Three Things That You Should Have Reached Financially by 30 Years

I know it's a bit spiteful, the title. It also says at the same time that you're not a 30-something if you haven't reached these goals.

But again, having goals and seeing the consequences of such attainments is an amazing thing.

So, do you have these three things in check?

Emergency Fund

Everyone needs a six-months' worth of living expenses or even a year to buffer for anything from medical emergencies or unemployment. If you don't have this, you're not de-classified from being a 30 years old but this is an important goal to attain.

Anticipating Big Expenditures

At this point, you are preparing for huge expenses and have adjusted your lifestyle accordingly. You also deal with your budgets using a realistic amount that would not lead you into debt. Often, you would even skip these expenses to make way for bigger, important ones.

Negotiation

A highly-valued skill , negotiation is not only for the flea market. When you get a new job, you know your worth and the worth of your skills. You demand a higher salary for your service.

When running your business, your suppliers and service providers you understand their value and you pay accordingly to their value.

The valuation of everything is an important skill to have.

The Power of Personal Finance Is Power Over One's Life

Sometimes, I wish my mom taught me more about APR.

I didn't know what APR meant when I was 16. They gave me a credit card to use. I never knew it had an APR.

This APR had led to the loss of my car once. After my mother died and my father went sick, I struggled to understand what APR was. In fact, APRs became something I was traumatised with early on.

Annual percentage rates. I spent enormously on standard learning that I never really realised my parents can't repay this amount to their creditors.

So I was stuck with dropping out and paying out these APRs. I'm currently running this blog to pay for my expenses. At least the advertisements and sponsors pay me enough.

I familiarised myself with finance and other terms that I couldn't understand. Or at least life taught me about them.

Encumbrance meant our house would be taken. Foreclosed by the bank, meant taken by the bank.

These words shocked me as I read them on paper. Being my father was mentally unfit, I had to take care of the estate since I was already of the legal age when this happened.

But I wish someone taught me finance early on. Personal finance.

But then again, I wouldn't be the same person I was if they did. Or maybe I would be better.

Regardless, nobody deserves to not know about finance at an early age. They should teach it in schools other than stuffy things we can't use when we're older.

Why Do Away With Low-Earning Bank Accounts?

They tell you that investing and making an investment just takes common sense and a bit of effort of looking into the details more than ever. This is true. And if you've looked through low-earning bank accounts and their performance, it would seem the safety net of low-risk investments are just holding your money back rather than improving its quality of working for you.

So, maybe it's time to move out of your bank account interest rate and let the bigger players dole it out for you.

Your bank should only have what you need for bills and emergencies in a bank. For your checking accounts, you could just place in the minimum balance and maybe just a bit of money that could handle unforeseen expenses that would require a promisory note.

From here, you could start paying off your high-interest debt that you might have. Have a debt consolidator work you out of your trouble.

Once done, focus on saving for retirement. Then open a brokerage account that could help you buy an sell stocks and other financial vehicles that could grow over time.

Don't Take Personal Finance Failures Too Hard

Money problems will always be money problems. Planning is a great way to resolve an issue. But don't be too hard on yourself if things don't go your way with your financial plans.

Sure, failing in your personal finance plan isn't the most rewarding or positively exhilarating phase in life. But like all cheesy meditational lines, it gives you the ability to step up and 'level-up' in your financial management.

According to a study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, having financial issues on your mind is stressful. But it also found it did not affect all that you have to do because of something called a "working memory."

Essentially, the research team came to the conclusion that worries about money don’t hamstring all of our mental processes, though it may feel like it, and that people with more financial trouble in their lives can perform better in certain cognition tests.

The British Psychological Society’s take on the study lays out an example:

A trucker is likely to rely much more on the relatively automatic and instinctive processes that make up safe, effective driving. This is not to make a facile argument such as “financial stress is good for the poor,” but rather to make the point that even if such stress does impede some parts of poorer people’s lives, in other capacities they will be able to operate strongly in spite of, or even in small part due to, this stress.

But it doesn't mean you have to stop thinking about your money. You have to stay afloat or else you may drown in debt as you go into the future.

It just means that the human body is resilient enough, according to research, to go and stop the impending doom of financial oceans. But like every failure -- and yet again, cheesy lines for recovery and self-help -- all you have to do is get up and pick yourself up and rebuild your ladders methodically and improving on the parts that failed you.

Spain, Portugal Have Violated Budget Laws

Spain and Portugal are in violation of budgeting rules. However, analysts believe that in light of the current economic situation the two countries may likely face light penalties. Others believe the soft penalties are due to decrease anti-EU sentiment in the continent.

The acknowledgement of Eurozone Finance ministers came on Monday and would go to all the 28 EU finance ministers on Tuesday.

The members would vote to support the commission's recommendation for penalties unanimously.

The two countries may submit a no request for no sanctions within 10 days along with pledges to improve their budget outlook.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said on Monday that action towards Spain and Portugal should be soft because of the countries' enormous efforts in the previous years. Excessive discipline, according to Mr Sapin, is not needed.

Meanwhile, Spanish Finance Minister Luis de Guindos was optimistic the commission would avoid "a senseless fine against Spain.

The two countries have been under the EU's excessive deficit procedure since 2009. Spain had cut its budget hole in half from nearly 10 per cent in 2012. Despite the cut, it still remains off the 4.2 per cent target set by the commission and above the 3 per cent EU threshold.

China Is Focused on Green Investments

China should definitely get into green investments. If the world is making fun of Canada selling you air in cans so you can breathe fresh air, it's a sign that your country is heading towards trouble.

The Paris Agreement, signed last year by 174 nations including China, aimed to bring down the world's carbon footprints as historic commitments to climate change.

China has dedicated itself to "green finance", which has become a pillar of trouble for its country. 

China has relinquished itself as the global testing ground for innovative green-finance ideas. This priority also allows it to experience the first success of any innovative concepts in green finance.

The program extends to the domestic side of things with a focus on financing green growth and "clean" businesses.

If China is successful, it could mean standardising its systems for the rest of the world when it comes to financial systems, corporations and incentives.

In short, it could make the Paris Agreements bearable or even successful by a far margin.

As Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of China’s central bank, said during the recent Spring IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington, DC, “green finance is a strategic priority.” Zhou estimates the costs of cleaning up China’s environment alone will run over $600 billion annually for at least five years. The Chinese government can meet only 15 percent of that estimate. Alternate sources of funding must be found — a problem that will be replicated in many countries as pressure to implement the Paris Agreement increases.

Mafioso And Others Using Offshore Accounts Should Be Treated As Terrorists

Not that world leaders and the rich are mafiosi, but everybody involved in offshore accounts usage should be punished.

The system, which lawyers, accountants and everybody involved with legal representation and familiar with the law, had allowed plenty of the world's elite to stuff away their money into companies and enterprises for lower taxes.

This is "common practice" as seen by many rich elites and even some individuals and groups in corporations and in the government.

The saddest thing is that these revelations fail to provoke action from the public to condemn these individuals.

The total global wealth the elites have stolen from the government and the public is now at $21 tn (£14.7 trillion). With that much money provided to governments or to the public as per postulate of capitalism, we can build a better, climate-friendly world.

But instead, aggressive investments in environmental exploitation, even the exploitation of the poor and innocent, have become the norm both over and under the wraps. All because some few in the world, as the Panama papers evidenced, wanted to have more for themselves and their families.

Indeed, man is a greedy animal. And in the end, they would be stealing against each other to be the one who gains more than the other.