Wrapping up our journey through the mistakes we seem most in our clients is our seventh post. These seven money mistakes people often cost them years. The goal of this series, The 10 Beliefs, is to walk you through the costly mistakes smart people make when planning and saving for retirement.
In our next post, we’ll move on to the ten things we believe you absolutely should be do. With a little work, it is possible to be truly happy. You can stop worrying about money, gain confidence and financial freedom, secure your lifestyle and retire happy with dignity and grace.
To start at the beginning or read one you missed, scroll to the end of this article for links to every post in the series.
Mistake #7 – Turning A Blind Eye
Over sixty percent of Americans don’t know what they spend money on. (Source: New York Times) The word “budget” is something too many smart people put off. Perhaps the all-too-common fear of not having enough to retire is keeping most from taking a closer look.
But guess what? If a person is overspending and ill-prepared for retirement, ignoring it doesn’t help anything. Just because you don’t see a problem, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
One thing we’ve seen over and over is that you must have control over your money. If a person is overspending and ill-prepared for retirement, ignoring it doesn’t help anything. In fact, what a person doesn’t know could hurt them.
We see it all the time. A new client comes to us six months before retirement, or even after they’ve retired, to find out if they’re going to make it through the end of life without running out of money. While there’s always something we can do to help, our options are limited at that point. Retirement is a goal you’ve worked your entire life to achieve, why put off the planning and preparation to the last minute?
One of the first steps is to know where you are financially. That means you must know what and where you are spending and saving. We use a Personal Financial Website with our clients. That’s the first step in gaining security and knowing where you stand.
There you have it, the seven most common, costly money mistakes. We see people make these repeatedly. Now that you know what they are, take a critical eye to your own financial situation. Do you see any of these? It's not too late to make a difference. In our next post we're going to dive into the ten things we believe you should be doing. You can catch Belief #1: You Should Not Settle here.
You can also grab all of the mistakes and beliefs in a free download. Grab it here.