Everything I learned about Personal Finance, I learned from Twitter.

Josh Smith

When it comes to learning about finances there are lessons to be learned all around us--believe it or not, I’ve learned a lot from Twitter. The social network has been a great place to look for inspiration and knowledge about managing my finances. It’s no surprise that my daily tweeting, re-tweeting and following has carried over into my financial life. Here are a few things to take away:

• Keep it Simple and Take Action: A lot of new users waste a week finding the best background and reading all the tips without actually doing anything. Likewise it’s easy to delay making personal finance choices by researching and tweaking little things that don’t matter. Rather than complicate and delay, keep personal finance simple and take action.
• It’s all about the Ratios: On Twitter, following everyone can be a temptation, but the best thing to do is keep a pretty even ratio of followers to follows. For personal finances, make sure you keep a good debt to income ratio, so you’re not drowning in debt.
• Categorize: It’s just as hard to keep track of 1,000 monthly expenses as it is to keep track of 1,000 people you’re following on Twitter. Just like you’d create a Twitter list, categorize your purchases in Mint or Yodlee to see where you are spending too much.
• Don’t believe everything you hear: Trends and trending topics on Twitter are often false and full of spam -- just like life’s trends. Rather than try to be on top of the personal finance trend, focus on making good decisions without trying to always get rich quick.
• Surround Yourself with Positive Influences: On Twitter we are quick to stop following “bad” users, those who tempt us to spend extra cash or are just a drain on our time. Translate that to personal finance and you quickly learn to send those sale emails to a special folder and avoid hanging out with “expensive” friends at the bar every night.
• Small Actions can have a Big Impact: You might not expect a lot from a Tweet, but it can build or break your reputation and might lead to a job or cost a job. Small actions can have a similarly huge affect on your credit score so make sure you pay attention to the small stuff, even when you’re just getting started with credit.