Biggest Financial Mistake that is setting you up for Failure
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Majority of the world don’t have endless cash flow and have to worry about finances, I know I am definitely in this category.
I’ve said this before but did you know that money is number 2 on the list for the top reasons causing the 40-50% divorce rate in the U.S?!?!
Again it makes sense
Years ago I attended a premarital workshop and the last section of the workshop was all about learning to manage your money with your significant other. I learned something that day that I hadn’t ever thought about.
When I think about how often I see families making this one HUGE mistake it doesn’t surprise me that the divorce failure rate is 40 to 50% in first-time marriages.
Before I tell you guys what that mistake is, I want to make a disclosure. I am not saying when I write posts about finances that I am an expert and I’m not trying to sell you guys on being an expert.
My opinions in these posts are tips and opinions I have learned from paid workshops, seminars and research that I have spent a lot of time and money trying to improve my own situation. My goal in sharing this with you guys is that you are able to find at least some of these tips helpful in your own lives, without having to always spend your own money on it. I am not an expert and these are just tips, I’m not guaranteeing that because I have found this helpful, you will get rich if you implement these in your life or things will suddenly get magically better.
Now that that’s out of the way, here’s the biggest financial mistake you could be making that’s setting you up for failure….
You and your partner are living a life that is reliant on both of your incomes
It is a bad strategy to be living a lifestyle that relies on both you and your partner’s income. If you don’t do this that’s awesome, you’re ahead of the game but if you think this could be you I have created a great FREE Budget Worksheet you can use to help you get started on changing this.
When I say you’re relying on both incomes to maintain your lifestyle here’s what I mean; If something were to happen to you and your partner to where they were no longer able to work, and therefore one of you would have to take over all the financial responsibilities on their single income alone, would that be possible?
If the answer is no, then you have set up your finances be work on a reliant lifestyle.
This is something that is so easy to do, and so many of us have accidentally done because our world is incredibly expensive. It costs a lot of money to eat and have a place to live and pay for all the other necessary expenses.
If this is your current situation don’t feel like there’s no turning back. There are some steps that I recommend doing.
Sit down and write down all your monthly expenses. Down to how much you spend on coffee every week, I mean EVERYTHING.
I’ve created a FREE Budget Worksheet, to help you with this process.
After filling out that worksheet, how much of those costs can be reduced?
Is there a cheaper phone or insurance provider? Are you charging more to credit cards than you have in your bank to pay them off?
There is an awesome cell phone service called Mint Sim that where even the cheapest plan at $15 a month includes unlimited text, talk, and data plus you can use your existing phone and keep the same number.
If you’re renting an apartment that wouldn’t be possible on your own, consider renting out a room to someone, or if your lease is close to up, search for a cheaper place.
Do you really need the 3 bedroom apartment or 5 bedroom house for just one or two of you?
Check out my post on a list of 5 tips to get yourself financially stable, for more ideas.
Making changes like moving to a cheaper place, or eliminating unnecessary expenses are not going to be easy choices to make, but consider where else that money could be going towards. You could go on more movie dates, or put it into your savings or retirement or a long needed vacation.
Wouldn’t you rather put your hard earned money towards something fun? With that being said be sure to check out my post the reason Why you never stick to your budget, when in the process of making or reworking your budget.
Anyway to continue,
If after you go through your finances you realize there’s really nothing you can do to relieve some of that financial strain, I wrote another post on a list of side jobs you could start to help bring in some additional income.
Side Note: Speaking of movie dates if you love going to the movies like I do there is this amazing new program called Movie Pass it costs around $10 a month and you can go see unlimited movies all month, even if you see one movie a month it would pay for itself!
I’m not getting paid to promote Movie Pass in any way, I just genuinely love the concept
It’s a startup, and some people say they may not get enough business to stay open so I wouldn’t recommend the option where you pay for the full month so it makes it even cheaper.
But if you like going to the movies or you have friends who do you should tell them about it because the program almost sounds too good to be true and I’d like to see it be successful. I have it and my friends have the pass and we love it!! The best part is the pass currently works at any theater that accepts credit cards.
Alright, guys, that’s all I have for this post. I hope you found it helpful. Thank you so much for visiting the blog today, if you enjoyed the post today leave a comment below!
