But before moving onto those excuses, you need to be clear in your concept on what a financial statement is. Financial statement is actually a statement that shows how much you own after you pay off your debts. In other words, we can call it Net Worth:
- Net Worth = Assets – Liabilities
Net worth depicts your financial status, how much assets you own after you pay off your liabilities.
Down here, we are going to discuss each of the excuses separately and we’ll also try to map out some of the possible solutions.
EXCUSE# 1 ‘SORRY! CAN’T BUY ENOUGH TIME TO MAP OUT BUDGET AND FINANCES’
The excuse that you would hear most frequently from your family, friends or other colleagues as a lame defensive shield when they are questioned why aren’t they able to enhance their financial status is this one: “Well, I don’t get time to map out my budget and overlook my finances”. That surely is an excuse, the most tatty excuse. I mean, there’s no denial that we all do have pretty packed schedules. But with such busy calendars, we still find ourselves time to burn, that we prefer to spend drooling over Television, streaming Netflix, playing sports, going to shopping or even sometimes we just do nothing.
Glancing at both sides of the mirror, would it be quite fair to pop-up the excuse of not having time to plan out budget and overlook finances, but having enough to spend on other leisure activities. To me, that hardly seems fair.
I mean, to cope up with modernization and enjoying isn’t is a crime. But along with that, you certainly can purchase 20-30 minutes of your time schedule each month, to devote towards planning and managing financial statements. This little time-consuming step can save you in future from major financial crisis.
EXCUSE#2 ‘PERSONAL FINANCE IS TOO HARD TO UNDERSTAND’
People often think of Personal Finance as something way too complicated to understand and out of reach to grab. If you question audience why they lag behind in race of financial improvement, the answer that you are going to hear most probably is 'I don't understand Personal Finance'. Even I myself used to think of it a tricky and tangled topic and it restricted me from achieving financial betterment and independence.
Well, I can't blame it all on people. Given below are the two major reasons why people think of it as complicated and hard to understand:
- Our school courses don’t include knowledge on Personal finance until or unless you take Accounting or Finance as your major. Some basic knowledge on financial rules must be given to all students, that would help them in financial issues in future.
- Moreover, financial industries make it look more complicated by endless acronyms and fine prints.
A fine solution to this excuse would be to start reading books on basics of finances and money rules, do online research and read online articles on such financial topics in order to develop a good understanding of financial rules so that you apply these rules in practical life and achieve financial multiplication along with financial independence.
EXCUSE#3 ‘GETTING OUT OF DEBTS IS ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE’
Another highly rated excuse in the list of excuses is this one ‘It’s so hard to pay off my debts’. Today, almost everyone seems to be heavily repressed under debts, as everyone needs loan to fulfill the requirements of time. Debts may be personal debt, student debt, credit card debt, car debt or any other.
But what’s concerning here the most isn’t having these debts, it’s how to pay off these debts. People think that it is almost impossible to get rid of these debts. But it isn’t. I have met people who had debt of over 1 million dollars and were still able to pay it back. Even I had a lot of debt on my shoulders and I paid it off with ease. So if I can do pay it off my back, you can do it too.
Moreover, paying off debts follows Numbers Policy which is that we pay off the debt with the highest interest rate first and then move down in the list to the last one unpaid. Research shows that debt with highest interest rate is the credit card debt.
The utmost important conclusion I gained from this experience is that these debts grow enormously with each passing month due to higher interest rates, whereas they appear so small at the beginning. So, it is better to pay off these debts as soon as possible rather than to get yourself heavily concealed under debts, along with plentiful higher interest rates.
EXCUSE#4 ‘I WOULD PREFER TO THINK ABOUT IT LATER’
This excuse is the prime one which kept me back from achieving my financial progress. When you have a little knowledge on finances or you aren’t that much concerned over it, it is that time when restrict yourself from accomplishing monetary growth. You miss out the most gainful chances of investments, savings or any other massive latent gain.
The one and only solution to this excuse is to make the decision at the very point and get it into play. Never delay it and never say that I’ll think about it later. Decide it at the spot before the opportunity slips away.
EXCUSE# 5 ‘I CAN’T RISK MY MONEY. IF I LOSE IT ALL, THEN?’
This excuse is the most tattered excuse that states ‘Oh God! I am afraid to lose my money’. People usually think of investment in terms of gambling where everything comes and goes by merely on the merit of luck. They assume that it is either going to make them kings over a night or it is going to devastate their financial status in a worse manner. Not just that, people also consider it as a scam and hence, prefer not to get indulge into it. But let me inform you that both scenarios aren’t even close to the term Investment.
Following the tracks of reality, you have to plan out investment strategies, where to invest and how much amount to invest. Along with that you have to take some risks too, investment demands it too. Although, the statement is true when it says that stock market graph consistently varies, sometimes up and sometimes down. But let me highlight the statement here that the graph of stock market goes up most of time, taking your investment up along with it. And it never happens that you lose all of your investment, until or unless there is some serious breakdown in financial system.
All you need to do is map out your financial and investment strategies and then invest it for long term period rather than short term because in long term, chart always goes up.