Don't Mess Up Your Life

I lived it up in my younger years. Some of the money I "wasted" I would absolutely love you have back. It seems like the mistakes you make with your money in your twenties can haunt you much longer than the mistakes you make later on in life.

So who better to turn to for advice on the worst personal finance blunders you can make in your twenties than the Twenty Something Finance blog.

Mostly for me it boils down to things like, go ahead an buy a new car after you get that promotion but you don't need the $60,000 Lexus on a crappy lease deal. Go on vacation with your new wife but a reasonable hotel in Jamaica is a blast with the one you love, you don't need to "impress" your friends by spending $10k going to St Lucia.

It is all about learning to live within your means earlier instead of later. You don't want to ruin yoiur credit score and have to work for years to repair it. This infographic shows how quickly you can send your credit score down the crapper.

Personal Finance Podcasts

Here is a great article that the WSJ did on the best personal finance podcast on the net. Maybe once a week on your morning run you could learn something about how to make your financial situation better instead of listening to Miley Cyrus?

So get you itunes fired up and get to downloading!

Best Personal Finance Podcasts

401k Decisions

Mostly personal finance decisions revolve around budget, debt and retirement spending. Everyone has a different opinion on whether you should be saving money while you still hold consumer debt. I am in the camp that you should definitely be saving for retirement from the minute you enter the work force whether you have student loans and credit card debt or not.

For me the question is how much. This article from CNN Money is a good discussion to help you through that question.

If your employer offers a 401k you absolutely have to contribute up to the point that they match no matter what. Seriously no excuses, every paycheck!!! This is free money and there is no investment in the world that can beat it.

So we all agree that contribute to the match and get the tax advantages at least until you pay of debt. The question actually becomes for difficult after you don't have any debt. You have to figure how much to save for retirement in your 401k and how much to keep in different saving and investment accounts. You don't get the tax advantages in the other accounts but you don't have the penalties if you take the money out before you are 59 and half. It is a nice problem to have to think about.

If you make plenty of money you should contribute the maximum amount to your 401k every year, just for the tax benefits.

Welcome to Atkins Personal Finance

David Atkins in a personal finance expert residing in Indianapolis, IN.

This blog is an effort to share the best of his tips and tricks for managing and controlling your finances. If you aren't proactive and take charge of your financial health then you are doomed to squander away money and have to suffer through the challenges of living pay check to pay check with bad credit.

He will also occasionally share advice from his financial planner friends and colleagues so that you always have the best most up to date information.

Because the Personal Finance arena is always changing you must stay up to date on the latest news and law changes. Dave will hit the highlights and weed through all the chaff so you just get the information you really need without being overloaded.