How Smart Financial Planning Saved Me Thousands of Dollars
Over the past month, I've been handed bills totaling slightly more than $26,000 to cover costs above and beyond my regular living expenses. A little more than half that money was needed to cover my oldest child's first semester of college. The rest was needed as a result of water entering my basement during a recent storm, thanks to both a broken sump pump and a poorly built gutter system that didn't move water away from the house.
That total works out to several months' worth of take home income, gone in a veritable blink of an eye. And of course, those big bills don't mean I get to get out of the money I'm already spending to handle things like getting to work, keeping food in the fridge, and keeping the lights on.
Yet as expensive as this past month has been, it could easily have been much, much worse. By making smart asset allocation decisions before I needed this money, I've been able to avoid thousands in finance charges, interest payments, and other loan-related costs.
Source Fool.com
