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Being financially literate in today’s economic climate is more important than ever. Understanding finances can help you make better money management decisions, budget your money properly, adequately save for college, and be financially prepared for retirement. While it may sound daunting, financial literacy starts with a budget. Today, only one third of Americans have a budget that they actively use when making financial decisions, although 75% of Americans believe you should have a budget.

Most nonprofit organizations today offer a variety of planned giving options that supporters can take advantage of. If you’re committed to supporting an organization into perpetuity, planned giving provides you with the option to do so.

While consulting with your tax or financial advisor is recommended before making any planned giving decisions, it can be helpful to gain some understand about the various options that are available, and which of these options are more likely to suit your own particular financial needs and personal philanthropic philosophy.

One of the biggest decisions you will make in your life is buying a home. While home ownership is not for everyone, home ownership remains a goal for many. And while browsing real estate websites looking at homes can give you an idea of what’s available, and help determine what you’re looking for, home ownership is much more complicated than simply picking out an attractive home.

A college education, while a worthy achievement, does not come cheaply. Forbes has estimated that the price of a college education has increased 8 times faster than wages, making it a struggle for even upper middle-class families. When factoring in the cost of tuition along with room and board, books, and living expenses, a college education can quickly become an unaffordable luxury.

If you’ve only just begun your career and are starting to collect a decent paycheck, the last thing on your mind is probably retirement planning. When you’re in your twenties and thirties, retirement can feel light years away, but it will get here much quicker than you can imagine. And when it does, you’ll want to be prepared.

And for those in their 40s and 50s, remember that it’s never too late to start saving for retirement. The most important thing is to just start.

Here are some tips for getting started:

Data breaches, once a fairly rare occurrence, have become more frequent as hackers become more skilled in their ability to extract personal data from popular social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. And while we commonly hear about breaches from these large, global organizations, it’s important to remember that small businesses are just as likely to experience a data breach, meaning your information that is stored at you CPA’s office, your attorney’s office, or your local medical center can be vulnerable to a breach at any time.

Managing finances properly is mainly common sense. While we’ve all made financial mistakes, most of those mistakes are easily rectified, particularly when promptly corrected. However, there are some financial decisions that can be much harder to recover from. Here are just a few of them:

The American Institute of CPA’s (AICPA) recently published a list of personal finance trends that we should all be concerned about. These trends highlight the fact that almost 63 percent of Americans today are unable to pass a basic financial literacy test.

Here are the troubling trends, as well as some tips on how to avoid them:

Sometimes simple is best. Many of us tend to complicate our financial situation; overthinking our options while ignoring the basics.

But like anything else, the simplest rules are often the most important ones; and the ones most likely to be ignored. How many of these rules do you follow?