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Make Money From Your Ideas

By Matt Hern on December 11, 2009

money from ideas in your head

My last article on Making Money Writing About Your Passion prompted this enquiry from regular reader, Nick:

“how can you generate an income stream from e-marketing and even sales of products of your expertise and knowledge”

You can make money from your expert ideas in your head – it’s called thought leadership. (I also recently wrote about Bernard Salt’s suggestion to become a thought leader.)

You make money from your thought leadership both online as Nick enquired and also the traditional offline methods such as speaking, mentoring and consulting.

One of the best thought leaders I know in the area of making money from your thought leadership is Matt Church. If you are interested in making money from the ideas in your head, as reader Nick is, then I strongly recommend you start by reading these two resources from Matt Church:

If you like what you read then I recommend you also join the Australian Thought Leaders Community. (WA readers who want to be thought leaders should contact me directly as I have some guest passes to our Perth based monthly member events.)

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Making money writing about your passion

By Matt Hern on December 7, 2009

Ever since I was in high school I have striven to discover how to pursue my passions and make money doing so. Technological and social advances in the last decade have made this possible for us all with very little investment of money. You just start out investing your time, which is fine because you love spending time on your passions.

Today I came across two really useful articles about doing this.

Why Now is the time to Cash in on your Passion

Crush It!: Why Now is the Time to Cash in on Your PassionFirst I came across a review by BookRapper Geoff McDonald of the book “Crush It” by Gary Vaynerchuk. Crush It is about “Why Now is the time to Cash in on your Passion”. I’ve been a fan of Geoff’s BookRaps for a couple of years and this review of Crush It! is just as insightful.

I recommend watching the video of Gary Vaynerchuk in Geoff’s article. Vaynerchuk passionately expresses that you should pursue your passion and that you should be able to make money doing so. In the video Vaynerchuk talks about starting a blog about your passion. Then once you build a community of regular readers you can start to monetise the traffic.

How one Australian has made money blogging

Secondly I just read an article by professional Australian blogger, Neerav Bhatt in which he reveals how he makes lots of money from blogging. He makes enough that he quit his former salaried role, which is something almost all of my financial planning clients dream of doing. As Bhatt reveals he writes about his expertise, his experiences and his passions.

I’m sharing my passion with you right now

This site is me writing about my passion. I wasn’t always a financial planner – I started my working life as a petroleum engineer for BHP Billiton Petroleum. But all the time I was reading and learning about managing and making money.

When I eventually changed careers and started studying financial planning I constantly thought “why didn’t anyone tell me this about money and wealth creation?” I just had to tell everyone I knew. At the time my outlet was dinner parties. Now I write and speak.

I am passionate about sharing the simple, easy to understand things about money that have a high impact on your lifestyle but at also are low effort to implement. In that way I dream for us all to have enough money to pursue our passions. Plus you’ll have more time to pursue your passion because you’ll be spending less time managing and stressing about money.

What’s your passion? Time to start sharing it with people via a blog? You’ll discover other people as passionate as you living all over the world. For the next steps read the above resources.

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Kick Start 2010

By Matt Hern on December 7, 2009

Are you are goal setter? Do you like to be purposeful about the way you live, experience and achieve?

If so, then this e-book is brimming with ideas to help you kick start the new decade.

My article, “How To Have Enough Money For What You Want” is on page 17.

Most things in life require money to support them. My article shares a process to help you have enough money for those things in life that are most important to you. So if you are reviewing 2009 and setting new goals for 2010 my article is on the money about the money to support you achieving those goals.

You can browse the entire book below or download a copy to your computer.

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Solving The Financial Decisions On Your Mind

By Matt Hern on December 6, 2009

On Thursday I conducted a webinar in which I addressed the top three types of financial decisions that are on your mind, as submitted in the recent survey.

Almost all respondants said that they think about these things daily or a few times a week. That is a lot of time and energy consumed on money matters instead of spent doing the things you really love. Better to resolve the issues and spend more time with family and friends, or pursuing your hobbies.

Most issues fell into these three broad categories: Planning, Saving and Investing. For example:

“How will I have enough money for…”

“How can I save more money for…”

“Where is the right place to invest my savings?”

