Talk:Getting started

Should there be any mention of giving consideration to paying down non-tax deductible debt loads before investing? Or is it an assumed pre-condition to someone getting started to invest? --Peculiar Investor 10:34, 15 May 2012 (MDT)
 * Creating a financial plan added. Expand or link as desired. --Shakespeare 11:00, 15 May 2012 (MDT)

The pyramid
The old pyramid was this one: There were a few issues with it:
 * 1) The word "budget" is not clear, and has a bad rep. Many FWF members don't have a budget but spend less than they earn. The important message is "spend less than you earn", it's not a single word, but it's clear.
 * 2) Saving 10% of gross income will not be enough for over half the population (see article on savings rates under development). Better not mention a specific number here. Instead, I'm saying "figure out the required savings rate". I also added the notions of starting early, and automating the process.
 * 3) Indexing is not as important as the notions of keeping costs down in general, and diversifying. --Quebec 14:11, 12 February 2015 (MST)
 * Looks good, but "Figure out what your savings rate should be" may be not be clear (what is a savings "rate"?). Try "Estimate what you can save each month". --LadyGeek 20:12, 12 February 2015 (MST)
 * It's not about what you can save (some people cannot save anything and in fact dig themselves deeper in debt every month), but about what you should save, over 30-35 years, to replace say 70% of your pre-retirement income. Let's work on the "savings rate" article a bit and we can revisit this issue. --Quebec 13:08, 13 February 2015 (MST)
 * I still think, as per the original discussion, that we shouldn't shy away from the word budget. The word is concise. Budget (verb) means to spend less than you earn. And in case there was any confusion, it says so right next to the image. The majority of FWF'ers may not use a budget (noun), but based on consumer debt statistics, it is likely that the majority of Canadians probably should use one. Mcbar 07:27, 13 February 2015 (MST)
 * Thanks for the comment Mcbar. As a possible compromise I've uploaded a new version of the figure with "this may require a budget" added in red text. --Quebec 13:08, 13 February 2015 (MST)