Financial Vagueness Syndrome: A Major Money Trap – TPS505

In this episode, I discuss Financial Vagueness Syndrome (FVS). What it is, the symptoms, and what you can do to avoid this problem that will keep you from making good financial decisions. It takes awareness of both your inner world and financial skills.

Highlights

• As a business owner, you have to do more than just check your bank balance online daily if you want to make good financial decisions.
• Financial Vagueness Syndrome is characterized by not keeping financial records, never reconciling your accounts, avoiding looking at your numbers, leaving bills unopened or unpaid, frequently bouncing checks, spending beyond your credit limits, or frequently dealing with fear about your finances.
• I use Quicken for my personal accounts and QuickBooks for my business accounts, both of which provide useful reports so you can track your income and spending.
• When you recognize your discomforts around your finances, then you can make decisions about changing what’s causing those discomforts.
• You can’t make wise financial decisions if you’re not in touch with your money.
• If you have Financial Vagueness Syndrome, then it will be hard to make rational financial decisions including investment decisions. It’s also possible that you keep too much money in your checking account.
• You may have to develop new spending habits.
• The more you know about your money, the less afraid you will be.
• There is a cadence to working with money that comes with experience.
• Be aware of how much interest you’re paying on all of your accounts and beware of low- or no-interest balance-transfer offers.
• Until you know how to manage your money, you don’t want to hire someone to do it for you because you have to know what’s going on first so you can catch problems. It’s your business, not theirs.
• My goal is to help you avoid financial fear, and the best way to do that is to get over Financial Vagueness Syndrome.
• If you have financial fear, you are not going to make good financial decisions.
• For people who have a lot of money coming in, they can go through it rapidly if they don’t keep track of their numbers.

Links

Care Credit

Quicken

QuickBooks and QuickBooks Online

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