Virtual Money

Money is a powerful tool and often an object of desire among humans and it can also be a burden when mismanaged. We all know that money can buy things that we want and that we are going to need it for necessities of life such as food and shelter. Most money used in transactions these days is virtual, meaning we don't actually carry the cash. We use debit cards, credit cards, and occasionally we even still use checks but these are all forms of payment that don't have the cold hard cash at hand.

We also face the daunting beasts of "inflation" and "debt". We hear the words and want to run and hide. Honestly the common person hardly knows what inflation is and even less what exactly causes it. Lets just consider a simple explanation: as time passes the money we are using is going to decrease in value by a hopefully small percentage every year. Simply put prices rise over time and thus cost of living increases and we tend to need more money. With the invisible agent of inflation working against us among other things we need to figure our how to take care of our money so that it can take care of us. Several areas of personal finance exist and I will comment on these and others.

Savings/Investments
Credit
Budgeting
Purchasing
Finance on the Web

I'm sure I will think of other things as I go.