Even Richer People

Even Richer People

Posted August 19, 2021 by Ben Carlson

Working in finance is both a blessing and a curse.

The plus side is the industry pays above-average wages and it’s not back-breaking work. Some people in finance do work ridiculous hours but no one comes home with a sore back or blisters on their hands at the end of the day. 1 It’s also a profession you can perform well into old age.

The downsides are more psychological in nature.

There is a lot of money in the world of finance. You’re typically dealing with clients who have amassed vast sums of money. And there are always going to be peers or colleagues in the industry who make more money than you. If you’re addicted to keeping up with the Joneses, the finance industry can be a toxic working environment. There is an endless stream of people with more resources than you.

I work in the world of finance so I know plenty of people who make a lot of money (way more money than me).

The problem is many of these people talk incessantly about money because they’re so insecure about it. It’s how they measure their self-worth which is a tough place to be because there is always going to be someone getting richer than you.   Often times one of the biggest headaches for rich people is…even richer people.

Vanity Fair had an article recently about rich people in the Hamptons complaining about even richer people encroaching on their turf:

Along with random $50s strewn across the beach have come the ultra-monied themselves, who’ve flooded in in numbers many say they’ve never seen before, leaving even the rich people thinking the rich people are ruining the Hamptons. “There’s so much money now it’s nauseating,” said one woman who bought her house in Amagansett in 1991. “I’m a 1-percenter. But I bear no resemblance to these people.”

“Everyone with money is here,” she said. “If I weren’t here already, I wouldn’t come now. The conspicuous consumption is just gross.” After repeatedly passing by a house that belongs to “one of those hedge fund guys,” and watching him have enormous, fully-grown trees planted day after day, she said she finally stopped to ask the dozen or so workers on site about the cost. “They said they thought $50,000 to $75,000 a day,” she said. “I would suspect it’s closer to $100,000.”

Boo-hoo, am I right?

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://awealthofcommonsense.com/2021/08/even-richer-people/

The 3 Phases of Making a Major Life Change

The 3 Phases of Making a Major Life Change

by Herminia Ibarra   August 06, 2021

Summary.   The lockdown that we’ve all just lived through created a period during which a lot of people had the opportunity to reflect on plans for a career change. But reflection alone doesn’t get people very far. Those who are mostly likely to act during this kind of period are those who actively engage in a three-part cycle of transition — one that consists of separation, liminality and reintegration. The author explains how to make the most of each of these stages to effect real change.

Many of us believe that unexpected events or shocks create fertile conditions for major life and career changes by sparking us to reflect about our desires and priorities. That holds true for the coronavirus pandemic. A bit over a year ago, when I asked people in an online poll to tell me how the pandemic had affected their plans for career change, 49% chose this response: “It has given me downtime to rest and/or think.”

That’s a good start. But if there is one thing I have learned from decades of studying successful career change, it’s that thinking on its own is far from sufficient. We rarely think our way into a new way of acting. Rather, we act our way into new ways of thinking — and being.

Yes, events that disrupt our habitual routines have the potential to catalyze real change. They give us a chance to experiment with new activities and to create and renew connections. Even in the seemingly “unproductive” time we spend away from our everyday work lives, we conduct important inner business — asking the big existential questions, remembering what makes us happy, shoring up the strength to make difficult choices, consolidating our sense of self, and more.

Enough has happened during this past year to make many of us keenly aware of what we no longer want. But the problem is this: More appealing, feasible alternatives have yet to materialize. So we’re stuck in limbo between old and new. And now, with most Covid restrictions at last falling away and a return to the office imminent, we confront a real danger: getting sucked back into our former jobs and ways of working.

How can those of us who want to make a career transition avoid that? How can we make progress toward our goals by building on what we’ve learned this past year?

Research on the transformative potential of a catalyzing event like the coronavirus pandemic suggests that we are more likely to make lasting change when we actively engage in a three-part cycle of transition — one that gets us to focus on separation, liminality, and reintegration. Let’s consider each of those parts of the cycle in detail.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://hbr.org/2021/08/the-3-phases-of-making-a-major-life-change

Are You Worth More Than You Earned

Are You Worth More Than You Earned

Have you ever wonder how much money you earned over the years?  I mean, it has to be a sizeable sum if you’ve been working for a while. I was thinking about this and came up with a natural follow-up question. Are we worth more than what we earned? After all, wealth is what you keep, not what you earn. We have been maxing out our 401k and investing for years. Our net worth is much higher than the average US household. However, I don’t know if it is higher than what we earned over the years. Let’s answer that question today.

