Web Wealth

Planning your life, or even a weekend getaway, can be daunting. But without a road map of some kind, it's hard to get there from here. That's why financial planning is important. Here are sites to help on the journey.

Could you save $5 a week? Sometimes, starting out small is the surest path to success. The financial-planning area on About.com suggests modest steps that will redirect your spending and move you toward the most basic concept in financial planning - budgeting. After learning to budget, you can step up to organizing your finances, then work on improving your credit score and setting other goals.

http://financialplan.about.com

You can learn a lot about financial planning by scanning financial-planning.com, a site for professional planners who advise clients on how to save and what to do with their money. There are wide-ranging alerts on investment ideas, and even insights into the world of professional advice-givers, who must now be attuned to the art of getting and keeping customers by the savvy use of social media.

www.financial-planning.com

Do you need to hire a financial planner? The Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards thinks so, of course. If you do, the board's website explains what the process should look like when you are dealing with a professional, including your rights as a client. And even if you don't, reviewing it explains processes that may help you formulate your own plan.

http://is.gd/uQo7tW

Links on the left of the page at financial-planning.com include one for "setting financial goals," which leads to a virtual handbook called "Savings Fitness," which describes how to manage your financial life, and concludes with a page of additional resources, financial calculators, government and consumer links related to money management.

http://is.gd/zc3VcW

Contact staff writer Reid Kanaley at 215-854-5114, rkanaley@phillynews.com, or @ReidKan on Twitter. Read his columns at www.philly.com/kanaley