There are various personal finance topics ?that will be covered in The WiseDollar. Here’s a list that you can expect to find articles on:

• This is the goal most of the other topics here are written with an eye towards achieving. For many of us financial independence may take years of hard work and sacrifice. Armed with the tools and information you’ll find here, the path will be rewarding and fruitful. Hopefully you’ll pick up a myriad of strategies and tactics to reach your financial goals from the FinDependent WiseDollar.

• If you have no debt in your life then I can safely assume that your either starting out in life (Stay debt free, please!) or are already an expert in managing your finances. It that’s the case, you probably won’t benefit much from this section. But please share your experiences and methods with those of us that struggle with debt. For the rest of us, this topic will cover how best to reduce and eventually eliminate your debt. This is a comprehensive topic so expect a large number of articles on this.

• Retirement planning is something that should be started early in life. Unfortunately most of us are to busy to worry about retirement until we’re in our forties, or heaven forbid, in our fifties. We’ll cover this topic?thoroughly?as well. There’s still hope for those of us who have started this effort late in our lives, there are methods to help build a retirement nest egg so stay tuned for the articles that will be forthcoming on this topic.

• Making a budget is fairly simple, sticking to it can be more of a challenge. there are a number of budgeting techniques that make it easier to do both. My favorite is “envelope” budgeting. There are tools that make this style of budgeting even easier. We’ll cover these as well as other budgeting techniques that may better suit your lifestyle.

• There are a myriad of investment options to anyone who has the capability to set aside money. Stocks, bonds, mutual funds, Insurance policies, Reits, ETF’s are but a few of the many investment options available to?investors. Risk versus reward is an important topic that needs to be discussed. A person?s risk tolerance is important. Smart Investing should be a key part of personal finance and financial freedom. Expect to see articles on these and many more Investment topics.

• We’ll cover this as best we can but having personally experienced a “too little, to late” estate planning situation, I can attest that Estate Planning warrants a comprehensive website on its own. there will be articles that cover some of the topics that focus on estate planning?techniques?such as?irrevocable?trusts, gifting, and Powers of Attorney. There are a myriad of topics surrounding this subject so expect a number of articles on this.

• So you’ve worked hard and built up a tidy nest egg, have a decent net worth and are looking forward to an early and well deserved retirement. Have you protected your assets? Should you be involved in a terrible accident, or if someone seriously hurts themselves on your property are you prepared so that your lifetime savings and assets are?protected?from lawsuits. In our?litigious?society, this is a very real threat and can happen to anyone. Even the long term loss of a job or disability can threaten your assets should you have to ultimately file for bankruptcy protection. We’ll cover protecting your assets and give you the tools you need to help you protect what you have built up over the years.

• The mystery behind credit scores and what you can do to establish and build good credit are topics that will be covered. It’s unfortunate but unless you are completely financially independent, you need to have good credit. The system, as it exists today,?encourages the individual to assume some level of debt and interestingly enough can punish the individual if they pay off debt and close accounts. We’ll be covering the tips and methods you can use to help boost your credit score.

These topics are all important to anyone in our society.?They’re especially important to anyone wishing to achieve?financial?independence. ?You’ll find that each of these is a category upon itself and that as I publish articles on each of them you’ll be able to go back and refer to them as I will be?writing?them in a “series” format. My hope is that readers will provide useful feedback and participate in the forums to share their expertise and experience so that all of us can take advantage of the shared knowledge.

This site is for everyone to profit from and to?contribute?to, whether you?re in your twenties and just starting out in your career or are in your 50’s and wondering how you’ll put the?resources?together for a?comfortable?retirement. I encourage you?to share your ideas,?experiences?and results so that we can all profit from each other?s successes and failures.

You may have noticed that I have struck out TheFindependent and replaced it with The WiseDollar. A month into this blog adventure I decided to change the name. I?wasn’t?quite happy with The Findependent and changed it the WiseDollar.org.