Saving money is great, but not if it is at the expense of your long term financial future and well being. As much as possible you have to consider the long term effects of your decisions on yourself and those around you. Otherwise, you might find yourself paying a hefty price for your “savings”

(This is the 4th article in the Money 101 Managing Your Money Series. We advise that you start from the the first article in the Series. Please click here to go to the Money 101 Managing Your Money introduction) Having figured out where you would like to be and want to go, you now need to take a look at where you are. Some schools of thought advocate that you should start with assessing your current situation before setting goals. The problem with that is, for most people, their goals setting tends to get limited to merely correcting the problems with the current situation, rather than trying to get to where they would really like to be.

Welcome to the Money Academy's 'Money 101: Managing YOUR Money' article series. This is a succession of articles that will take you through different topics that revolve around you, your money, how to make more, and how make what you earn help you achieve your goals . The series is divided into lessons, each covering a different aspect of personal finance planning, and these lessons are: