how to learn about money?

Please be aware, the internet is quite well supplied with lunatics, who will tell you that all money is fraud, that no debts are enforceable, and that all that you have to do to become rich is to sign up for their newsletter. Do try to avoid these sorts, and stick with normal, sensible advice and education. Engaging with "freemen on the land" and "sovereign citizens" is not going to lead anywhere good, but you do tend to come across them if you are googling questions such as "what is money".

To get you started, money is just something used so that you don't have to batter for everything that you need. It is a medium of exchange that means that you've not got to accept chickens off your boss, which you swap for food and housing later.

Interest is a charge for having use of someone else's money before you earn your own. If you lend your money to someone (or to a bank) then they compensate you by paying back more than the original amount and likewise you pay if you need to borrow from someone else.

For some purchases it's considered sensible to borrow rather than saving up (such as a house). For just about everything else (and I mean virtually everything), it's generally a bad idea to borrow money to buy it. Food, heating, clothes, holidays, television, nights out, furniture, a new kitchen, all of these things tend to be better if saved for.

One very big reason for this is that if your circumstances change you can't get the money back for these things, so are left with a debt that you have to service, at a time when you need every penny you have just to get by.

catwoman73 wrote: »

Very good advice, but you missed off a very important other thing in cars.

Try to avoid borrowing money to pay for cars, So many people take out massive loans to buy expensive cars and then their circumstances change and they are left with a loan for more than the car is worth, or they decide they need a new car before they have paid of the loan on the car they have.

Yes, I'd agree with that. unfortunately there are many people who see the repayments to be made later as just not worth worrying about at the moment. "Something" will come up to sort it all out...

I read a while back that the ability to forego quick gratification is one of the key identifiers of success in life. The people who'll stay on at school, save, get further education, take an entry-level job with career prospects,many so on, tend to excel later. People who want that Ford Escort at age seventeen, who prefer to smoke than listen through double maths, and who take sickies, well, they tend to end up scraping their way through life.

Unfortunately it's the latter who end up taking out the huge car loans without being in a secure job, and who then end up suffering. "Car, now" to them is all that matters. "Payments later" just don't even enter I to the calculation.