Money Talk: What drives your financial decisions?
I would have to say the main driver of my financial decisions depends on where I am in my money journey.
So when I was in debt, it was to get out of debt. I stopped spending as much as possible and I checked my debt balance obsessively. I made charts to see when I would get out of debt, I planned for everything. EVERY PENNY.
Once I was out of debt, I just wanted to save money and reach a comfortable amount of savings so I could breathe and not worry about having to go back into debt of any kind.. It was around the time of the market crash of ’08 and I managed to save $30K and was paralyzed in investing or spending because I had no clue when my next contract would come and when.
I couldn’t invest that bit of money, I thought I would not get a job for another year or two, and I needed all that $30,000 to pay for expenses in that case.
Fast forward to today.
Now, I am growing wealth. It is easier for me because I make a good income, but harder because I didn’t (until recently I have been running models on whether I am on track or not) have any real goals set up with true benchmarks of wealth or assets.
Today, I would say the main drivers are:
- Comfortable retirement (and on track for it, to give myself an #%9# kicking to stop spending so freely)
- Saving to be comfortable so that I am financially stable for Little Bun – he will not worry about me and I can help him if I need to
- Hitting the $1M mark this year. Yeah, THIS YEAR. I am trying to force myself to accelerate.
- Disregarding my car and house as liquid assets because I am being fooled into thinking I have money and I have it in fixed assets, so I will be splitting out my LIQUID assets versus fixed.
What drives your financial decisions?
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4 Comments
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Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.
The risk taking is what gets me nervous. I try to diversify outside of actual stock holdings but this is becoming difficult.
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Domonique
As someone who grew up orphaned, low-income/working class, and had very low self-esteem, I never thought I would amount to much…until I was pregnant with my first child.
The fire inside me to succeed began the moment I knew he existed and has only been fueled by other circumstances I put myself in and a few others I had little control over.
My desire to be financially independent finally reached the first milestone on January 31st — more than six years after I made that goal – no government assistance.
The next step is saving 3 months worth expenses and NOT touching them because I finally make a reasonable income.
The goals I had because of my son, I now have because I WANT them for myself. It’s a nice feeling.
Sherry, I love that you write about these topics.
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Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge.
I love how children push you to be better. That is truly impressive. My mother grew up also, very low income (literally no income), poor, sleeping on a wine crate with rats at her feet. She is MY inspiration, and I am always pleased when I hear other people who have done similarly well.
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John
The economy drives my financial decision, whether it’s the stock market or real estate market. I worry about not having enough liquid assets to take advantage of a recession or a business opportunity.
Since I manage my own stock holdings, I also do not want to hold stocks during a recession as it happened many times in my past.
With that said, my main financial goal is to also achieve a rate of return on capital of around 20% per year which of course requires substantial risk taking.