Personal Management is the process of taking responsibility for yourself and taking control of your life. Most young people, like teenagers, often wish for more control over their own lives. Generally, this is a healthy attitude to take and it’s a natural part of growing into an adult. Such an attitude ultimately helps young people and teenagers to become responsible adults. However, managing your self can be a bit daunting. It means you would no longer be dependent on others to do things or make decisions for you. It also means being responsible for mistakes you may make along the way as well as being responsible for your success.

If you are a young person, think about all the things parents or other adults do for you. Do they buy and prepare your food, keep you under a roof, and keep you clothed? Do they drive you where you want or need to go? Do they help you buy things that you want or need? Eventually, the day will come when you will have to do all these things for yourself.

At this point, you may be used to having others manage things in your life for you. Parents or guardians may tell you what to do, teachers may tell you what to learn and how to learn it, and your coaches may tell you how to play a sport. Its often the case that we don’t agree with the adults in our lives but most of the time its their way of teaching you what you need to know as an adult.

However, as you are growing you may take on more responsibility for yourself. This article is meant to help you learn to better manage three areas of your life; money, time, and your future. You may not be entirely on your own yet. You are probably not old enough to move away from home just yet. Adults still share the management of your life, but now is a good time to get ready for the day when you have to or choose to leave home.

Managing money is a skill that one must learn if they are to become a successful adult. It is an important skill and an ever increasingly difficult one. Your parents and grandparents probably had less money to spend as teenagers and less things to spend their money on. In our modern society, teenagers and young people must make more complicated choices than others once did about how to earn money, save it, and spend it. Young people and teenagers have to be more responsible for their own finances and their futures, such as when you retire. Because people today have more choices, there is also a good chance that those people will make financial mistakes along the way, such as getting too far into dept.

Money isn’t everything in life, in it better well shouldn’t be. There are many more important things such as family, friends, helping others, and growing as a person. However, in our modern society, money is a major part of life. How someone manages their money is important to his or her personal well being. The purpose of money management is not primarily making more money, although making more money can sure help the situation. The main goal is to manage your money wisely and effectively.

Money-management habits, whether good or bad, are not something we are born with. We have to learn these habits and it is best to learn them when we are young. Bad money-management often affects people’s relationships with other people and conflicts over money can be stressful in families and in marriages. One of the leading causes for divorce is the dispute over money. Conflicts over money occur more often with people who don’t know how to manage their finances successfully.

What if you wanted to meet a financial goal for yourself? First, you must identify the goal. It might be something small, a short-term goal such as buying something you might want or need although it could be something more ambitious, expensive, or long term. Next, find out how much your goal will cost. Usually this is easy to find out. If there’s something you want to buy you can check out the price usually at the store or online. However, be careful. It is often easy to underestimate the cost. For example, what if you were to buy your own car? You might know the price of the car, which is a good start, but what about the costs it takes to maintain the car? What about the price of gas or oil? What about insurance, repairs, license plates, registration fees and other expenses?

Once you know how much your goal will cost, figure out how much time you have to reach your goal. This applies mainly if you need something by a certain date or if you want something in a timely manner. The next step is then to calculate how much you would need to save in the next week or the next month to reach your financial goal.

To achieve your financial goal, you must save money to pay for the goal unless you use a credit card, but that will be discussed later. To save enough money for your goal, you’ll need to earn or receive income and then at regular intervals put aside a portion of your income.

What kind of sources of income are there for young people and teenagers? Some ideas are:

1. Allowance: You might get a weekly or monthly allowance either because you did some chores or because your parents are generous.
2. Extra Chores: You might be able to do more around the house and therefore earn extra money from your parents or guardians.
3. Gifts: While it shouldn’t be relied upon, you may have amassed some money from gifts that you have received for birthday, Christmas, or other holidays.
4. Job: If you are old enough you might consider getting a job such as fast food, or at the theatre, delivering papers, or working as a golf caddy.
5. Your Own Business: Similar to a job is running your own business and create your own jobs, such as house sitting, pet care, computer instruction, tutoring, repairing bikes, or running errands for elderly people. Business opportunities are a big undertaking but they are only limited by what you can imagine and how determined you are to get where you want to be.
6. Selling Something: You might get money you need by selling something you own that you no longer want, need, or enjoy.