This answer isn’t that difficult to find out, but you might be disappointed. It is extremely difficult for your net worth to exceed your cumulative earnings, especially when you’re younger. It gets a little easier as you age because of compound interest, but I’m sure only a small percentage of households can achieve this impressive feat. That’s because saving and investing aren’t enough. You need a lot of time and luck as well. It is not impossible, though.

Savings

For most of us regular employees, it is very unlikely to be worth more than we’ve earned. First, taxes take a big bite out of our paychecks. After that, we all have bills to pay. Money gushes out every month to pay for housing, healthcare, transportation, food, clothing, travel, entertainment, techs, and all kinds of stuff. It’s tough to save when you add up all the expenses of the modern lifestyle. In addition, we need to invest those savings. It is mathematically impossible for your net worth to surpass your cumulative earnings if you simply save it. Even if you save 50%, your net worth will only be 50% of what you made. You need to invest and grow those savings to even have a chance.

Generally, financial advisors recommend saving 10-15% of your income for retirement. This might be fine if you plan to retire at 67, but 15% won’t cut it here. Your net worth will never catch up to your total earnings by saving 15%. You’d need to save and invest at a much higher rate to win this one. Let’s look at our household as an example.

Income

First, we’ll look at how much we’ve earned over the years. The easy way to figure this out is to head over to socialsecurity.gov and check your Social Security statement. Here is a graph of our household earned income.



This graph is actually pretty neat to go over. My earnings shot up sharply when I graduated college and started working full time in 1996. It kept rising and peaked at $200k in 2012 when I quit working full time. The zenith was an anomaly because I worked just 6 months and sold a bunch of stock options. Part of the gains was counted as earned income. As expected, my earned income took a sharp dive after I retired from my engineering career. However, I continue to generate some income from blogging after early retirement.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://retireby40.org/worth-more-than-you-earned/

The Stuff They Don’t Teach You In Books

The Stuff They Don’t Teach You In Books

Posted July 27, 2021 by Joshua M Brown

Once upon a time, when I knew nothing, I called myself a financial advisor. It’s true, I was giving financial advice. But when I look back to the caliber and quality of that advice from back then to now, it’s astonishing how much I didn’t know.

I was raised in this business to believe that stock and bond and fund selection was the most important aspect of helping investors succeed. We weren’t given a benchmark in terms of what a client succeeding even meant. Was it beating the S&P 500? Looking smarter than the client’s other broker?

Hitting a grand slam in a technology stock? Generating the highest interest and dividend income? I don’t know. The client doesn’t know. “Lets emphasize whichever of these things went well in the next conversation.”

Twenty years have gone by and now I know a lot. At least compared to the original version of me as a financial advisor. I’ve surrounded myself with Certified Financial Planners. I’ve attended hundreds of industry conferences. I’ve written three books and ten thousand blog posts. I’ve done fifteen hundred hours of financial television. I’ve read a million words on the profession.

I’ve sat in a thousand client meetings. Drank coffee, wine, beer and tequila with hundreds of financial advisors when their guards were down. I’ve been in the green rooms at all the events. I’ve seen the notes from the pre-interviews with producers. The private parties. The dinners (so many dinners).

I’ve met the chief marketing officers and the PR people for every trillion dollar asset manager in America. I’ve been there for the bell ringings, the product pushes, the service launches, the beta tests, the branding exercises.

I know some stuff.

Like finding my way up in the clocktower behind Big Ben, watching the gears turn. Everyone in London can look up and observe time going by from the outside. I can see how the big hand and the little hand got that way from the inside.

And some of the things I’ve come to learn have never been taught in any textbook or on any exam given industry-wide. These unwritten things are the key to everything. I’ll share a few today…

1. Every thousand dollars you help a client save on taxes is the equivalent of earning that client ten thousand dollars in returns, based on how grateful people are. I don’t know why it is that way. There’s something about “I saved you money” that’s ten times more emotionally satisfying than “I made you some money.” Probably because money made in the market usually continues to remain at risk in a portfolio, while money saved on taxes feels more kept and permanent.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://thereformedbroker.com/2021/07/27/the-stuff-they-dont-teach-you-in-books/

"Velocity of Money" From Virginia Gentleman

Re-posted for our newest readers……

From Virginia Gentleman   VELOCITY OF MONEY

I know I don't have to state the obvious...GO HAVE FUN WITH SOME OF YOUR NEW FOUND WEALTH. However, I would like to pass on some words of wisdom.

