This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar.
Recently I was leafing through Jonathan Pond's very good personal-finance book, "Grow Your Money," which I had reviewed a while back. In it, he makes the astute statement that everyone puts their money into three basic groups: necessities, luxuries and saving for the future. The more I thought about that statement, the more profound I thought it was, because it provides a framework for the financial problems ailing many Americans.
Obviously, the pile that will get you in the best shape over the long term is the "saving for the future" pile, but people's failure to do that is only part of the problem. The reason so many Americans are in poor financial shape is that they put more than they should into one of these areas to the detriment of others.
Let me show you what I mean.
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