Track 5

Unit 5 a.

Economics.

Five tips for your financial future.

Pages 78 and 79.

Listen for main ideas and listen for details.

Today’s talk is very important for your future, in fact, it may be one of the most important talks you’ll ever hear about your finances, and your financial future.

I’m going to present five strategies or tips that will help you have a strong financial future.

Think for a moment about some of your hopes and dreams.

Maybe you want to travel to exotic places, see the world, perhaps you plan on buying a house, are you married? Or are you planning to get married and have a family? You may be thinking about having a secure comfortable lifestyle, and providing well for your children. So what do all those things require? Money, of course.

Then let’s get to those five financial strategies, so you can have enough money for your hopes and dreams to come true.

Number one, get a college degree even if you think you don’t need one, completing a college degree is usually the first step toward financial security.

It’s a big investment, certainly lots of time and money right? Ah but it’ll really pay off in the form of future income.

Here are some statistics you should know, a person with a bachelor’s degree which is a four-year college degree will earn on average nearly twice as much as someone with only a high school education.

Over a lifetime in the u.s. that would be 2.1 million dollars compared to 1.2 million dollars.

So you can see why this is my first tip.

Number two be careful with credit cards. did you know that in the US the average person’s credit card debt is $8,000?

That’s 8,000. Wow it can take years to pay that off so I’m saying this credit is okay, if you’re careful. It sounds so good I know to purchase that new computer or a new pair of jeans now, and pay later but you have to think about the interest. Say you buy a $1000 computer and your annual interest rate is 22%, if you don’t pay off that charge within one year up to two hundred and twenty dollars in interest alone could be added to your bill.

And the computers still not paid for. okay.

Next number three have you ever had an emergency and needed money like for a car repair? We all experience unexpected events, don’t we? So our third strategy for financial success is to prepare for emergencies. How? It’s not always easy to save money when we have bills, but here’s one idea establish a special emergency account and regularly deposit a certain amount. Before you spend any of your next paycheck do this first, then pay your bills, go out to eat, see a movie, whatever.

You’ll be pleased at how well this works and how good you feel knowing you have money to cover your next emergency.

Our fourth strategy is this, invest some of your money. does this thought make you nervous?

It shouldn’t it’s not difficult. and by investing you can really see your money grow you can start very small. If you’re a person who doesn’t like taking risks, that’s okay, you can put some money in a low-risk fund. If you want help, you can hire a professional to invest for you someone who’s been trained to do this, and there are books and websites to help you understand how to invest as well. If you can grow your assets by five or ten percent every year , you’ll start to see your money financing your future goals.

This brings me to our fifth and final strategy save for retirement, I can see some of you are smiling I know retirement seems far far away, but by starting early with your first job you can set aside small amounts and that will grow so you can retire in comfort when the time comes. Don’t neglect this important step along the road to financial freedom.

To wrap up we all know that happiness does not depend upon money, but financial security can provide a feeling of personal security and allow you to live the life you want, we can look forward to a secure financial future by using these five strategies.

1 get a college degree, 2 be careful with credit cards, 3 prepare for emergencies, 4 invest, and 5 save for retirement.

OK, that’s all for today.