Nowadays, there is absolutely no excuse for not being well-informed and opinionated about personal finance. With many resources available, you must take the initiative to research and educate yourself.
Where do I do my research?
- New money blogs appear every day. I read them and form opinions. There are a bunch in my right-hand column. Go read what they have to say and think about it.
- If you receive a newspaper (s) at home, read it. There are always interesting things to make you go, “Hmmm…”
- The Library, the Ottawa Public Library is an amazing place, and you can reserve books on-line, so you don’t even have to go to the Library to browse, just go on-line and away you go!
- Talk to friends. No, I am not saying look for hot stock tips or such, but just talk about topics that interest you and see if they have any insights about budgeting, buying cars, or other things. This is how my wife and I find “contacts” that can get us good deals on things, too.
You notice none of this costs that much (ok the newspaper costs some money, but many of them you can read on-line). I don’t buy finance books, unless I have taken them out of the library first and thought, “This is a book I want to keep and reference a lot”.
Remember the more sources you have the more likely you are to be better informed. Learn, folks, life is a learning voyage!
