The Top 5 Ways People Mess Up Their Money, Part III

[Jenifer Madson]

Our conversation in the last few weeks has been about the top five ways that we hinder ourselves financially.

The first two were:
1. Pretend to feel better about the subject than you do.
2. Try to go it alone.

This week, we'll talk about the third way people get hung up, which is when they:
3. Take advice from people doing worse than they are.

It may seem strange to think you would ask for financial advice from someone in worse shape than you, but it can happen without you even realizing it. It happens when you share your financial woes without first determining who your audience is. If you indiscriminately talk about your money troubles without knowing where other people stand, you can end up with opinions from people who don't really know what they're talking about, which can leave you vulnerable to acting on misinformation.

Take A Minute:
Are you being careful about who you share your money stuff with?

Make A Minute:
Resolve to form a Financial Mastermind group with people who are succeeding in this area of their lives.

Offhand financial conversations more often break down into commiseration than evolve into collaboration, which can leave you in worse shape than where you started, so be careful who you partner with financially.

(Number four will be posted next week).