For an insight into the process to resolve these issues watch the recording of the webinar below.

The recording is 45 minutes. A small time investment when you consider the time cost of repetitively thinking about financial issues without resolution.

For assistance to make more clear, confident financial decisions call me.

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Death Throes of the Monster Chimerica

By Matt Hern on November 23, 2009

“Chimerica” describes the combination of the Chinese and America economies, which when the term was coined had become the driver of the global economy. In an article in The Weekend Australian over the weekend (21-22 November 2009) authors Niall Ferguson and Moritz Schularick discuss how the past structure of this relationship needs to die a peaceful death for sake of the global economy.

I recommend this article to you if you are interested in how the financial decisions of nations interact and impact on the global economy. (You could call this macro-economics).

Read “Death Throes of A Monster” here. (If that link to the original source has expired read the article here.)

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If your only tool is a hammer

By Matt Hern on November 19, 2009

You may be familiar with the adage that to a person with a hammer every problem looks like a nail.

This is very applicable in the world of financial advice and many clients are not aware of it.

Unfortunately, when you don’t know any different you are often also oblivious to the consequences, which include:

  • Missed opportunity
  • Higher stress from strategies and products that don’t ideally suit your personality and needs
  • Higher costs and lower value-for-money
  • Missed lifestyle goals

Example Hammers in The World of Financial Advice

A tax accountant thinks a Self Managed Super Fund is the answer to getting control over your superannuation.

Why? Because they’re not licensed to recommend other off-the-shelf products. (Which, by the way give you great control without the legal responsibility of a SMSF.) And because they’re not licensed to give such advice they naturally wouldn’t spend any professional development time researching alternate options.

A stockbroker thinks owning direct shares is the best way to create wealth.

While a real estate agent or property developer thinks residential investment property is the best way.

And your mates and colleagues think the best way is the way they are doing it!

Why? Because it’s probably the only way they know. (Plus you doing what they suggest sub-consciously validates their decisions. It’s a psychological phenomenon of herding or “group think.)

(Apologies to readers in the above professions who cleverly operate outside the above generalisation. Keep it up!)

Ask Yourself

Since so many types of professions can call themselves “financial advisers” ask yourself which tool is the focus of their tool box?

You Need A Team with a Tool Box

The truth is that there is no one best way and no single tool that will be all you need through your life.

Almost everything in life requires money to facilitate it. So your financial planning and management needs to be as deep and broad as your life.

That’s a life long job that requires a diverse tool box.

Rather than doing and knowing it all yourself you outsource some of that planning and management to the financial professions.

Your best solution is to build a team of experts.

Your Team

Your primary contact when managing your finances should be a comprehensive financial planner.

True financial planners have a tool box full of various tools. They assess the problem/goal and then select the right combination of tools.

Taking the metaphor deeper, true financial planners may not actually swing all the tools themselves. After identifying the right tools they may recommend specialists for certain tools that you need.

This is illustrated in the image below:

Who to call

So when you have a financial problem or a decision you are mulling over don’t just speak to your accountant or investment adviser. They may not have the right tool for the job.

Instead speak to your financial planner who has a comprehensive, contextual view of both your situation and the world of financial strategies.

And if you don’t yet have a big picture person in your team then call me today.

What do you think?

Share your thoughts about this perspective in the comments below. I’d love to know:

  • How do you currently solve the bigger picture aspect of your financial decisions?
  • Who do you turn to for help?
  • Who are valuable categories of advice professionals in your team?

And what financial decisions are occupying your mind right now? Complete the survey here

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Try to make your passion a business

By Matt Hern on November 19, 2009

Today, KPMG partner Bernard Salt is a well known commentator in the media as a perceived expert on demographics, especially in relation to its impact on property.

In his article in The Australian today Bernard Salt shares some of his lessons from his media journey, which started twenty years ago at the age of 32. It may seem glamorous but it has not always been easy and has taken “perseverance” in the face of well meaning advice from other “experts”.

 I strongly believing in identifying, pursuing and profiting from your passions so I recommend you read Salt’s article “Try to make your passion a business“.

