Welcome to the third blog in my ‘Myths about Money’ mini blog series. This week I’m going to address the extremely common myth of “‘I don’t understand money!”.



Not able to watch the video today? Read the Transcripton below:

What this concept/idea actually does is to stop us from doing anything at all! We just get trapped in a sort of mental-prison continuously telling ourselves how we don’t understand money.  Let’s put a stop to that!
Here’s the question to ask yourself – “What would have to happen for me to become the financial director of my own life?”

In fact the answer is really, really simple. I didn’t say it was easy, but I promise you it is simple!

The first step that you need to take is to simply carry out a financial audit.  Make a list of your expenditure; I would strongly recommend that you divide that in to needs (that’s to say mortgage payment, council tax, food, so on and so forth) and wants (holidays, going out for meals, that kind of thing). It’s important to have a discussion around what is a want because sometimes you might find that what you believe is a want is actually a need and vice versa.

Next, you need to find out where your income is coming from; look at the amount of tax you’re paying, make a list of your assets and define any assets that are actually generating income. Once you have completed these two steps you will have created a reasonable financial picture.
But that simply isn’t enough!  

You need to decide for yourself (or talk with your partner) about what’s important to you and what you actually want to achieve in life. That includes right now, next week, next month, next year and in ten years’ time. 

People often do talk to each other about money but more often than not they don’t do anything afterwards. They don’t take action as a result!

To take action is absolutely the key thing. My belief is that 90% of the time you’ll probably need a third party to help you formulate some kind of a plan and then to help action it.

You’ve had the difficult conversation, so follow it up and act upon the information you’ve found out. By finding a way out of this self-imposed prison, we move towards freedom - freedom around our money and therefore freedom in our lives.

If you would like to have a no obligation conversation with me about how I might help you to move forward with your financial planning do please get in touch.

Regards,

Nicholas.

Book References:

All That You're Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan by Elizabeth Warren & Amelia Warren Tyagi
(Simon & Schuster 2005)

How To Worry Less About Money (The School Of Life) by John Armstrong
(Macmillan 2012)