21 Things You Need to Know About Money: How to Get It, Keep It & GROW It

21 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT MONEY

Copyright © 2019 Adam Olson

All Rights Reserved

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews, quotes, or references.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty. While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book. (The author and/or publisher do not guarantee that anyone following these strategies, suggestions, ideas, will be successful. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damage including, but not limited to, special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.)

Printed in the United States of America

Paperback: 978-1-953497-89-5

eBook: 978-1-953497-90-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019936778

Published by Cocoon to Wings Publishing

Wesley Chapel, Florida 33545

www.StephanieOutten.com

(813) 906-WING

**Financial statement images presented as resource information in this book are used with written permission from © Advisys Inc. 2018.

Cover design by Ereka Thomas Designs

Contents

Acknowledgements

Dedication

Introduction

Budgeting

Save 20%, Give 10%, Spend the rest.

Personal Development. Spend money and Invest in yourself.

Part time work - Getting your side hustle on.

Getting out on your own. Providing for yourself.

Student Loans - What you are getting yourself into?

Keep your expenses low when you are young. Ditch that payment plan!

Credit Score - What does this do?

Renting. Is renting really like throwing money out of your window?

Home Loans - How large of a mortgage you should get.

Kids

Credit Cards - How to use them, and How not to use them.

Beware of the latte effect.

Leasing cars vs. buying cars.

Weddings - Spend now or forever hold your peace.

Vacations

Compound Interest - The 8th Wonder of the World.

Bank Accounts

Employer Benefits

Investment accounts. IRA, Roth IRA, 401k, 403b, SEP, SIMPLE IRA.

Insurance

Appendix

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to thank God for giving me the experiences and talents to write this book and for the many blessings that He has given my family.

To the authors and creators of the many finance, business, and personal development podcasts and books that I have listened to and read - your information and motivation inspired me to write this book.

To my parents, Dan and Lori, thank you, first and foremost, for instilling a strong faith in me at a young age. Also, for showing and teaching me good money management skills and a strong work ethic.

Stephanie Outten of Cocoon to Wings Publishing - your coaching and support through this entire process was amazing. I can’t imagine having done this without you. To E. Claudette Freeman of E. Claudette Freeman Literary Services, your editing skills truly strengthened the quality of this work. I thank you for that. Ereka Thomas of Ereka Thomas Designs - you brought the cover to life for me, and I value the creative lens through which you saw this book. Tracy L. Carter of Sista Girl Publications - thank you for your keen eye and proofreading skills. Thank you for making sure this book was grammatically correct.

Special thanks to my wife, Katie, for giving me the flexibility to pursue this dream for over a year. Your support and dedication to our family made this possible.

Dedication

To my wife, Katie, you are the driving force behind everything that I do. And to my son, Hudson, you inspire me to make the world a better place.

I also want to dedicate this book to all of those who need to hear this information. My hope is that this book finds you early in your life, and that you are able to apply some of these simple strategies to drastically alter your financial life.

Introduction

I know you want

to jump right in to learn all about the twenty-one things you need to know about money, right? Well, hold your horses! Some things require time and patience, and learning strategies to get, keep, and GROW your money is one of those things.

So, let’s go back in time. I want you to think back to every bad decision you have ever made with your money. I’ll pause here for dramatic effect… Okay! You have all those bad decisions at the front of your mind? Okay, good! Keep them there while I share with you some of my most shining moments when it comes to poor decisions with money.

I am a splurge. I know that’s not a real word but stay with me on this. I splurge on that new technology that just came out, then I only use it for a week. The Apple Watch was my most recent one. And of course, buying a Jet-ski that I use twice a year was a big one as well. Now, we all make mistakes and we will never be perfect, but just think how much money you would have saved if you could go back and correct all of those mistakes. It’s painful just to think about it, right?

We can’t do that, of course, but we can learn from our own mistakes and the mistakes of others. You can also get educated on money management topics, so you better understand them in order to avoid blowing money. That’s why I’m here. That’s precisely why I wrote this book. I want to help you make intelligent and better choices with your money.

The choices you make when you are first starting out in life will set the tone for how you save and spend over the course of your life. Many of us face or have faced, several major money problems. Some of those problems stem from confusion and misunderstanding of how to handle money. My goal is to educate you on basic financial concepts that everyone should know in an easy to understand format.

Let’s get to it!

I am currently thirty years old, and many of my peers were never taught about money and never talk about money. Visual Capitalist reports that only 16.4% of U.S. students are required to take a personal finance course to graduate high school.¹ That is truly one very sad statistic in my opinion. Most high schools require students to pass math and science courses, but don’t teach them how to simply balance a