6 Excuses To Stop Making If You Want To Build Wealth, According To Rachel Cruze
Key Excuses
Deserve the Splurge
Make More Money
Life Is Short
Spoil My Kids
Time Until Retirement
I’ll Be Too Old
The road to building wealth requires shifting your mindset to achieve your goals. As you make this shift, you’ll find yourself no longer listening to old money excuses you might have turned to in the past. Why? Because these excuses want to keep you broke instead of rich.
Money expert Rachel Cruze shared a video on YouTube outlining the six excuses to stop making if you want to build real, substantial wealth — and chances are some might sound familiar. In place of these excuses, she also offers alternatives to become a little savvier with your money.
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1. I Deserve the Splurge
Saying to yourself “I deserve (fill-in-the-blank)” is often an emotional response many have whenever they’re stressed out from a lot going on or have been working hard. Deserving “it” could be anything from a sweet treat to a shopping spree.
But Cruze said when it becomes your mentality to constantly reward yourself anytime things are tough, it starts to slip into your decision-making and how you’re viewing life.
Think “I can’t buy things I want with money I don’t have” instead. It might not sound great, but this understanding means you’ll start living below your means. You’ll spend money you do have, and put it towards smart purchases, compared to going into debt for impulse buys.
2. I’ll Make More Money Later in Life
While it’s true most incomes do go up and you’ll make more money over time, you don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. Cruze recommends embracing this mindset: “I can’t control the future, but I can do my best in the present.”
“The reality that is in front of you, that is what you have,” said Cruze. Be present where you are today and remember life gets more expensive as you get older. Don’t set aside good money habits because you don’t think you need to worry about things later.
3. Life Is Short
Ah yes, the popular “YOLO” or you only live once excuse. Ergo, you should engage in all the experiences and buy all the things because life is too short, right?
Cruze recommends thinking, “Whether my life is short or long, I can make the choice to live stress-free.”
While we all want to have great experiences, abandoning any level of financial responsibility to do whatever you want does come with consequences. Often, the biggest consequence is debt if you don’t have the money to pay for these experiences.
The more mature approach, Cruze said, is to say you want to have a great experience where you are right now. Choosing financial responsibility does mean your life will look different than if you didn’t, but it also means you’re setting yourself up so you can say “yes” more later.
4. I Want To Give My Kids What I Didn’t Have
It’s not unusual to see parents buying things they never owned or booking trips they never went on as a child and emphasizing how they want to give their children what they didn’t have. Your heart is in the right place, but ultimately this good intention leads to debt if you can’t afford it.
Cruze said the healthier version of this phrase is, “I want to give my kids the skills they need to thrive without me one day.”
Ideally, parents want to do more than raise good kids. They want to raise kids that become good adults. Resilience, hard work and emotional maturity, like feeling empowered to say “no” at times, are all necessary skills which should be in their toolkits.
5. Retirement Is So Far Away
Instead of thinking about how far away retirement is, Cruze said consider it this way: “Since I have time before retirement, I’ll let compound interest do the work for me in the meantime.”
If you start small and early, it’s not as stressful to start investing. Take advantage of starting early where you are now to ensure you’ll be better off later.
6. I’ll Be Too Old To Need a Bunch of Money Later On
Again, you don’t know what the future holds so it’s better to think “I don’t know what my needs are going to be down the road and I would love a safety net just in case.”
Maybe you won’t need a ton of money later in life but then again, maybe you will. Cruze said this is why it’s critical to have substantial savings in your older years.
This article was provided by MoneyLion.com for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal or tax advice.
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