I need a crash financial course!

start with simple addition and subtraction. list all your regular expenses like rent, food, electricity, etc.. then list all your sources of income and how much money you regularly have. "total money" (called as credit) - "total expenses" (called as debit) = money left or money short (or balance).. its hard for me to explain it here. i am not a financial advisor nor an accountant but i am willing to help you because i know how to budget. and it works for me. if you want, you can add me as your friend, send me a message and i will send you a sample budget planner in a simple way.

Perhaps a trip to your local library would help. Read lots of books. Get lots of views.

One of the best things I can reccomend is to set up a simple income / expense sheet. You can do this with a spread sheet or just on a peice of paper. You put down the date and record every day what you took in and what you spent. This will show you where your money is coming from and where it is going. The next thing is to start saving a set ammount every pay check. It will be hard at first but once you get started it will become easier. I would suggest an online savings account. They pay better inteest and it is harder to take money out of them because you have to request the money and it can take from 1 5 days to get the money. Once you have a few hundred dollars saved up you are ready to start saving for retirement. You might want to talk to a financial planner/broker to see what he would suggest. The other option is to invest yourself. I have written two articles, links below, on on investing in the stock market and the other is Playing the stock market for free. Check them out Investing in the Stock Market http://hubpages.com/_1ydkgrbkkj5s3/hub/Should-you-be-Investing-in-the-Stock-Market?e-emailhub Playing the Stock Market for free http://hubpages.com/_1ydkgrbkkj5s3/hub/Play-the-Stock-Market-for-Free?e-emailhub An economic lesson http://hubpages.com/_1ydkgrbkkj5s3/hub/An-Economics-Lesson?e-emailhub

Hi Csrobins, you do not need to be good at numbers to know finance. A simple common sense will do. First of all, how much money do you need if you are not going to work for 20 years? You can calculate your monthly expenses, multiply by 20. This is not a stupid question. You are looking at minimum 20 years of non working life after retirement. If you are healthy, you may live for another 30 to 40 years after retirement. Secondly, under the concept of time value of money. $1 today at 5% interest rate means $1.05 next year. $1.05 next year at 5% interest rate means $1.1025 two years later. Use the excel spreadsheet to keep on multiplying, till 30 years later. When you save the $1 now, that is the sum you get 30 years later, and by then, you are nearly retirement. So if you spend the $1 now, you will not the sum of money 30 years later to spend. At that time, you may need the money for medical expenses or children's education. I think you have a very wise boyfriend who is good at saving money. He is not angry at your lack of financial knowledge, he is angry at the way you spend money. Learn to save more money than him. That is the best way to show him.