As we get ready to punch it in, please remember to act like you've been in the End Zone before. Take a deep breath and exhale slowly as you collect yourself with the full intentions of acting with class and integrity.

Respectful treatment of others will be an inherent responsibility of your new status, as well as respectful treatment of your money and assets. You owe this to yourself, your family, your neighbors, and your heirs.

Don't hoard it, and on the other hand, don't waste it or give it all away. Save, invest, and spend wisely.

One of the single best things you can do with a small portion, and in effect a very small portion, is to be more generous over at least the next 18-24 months (or the longer) spending your money locally. What do I mean? The answer is the ‘VELOCITY OF MONEY’.

The Velocity of Money is a fairly simple financial concept where a ‘community’ can be positively impacted by the way a group of individuals increase the spending of their money in their economy, and in turn, the ripple effect of that spending as it accelerates throughout that same economy.

It can be local, regional, national, and even global. Velocity of money is most effective in a smaller market with the smaller more predictive population of a local economy, and it isn’t just effective, it is fun for the people spending their increased earnings, or in this case, significant returns on an investment. Yep, that is you!
 
Anyone who has ever lived in a small town or Suburban area where a new large company has come in and opened a large facility and hired a large amount of employees has witnessed this phenomenon.

Money gets pumped in and spending from increased disposable income begins to spread out through the entire community finding its way into the wallets of all the inhabitants.

The goal is to spend your money at local establishments on services, appliances, home improvements, food, entertainment, and such.

More precisely on things like tipping an extra 5-15 percent, using a valet to park at the local steakhouse (tipping extra), go hear a local band (put money in the tip jar), buy cheese or pork or beef at a farmers market instead of 2 month old shrink wrapped processed cheese from a Big Box store or grocer, get an extra manicure or haircut (tipping extra!), get your car repaired at the mechanic down that side road instead of Walmart or the Dealer.

Buy those nicer hiking boots ‘Made In America’, get your computer cleaned up by that geek in the shop she set up in the old 7-11 building, buy your lumber from the local milled lumber supplier not the National Chain hardware store, deal with a local community bank or credit union with a substantial portion of your money… you get it now right.

Think about it. You may be spending either the same amount or perhaps an extra 10-20%, and you’re getting the same things… OFTEN WITH THE BONUS OF MUCH HIGHER QUALITY PRODUCTS WHILE GETTING TO KNOW YOUR NEIGHBORS ON MAIN STREET!!!
 
I personally look forward to trying some of the world’s best Craft Breweries in Richmond (tipping generously) and touring some of Virginia’s wineries (tipping generously)… jealous of you Kentucky folks that can tour the best ‘Bourbon’ distilleries on the planet, or you ‘Whiskey’ lovers in Tennessee just outside of Fayetteville down the Admiral Frank B Kelso highway or those in Nashville who can wander in a restaurant and catch a ‘local’ band like Kenny Chesney, lol. Believe it!
 
By doing this the dominoes of positive change begin to fall within your local community. The ripple effect is that the waiters, mechanics, manicurists, hairstylists, valet, carpenter, plumber, artisan cheesemaker, farmer, and others in your community begin to make more money.

And what do they do? They go out and spend more, tip more, consume more. Your local tax authority makes more sales tax revenue and spends it on improvements.

I’m in America, but the Velocity of Money is true in Canada, Great Britain, Iraq, Vietnam, or anywhere. And guess what? Since this is fun stuff you’ll be doing while spending your hard earned money, you will also be wearing a BIG smile.

There is nothing more infectious and quick to spread goodwill than passing on your smile accompanied by kind words. So be wise with your prosperity and have some fun …LOCALLY.
 
The fruit you bear will fall from your tree and spread its seeds…

Live and grow in the nine fruits of the Spirit and you will sow the nine fruits…

Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self-Control.
 
