What are the five mistakes you’re making in your financial planning?  Joe Saul-Sehy from Stacking Benjamins is here to let us know.

1. The curtains don’t match the…

Maybe Joe came up with this innuendo because the best example of it came from a stripper.  The non-X rated version of this simply means that your stated priorities don’t match your spending habits.  If you’re a stripper looking to retire from the poll, you should not be spending $550 a month on weed.  If you want to buy a house, don’t spend $1000 on holiday presents your family doesn’t care about and will discard after a few weeks.  Match your shit up!

2. You don’t think or talk about money

If you’re single, this can mean reading books on finance, listening to personal finance podcasts, I can recommend a good one, or reading the financial section of the paper.  If you have a family, it might mean a weekly meeting where you discuss that week’s budget.  Don’t shove money issues into the back of the closet.

3. You have no ideas what your goals cost

You want to retire in ten years and buy a house on the beach.  How much does a house on the beach cost?  If you can’t answer that, you have no idea how much you should be saving.  Remember that your goals are not society’s goals.  List your goals and when you get to about #4, that’s probably the one you should be focusing on.  A lot of people spend more time planning their ten day vacation than planning the last thirty years of their lives.

4. Obsession with data over action

Economic news is scary.  Watching obscure videos on Youtube by tin foil behatted conspiracy theorists is scarier.  Do that enough and you’ll be filling up your bunker with gold bars and K-rations.  Whether they’re right or they’re wrong won’t change the fact that if you don’t save money, you’ll be screwed.  Use economic news to occasionally tweak your plan but don’t let it rule your decisions.

5.  Failure to launch

This is disorganization.  You tank your credit score not because you don’t have the money to pay your bills but because you forget.  Automate the process and you won’t even have to think about it.

Joe loves Listen Money Matters and our listeners so much he has set up a page to direct us to his podcasts episodes that will be the most helpful.

Here’s the special link that Joe created for us: StackingBenjamins.com/listen

Thanks Joe!

Show Notes

Stacking Benjamins:  Joe’s website

Stacking Benjamins Podcast:  Joe’s Podcast