However, receiving money is only half the battle toward reaching your goal. You also must save some or all of that money if you are going to make it to your financial goal. Saving isn’t always easy to do because you might have other things you want or need to spend money on. If you spend all your money, logically you won’t have any left for your goal.

A personal spending and savings plan or a budget puts your finances down into a hard record to show you what you’ve made, how you are planning to spend it, and how you actually do spend it. Sometimes people think of budgets as a thing that tells you how you cannot spend your money and therefore they dislike the idea of a budget. The truth is, a budget will tell you how you can spend your money more wisely. To make a budget work, you must keep track of everything you bring in (your income) and everything you spend (your expenses). Record both in your budget. Write down everything you received and the expenses you paid. Be exact, down to the last penny. Even the occasional 25 cents can add up in the long run.

If you have an income from an allowance or job, it can be easier to predict how much you will get each month. With other things, be careful not to count on income because you just might not get it. It’s not always easy to guess exactly how much your expenses will be. Expenses such as savings, organization dues, and church donations are usually the same each time and you should know the expense of a gift for a friend before you decide to buy. It’s more difficult to predict how much you will want to spend on things like snacks or entertainment.

Ideally, your total expenses should be equal to or less than your total income for the month. Any money left over can be spent next month or saved. If you spend more in one area of your life than you intended, cut back on something else. If your expenses are more than your income for the month you will have to borrow money, which will ultimately have to be paid back.

One trick toward saving toward a goal is to pay you first. If you want to save $15 each month put the first $15 of your income for the month in a savings account or in an envelope where you won’t touch it. After that, you are free to spend your remaining income on other expenses. Remember, you’ll have to still pay those certain expenses that you know you’ll have such as car payments. What you have after that are discretionary expenses or the things you don’t have to spend your money on.

So what happens when your budget is the other way around? If you save after everything else it is likely you will not have enough at the end of the month to put toward your goal. If this happens, you won’t be able to meet your goal until later when you have saved up.

The next question is, how much should you save? A good rule is to save at least 10% of your income. If you can, go ahead and save 20% or even 30 %. That’s even better.

Budgets often must be adjusted. Perhaps you don’t have the income to cover all your expenses. How can you change what you’re doing? You could earn more money. You could also look for ways to cut your spending. Some fixed expenses cannot be altered but there are almost always things you could cut out of your discretionary expenses. You could also change your goal. No, that’s not cheating. Perhaps you will need more time or perhaps you will have to settle for something similar but less expensive. The good thing about a budget is that it shows you very precisely what choices you have and what changes need to be made to achieve your financial goal.

Part of personal management is taking responsibility for you. As you grow into an adult, you learn to take on more and more responsibility. At the moment, your parents may be responsible for you, generally. They may provide you with things you need and want. But what if you lived on your own? This may very well happen someday soon. You may go away to college or your family may decide you are old enough to start out on your own. What an exciting prospect. Every young person wants to grow up, right? With new freedom comes new responsibilities. Suddenly, you may have expenses that until now have always been paid by someone for you, like food, an apartment, utilities, a telephone, and personal items. You won’t be able to frivolously spend your money on things you want that might be fun. Good money management will become critical at this point and from here on out. How much would it cost to live on your own? You can draw up an imaginary spending and savings plan to determine this.

To live on your own you will need a steady job. You won’t be able to depend upon getting an allowance every week or month, nor will you be able to get complete support from your family. So, the next step is to choose a realistic job based on how old you are, what skills you have, what your level of education is, and what kind of experiences you have had. For a teenager, this may mean working at a fast food joint, a movie theatre, a college library, or perhaps you could be an unskilled construction worker. Choose a job; find out what it pays hourly and how often you might work a week. From this, determine your take-home pay for one month. That’s the money you will have after your employer takes out payroll deductions for taxes, social security, and other deductions such as health insurance. Take-home pay is what you have left to spend, not the sum total of what you make. Next, decide what you need to live on. Add up all expenses. To estimate expenses talk to your parents. Go to the grocery store to see what a weeks worth of food for just you would cost. Calculate how much you will need for gas per week.