(If the direct link has expired you can read the article here.)

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To Fix Interest Rates or Not?

By Matt Hern on November 9, 2009

With two interest rate rises already under our belts more people are asking me if they should be fixing their rates.

You give up flexibility for certainty plus you often pay more.

 The initial attraction to fix rates is often primal – we hate to miss an opportunity to save money. With more rate rises forecast that’s precisely what people think they’ll be doing if they fix rates.

Most get it wrong

The reality is somewhat different for most. Research has shown that over half of people who fix their rates end up worse off financially. They pay more interest and repayments than if they’d left their loans variable.

For a personal illustration of that just ask anyone who fixed their rates two years ago when there was still talk of rates going higher. That crystal ball was clearly broken.

The Rate You’ll Be Paying

One belief is that you can fix your rate at the current variable rate, so as soon as rates go up you’re in front. That is not the case. Fixed rates are set taking into consideration the lender’s forecast of rates during the fixed period.

The following table summarises rates as at 7th November 2009 from the four biggest lenders:


 


Std

Var


Basic Var

1
Year Fixed

2
Year Fixed

3
Year Fixed

5
Year Fixed


ANZ

6.31

5.61

6.50

7.34

7.69

8.04



CommonwealthBank

6.24

5.48

6.64

7.34

7.74

8.04


nab

6.24

5.74

6.59

7.29

7.59

7.89
Westpac

6.31

5.61

6.54

7.19

7.59

7.94

Source: Cannex

Ponder This: If you fix your rates now how high do variable rates need to go before you break even overall?

For and Against

Why Fix

  • You can’t keep food on the table if your repayments go much higher
  • Your mindset is that certainty is a very high priority. (Any control freaks reading this article?)

Downside Trade-offs:

  • You immediately pay a higher interest rate and higher repayments, which impacts your cash flow
  • You are very restricted on the amount of additional repayments you can make, meaning you can’t ahead as quickly as you may like.
  • There can be a break fee if you need to refinance during the fixed term (usually when your fixed rate is higher than the variable rate, like now.)

Things To Consider

What are your life plans over the next three or five years?

Your financial decisions today impact on the options you will have available to you tomorrow, next year and five years from now. If you’re not well informed some decisions you make can shut out important life choices you would like to make in coming years.

For example, let’s say you plan to upgrade your home in the next few years. If you have a fixed rate you may be liable for a large break cost. At the time the cost may be so high that you can’t afford it and end up not being able to move as desired.

Maybe you don’t plan to for certain, but maybe it’s an above fifty percent possibility. If so, wouldn’t you like to keep the option flexibly open to you?

Before fixing your rates write down all the things you think you may like to do in the coming years. Project out as far ahead as the period for which you are planning to fix your rates.

Pay rises

Right now you may not have the cash flow to make high additional repayments but keep in mind the pay rises and bonuses you may receive over the next two to three years. Wouldn’t you love to be able to use them to nail your mortgage?

Cash flow control

Remember that if your cash flow is hyper-sensitive to increased repayments then fixing rates will immediately increase your pressure. Instead, over the next few months redirect that same amount into getting some cash flow coaching. You’ll discover ways to save money that’ll actually decrease your sensitivity to rate rises.

Call or e-mail me now to enquire about my Cash Flow Coaching program.

Still Unsure?

On thing you can do is hedge your bets by splitting your loan into a variable and a fixed portion. It doesn’t need to be an even split.

If you’d like some assistance in making the decision then book a meeting with me. I’m confident you’ll have a clear decision in under an hour.

Please Share This

If you found this article to be useful please forward it to your friends who have mortgages.

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An example of how DIY is costly

By Matt Hern on November 5, 2009

Do-it-yourself financial planning can be costly because often you don’t know what you need to know.  With a litte more knowledge you would make a more informed financial decision that can both save and make you money.

This was clearly illustrated in my conversation just now with one of the other tenants in my office building. Let’s call him John…

John’s DIY Superannuation Strategy

John mentioned that about 18 months ago he had cancelled his salary sacrifice into superannuation because, with markets falling the value of his contribution reduced soon after being made. Now that markets have recovered substantially he is going to restart his salary sacrifice.

