Learning From the Financial Mistakes of Others

When you go into traditional business venture, part of your learning path is to talk with as many people as possible who had found success in the area where you want to focus with the hopes of learning their strategies that you could duplicate.  It’s a fact that in learning about their mistakes and challenges you will be able to avoid making the same mistakes for yourself.

Now when it comes to finances, the most powerful lessons which at times will create fear and depression comes from the financial mistakes we make and we can learn a lot from these negative experiences if we only make a bold step.

 

See the catch? No? Okay, let’s make it simpler.

If you want to venture out a traditional business, you seek advice from those who are already successful businessmen or entrepreneurs. Asking them so many questions of how they did it to make their business grow.

But when it comes to financial matters, majority of Filipinos don’t seek financial mentors so we learn our own lessons from our own financial mistakes not from others.  Like the old adage, “Experience is the best teacher”.  Worst, financial education is not even taught at home or in school.     We learn it first-hand.  Can we avoid these mistakes? Yes but because of our mundane things in life, going to work early in the morning, attending the needs of our children, issues at home to take care, other priorities and the list continues, we tend to forget that financial education is also important.

From time to time, I’ve been invited to personal meetings and financial seminars to refresh myself and of course you will be entertained especially if the guest speaker is active and vibrant about his presentation.  But the most important about their talk are the stories they shared.  Real life stories from their clients.  It’s not a fairy tale stories that you need to fantasize but stories that will surely wake you up and learn from it.

One of the most common regrets I hear expressed by people in their 50s and 60s is the wish that they had saved more and spent less in their younger years. 

Let me ask you, “How old are you now?”  That’s a good question to ponder.  Whether you’re in your early 20s or late 30s do something about it.  Time is your enemy.  Commit in saving early and saving hard; your 65 years old self will thank you for it!

Believe it or not, time will come that you will be in a group with your co-workers who are approaching retirement.  Listening to their stories of how they wished they had done differently and hearing stories of friends who had built wealth, put up businesses that help them with their lifestyle, build financial foundation for themselves will help you learn tales of their financial adventures or misadventures. 

So what do you think now?

On a positive side of this blog, I was informed by my current partner (rental properties) that there is a building that will be vacated sometime September and it will be turned over to us.  We plan to convert it as a dormitory.  It will be our 2^nd rental property to manage and earn continues passive income.  It’s a good location because it is near University of San Carlos - Main Campus.

May you be blessed more abundantly now and forever!