I love meeting different people and talking to them; you never know what moment of a meeting leaves an unforgotten expression/learning on you. I meet many people who have very high aspiration and dreams to achieve in life; and I really get inspired by them. Some of them want to start their own business, some of them want to get retire by 40 years of age, some of them want their own home by the age of 30. But the one thing I found to be common among 90% of them is: they all are in their jobs and slowly slowly progressing towards their dreams.
People are unable to leave their job and pursue their dreams because somewhere they are not feeling safe in terms of their finances. And this is the biggest problem of almost everyone. We all want to do something we love but we are stuck with the stuffs which we dont like. So, how we can follow our dreams?? How we can feel safe with our finance??
According to me the problem is not the budget or finance. It is US. We lie to ourselves.
We need to be honest with one self first. We lie to our own soul so that we can feel little better about our shortcomings. And meanwhile we start believing in those lies and stop trying to take steps to fulfill our own dreams. Therefore most of us keep doing our hateful jobs.
I have tried summarizing few Money Lies which a Common Man like me and you tells to one self in the course of pursuing our dreams and simultaneously getting distracted from it-
Lie: I love my job or my job really appreciates me. I will continue to do my job till 60-70 years of age.
Reality: Job is under no one’s control. Anything can happen any time. Layoffs, sudden accidents which make people disabled, or many other things. But what we should prepare our self with is self dependency. We should have other source of income which keeps handling our expenses in case of such emergency. I love the book ‘Rich Dad and Poor Dad’ written by Robert Kiyosaki; wherein the writer emphasized and explained beautifully why we all should be our own boss if we are doing job or service. We should have other source of income so we dont fall in above situation.
Lie: I will start saving from tomorrow or next month (which never comes….) or why should I save for my retirement.
Reality: This is the normal concern I have heard from people. And I always explain them that Tomorrow Never Comes. If we will not understand the importance of saving and then investing today itself; its really tough to pursue our dreams. People normally relate savings with retirement. But its not all about retirement. You might have some short term goals or goals which you want to achieve in 3-5 years and to achieve the same you might need money – buying car, house, child education, marriage etc. So, we should first figure out those goals and then start saving towards those goal on pre decided amount required to achieve those goals.
I normally suggest people to invest some part of his or her salary into good mutual funds so that they keep saving the money and in this case their money keeps multiplying.
Lie: My Credit Score is irrelevant as I am not planning to buy a house or a car in the near future.
Reality: Sorry my dear friends, but unfortunately credit score has found its way into a number of financial areas — insurance, utilities and rental companies to name a few. So, you should always keep an eye on your credit score.
Lie: I will own my home, I dont want to throw my money on rent. I want to build my asset.
Reality: In India, we people have so much affection of owing a house. In the age of 28-30 people start dreaming of their own home. But, buying is not a good decision always as in some cities, renting is better than buying. In this fast paced life we are not very sure about where we will be after 5-10 years. And to keep paying huge EMI for next 15-20 years might not be a right move. I am not against owing a home but we need to figure out that what is the right decision for us.
Lie: I get paid way less than what I deserve, so I can’t save.
Reality: Everybody can save something. It might be Rs. 100 or Rs. 10,000, start with something and increase until it hurts.
Lie: My bank is giving me loan of Rs.X on my income and I believe I can handle this loan.
Reality: Fact is that Bank are meant for Business and they want to keep you in debt trap for as long as possible. So, they keep earning high interest for longer period. Probably you can handle the EMI in current situation but you should always see it in future terms.
Lie: I can’t have a life with a budget. They are too restrictive.
Reality: Budget gives you freedom. If you have budget in hand then you clearly know whether you will able to afford something or not.
Lie: Insurance is for sick people.
Reality: Life is full of uncertainty and anything can happen any time. If you can not accurately predict future events and can not guarantee that you will never get into an accident, it would be wise to get health insurance.
These are few of the common Money Lies which we tell our self every day. But if we will have crystal clear idea about our self then we would probably be in a better situation to judge what’s important for us and make our decisions accordingly.
If you have something to add, Please post your thoughts in comments. I would love to hear from you.
Happy Investing!!
