I couldn’t help but draw a parallel between swine flu news and personal finance. When emergencies occur in both the medical and financial world, it pays to be prepared. Here are some ways to protect yourself from the h1n1 virus or swine flu:

• Wash your hands.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
• Cough in your sleeve or tissue and dispose of immediately.
• If you do feel sick, seek medical attention and get help.

These four precautions and steps for swine flu avoidance are very similiar to handling your day to day budget. Here is my list of equilavent solutions to avoid a monetary swine flu:

• Know your spending. Just like washing your hands, you have keep track of where your money is going and what it is touching.
• Avoid excessive spending. Buying that $2.50 Coke at Bob’s Quick Stop is like picking your nose. Sure, it might feel good at the time but the feeling is short lasting and you end up with a booger on your pointer. Plan your spending wisely, just like plan on bringing some pocket wipes to help that booger habit.
• When you do have a cough or bump in your finances, make sure it does not spread into other areas. Confine your emergency to one area. Use your emergency fund (aka tissue) to stop the advancement of debt.
• If you find yourself financially sick – excessive debt, constantly borrowing, unable to pay for your basic needs, please seek help! Chances are that by yourself you can’t overcome this financial virus. Learn about financial planning, budget setting, and debt reduction from the experts.

The moral of the post is this – be cautious with your spending, prevent mistakes with budgeting, be prepared for emergencies, and if you do get the financial swine flu, get help.

 Never spend your money before you have it.

Now, can you imagine what our current economic situation would be, both personally and nationally, if we followed this simple principle?

Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson.

The financial crisis in America is really a moral crisis, caused by the series of proofs which the American public has received that the leading financiers who control banks, trust companies and industrial corporations are often imprudent, and not seldom dishonest. They have mismanaged trust funds and used them freely for speculative purposes. Hence the alarm of depositors, and a general collapse of credit.

With the greed of government and our society thinking that owning a home is a right, the influx of hedge funds catering to excess, the ponzi scheme of Madoff and who knows who else, and businesses concentrating more on short term profitability and stock price, this quote really lays out the problem we are facing. There is only one discrepancy here – the quote is from November 1907.

Of course, the financial industry isn’t the only source of frustration. Consumers have been overspending for years, families living beyond their means, and failing to live by the principles of past that have made so many before us succeed. Now is the time to restructure your life, your money, and your goals in life to find out what is truly important.