Oh, yeah, the election.

Will the outcome of the Presidential election matter to your money?

Both sides in this election are calling it the most important in our lifetimes. And there are, in my view, important differences between the candidates.

Of course, there's more to national politics than just our money, and certainly every voter should consider other issues that are important to them.

But no matter the outcome of the election, chances are that there's something else that's even more important to your financial well-being over the next four years:

Your own financial habits.

As a wise person once said, it's not what happens to us, but how we respond to what happens that makes the difference. And there's a group of people who just aren't as worried about any financial fallout of this fall's elections: savers. People in the habit of saving some money out of every paycheck typically have substantial cash in reserve, and more in retirement assets than non-savers. Sure, you could be bailed out by an inheritance or some other windfall. But I've never heard anyone complain about having saved too much from their paycheck.

If you save out of your current income, and you do it well, you'll probably never want for anything. If you don't, you risk living hand-to-mouth for the rest of your life.

And that's truth is not likely to change, no matter who wins this election, or any other election.

(By the way, for more information on how to save more out of every paycheck, see my forthcoming book Don't Make a Budget: Why It's So Hard to Save Money and What to Do About It, due for release early in 2009.)


Copyright © 2008 by Kenneth F. Robinson