That all sounds reasonable, right?

Well it was a costly decision and not because of the market movements.

The bit John overlooked…

One of the main benefits of salary sacrifice to superannuation is that you save tax on your gross income. By cancelling your salary sacrifice you end up paying more tax.

I asked John “did you know you could’ve directed your superannuation contributions into a cash investment rather than your former investment option?” Clearly he didn’t know that.

John could’ve kept saving tax by continuing to salary sacrifice to superannuation. In addition he could have avoided losing money on the contributions by directing them to a cash option.

Asking a smart financial adviser before changing his strategy would’ve meant John was wealthier already. The advice fee would’ve been quickly covered by avoiding a costly outcome.

If you, like John, didn’t know you could do that in your superannuation then I am pleased you have read this article. Ponder this: is is possible there are other things about superannuation you perhaps do not know that could be making you wealthier?

If you don’t know how, just ask

Perhaps the next questions that may pops into your head is “how?” How do you direct your contributions into cash but keep your existing balance invested and positioned for recovery?

Well, there are plenty of low cost, value-for-money superannuation products that have that facility. (Hint: they are generally not the industry funds who spend your money on advertising.)

Just ask your financial planner to review your superannuation account. Call me for a low-cost quick super review to see if there are better value-for-money accounts available to you.

John may also have benefited by pondering this before he acted: by what percentage does your investment in superannuation need to fall so that your “loss” equals the extra tax you would pay at your marginal tax rate (by keeping the contribution outside of superannuation)?

Do-it-yourself financial planning can be costly. Great financial planning advice will minimise your downside as much as maximising your upside. You’ll only know when you give it a proper go by hiring a true financial planner (like me, of course. :) )

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Latest Research: You Save More by Paying For Financial Advice

By Matt Hern on November 5, 2009

To some people it is a statement of the bleeding obvious to say that getting financial advice is an investment not a cost; you make more than you pay.

However, I know from talking to people after my seminars that when they are struggling to save money they also mentally struggle to pay for support in creating better behaviours.

What we professionals and our clients have know for decades has today been confirmed by research – clients of financial planners save and invest more for their future lifestyle.

On average clients “save an additional $2,457 each year, compared to a similar individual who does not have a financial planner.”

Source: KPMG Econtech research for IFSA (Investment and Financial Services Association).

Personally, I charge less than that amount for my Cash Flow Coaching program, which is just like having a personal trainer for your saving. Clients typically get control of where their money goes, accelerate their debt repayment and start saving for important lifestyle goals.

When you consider how much interest you save on your credit card and other debts then cash flow coaching delivers a very immediate return on investment by boosting your savings.

So if you are a little financially unfit enlist in a boot camp for your saving. Call or e-mail me now to join my cash flow coaching program.

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Product Aligned Advice is (Mostly) Irrelevant

By Matt Hern on November 3, 2009

The Sydney Morning Herald will have you falsely believe that “the financial advice industry has been dealt a blow with evidence that some of its biggest names – AMP, Colonial, and BT – are mostly telling clients simply to buy products offered by their parent companies.” Read the original SMH article.

That conclusion is wrong. Believing it will cause you unnecessary stress and probably lose you money.

The reality is that this product focus is stressing about the detail and missing the big picture.

For example, product focus is like stressing about finding the best pair of mountain climbing shoes.

  • What if you’re never quite sure you’ve got the best shoes so you never set off on your trek up the mountain? (Behaviour and delay)
  • What if you set off but you’re on the wrong mountain? You get to the top and you look across and realise you actually wanted to summit a different mountain? (Life goal clarity)

The greatest cost in wealth creation is behavioural. The long term lifestyle cost of a slightly more expensive product to get you from A to B is minimal when compared to the cost of delay.

Don’t allow worry about product-aligned financial advice to cause you to procrastinate from taking positive action with your finances. The procrastination will be far costlier to your short and long term lifestyle.