There are a lot of expenses one must deal with when they are living alone. How does your estimated expenses stack up against your estimated income? Would you have enough to live on? Once again, if expenses are greater than income, what changes can you make? Find a higher paying job? That’s not always easy if you don’t have the right skills or a high enough education. Sometimes you can work more hours. Some adults even work two or three jobs just to make it through. However, if your in school, getting more jobs means less time to devote to school work and in this instance it may be a delicate balance because getting an education is essential to getting a higher paying job. As with your budget, look for ways to cut expenses. Perhaps you could share an apartment with someone and split the cost of rent. You might utilize public transportation rather than own your own car. Often times, things like eating out and entertainment are the first things to get cut. That may not always be fun, but to make it in the real world, that’s what some people have to do. It’s all part of personal management.

Now we’re going to talk about spending money. At any given store in America you walk in, pick out what you want, give the person behind the register enough money to pay for what you want, and you walk out with the item. Easy enough, right? Well, there are also some tricks to help your money go further. What if you could have paid less for the same or a similar item at another store? What if you had a coupon that said you could get the item for less? If and when, then you would have some money left to save for another purchase. Like the old saying by Benjamin Franklin, “a penny saved is a penny earned,” and this means that any money you save shopping is like earning the same amount back.

You look at how much an item costs and you realize that you don’t have enough. What do you do? You could:

• Shop Around: It’s possible that another store has the exact same thing at a lower price. A telephone call or shopping on the Internet can make comparing prices easy.
• Earn or Save More Money: Do this until you have enough to pay for the item.
• Wait For a Sale: A store clerk just might be able to inform you of when an item will go on sale.
• Look For Discount Coupons. Yes, they exist. Look for coupons in newspapers, coupon books, or in the mail.

But what if the item in question is still too much, or you don’t want to spend so much money even if it is on sale? You still have choices. Shoppers don’t always get exactly what they want because sometimes they have to compromise. That’s part of managing money well. You have to know how to say “no” to yourself.

In the case of this special item you’re looking for try the following:

• Buy a Less Expensive Item: Perhaps there are some things about the new item that aren’t what you had originally imagined but it could still be just as functional.
• Buy a Used Item: You can do this at garage sales or buy it from a friend or a store that sells the items used.
• Check Newspaper or Internet Classified Adds: You can find many things in the newspaper or on the Internet, and they just might have what you want for a decent price.
• Build Your Item From Scratch: This may not always be economical but sometimes you can build something very close to what you want for less.

Some other smart shopping tips are:

• Be Aware of Advertising: Advertising is a part of our culture and messages are everywhere. Advertising does have a purpose because it tells you what is available to buy, it tells you what the product features and benefits are, it tells you who is selling such products, and sometimes it tells you what the item or product costs. The problem is that advertising can be misleading. Just because something says, “New and Improved,” what does that really mean? Is the item really improved? It may be a difference that doesn’t apply to you or doesn’t make a big difference in the quality or functionality of the product. The big question often times is, does this product really deliver where it counts?
• Before Buying A Product: Before buying a product, talk to people, friends, family members, or others who already have and use the product. Do they like it? Was it worth their money? Also, before buying a product, try it out if you can or have the salesperson do a demonstration. Take whatever it is for a test drive and compare it to items with similar functions.
• Consider Quality: Check the local library or the Internet for consumer guides on a products price, quality, and value. In many cases it is not better to buy an item for cheaper, especially if it is just going to fall apart or doesn’t work right.
• Consider Service: How does the store treat it’s customers and will they help if you have a problem with your product? Service in a store may be the determining factor between buying and not buying.
• Consider Features: Do you really need the latest and greatest?
• Avoid Impulse Buying: Don’t buy something without considering whether you need it or want it. Also, don’t buy if you know you can get the same thing for fewer dollars elsewhere. Impulse buying often happens when you are planning on buying one thing and then you see something else that looks enticing.
• If There’s A Problem, Take It Back: Keep your receipt and take a defective item back in a timely manner. Don’t just toss the item aside and sulk. Tell a store representative what the problem is and sometimes they’ll fix the item or give you a new one.

