Mitch Wheat - Treat the cause, not the symptoms!

If you’ve been a VB6 programmer at some point in your career, it’s pretty good odds that you would have heard of Dan Appleman (Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the Win32 API, Desaware). But did you know about one of his other interests? It’s probably one of yours also…His site thinkingaboutmoney is an excellent place to visit to pick up some of Dan’s common-sense advice.

Dan has recently published a 25 page e-book “The Graduating Geek’s Guide to High Finance” aimed primarily at recent graduates but it also contains advice for the rest of us. It costs US$3.99 and is well worth those few dollars.

It’s not a get rich quick scheme, but talks about the financial practicalities you should consider, even as soon as graduating and taking your first job. Some of the information is US specific (such as the super fund information), but the majority is applicable in any country. Dan discusses the importance of saving (and starting to save sooner, rather than later), trade offs with different types of investments and a worked example of why you should completely avoid credit card debt.

I think this is one of those areas that programmers often neglect. It is all too easy to get wrapped up in the technology side of things, and forget to take care of your finances.

Disclaimer: Dan provided me with a free review copy of the e-book, but my comments were not biased because of this.