Further the product has nowhere near the impact of getting the right strategy and being clear on your goals. And since goals clarification and strategy selection are the steps before product selection all good financial planners will advise you on that irrespective of them being tied to product provider. That is the true value of planinng your finances.

Stop worrying about finding the best investment product and just take positive action today towards your personal clearly defined goals.

If you need greater clarity of your goals and you need support to consistently take action then hire a financial planner to guide and suport you. They’re like a personal trainer for you and your money.

P.S. Just in case you’ve assumed I am tied to a product provider – I’m not. I deliberately choose my licensee to ensure I can recommend an extremely broad range of products across many providers. I am aligned to your best outcome not to a product. (Just ask my clients.)

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Avoid the Christmas and New Year Debt Hangover

By Matt Hern on October 30, 2009

Christmas Money TreeToday is just eight weeks until Christmas; and nine weeks until 2010.

The Pleasure

The festive season is awesome. There are so many invitations to functions: drinks with each group of friends, your work, your sports clubs and other associations. And with the beautiful warm weather and high spirits it’s hard not to hand over the cash and join in. Then there are gifts, it can be fun shopping, wrapping, giving and receiving.

The Pain

Whilst lots of fun the festive season actually can be one of the biggest creators of financial pain. All the spending burns a hole in your pocket. And when all of your pockets are burned through, most people start wearing out the stripes on their credit card.

Pause for a moment now and take a guess at how much you think you will spend through the festive season, both on gifts and on entertainment.

The Hangover

Then January hits and the debt hangover begins. You’ve spent your savings, and January’s pay packet isn’t enough to repay your credit card. So you pay what you can and incur the interest – often a whopping 15-18 percent. But worse, did you know that on most cards every purchase you make from then will immediately incur interest too? You’ll only get back to using interest free days when you’ve fully repaid a subsequent statement balance in full by the due date.

Ooh, the pain of the good times just keeps lingering. Hand me some paracetamol.

Build Your Fitness

To avoid the New Year debt hangover start early and build your financial fitness. Start now and write a list of everyone you intend to buy a gift for. Then, next to their name write approximately how much you may spend. Divide the total by ten and start saving that amount each week from now.

Yes, that may require you to sacrifice some of your current spending. But if you are going to spend the money anyway, you will need to sacrifice at some stage. If you make the sacrifice after the pleasure, then the pain lasts longer due to you having to pay the credit card interest. So you may as well make the sacrifice up front and minimise the pain.

If you are planning on travelling for the holidays ensure that you include the cost of that in your calculation. And while you are at it, you may as well include an allowance for the parties.

Make It Easier On Yourself

Simply writing a budget for the festive season may be an interesting eye opener. What proportion of our annual income are you supposedly planning to spend during that brief festive season? Would you like to have more to show for the effort?Here’s some suggestions for cutting the pain while maintaining, even increasing the pleasure:

  • Among family, friends and work groups suggest that gift giving be operated under the “Secret Santa” method
    o Make some gifts. It doesn’t have to be fancy – I was thrilled one year when a friend in our Secret Santa group made me chocolate balls and shortbread. (They were sooo yummy.)
  • Make it fun and creative. Once, in the same Secret Santa group of friends, we had to find the most fun and crazy gift under $5. Perhaps this year I’ll suggest that we do a “hand-me-down” toy – that’ll clean out my garage for me.
  • Volunteer to help them do something. Do it before Christmas, take a photo of you in action and include the photo in your hand made Christmas card.
  • Have a garage sale of old gifts you don’t use anymore and use the proceeds to fund this year’s gifts.

I’m sure there are plenty of other wonderful ideas.  Please share your ideas in the comments below so we may all benefit.

Merry Christmas!

P.S. I’ve just thought of another idea. You could give people a very valuable but inexpensive gift by telling them about this article

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How to Invest in Gold

By Matt Hern on October 19, 2009

Gold BarsI read in The Weekend Australian on Saturday that you can now walk into Harrods in London and walk out with some gold bullion. Of course you can also buy a matching designer vault to keep it in.

After many years (even decades) of languishing out of sight, gold is back on many people’s radar as an investment. Partly this has been driven by fear that paper currencies will collapse. Partly it is driven by fashion and the old band wagon.

