Reflection About Personal Finance

Background

After reading numerous books about personal finance, I have found none that has ever covered all aspects of this subject, probably because the typical authors only covers their own limited area of expertise.

So my question was why do you need to buy a multitude of books or need a university degree to get the whole picture? This annoyance has been my inspiration for writing this book, which covers all aspects of private finance. This 360 degree view covers setting goals, budgeting, how to maximize your savings, arrive at the best financial decisions, avoid risky investments and more, e.g. giving you insight into the most important factors that influence your finances, opportunities and determines how easily you can grow wealth, etc.

I still remember those years where the crop failed and the taxation commission claimed that the income was too low to live on. Therefore, they claimed that there had to be some hidden income, which they then taxed.

The lesson I learned was that it does not require much to survive, and that there is numerous ways to save money and get by anyway. In addition, and even more important, happiness has nothing to do with money or your earthly possessions. It is more a state of mind.

The turning point came when I inherited a small amount of money. It was just the equivalent of about a couple of months pay. Nothing much, but it was enough for me to buy a few stocks. This was in the mid eighties and stocks were doing quite well. So a few stock trades later, I suddenly had enough money to buy a house – cash.

This made me feel like an expert trader, so I borrowed money for the house and had a vision of me becoming a full time trader and living a life in luxury.

Of course, that was not what happened, in the beginning, I actually did well and was able to build a small fortune, but in the early nineties, I lost most of the money, and had to reconsider my

I have had some tough lesson, but I have learned much, and managed to survive and do well anyway. One important lesson was that it is never too late to change your situation.

Even though I have read a large number of books about finance, economy, stock trading, technical analyses of stock patterns, macro economy, how to become a millionaire, personal finances, etc., I never found a book that sums up how to handle your own personal finance in the best way. At the same time, people have always been asking for my advice on different economic decisions.

This has been the inspiration for me to write this book, which is much more than a summation of my personal experiences. It summarizes advice from business economy, the world of investing, banking, numerous books on private economy as well as the plethora of sources on the internet.

In Denmark, we have a cookbook that for ages has been a natural part of almost any household, containing all the basic recipes for everyday use and for occasions that are more special.

This book is a financial equivalent to that cookbook. If you are unsure about how to handle or improve your financial situation, you should be able to find recipes and ideas here.