Take care –Virginia Gentleman

Other People’s Mistakes

Other People’s Mistakes

Aug 5, 2021 by Morgan Housel

George Carlin once joked how easy it is to spot stupid people. “Carry a little pad and pencil around with you. You’ll wind up with 30 or 40 names by the end of the day. It doesn’t take long to spot one of them, does it? Takes about eight seconds.”   Like most comedy it’s funny because it’s true.

But Daniel Kahneman mentions a more important truth in his book, Thinking, Fast and Slow: “It is easier to recognize other people’s mistakes than our own.”  I would add my own theory: It’s easier to blame other people’s mistakes on stupidity and greed than our own.  That’s because when you make a mistake, I judge it solely based on what I see. It’s quick and easy.

But when I make a mistake there’s a long and persuasive monologue in my head that justifies bad decisions and adds important context other people don’t see.  Everyone’s like that. It’s normal.

But it’s a problem, because it makes it easy to underestimate your own flaws and become too cynical about others’.

I try to stop myself whenever my explanation for other people’s behavior – financial or otherwise – is “well, they’re not very smart.” Or greedy. Or immoral. Yeah, sometimes it’s true. But probably less than we assume. More often there’s something else going on that you’re not seeing that makes the behavior more understandable, even if it’s still wrong.

A few things make it that way.

1. When judging others’ poor behavior it’s easy to underestimate your own susceptibility to the power of incentives.

The worst behavior resides in industries with the most extreme incentives. Finance, where scams are everywhere. High-end art, where counterfeits proliferate.

But it’s important to ask: Are immoral people attracted to industries where there are big rewards for bad behavior? Or do big rewards for bad behavior cause good people to slide into immorality, justifying their decisions along the way?  I think so often it’s the latter.

It helps explain things like the 2008 financial crisis. Was it caused by greedy bankers? Maybe here and there. But the huge majority of it was good, honest people who wanted to do the right thing but whose definition of “the right thing” is instantly warped when they’re paid $8 million a year to sell subprime bonds.

Incentives are almost like a drug in their ability to cloud your judgment in a way you would have found unthinkable beforehand. They can get good people to justify all kinds of things.

That doesn’t excuse bad behavior. But it’s hard to know what you’d be willing to do until you’re exposed to an extreme incentive, and that blindness makes it easy to criticize other people’s mistakes when you yourself may have been just as tempted if you were in their shoes.

2. It’s hard to tell the difference between boldness and recklessness, greed and ambition, contrarian and wrong.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/mistakes/

Hanging By A Thread

Hanging By A Thread

Aug 11, 2021 by Morgan Housel

Abig lesson from history is how chance encounters lead to both magic and mayhem in ways that would have been impossible to predict. No matter what the world looks like today, and what seems obvious today, everything can change tomorrow because of some tiny accident no one’s thinking about.

Let me show you three times history hung by a thread.

Giuseppe Zangara was tiny, barely five feet tall. He stood on a chair outside a Miami political rally in 1933 because that was the only way he could aim his gun across the crowd.

Zangara fired five shots. One of them hit Chicago mayor Anton Cermak, who was shaking hands with Zagara’s intended target. Cermak died. The target – Franklin Roosevelt – was sworn in as president two weeks later.

Within months of inauguration Roosevelt transformed the U.S. economy through the New Deal. John Nance Garner – who would have become president had Zangara hit his target – opposed most of the New Deal’s deficit spending. He almost certainly wouldn’t have enacted the same policies, some of which still shape today’s economy.

Captain William Turner invited his niece, actress Mercedes Desmore, to tour his massive ocean liner before it sailed from New York To Liverpool.

The ship’s crew, eager to leave on time, removed the gangway for departure while Desmore was still onboard. She was stuck on a ship about to begin a seven-day voyage. Her furious uncle made the crew re-dock the ship so she could get off.

The redocking delayed the ship’s departure. No one could have known that six days later the delay would mean that Turner’s ship – the Lusitania – would sail into the path of a German submarine at the very moment its periscope could finally see through the day’s diminishing fog.

The Lusitania was hit with a torpedo, killing 1,200 passengers and becoming the most important trigger to rally U.S. public support for entering World War I.

Had it sailed through the Celtic Sea half an hour earlier – had Desmore’s tour not caused a delay – the Lusitania would have been cloaked in heavy fog. The ship likely would have avoided attack. A country may have avoided a war that became the seed event for the rest of the 20th century.