Besides walking down to your local jeweller (or Harrods) how do you actually invest in the commodity of gold?

Here are three ways:

  • Buy physical metal
  • Via an exchange traded product
  • Through investing in a gold mining company

Please note I am not recommending an investment in gold. Talk to your financial planner to assess if it is appropriate for your goals and circumstances.

Buy physical gold

To buy physical gold head to the Wild West where The Perth Mint provides three methods of investing in gold.

You can buy bullion bars and coins and take them home with you. Awesome show and tell for your next party, but where do you keep it?

More conveniently you can buy legal title to a portion of the gold held by the mint, through their certificate program. If you fancy having your own “private vault” at the mint you can pay a bit extra and have your own bullion bars segregated from the others.

Investing in gold on the stock exchange

The third method offered by The Perth Mint is to buy a gold product listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) that is designed to track the actual gold price. It’s structured as a call warrant giving you the right to exchange your paper for physical gold. (ASX: ZAUWBA)

Also listed on the ASX is an exchange traded managed fund. The fund buys and stores physical gold. By purchasing a share in the fund you buy a portion of the gold in their stock, which is audited. (ASX: GOLD)

Investing in a gold mining company

This is a less direct method and your investment value will not necessarily track movement in the gold price. Further, many mining companies have investments in more than one commodity. Plus you have the management and operational risk associated with any company.

The best investment in gold…

For me, the shadow of my wife over my shoulder as I write this article reminds me that my best investment in gold may be the decorative kind. (Oh, and apparently gold’s an even better investment when combined with other precious gems.)

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Life Saving Advice

By Matt Hern on October 2, 2009

Safety Nets For Your LifestyleThese days many people survive a serious illness like cancer, heart attack and stroke. But the experience leaves many financially crippled. It shouldn’t and doesn’t need to be that way.

“My reaction was, if this is going to save my life, I don’t care how much it costs.”
Breast cancer survivor, Bronwyn Wells quoted in The Weekend Australian, 26th September 2009. View article here

Yes of course if you are faced with a life threatening illness you’ll happily sell investment assets to fund your lifestyle and medical expenses.

But what if that is not enough?

And what next once you’ve pulled through?

“The financial impact of something like breast cancer is enormous”, said Wells in the article, which also reported that she had taken two years off work to fight her illness.

If that financial impact concerns you then it’s time to look at another strand in your safety net.

A Valuable Tool – Trauma Insurance

If you want to be able to fund your choice of medical treatment then trauma insurance can provide you with the money.

If at the same time you want to protect your family’s lifestyle and avoid financial stress then trauma insurance is essential.

Trauma insurance pays you a lump sum benefit on the diagnosis of a serious illness. The most common four conditions are cancer, heart attack, stroke and coronary surgery.

A beautiful partner to income protection insurance

If your serious illness means you are unable to work then you may be able to receive a benefit from your income protection policy. This replaces up to 75% of your income so it goes a long way to helping you maintain your existing lifestyle commitments.

However, a serious illness will increase your expenses. So you need additional protection. That’s where the trauma insurance helps a lot.

The Cost of Treatment

Treatment costs vary widely but its probably much higher than you think. The article in The Weekend Australian noted that many modern drugs used for cancer treatment cost between $25,000 to $50,000 per year.

Importantly not all are subsidised on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

If your doctor told you of a new wonder drug that could save your life but it was not yet on the PBS would you find some way to come up with the money?

It’s human nature to. But then if the drug works you will survive but may be financially crippled or at least strained.

Trauma insurance can support those choices.

Take Action then Sleep Easy

I don’t advocate dwelling on what could go wrong and the consequences if it does. But I also don’t advocate putting your head in the sand and not thinking about or planning for it.

This is how I recommend we deal with such potential speed bumps:

  1. Become aware of the possibility
  2. Acknowledge the true likelihood of occurrence
  3. Investigate and consider the potential consequences
  4. Implement an appropriate safety net
  5. Rest easy knowing you have protection

Don’t assume you can’t afford insurance. It’s often much cheaper than you think – especially once you properly consider the true cost of no protection.

