009. The most mindblowing concepts I have learned about money

Welcome back Female Wealth Builder,

Today I am going to share with you how learning about money pushed me to question everyhing I believed about money. Knowledge I had learned while growing up and beliefs accepted by my surroundings, society, friends, family and even TV shows.

Talking about money is frequently considered rude. Therefore, most of us go through life pretending we know what we do with our money, trying to do our best as responsible adults we try to be.

But, the reality is, most of us are just improvising. No real knowledge, no strategy, just copying what others around us do.

And some people go through their entire lives without clear direction with their money.

Coming from a middle-class family, my parents taught me to save money. I even remember that one activity was to build my own "savings box" using a shoe box and wrapping it on newspaper. I remember, it was fun. I added some money here and there from my allowance, and then I spent it on toys.

But only when, I intentionally decided to become financial literate at my early 30s, it was when I started noticing, that my "understanding" about money and wealth was completely wrong. This knowledge gap had costed me thousands of euros and I had no idea about it. It was frustrating knowing I could have done better, if I only knew better back then.

I wondered: How is this knowledge not so publicly and openly shared so people can use it for their own wealth building?

I decided, I will not gatekeep and here are some of the most shocking concepts that I have learned during my time becoming an independent investor (and that most people do not know):

1. If you only save your money, you are losing money, and BIG TIME. This because of inflation, which reduces how much you can afford with that money.
2. If the first decision after starting earning money is to buy the house of your dreams by getting a decades-long mortgage, you are losing money, BIG TIME. Because you lock yourself to pay for interest of the mortgage. Even though your house increases in price over time, you lose money because you could have used that money to invest it in the stock market and earn interest instead of paying for it. This decision makes only one side richer: your bank.
3. Millionaires do not look like what we are shown in the movies with huge homes and luxury lifestyles. Most millionaires become millionaires because they live under their means and invest the difference.
4. If you are not investing because you are afraid of losing your money, do the math of not investing. You will be shocked. Investing can be life changing, and there are strategies to manage risk and still have a good night sleep at night.
5. Question what you "know" about money. You could only learn while growing up from the knowledge around you, which may be wrong and keeping you taking poor money decisions.
6. Stop complaining. You are the only responsible for your financial situation. Not the government, not your spouse, not your parents or your employer. You are on the driver seat. This realization is a hard pill to swallow and can be scary too.
7. Rich people are generally cash poor. They do not have a million dollars in cash, generally. Their money is "locked" on investments and they do not have immediate access to it.
8. You can become a millionaire, disregarding from your past. It is a matter of knowledge, consistently investing over a long-term period of time.
9. Long term thinking can unlock better decision making when it comes to money (and health and relationships). In general, it improves decision making for life. 
10. You can retire early, at your 30s, 40s or 50s. No need to obey the timelines of the government pension plans. For this you would need to create a plan for yourself and invest for your early retirement. It is possible and many people from the millenials and gen Zs are doing it now. 
11. When everyone is panicking, having a clear mind and strategy to continue will save (and even multiply) your wealth. When major stock market drops have happened, people freak out and sell, locking sometimes massive losses. This is completely avoidable.

Bonus: 

The general finance rules are normally wrong. Have you heard about the 20-30-50 rule? which dictates how much to spend and how much to save/invest? This is none-sense. Because Personal FInance is a very individual topic. It depends on how old you are, how much money you spend, when you want to retire, what your priorities are.

If you follow generic rules you have the risk of not having enough money for your goals. Is saving 10% of your income enough? it depends. There is no one-size fits all in Personal Finance.

I hope I can make you reflect and challenge the status quo out there about the money knowledge.

If you have any questions, send me an IG DM @doloresgavino and I will be happy to read you.

 See you in the next blog post.

Dolores 

Female Wealth Builders Founder

 www.femalewealthbuilders.com

If you are ready to start your Budget, here is the Budget template I prepared for you Monthly Budget Template

If you want to have The roadmap to Financial Freedom, you can download for free The Checklist to Financial Freedom

And if you are ready to start investing and enroll in the 1:1 Coaching Program Saver to Investor, you can enroll here From Saver to Investor 1:1 Coaching Program