Finance, My Friend: Chapter 3 - Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance

In Chapter 3 The Complete Idiot's Guide gets into the different types of banks/credit institutions and the types of bank accounts available to the average joe. Below are the takeaways.
Chapter 3: Taking a Look at Your Bank Accounts
Shop around in choosing your checking and savings accounts. Always know how much money you have in your account.
Checking Accounts:
-Does this bank require a minimum balance?
-What is the fee if I bounce a check?
-If I deposit a check when will my money become available?
-Is there a monthly fee just to have an account? You should be able to start an account with no monthly fee.
Savings Accounts:
-Does the account offer simple or compound interest? If compounded, is it daily, monthly etc?
-Is my account federally insured?

Terms introduced to be explained in futures chapters:
Money Market Accounts
Certificate of Deposits

The chapter also gives a few tips like:
-Only use your own banks tellers
-Use the cashback option at grocery stores and drug stores
-When using another banks ATM be sure to withdraw the max since you'll have to pay the same ATM fee regardless of what you withdraw.

Finance, My Friend: Chapter 2 - Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance

Momentum is picking up nicely. Chapter 2 is complete. Below are the takeaways for this Chapter.
Chapter 2: You're Out Here - Now What Are You Gonna Do?

1) This is a short chapter. Basically the purpose to explain that things are a bit scary at first out of college but you'll slowly figure it out.
2) It previews a few concepts such as 401ks
3) Chapter 2 features a 25 question quiz in order to get a sense for your current finance knowledge. (My result: 21/25 or you have a solid basis but can use some fine tuning).

Finance, My Friend: Chapter 1 - Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance

I finally stopped procrastinated and picked up my edition of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Finance In Your 20s and 30s. As promised here are the takeaways for Chapter 1.

Chapter 1: The Stuff They Didn't Teach You in College

1) Kids are taught little to nothing about personal finance in school. This lack of knowledge remains through college unless you happened to have studied business/economics. The good news is that slowly pushes are being made to bring financial knowledge to school curriculum.
2) Friends and family don't generally discuss personal finance. Specifics like how much you or your friends make aren't as important as discussing 401ks etc.
3) Personal Finance isn't hard to understand and is well worth your time - you're investing in your own stable future!
4) It doesn't matter how little you make, everyone can save a little something. Something is always better than nothing.

Finances: Note to Self

Mint.com needs all of your online financial passwords in order to provide you a true visual representation of how your money is working. I have my savings password but not for the checking password which is at a different back argh. A small monkeywrench in this step.

Finance, My Friend

Okay with April coming up soon I want to begin my adventures in capitalism and saving. In revisiting my journal from the beginning of the year I planned to invest at least of percentage of my savings into something useful. Of course through a combination of being busy, excuses and frankly not knowing much I'm only now starting my finance quest.

Here are the questions I'm going to get answered: 
1) How much do I need to live each month?
2) How much is needed for an emergency fund? (6 months? 1 year?)
3) What is an acceptable amount of money for me to transfer now from checking to some type of savings or investing?
4) What percent of money should be in savings, checking, and stocks? In other words, what should be my financial makeup?

A few reference sources I will be using among others:
The Idiots Guide to Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s
Mint.com