Call me or e-mail me now for a no obligation discussion and quote about the investment in trauma insurance for your safety net.

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The Three Fatal Financial Behaviours

By Matt Hern on September 11, 2009

Have you ever thought you are not getting as far ahead financially as you think you should, but are not sure why? Then maybe one or more of these three behaviours may be the cause.

financialYour current financial situation is the cumulative effect of all the financial and lifestyle choices you have made to date. Over time your possible lifestyle outcomes diverge greatly and not necessarily towards the outcome you most want (represented by the star on the diagram to the right).

The purpose of comprehensively planning your financial situation is to maximise the probability that you will meet or exceed your desired lifestyle.

Implicit in this is to minimise the impact of negative outcomes from your choices and from external events.

Why we don’t meet our financial goals

I believe there are three main categories of reasons we don’t meet our financial (and therefore lifestyle) goals:

  • Knowledge – we don’t find out the right things for us to do right now
  • Behaviour – we don’t do the things we already know we should be doing
  • Time – we take action too late (delay)

In this article let’s look at three financial behaviours that can prove fatal to the achievement of your goals and what you can do to overcome them.

There are other destructive behaviours. I have chosen these three because they eat away at your foundation and are counter-productive to your other efforts. Long term readers may notice they link to the three Cs of Money Mastery.

The Three Fatal Behaviours

”three

1. No idea what you spend

The common impact of this behaviour is that you end up spending way too much money on insignificant things and don’t have enough for really important things. The longer term impact is that you will not be diverting enough savings to longer term wealth creation meaning you may never be able to retire on your terms.

A symptom of this behaviour is thinking “wow, where did all my money go?” Another symptom is having an ad-hoc important event creep up on you, like a wedding or milestone birthday and you not being able to afford to fully participate. A variant of that symptom is that whenever that happens you whack it on your credit card and spend months trying to repay it.

What to do

You know what to do to solve this one just like I know what to do to get fitter. If you exhibit this behaviour hire a personal trainer for your money to support you in getting financially fit.

Call me about cash flow coaching and read my last article for additional suggestions.

2. Haphazard investment decisions

We make haphazard investment decisions when we don’t really know what is the best option for us but we can’t be bothered spending the time and energy on the research. So we tend to do what others are doing and take emotional comfort in being part of the crowd. (For most people this will be sub-conscious.)

The impacts of this behaviour are many and include:

  • Mediocre returns – you may make money but probably nowhere near enough for the ‘risk’ you took, and also not as much as the rest of the market. So you miss your lifestyle target (the star).
  • Stress – you are not confident about the investment so you are stressed about what could or is going wrong. You saved time doing the research but traded it for emotional stress – what’s the point?

What to do

The solution here includes:

  • starting early (like right now) so time is on your side
  • starting simple with only what you currently understand
  • Taking incremental steps forward in your knowledge so you can increment forward in complexity of investments
  • Hiring a mentor to educate you and thereby increase your confidence and capability. (A good financial planner will not only advise but also educate you.)

3. Blind optimism

This behaviour is all about the impact of negative outcomes from your choices and from external events.

buried head in the sandOptimism – you think it’ll never happen to you. You underestimate both the likelihood and the consequences of something going askew.

Blind – You don’t even bother to investigate, consider and evaluate what could go wrong and its impact.

What to do

“Sometimes maybe curiosity can kill the cat-astrophe before it actually happens. Ask questions, seek answers, find possibilities.” Wise words from one of my mentors, Glenn Capelli.

Next erect your safety nets so if you fall off the tight rope of life you bounce rather than splat.

Do It

You probably know this stuff already – I write about it all the time. But if you are not doing the positive things you are robbing yourself of riches. One day the party is going to end and you will wake up with a rude hangover (that could last decades).

Party responsibly and you can enjoy both today and tomorrow.

Just like health, if you need support and accountability to implement new financial behaviours hire a personal trainer and even buddy up.

To have enough money to live the life you’d love stop researching new trends (K), start doing the foundation actions (B) and do it now (T).

Yours in prosperity

Matt Hern CFP
Financial Educator and Adviser

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