder and harder as we go along and that piece of plastic saves the day to buy that nicety to live comfortably, or so you think…

So ask yourself, what do the rich do? They use credit cards but why aren’t they are debt? Well, they may be in debt to a certain degree, but this is referred to as ‘good debt’ and is managed properly. Credit cards are simple tools used by the rich whereas the poor use them as instant money and this is where we, as a nation go wrong. We have developed this mindset of using someone else’s money to stroke our own greed and not using our own. More or less, to have now and pay later. Sure, credit cards are great — in fact, they are one of the best tools you can use, however many aren’t taught this and get swooped into spending what’s not theirs.

Technically, money is worthless but what it represents, makes our world go round and until you inhabit the fact that money means nothing, you will always be emotionally attached, therefore money controlling you and your life. So what do I suggest:

* Spend what you can afford - never overbuy * Don’t skimp on important necessities like fresh fruit & vegetables. * Think abundance, believe everything is within your grasp but don’t be greedy * Put money aside when you can but don’t be a scrooge. * Relax and enjoy money. It can bring happiness, but that’s up to you.

The worst thing you can do now is pull all your money out of the bank. Our Australian banking industry & economy is strong by all regulations that have been put in play over many decades. If everyone pulled out their money, how would the economy survive, on bread and water?

At the end of the day, you will do what you want though I would recommend just thinking about your current situation. Sit down outside, enjoy the sun and fresh air and think of what to do next. Thinking on emotion is the worst possible way, it will always lead to mistakes…