So here's the next tip.
Financial Planning must be done in THIS order (especially for Canadians):
1) Insurance
2) Tax Planning
3) Investing
4) Estate Planning
Insurance
If you have dependents, then GET INSURANCE. It's by far the cheapest fastest way to ensure the financial stability and protection of your family should the worst happen. Critical Illness insurance can also play a vital role to secure your income if you are the sole breadwinner for your family.
Now if you don't have anyone depending on you for anything, then what do you need insurance for? Other than Car, and rental/house insurance - that's about all you need to protect yourself.
Tax Planning
Next is Tax Planning. Did you know that 47% of your income is spent on taxes? (For Canadians). That means from Jan to May, none of the money you've made from work is yours. Get a capable financial plan set to save money on taxes. Start a business, get some RRSPs (Canadian thing again), there are tons of ways to save money. PM me if you want to get into the nitty gritty about getting every tax penny back because that gets rather complicated. My last tax return was about $8000.
Investing
Once you've saved enough money on Taxes, all of a sudden there's extra money at the end of the paycheque that wasn't there before. Now you'll have to resist all urges to go out and buy that nice flat screen HDTV from Best Buy or Futureshop (same thing) and take this money and start making it work for YOU.
As far as investments go, there are too many to mention so do your research and get the ball rolling. I'm starting a Canadian based investment site:
http://wcstrategies.ca that does research into potential investment opportunities. When your savings get significant enough - it's time to find a financial planner to decide the strategy you want to take. Wether it's a major bank, your local investment group company, or even yourself - it's your future and your retirement, so it's worth the time to look into.
Estate Planning
Last, but not least. When you finally follow all of the other steps, it's time to start planning your will - this is the final step in the Financial building block program. Protect your assets so that your children, and your children's children will benefit from all of the hard work you've just done getting this far. Yes, there's such a thing as "death" tax. On a lighter note, it just happens to be the same form to get married here in Canada. (half of the form is for a marriage license, the other is a death certificate... who says the government paper pushers don't have a sense of humour eh?)
Don't believe me? - Check out this link - direct to the Government Website:
http://www.vs.gov.bc.ca/forms/vsa430m_fill.pdf
I run free Financial workshops in the Greater Vancouver area for those of you who want to hear this spiel in person, just PM me. This information came from David Singh, the creator of Fortune Financial.
If you're not in BC, Canada - then I suggest looking into purchasing Rich Dad, Poor Dad from Amazon:
Amazon - Search for Rich Dad Poor Dad Robert Kiyosaki does a great job of making the world of a finance a much friendlier and easier goal to attain. On second thought, read this book wherever the heck you are.