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Throughout your financial journey, you will receive advice, opinions, and suggestions from many people.
That advice may come from your family/peers, financial advisors, and/or articles and videos on the internet (including mine).
Sometimes, I even share articles/videos that start with, “Why You Should…” or “What To Do If…,” but that is all just MY opinion and I understand that there is not a one size fits all approach to finance.
As you learn more about finances and progress in your own journey, this will come up even more.
For example, a big character in the finance community is Dave Ramsey. He advises people to only save up $1,000 and NEVER to use credit cards.
That doesn’t work for me. I have several thousand in my emergency fund and I only use credit cards for my purchases because of all the cash back.
Same goes with paying off debt vs. saving vs. investing.
Some people are more comfortable with investing heavily while paying off debt. I know and understand that I would probably make more money if I invested heavily, but I really want to be debt free instead.
There are no set rules when in comes to finances, so be very careful with the financial advice you listen to.
When you receive financial advice/information, it is key for you to do your own research and determine the best decision for your life.
There are certain things you probably should be doing when it comes to finance, but ultimately that is up to you.
It is OK to:
- fit personal spending, hair cuts, and manicures into your budget
- purchase coffee to-go
- invest while paying off debt
- go on vacations while in debt
- take a lower paying job
Of course, with that it is important to recognize the opportunity cost of those decisions (i.e. less money available to put to debt/savings/investments).
It’s all up to YOU!!
I just wanted to quickly share this information since you will deal this throughout your financial journey!