It’s not even one full week into the New Year and already several people have abandoned their resolutions. The statistics on New Year’s resolutions are bleak. Over 80% of New Year’s Resolutions fail. In order to avoid this, some people don’t make any resolutions at all. I’m a huge fan of New Year’s and the accompanying resolutions. I love the chance to look back on the previous year and see what I was able to accomplish and look ahead to a clear calendar and figure out where I want to be in a year. Spending a week in Hawaii with my family made me realize not everyone is like me. When asked where he wants to be in a year, my brother-in-law responded: “I have plans for in 5 years and 10 years, but 1 year is hard to define.” My sister said: “Oh no. Is this about hopes and dreams? I hate talking about those!” And my dad and husband said “I don’t know!”
Tag: Personal Finance Page 5 of 7
Today, we’re going to return to the basics of finances. There is nothing new in this post, so if you’re already well on your journey to financial independence, you’re dismissed for class today. However, if you’re overwhelmed with the amount of awesome financial information out there, you’ve decided you want to be financially awesome, and you just want someone to tell you where to start, this is the post for you. If you’re in college or about to get your first job, you need to read about how simple your path to financial awesomeness really is before you do anything else.
Here are the basic steps to take to be a financially awesome person:
This post is part of a larger series of Personal Finance Messages in popular culture. Follow along on Twitter: #PFMessages.
A common story line in many well-known tales, especially those targeted to children, is the rags to riches story. At the beginning, there is a poor (usually a) girl that is kind and has hope despite her horrid circumstances. She then overcomes great odds to end up wealthy and happy at the end of the story (by circumstance, not by work), all the while remembering to be kind. These stories provide the message that hope and kindness are rewarded with wealth.
Who are the first people you think of when I say “successful person”? Chances are, you think of the famous people: Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Phelps, Tom Hanks, Adele, etc. Maybe you’ll swing back around to including a relative that isn’t so obviously successful, but more likely, you’ll think about the big names first. There is an endless amount of resources telling you about the habits, routines, diets, and life hacks of “highly successful people” so you can mimic them and be successful too. You’ll even find amazing stories of the failures of successful people that they overcame before they succeeded. But let me focus on the obvious element to success that we hear a lot: Successful people dream big.
I took a film class where a whole section was on the American Dream. We talked about how, in film (and other mediums), the American dream is represented by a working father, children, a cute house with a yard and a white picket fence. Even after identifying those symbols and how they are a ridiculous representation of the American Dream, I still had those ideas ingrained in me as the symbols of success.
“It’s okay. We just kissed a little. No big deal.” I can’t imagine Mr. T would take that well if it ever came up in a conversation. We know honesty in marriage is important. And we know that cheating is wrong. But somehow, finances get left out of those discussions. Did you know there is a term called “financial infidelity”? Do you know what it means? Secrets. Money and sex are tricky. We like them, but we don’t like talking about them. When we get married, we just expect both to happen without discussing either of them. But there’s one difference: with sex, we know there shouldn’t be any secrets. In money, there isn’t a consensus about secrets. In fact, 33% of people admitted lying to their spouses about finances. And that’s just the people that admitted it!
Yes, Mr. T and I are on the road to financial awesomeness. But our road is different and complicated because we’re already down a path. So we have to chip our path over to the one of financial awesomeness. We already got a job, bought a house, and started living on nearly all the income we made. Those things don’t allow for a simple path. But what about you? I hear you are about to get your first job out of college! Congrats! That’s an exciting adjustment! I bet you’re looking forward to actually making real money! And guess what? I have great news for you! Your path to financial awesomeness is completely simple! Let me tell you about the magic number:$23,500. Let me suggest that you take whatever offer you are given for your next job and subtract $23,500. Just pretend it isn’t part of the package. Wait, wait, WAIT! Hear me out before you walk away. I’m only asking for FIVE YEARS. I know, that may be nearly half of your offer. But how much money were you making in college? Isn’t that still an improvement? Before you decide, let me show you just what $23,500 can do in five years and why that number is so magic.
The Personal Finance blogging world is full of posts on which order you should contribute to retirement funds, the Roth vs Traditional IRA debate, even arguments about whether paying off your mortgage early makes the most financial sense. Here at Northern Expenditure, we don’t pretend to know what’s best, and we are big proponents of the best financial plan being the one you’ll actually do! If you read early retirement blogs, you know that most of these people are saving over 50% of their incomes, maxing out 401ks, IRAs, and Health Savings Accounts with savings left over to dump into brokerage funds. This is not us. First of all, we don’t love the savings percentages, because they are heavily biased toward making a lot of money. Though our goal may eventually be to hit that 50% savings mark, that would leave us a lot less to live on (for a family of five!) than people that make sometimes triple what we make. But this blog is about encouragement. Even us… a family of five that make significantly less than $100,000/year can achieve financial independence! And so can you!
“Hey Everybody!” by 5 Seconds of Summer – Have you heard this song yet? When I first heard it on the radio, I wasn’t quite sure where they were going with it. Luckily, the actual music video gives a little more to go on. It’s the usual story: they’re broke so they dream about living in a gigantic mansion and literally raking up their money. Here’s where I stand on this message:
Recently, Adam Chudy issued a challenge for several bloggers to condense all of their financial advice onto a single index card. It was a fascinating idea and I loved reading through them. Go check out the index card challenge entries if you haven’t already.
First of all, here is my entry. It’s a lot less technical than others’ advice (and includes a lot more color. Yay markers!), but I’m a firm believer that if you get the right mentality in place, you’ll be able to figure out the details because you’ll care enough to do so.