Top 9 Personal Finance Tips You Can't Live Without

Are there really only nine personal finance tips you can't live without? Can you really not live without them? It's debatable, of course, but here they are, in classic David Letterman style (minus one):

1. Make Love to Your Budget - Budget early, budget often. Take your budget to dinner and buy it a drink. Whisper sweet nothings in your budget's ear. Just don't let the missus find out about you two…or you can make it a threesome, if she's cool with that.

• Freedom Account Spreadsheet - MoneySpot.Org's spreadsheet version of the classic Mary Hunt "Freedom Account" budgeting system. Simple, elegant, and easy to use…not to mention dead sexy.

2. Be a Debt Assassin - Stalk your debt (preferably while wearing ninja garb). Learn your debt's daily routines, which way it goes to work, where it eats for lunch. The plot its assassination. The best technique is to roll a snowball at it, which in cartoon fashion will hit your debt, embedding it in the side of the snowball, and then roll on to crush your next debt.

• Debt Snowball Spreadsheet - It's Your Money's debt snowball spreadsheet will help you plan your debt repayment so that your debt is dead as soon as possible. Ninja garb not required while using the Debt Snowball Spreadsheet, but it sure does look cool to actually wear a ninja outfit…as much as possible…regardless of what you're doing.

3. Live, Eat, and Breathe Personal Finance - Let's face it, if you're going to obsess properly about your finances, you've got to start by reading about everyone else's personal finances. Not only should you start your day with a personal finance shower (listen to Dave Ramsey while showering), you should eat a personal finance breakfast (Alphabits cereal, with the letters arranged to spell words like "BUDGET", "MORTGAGE", and "SUBPRIME LENDER").

• Personal Finance Blogs Aggregator - Flexo of Consumerism Commentary fame has graciously provided a site for one-stop shopping for your personal finance information fix. Now, put aside your Alphabits for just a minute, and start obsessing about your personal finances.

4. Get A Little on the Side - You've probably been faithful to your paycheck for a long time. You've had eyes for it alone, and it was the apple of your eye. But recently, you've been getting bored with your paycheck, and you want to spice things up a little by getting some extra "dough" on the side. Be discreet, and your paycheck won't know the difference.

• Huge Discussion on Making Money on the Side - FatWallet.com's members have come up with a gigantic list of things that you can do to earn some extra money. From the Truffle Shuffle (going hunting for valuable mushrooms in the forest of the Western U.S.A.) to mystery shopping and tutoring, there's an idea in there for you.
• 5 Ways to Earn Extra Cash in Your Spare Time - Get Rich Slowly has a short, but sweet, list of ways to earn extra money to pay off debts, save for vacations, or "move on up to the East Side".

5. Fill Your Spare Tank - You're in the middle of Creditville, driving your financial train into almost certain ruin, running on fumes, and thinking, "I'm doomed." Suddenly, you remember that your Financial Train of Doom has a spare tank, and you've got enough to get back to Wealthsville. You're saved!

• Dave Ramsey Baby Step #1 - Gather Little By Little talks about how to save your financial train from ruin by filling your "spare tank". Say goodbye to bounced checks, overdraft fees, and running out of cash at just the wrong time. As Martha would say, "It's a Good Thing."

6. Send Your Money Back to School - It's your money's high school graduation day. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and it's thinking to itself, "Money, you've learned how to earn interest in a bank account. You're never going to have to learn another thing in your life." Unfortunately, when your money grows up, it realizes that all the other people's money has gone on to learn how to grow larger in the stock market, or come back bigger after living in a CD for a while. Don't worry, your money's not dumb, just ignorant - it can be taught.

• About.com's Personal Finance - This is one of the largest sites about personal finance, with over 2,000 articles (I know because I have actually gone through all of them!) about personal finance, investing, banking, saving for retirement. Start clicking, keep reading, and teach your money how to grow itself.

7. Get Snooty - Buy fine wines, Chateaux on the Loir River, and one-of-a-kind gold coins. Shun the lowbrow "investments" such as a brand new car, the hottest new computer (which is already outdated), and a surround sound system. Remember, you are the upper crust, who buys assets that appreciate in value (or at least those that don't immediately depreciate), not some philistine who only values whatever has appeared in the latest Gamer's Monthly magazine. Break out your antique cuff links and monocle, and start spending that money where it'll do the most good.

8. Get Cheap - After investing in all your fine wines and snooty French houses, and socking away your gold coins, you realize that you don't have much money left to spend…or you have the money, but you just don't want to spend it. Continuing in the fine tradition of millions of American millionaires, decide to drive your car and maintain it well, stay in the same house even though you can afford better, eat generic cereal because it tastes the same as the brand name stuff, and shop at Wal-Mart instead of The Gap.

9. Don't Be Like the Muffin Man - Have you seen The Muffin Man? Well, nobody has, not since he got audited by the IRS and lost his Drury Lane bakery because he didn't keep good records. The Gingerbread Man ended up buying his business at a sweet discount because The Muffin Man had to scrape up cash, quick. When you go up against the Tax Man, you'd better make sure you've got your ducks (records) all in a row.