Many people, including adults, who use banks do not understand how financial institutions work, what services they offer, or which institutions actually fit their needs. People sometimes don’t understand the difference between a bank, a credit union, a brokerage firm, and a savings and loan. Banks are the most common financial institution. Visit a local bank and see how they can help you manage your money. When you walk into a bank, you may see a row of people behind a counter. These bank workers are called tellers or customer service representatives. Their job is to help customers with their deposits, withdraws, check writing, or the utilization of safe-deposit boxes. Another part of the bank will probably have a desk or series of desks where more customer service representatives can help you open a savings account, take out a loan, or make investments.

One thing you can do at a bank is open a savings account. A savings account is where you put your money to save for later. It’s smart to have a savings account when you start making money at a job. There are good reasons for using a savings account rather than just saving money up on your own. These include:

• Thieves: Thieves can steal money from your house. At a bank, the federal government insures money. Insurance protects your money against loss or theft.
• Natural Disasters: At home, money can be destroyed in a fire or a flood.
• Interest: The bank gives you money, called interest, based on the money you deposit. The bank does this because you are actually loaning the bank money that in turn loans it to other customers. Money you have sitting around at home earns you nothing.

For paying bills and insurance payments on a car you’ll probably want to have a checking account. A checking account allows you to write checks. A check is a notice saying that the bank should take money out of your account and pay it to the person or company to whom you wrote the check. The bank will either give the payee that amount in cash or transfer it from your account to their account. Now, the important thing to remember is for the bank to give money to the person or company you wrote the check to you must have enough money in your account. Usually, you either put money into a checking account or an employer or someone else gives you a check. Checks are a way to pay bills that is convenient. Check writing can be safer than carrying around cash, which could be stolen.

Having checking requires keeping a good record. When you don’t have any more cash, you know it because your wallet is empty. It can be easy to overdraw on an account and not realize it. A checking account is overdrawn when you write and checks that total more than what you have in the account. A single check can overdraw an account.

Some banks do pay interest on checking accounts, but they also charge a fee for the checking service. This is because it costs the bank money to process the checks you write. Banks will usually offer different types of checking accounts and fees can be based on how many checks you write or how much money you keep in your account.

Banks have many other services. They loan money to those customers who agree to eventually pay the money back with interest. Banks will have automated teller machines (ATM) from which you can withdraw money using a debit card. ATMs are open 24-hours a day. ATM’s can also be found in stores, gas stations, and other places. It is a good way to withdraw money when the bank is closed or when you’re not near the bank. ATMs can be used in other states and other countries too. However, you have to remember that taking money out of an ATM is the same as taking it out of your account and usually banks will charge a small fee for use of the ATM. Generally, you can’t take out more money than what was in your account to start with.

Banking through an ATM, over the phone, or through computers is called electronic banking and it’s becoming more and more popular. Electronic banking allows for a transfer of money between accounts. It also allows you to check on the status of your account balance. Computers can be used to get bank statements or even pay bills. Computer technology is allowing us to use cash cards instead of cash and debit cards instead of checks. Someday, changes in electronic banking may make checks and cash obsolete.

While such changes will give convenience and speed, they also make it easy to spend money. With cash or checks one thinks about how much they are spending. Using a card or using a computer might make it easier to overspend or borrow, which can lead to financial trouble.

When you pick a bank, shop around just like you would for that special item you want. Different banks charge different fees for checking accounts. They also pay different amounts of interest on savings and checking accounts and charge different interest rates for loans.

Other types of financial institutions utilize different types of professionals that include:

• Financial Planner: Planners look at a person’s financial situation and make recommendations on how they can achieve their financial goals. Many planners receive through education and testing professional certification such as the Certified Financial Planner license or CFP.
• Stockbroker: A stockbroker is a licensed professional at selling stocks, bonds, and other types of investments.
• Insurance Agent: An insurance agent is a certified professional at selling automobile, home, health, or other types of insurance.
• Accountant: An accountant examines the financial records of companies or individuals and prepares tax returns.
• Tax Preparer: A tax preparer calculates how much a client will pay in taxes each year.
• Real Estate Agent: This type of professional helps people buy or sell their home.
• Attorney: An attorney is often thought of only as legal council, but many attorneys provide income tax advice, prepare legal documents that are involved in finances, and negotiate business deals.