Robert E. Lee had one last shot to escape Ulysses Grant’s troops and regroup to gain the upper hand in the Civil War. His plan was bold but totally plausible. All he needed was food for his hungry troops.

An order was put in to have rations delivered to a Virginia supply depot for Lee’s men. But there was a communication error in Richmond, and the wagons delivered boxes of ammunition but not a morsel of food.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/thread/

Learning About Money Changed My Life — But Not In The Way You’d Think

Learning About Money Changed My Life — But Not In The Way You’d Think

Whizy Kim   Wed, August 18, 2021

Up until a few years ago, I knew less about money than the average person. At least, that’s how it felt. The extent of my financial philosophy was a) try not to spend what you don’t have and b) try to make your student debt vanish. If someone was talking about the state of the economy, I only responded with neutral, noncommittal noises, rather than voice any specific thoughts.

The exchange of money in society was this impossibly intricate machine that a regular person like me could never begin to comprehend. The GDP? Sure hope it’s doing great! Trickle-down economics?  Sounds suspect, but if all these economic experts and politicians are saying that tax cuts for the wealthy means we all win, who am I to disagree? Would they really just lie to everyone? (Actually, don’t answer that.)

No one wants to admit that they don’t know how money works. It’s way easier to confess that you know nothing about cooking or cars. But, if you don’t know how money works, as an adult? Well, it’s no wonder you’re so behind on getting your shit together; it’s no wonder you’re not rich. From admitting how little you understand about personal finance and the economy, it’s a quick slide to being given the “personal responsibility” lecture, and being told you put yourself in less-than-ideal financial straits. It’s nobody’s fault but your own.

Except, that’s just not true. A big reason why so many people don’t know about how money works is that many of us never got any formal — or informal — education on money. And not learning about money can be expensive. Plenty of smart people look at their various student loans and think intuitively that it’s more beneficial to pay off the $3,000 loan in one lump sum, and then start tackling larger ones, instead of prioritizing the highest-interest loan regardless of balance.

Maybe if we all had even just one compulsory high school class that introduced basic money concepts like taxes or how interest is applied to the principal, there would be less confusion around tackling debt. I learned how to find the derivative of a function at 16, but didn’t learn what marginal tax rates were until my 20s — and that really doesn’t seem right.

But even beyond basic high school courses, the issue is that many of us also form a single perspective of money, or only one way of talking about it, thanks to our family. And if that perspective is to not talk about money, as is often the case, that means we have that much less practice in, well, talking about money — especially in a healthy manner.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/learning-money-changed-life-not-144617033.html

Why My Husband and I Don't Fight About Money

 Why My Husband and I Don't Fight About Money -- Even With Different Habits

by Christy Bieber | Aug. 17, 2021

Could our technique work for you?

My husband and I tend to have very different spending habits. I am generally much more of a spender than he is, while he has a preference for saving more money. We also have different investing styles, and we both like to spend money on different things.

Despite our very different financial habits, we have had almost no money fights over the decade that we have been married. And the reason for that is our budgeting method.

We have a unique approach to budgeting

Despite our different attitudes about money, the way that we budget is the big reason why my husband and I don't have money disagreements.

See, we work out a family budget together -- one that dictates how we spend, save, and invest our money. But when we do it, we don't start out basing our budget on what we hope to spend on different things or what investments we want to buy. We don't even start out looking at our current spending or the amount of income we make.

Instead, we sit down and discuss our shared financial goals. Specifically, we've both had goals in the past to buy a house together, to pay off any debt that we brought into the marriage, to avoid credit card debt, and to retire early.

These shared financial goals are then used as the basis of our entire budget, including our spending and investing decisions. We look at the amount of money that we need to set aside to accomplish the goals that we both agree is important, and we make that a priority spending item above all else.

After we've accounted for all of our shared goals, we can see what money is left over, devote some of it to our needs, and then divide the rest evenly towards our different spending preferences. We can also make a decision about how best to accomplish these goals.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

LINK

https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/personal-finance/articles/why-my-husband-and-i-dont-fight-about-money-even-with-different-habits/?source=eptyholnk0000202&utm_source=yahoo-host&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article

11 Basic Money Moves Everyone Should Make During Hard Times

11 Basic Money Moves Everyone Should Make During Hard Times

Gabrielle Olya   Tue, August 17, 2021,

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a major hit on the economy and the personal finances of workers across the country. The national unemployment rate was as high as 14.7% in April 2020. It's down to 5.4% now, but many Americans are still struggling to find jobs that pay them enough to stay afloat.

