10 life choices that can ruin your financial future

It's just that life doesn't happen by itself, but it often happens in a certain way because of personal life choices.

No matter how much we want to be perfect, we are not. Perfectionism is the sure path to an unfulfilled life. The stars will never line up perfectly and you will never make the perfect life choices because you are not perfect either.

Instead of looking for an endless series of perfect victories in life and being disappointed that you can't get them, you better accept that in life you will make good choices and less good choices. All a man can do is strive to make the good ones more and more important than the others.

We make good life choices, we make bad choices, and we learn from them :). But we don't need to make all the mistakes. We can learn from others.

Life choices that can ruin your financial future:

1. The career you choose

Many career paths lead more likely to nowhere than anything else. I will not give examples here, but I think we all know very well-trained people who work in fields that either does not bring much-added value or the value brought is poorly listed on the market or is no longer sought after.

On the other hand, there are areas where the chances of winning well are much higher. Here I can think of IT, law, or financial analysis and there are other examples.

You can indeed earn well in any career, if you become one of the best in that field or if you simply have an entrepreneurial spirit. But the truth is that in some professions you will be well paid as a rule and in others, you will be well paid only as an exception to the rule.

2. The house you buy

It is perhaps one of the most shocking life choices that will determine your financial future.

I have seen so many cases of people who have invested all their financial resources to advance to a house and all their financial surplus for the remaining 25-30 years because they have to pay the installments to that house.

Don't get me wrong, I know how to buy your own house, I also wrote an article about renting vs installing them on the bench, but make sure the price you pay for your home is commensurate with your financial strength.

And a degree of indebtedness of 50% does not mean that you took your house in proportion to your financial strength.

As a rule, the value of the house in which you live should not exceed 2.5 times the annual income. That is, if you earn EUR 2000 per month (alone or with your life partner), the value of your home should be EUR 2000 X 12 months X 2.5 years = EUR 60,000.

Otherwise, you risk burying your finances for many years to come.

3. The car you buy and change at 5 years old;

First of all, the car does not need to be changed every 5 years. I don't know where this habit comes from.

As a rule, the value of your car should not exceed your income (or that of your family) for 3 months. In the above case, at a net income of EUR 2000 per month, the value of your car should be a maximum of EUR 6000.

4. The phone you change every year

A friend of mine, a multinational manager, was asked by a junior in his department what phone to buy. The manager listed some good and affordable phones, knowing that the junior had a salary of fewer than 2000 euros per month. Faced with this list, the junior was horrified and replied "no, no, I wanted to ask you if I should choose between iPhone x and Samsung, I don't know which one appeared last". These phones cost about 25% -50% of the salary and were also in the habit of being changed every year.

Do you keep a car for at least 5 years, but pay 50% of your salary on the phone every year? This will bury your financial future.

5. The holidays I go to every year

The same goes for the holidays. Some people can afford exotic vacations and more city breaks a year and there are people who can't afford them.

What vacation can you afford? Normally the one you don't come back from is poorer than you left off. If you have 1 month off per year, your vacation costs your income for one month.

6. The vices you spend money on every day/week/month;

5 euros for a pack of cigarettes means 150 euros per month. And here we are talking only about cigarettes, I do not add other addictions such as alcohol, gambling, excess sweets, excessive fast food, and other worse.

From my point of view, it's okay to have some vices. After all, you are human. It is said, however, that the sum of the vices is constant. So if a person does not smoke, drink or eat fast food you should be careful around him :).

I've met people who make half their income from addictions. And here we are not talking about extreme cases but ordinary cases: a pack of cigarettes a day, a few beer outings with the boys, and a few shares a month and almost half of the income.

From a financial standpoint, dependencies should not cost you more than 5% of your monthly income.

7. The life partner you choose

According to Napoleon Hill, choosing a life partner is the most important life choice financially. And not in the sense that you are marrying someone rich or extremely rich, you are marrying someone you have to support.

But you simply choose a wasteful life partner, with an extravagant lifestyle, maybe too arrogant, or simply with whom you have constant quarrels.

Nothing affects your ability to build a prosperous financial future more than a life partner with whom you are constantly at war.

8. The people you choose to learn from

Starting from the usual:

• I manage my money as I learned in my family - well, bad doesn't matter;
• I learn a lot of wisdom about my neighbor's money;
• I learn and believe when people on TV say that you make a lot of money only if you get into politics and do something illegal;

Or more refined:

• Invest in the opportunity (make sure it's not a pyramid scheme) promoted as an investment by friend X;
• I blindly believe in all sorts of slogans of the various financial gurus "Those who save are losers", "Don't make millions, make billions" and the like, taken out of context and said to shock the world;
• I invest according to the public recommendations of specialists.

Learn about money from people who have results and from people whose message resonates. Not all paths are for you and not all tips apply to you.

9. How dependent or independent are your children?

I saw men over 30 who were still living in “their parents 'house and on their parents' backs. We have seen women who, even after the age of 30, receive serious subsidies from their parents for any more serious shopping in their lives, whether we are talking about a house, a car, furniture, or even a vacation.

If you teach your young children to get everything they want from you, without learning temperance and balance, chances are that when they grow up, they will be left to their own devices.

Raising our children to become independent men and women.

10. How much you sacrifice your health

Give your health for money "it's not a business". Unfortunately, most of us do not respect this principle. We are sacrificing our health and happiness for money for the time being, and in the future, we will pay for this mistake.

Of all the types of health, the most important is mental health or mental balance. No matter how many activities and businesses you run, always remember that you also need relaxation, activities that charge you, and enough sleep.

Keep your health good, eat fruits and vegetables, exercise, get enough sleep, love, and enjoy life.

You will earn a lot more money by being balanced and healthy than by sacrificing your health through stress, addictions, and unbalanced life.

Conclusion

We can be born into a rich family, we can be born with a certain set of talents and we can even get a chosen education. All this can help us a lot in life or we can waste it in vain. Our life choices will make a difference and shape our destiny.

Only good and grow in inspired life choices!

P.S. If you like to read while drinking coffee, you can offer me a coffee too.