Find All The Financial Advice You'll Ever Need - On An Index Card

It's common to worry about maximizing your investments and having enough money for retirement. But if you're like many of us, worrying is as far as you go.

Making financial decisions can seem daunting because there are so many options and so many financial advisors, some who don't always have your best interests in mind. But w hat if there were a simple list of steps you could take to build and maximize wealth? One that wasn't complicated and overwhelming?

As it turns out, there is!

University professor Harold Pollack and finance writer Helaine Olen have teamed up to write a book that can easily steer you in the right direction.   "The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated" (Portfolio/Penguin, 2016) proposes 10 easy steps to financial success.

The idea of the book stemmed from Pollack filling an index card with advice while he was doing a video interview with Olen. After the index card was posted online and  went viral, the pair decided to collaborate.

Here's the list in its entirety:

Many of the suggested actions, such as opening a Roth or traditional IRA account or increasing your savings, can be handled easily by  [insert your credit union name]. 

Remember your old elementary school teacher? Remember what she answered the smart aleck who asked why you had to learn this, that, and the other? Remember how you were rooting for that smart aleck? It seemed a perfectly legitimate question. Surely it would never matter in your life that x equaled y, or who first circumnavigated the globe. So why bother learning that stuff? Of course your teacher told you that there were some things you needed to learn to become more well-rounded, knowledgeable, educated people. And she was right.

After all, sitting next to you in fifth grade was the future archaeologist. He liked history even if you didn't. And the quiet girl in the third row now is majoring in physics and loving every minute of it. The kid who liked writing all those essays for English class is eyeing a career in journalism. And you, even if you would never swap places with any of them, can at least appreciate what they chose to do. Your teacher, it turns out, was right. School is a time of self-discovery. You discover your likes and dislikes and you also discover that not everybody shares them, and that that's good thing.

That's okay for elementary school, middle school, even high school. But what about college? Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is a lofty goal, but it rings a little hollow to say that's the reason most of us came to college. As college students, we all have different priorities. We're here for different reasons, majoring in different areas and headed on diverse career paths. But there is one thing we all have in common. We're here to get a degree.

Even if we don't yet know exactly what we're planning to do in life, most of us already know what we absolutely don't want to do in life. This brings me to the question of degree requirements. Surely, I'm not the only one who stomped in frustration and wanted to know why - oh why - does an English major who absolutely detests math have to take math again. If she didn't like it in her first 12 years of school, she's not going to like it any better when it has the double whammy of being both more complicated and more expensive. Not to mention the fact that she could be taking Shakespeare 1 next door and learning something that directly interests her and relates to her chosen career. And the biology major really doesn't know what to do with all his English requirements. He's gotten to college, and his term papers in biology are literate, but a writer he is not and never will be. All it amounts to is a colossal waste of both time and money.

There is a way out of this trap. It's called CLEP, the College-Level Examination Program. The College Level Examination Program offers exams in 34 introductory undergraduate level college subjects. There are students throughout the US who have saved themselves not only time, but literally thousands of dollars through taking these tests. In theory, if you can demonstrate sufficient knowledge of a subject, you can get credits without taking the course. The key word is introductory undergraduate courses. This works both for those who want to avoid a subject and those who want to dedicate their lives to it.

Take the CLEP college mathematics examination. It can get you a maximum of 6 credits. If you don't like math, great! You can bid the subject farewell and satisfy your core requirements at the same time. You'll also be pleased to know that the CLEP college mathematics examination is college mathematics only in name. It won't test you on anything you didn't learn in high school. Any real college mathematics class will be more difficult. If, on the other hand, you adore math, take it. You can then get right into those complicated calculus courses you love, and not bother with the easy stuff.

CLEP exams are inexpensive. The current cost is $65 an exam with an average $15 service fee charged by the test center. Compare this to the cost of actually taking the course. While prior knowledge of the subject is nice, it's also possible to get a hold of various study books and software to help study for the CLEP. You might have to work really hard for a few weeks, but the time and money saved may be well worth it. There are currently 2,900 colleges that grant credit and/or advanced standing for CLEP exams. Find out your school's policy before taking one. To find out more about CLEP visit CollegeBoard.com