Financial Fitness

            Sound financial advice can be summarized with two important concepts:  (1) financial discipline and (2) opportunity cost.  Finance is a term that terrorizes people who do not understand what it represents, but finance only signifies an understanding of how to manage money.  Therefore, I will help you comprehend how you can manage your money so that you begin to appreciate finance.

First, most of us in our American culture are incapable of financial discipline.  We live in a society where people who constantly buy what they want, consistently lack what they need.  To be financially secure and avoid stress, heartache, debt, suffering, and all of the other ailments caused by terrible spending habits, you must learn financial discipline:  Stop spending more than you have, save more money, stop taking on debt, do not neglect retirement, and stop buying the newest gadget—you don’t need it (Daily Finance, 2014).

Second, “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.”  No matter what you decide to do with your time right now, something else could have been an alternative.  “Opportunity cost” is the phrase that defines the alternative to every decision you and I make.  If I choose to study finance, then I am neglecting every other major.  A good amount of time should be spent researching all of our opportunities, or we will become a victim of circumstantial decision-making (Kennon, 2014).

I now hope that you can appreciate finance for the difficult subject that it can be, while at the same time understanding the simplicity of managing money.  Do not ignore the advice given in this article; though simple, it will have good consequences that reach far into the future.

References

Daily Finance. (2014). 10 reasons why you'll never be rich. Retrieved from http://www.dailyfinance.com/photos/10-reasons-youll-never-be-rich/?utm_source=crowdignite.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign
=crowdignite.com#!slide=2118865

Kennon, J. (2014). There's no such thing as a free lunch. Retrieved from http://beginnersinvest.about.com/od/Opportunity-Cost/a/There-Is-No-Such-Thing-As-A-Free-Lunch-Opportunity-Cost.htm