Suba blogs at Wealth Informatics which provides information empowering debt reduction, financial planning, informed consumerism, savvy investing, fun & frugal living leading to financial freedom. You can read my post about my biggest financial mistake over at Wealth Informatics today!
So this week, thanks to Yakezie blog swap, the financial genie is visiting all our blogs. If I miraculously meet that genie that could grant me one financial do-over, it would be: starting with financial goals. In fact, I made a whole bunch of financial mistakes when I got my first job, but if there is one thing I could fix, that would have eliminated most of my mistakes, it was figuring out my financial goals.
Not figuring out what I wanted to do with my money was the root cause of a lot of my financial mishaps. If I had a clear vision on what I wanted to spend my money on, I would have paid more attention to where my money was actually going. I would have started a spending plan sooner with the motivation to own my first home. If I had thought about that retirement goal even for more than a minute, I would have started an IRA and started investing sooner. Instead I wasted 3 years of my earnings with $0 retirement savings. The first time I took a hard look at my finances was when I “thought” I was ready to buy a home and went to check how much I had in my savings to use. Guess how much I had? <$1000.
But on the flip side I am happy to have wasted a cent! I also would have done the debt snowball method and gotten out of debt sooner.
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This post was written by...
Robert – who has written 317 posts on The College Investor.
Robert is the founder and editor of The College Investor, a personal finance site dedicated to young adult and college student finances. You can learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter or Facebook.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I think the main point is to break up larger goals into smaller action steps. It is easy to get overwhelmed when looking at a large task and think you will never make it. But focusing on small steps one by one will get you there.
I liked the 4th point the most! I’d be a disaster to tell a ardent sports fan to cut cable! But depending on his spending habits there might be other areas he/she can cut back.
Great points Suba!
3 Years is nothing. You are definitely on the right track now!!!! Great plans.
@Optionsdude, yes, having a giant, vague I want to buy a home got me nowhere.
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@Moneycone. Thanks. Yes I am not a fan of generally cutting all the expenses, we earn money to spend on what we want
@Barb. Hopefully we will make up for that 3 yrs soon.
It’s a good thing you caught yourself pretty quickly, in hindsight 3 years is nothing but when I think about all the income I’ve made over the years with barely anything to show for it, I would take getting three years back anyday. Thanks for sharing the tips!
I wouldn’t get back into more debt after getting a consolidation loan. One of the dumbest decisions ever.