Just like money, spending your time wisely is important. Spending too much time doing nothing is unhealthy. Also you might have responsibilities that need taking care of such as homework or chores. The thing to remember about your time is that once it’s gone, you can’t get it back. You can’t earn extra time. You can’t save your time and use it later, you can’t trade it with someone else, and you can’t buy it back. However, if we choose to spend our time in a wise and productive manner it can ultimately pay us back, just like an investment. Managing your time is one way to take control of your life and take responsibility.

Like setting a financial goal, you can also set goals for using time wisely. A key to getting the most out of the time you have is to set goals and then plan activities you want or need to do to accomplish them.

There are two types of goals. These are short-term goals and long-term goals. Short-term goals are things you need or want to do today, tomorrow, or in the coming days. Long-term goals are things you want to accomplish in weeks, months, or years.

Write down your short-term and long-term goals. Be specific. What do you want to do? When will you do it? How long will it take? How are you going to accomplish your goal? It is important to write goals down because that way they stick in your mind better. Revisit your goals either by posting them somewhere or keeping a hard copy that serves as a permanent reminder. On a calendar you can make to do lists that show your activities for the day and plan your time.

Life includes many activities. Many people have more things to do than their time will allow. You might be involved in school, clubs, or a job. Because most people don’t have enough time to do everything they want and need they need to set priorities. Some things will be obvious priorities like homework or a job, but sometimes priorities will be less clear-cut. Perhaps you have a hobby that you would like to spend time on or something else that you want to do. What is more important to you? What is least important? At this point you should edit your goals, asking yourself, “do I really want to do this activity?” Mark your priorities in sequence, such as 1, 2, 3, and so on until you have everything numbered. Then the key is to work on the most important items first.

Now you have a list of things to do and they are ranked in order of importance, but how do you start? If you’re not careful, procrastination will get in the way and you will put off things you should be doing. People procrastinate when a project is large, unpleasant, or if the deadline is a long ways out. One way to approach this problem is to break up a large goal into stages with a deadline for each stage. Write those deadlines on your calendar and stick to your deadlines and it will seem like you’ve accomplished a lot when it’s all said and done.

The last part of this article is about thinking about your future. You may have thought about what you would like to do for a living, but then again you might not have. The thing is that what you choose to do for the future becomes your life’s work.

Jobs aren’t careers. You may have a job, but is that really what you want to do for the rest of your life? A job can be a part of a career or a career path. You can work somewhere where you can achieve your career goals by starting from the bottom up. Experts say that people, on average, go through ten different jobs and three different careers during their lives.

A career can be a way to make money and manage your life, but a career should be something that is satisfying emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually. You should try to choose a career you really like, even if you already make enough money.

You can do a number of things to explore potential careers:

1. Think about what excites you. What are you interests and hobbies?
2. Think about what you do well
3. Talk to others who may be in a career you’d be interested in. Ask what they like about their work and what they don’t like. Ask what skills are needed to do the job.
4. Do research online or at the library
5. Go to job and career fairs. Some companies send representatives to such fairs to talk about job and career opportunities.
6. If you’re in school, look there for information
7. Find out how well a career pays and whether or not that is something that could sustain you
8. Consider whether or not a certain career type is on the grow or losing steam. Some careers offer more opportunities than others.
9. Is it something you can do for the rest of your working life?
10. Find out what the career requires as far as licensing or education. Do you need to go to college? Perhaps you can become an apprentice.
11. Figure out where the job is located, rural or big city
12. Begin to build your resume. A resume is a history of your employment that you can give to a potential employer when applying for a job. List all your jobs whether they paid or not and accomplishments.

You won’t have to choose a career right away and its best to explore different career opportunities to find out which one is right for you. A career will be a big part of your life. It’s important to do something with your life that you find meaningful and worthwhile. Finding a good career match takes thought, creativity, and hard work. It means often times setting specific goals for five, ten, and twenty years down the road. Remember to invest in yourself and your future by staying in school or through training. Most of all, it means taking responsibility for your own future.

In this article I used information from the Personal Management handbook in the Boy Scouts of America Merit Badge Series, written by Brent A. Neiser.