Whether you've lost your job, are experiencing reduced hours or are among the fortunate Americans who are still employed, here are the money moves experts say everyone should be making right now.

Review Your Budget

It's important to revisit your budget so you know exactly how much money you have coming in and how much you will need to cover essentials."A budget is key to feeling financially secure right now and determining if you can make ends meet," said Tony Drake, CFP and founder of Drake & Associates in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

"Write out your budget. List all your expenses, including fixed expenses like your mortgage, car payment and cell phone bill. It should also include variable expenses, such as utility payments, groceries and entertainment. Then determine how much income you have coming in. If your expenses outweigh your income, you’re going to have to take a hard look at where you can cut, even if it’s temporary."

Cut Back on Nonessential Spending as Much as Possible

"During these unprecedented times there are many things you cannot control, but how you save and spend is something you can manage," said Lindsay Sacknoff, head of consumer deposit and payment products at TD Bank. "Today's financial decisions will build a cushion to help you plan for what may lie ahead.

"To this end, she recommends cutting out nonessential expenses — any expenses outside of groceries, prescriptions, rent and utilities."By cutting out any non-essentials from your budget, you can easily save a few hundred dollars in the coming months," Sackoff said. "Putting your gym membership on hold, canceling a streaming service you never use, and cleaning your home instead of hiring a service are all luxuries that aren’t necessary."

Reevaluate Your Spending on 'Wants'

Although it's best to cut down on nonessential spending, you might still want to allow for some "wants" in your budget — though those "wants" might look different now than they have in the past."With expenses for essentials such as transportation or childcare on hold, you can look to redistribute those funds to new 'essentials' such as purchasing games or activities for your children at home, or online streaming services for TV and movies, fitness classes or a meditation app," said Shelly-Ann Eweka, a wealth management director at TIAA. "In addition to protecting your wallet, it’s important to prioritize your and your family’s mental health in this new reality."

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/11-basic-money-moves-everyone-220024349.html

Why I Talk Openly About My Money Mistakes

Why I Talk Openly About My Money Mistakes

Nicole Spector  Fri, August 13, 2021, 3:00 PM

Americans are very good at spending money, but not so good at talking about it. Sure, people will mention being broke or having just gotten paid. But discussing hard truths about money — like the mistakes we’ve made with spending, or the distinct path we’re on to save more in the years ahead — isn’t normal social conversation.

The subject of money isn’t as forbidden as it was in say, the 1950s, thanks to an escalation of awareness around issues such as pay transparency and the gender wage gap. But it’s still not embraced as a regular part of the conversation. As a March 2020 article in the Atlantic noted, the topic of finances is taboo partly because money (or lack of it) can make us feel bad — and who wants to talk about bad stuff?

To answer that question, financial blog author Peti Morgan wants to talk about money. More specifically, she wants to talk about her money mistakes and the valuable lessons she learned as a result of those mistakes. And Morgan had quite a few money problems not too long ago.

Opening Up About Money Can Be Terrifying at First

As the founder of the Leveraged Mama financial blog, podcaster and online business coach, Morgan discovered that the best way to tackle your financial problems is to treat them like any other problem — starting with admitting you have a problem in the first place.

A year ago, prior to embarking on her financial blogging journey, Morgan was ashamed of just how deep into debt she’d found herself. She was possibly even more ashamed to talk openly about it.

“I was worried that setting off on this journey so publicly would mean the loss of respect, pride and friends,” she said. “I knew that by sharing (about my failures), people I knew personally would find out about all the stupid things I had done with my money. I could lose respect. I could lose friends.”

But owning her problems and failures was, for Morgan, the only true way to overcome them.

“I had to stand up and declare to anyone who cared to read about me that I had failed,” she said. “I knew that I needed to be honest about how much debt I was in, and how I got into that much debt."

Morgan has since gone public with her money blunders. Here’s a look at five failures she’s ‘fessed up to.

Failure No. 1: Concealing That You Have a Money Problem

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://news.yahoo.com/why-talk-openly-money-mistakes-190000315.html