I start out with a lot of raw data. For example, to learn about taxes, I read the tax form and the instruction booklet it comes with. When you look at the actual form, you learn things like what can be deducted. If you have questions about your own situation, the instructions can fill you in. If you need more information, you can call the IRS, but I never have. Taxes seem very complicated, but you really only have to know what applies to you, and when you start with a 1040EZ form and then work your way up, it’s not hard.

Another example is reading all the stuff HR gives me on insurance and retirement. I may have read every word on the pension website. Then if I have specific questions (like how do I apply to this), I talk to HR, and if I have general questions (like what’s the best way to invest) I check google and maybe even libraries for more information. I also ask my friends questions when they are trying things I want to know about. And I also get some data by doing things and seeing how well that works!

Once I know what some possibilities are and what some advantages and disadvantages of different possibilities are, I usually don’t have any problems making decisions. Other people just don’t know me as well as I do. Although if I’m about to make a purchase of something that one of my friends is really into, I will try to get their viewpoint before making my final decision, and sometimes I even just ask what their recommendations are without doing much research myself.

Favorites:
the Street
Yahoo Finance
SmartMoney
Simple Dollar
TradingMarkets
Get Rich Slowly
Fool
Digg
(There are more a lot more, but those are the ones that I find the most useful, Digg not so much, but it’s interesting)

Since I’ve been blogging, I find myself in a constant mode of relating various events in my daily life with personal finance.

Just living life day to day and interacting with people provides me with tons of material.

Great insight into your thought process. Very beneficial for those of us smaller (ok, much smaller) than you :-)

We are still just getting started so that changes things a little. Just starting our emergency fund (used it all this year between medical expenses, car died and need to be replaced, and job hunting after college).

We will probobly look more places after we get more settled.

That said, I’ve taken most of my advise from a variety of books, magazines, and some from paid professionals. Two things that stand out and got me started. 1) My priest asking me if I wanted to be rich when we met with him to discuss our wedding and his subsequent explaination that we need to save and invest some portion of our salary (e.g. pay yourself first) 2) Taking a adult education class at our community college describing the basics of investing. This openned my eyes to the fact that just squirrelling money away in a savings account really isn’t enough.

/end rant

When it comes to doing research and finding information about “best practice” methods for handling money, I look to rich folk for advice. Primarily Dave Ramsey, since not only is he a multi-millionaire, but he went to rich folk for the advice he put together when he wrote his original book.

7. A smart & honest tax lawyer

2. Professional financial advisors (Stellar Management in Phoenix, AZ)

3. Fund experts at Vanguard

4. Occasionally, friends who seem to know what they’re talking about

5. A smart Realtor with an MBA and a track record of success in more than one business

6. And I get a few ideas from PF blogs, all taken with a grain of salt!