Money Misnomers: Why You Think You’re Doing Right By Your Money But Aren’t

Much like weight loss, exercise, and dieting, money also can be misleading and thoughts of the hows and whys get muddled in a midst of misnomers and misinformation. Have you ever had anyone tell you that the key to dieting is to do a seven-day juice cleanse or to drop carbs altogether? How about that personal trainer that wants you to ditch weight training because you’ll get too bulky an stick to just cardio? The same would be factual inefficiencies tend to perpetuate through saving money as well, but in order to keep your financial thinking cap on, you must be able to dissect these comments and learn whether they ultimately work for you or if you’d be better served to leave them on the table. For instance, how many times have you been told that having a budget is key to financial success and that smart money managers are the ones who have automatic bill pays so they never miss a payment? The budget part is exactly true, as you should know where your money goes in relationship to income and expenses. But the automatic bill pay isn’t always the best approach for some and should be paired with the budget and just how well that has been put together. If you have a budget that you know inside and out, then automatic bill pay could work. But auto pay also can lead to bank fees for over drafting or not having much of a clue where your money is going. That budget is key to whether auto pay works for your life. Sometimes paying bills the old-fashioned way gives you that direct control of your expenses and budget, and that it teaches you to take in the information, understand it and then be able to make changes to your budget accordingly. If you automatically pay your bills, you’ll be less likely to make a change to it, cut expenses but rather just accept them as the norm for much longer than if you remember writing out a check for $250 every month for cable television versus just blindly paying it and leaving it at that. The real lesson learned is that money is managed individually and by a person from one circumstance to the next and while one element like auto pay might work for some, it could easily be the downfall for another in the attempt to save money and pay on time, but watching it ultimately backfire as a result of your “good” intentions.