Wyatt Yates Host 00:00 Money doesn't have to be complicated. You can achieve financial independence. This podcast gets to the truth behind the money mess you hear from your grandma, your broke uncle, the latest social media influencers and the so-called money experts. Welcome to Money Myths with your host, wyatt Yates. The myth we're talking about today is I work hard and deserve this. 00:28 So we've all said this to ourselves at one point or another. To justify spending money on something, typically something that was unplanned. You know that we weren't thinking about buying in the first place or going on a trip or something, so that wasn't originally in our budget. And we use this rationalization to make us feel better about ourselves and the decision that we're going to make, even though we know deep down it's not the correct decision. So we're all guilty of this at some point. I guarantee that you've used this self-rationalization before. I know I've used it numerous times, especially when we were struggling with my finances or in our marriage with our finances, and we would use this self-rationalization to make ourselves feel better about what we were just getting ready to do, even though in the back of our head we knew it probably wasn't the right thing to do or the right thing to spend money on. So if you use this rationalization and this rationalizing self-talk to repeatedly make financial decisions, you're eventually going to find yourself far away from any financial goals you've set. So the first step with this is you've got to recognize that this type of self-talk is childish behavior. I'll say that again this type of self-talk and self-rationalizing so you make yourself feel better about what you're going to do, even though you know it's not the right decision is childish behavior. You're an adult. You need to stop acting like a child and doing what makes you feel good. So you're not a child anymore. You have goals. You have other people that probably depend on you financially, so you can't use childish behavior to care for yourself or those that are depending on you. You need to devise a plan and follow through with it. So recognize this is the inner child in you. This is not how you make decisions as an adult. 02:44 And this is where having the accountability partner with your spouse kind of steps in and helps the two of you recognize when maybe the other spouse is having a moment like this, because we all have moments. You're never going to eliminate this. You will have this moment because the majority of you listening you probably work really hard and you want to treat yourself right. So this is where your spouse is your accountability partner and when these moments happen, you hold each other accountable. So first thing is you got to recognize when they pop into your head and refer back to your financial goals and the plan that you've set out together as a couple. And if this thought or this justification takes you further away from that, that's your red flag to stop and not follow through with it. And this is where your spouse steps in and says is this really something we had planned or why are you saying this? What else is going on? So recognize when it happens, use your spouse's accountability partner so that way you can both refer back to your financial goals and plan and ask yourself. 03:58 Here's a few questions I want you to ask yourself Does spending money on this put us closer or further away from our plan and goals? In a week from now, will I feel good about myself for making this purchase or will I have buyer's remorse? Because typically, when these types of financial decisions happen with this self rationalization, you have buyer's remorse in a week or a month or whenever down the road, when you realize what you've actually done and that it took you further away from your goals. And then the last question is can my money be spent on something else that will put me closer to my goals than this purchase? Would? To pause, ask yourself those questions, refer to your spouse to help be your accountability partner so you can minimize these. 04:50 This is something that you're never going to completely get rid of. It's human nature and you wanting to reward yourself, but you have to minimize these types of financial decisions, especially the magnitude of them. Now, if you use this to buy the candy bar when you're waiting in line to check out at the grocery store, that's not that big of a deal. When you use this to buy the new vehicle that you can't afford, that's when you start getting yourself in trouble. Or to overspend on a home that you can't afford. So you got to take the time to really focus and listen to yourself and what you're saying, because you know in the back of your head it's false, and that kind of brings us to our action steps. 05:37 Here's a little rule that I like people to implement and it kind of helps you just pause so you don't make these impulse decisions. So I like to call it's the 24 hour rule. So when you have something like this comes up, wait 24 hours. You cannot do the purchase or book the trip or buy the thing you're thinking about buying for 24 hours. That gives you the time to really think about the decision and refer back to your financial goals and if this takes you closer to them or further away, so implement the 24 hour rule on any time you start looking at buying something or booking a trip or something that wasn't in your budget, and that way you have time to really just sit back and with your thoughts and think through. Does it? Is this really a smart choice? And most of the time when you implement this 24 hour rule, you're going to find that in 24 hours you'll make the right decision, and so implement the 24 hour rule is your action step and just realize Thinking like this will not put you closer to your financial goals. 06:56 You're not. It's normal to think like this, everybody does it, but remember your neighbors broke. The most of the people in the US are living paycheck to paycheck. It's almost 80% of people living paycheck to paycheck right now, and most people cannot afford a thousand dollar emergency. It's anywhere from 40 to 50% in any given survey. People that couldn't come up with the cash to afford a thousand dollar emergency. And most people aren't saving for retirement or don't think they have enough to save for retirement. So if you see your neighbor doing it and you use that with this rationalization of I deserve it, look at, my neighbors got it, I deserve it. Remember they're probably broke if they're the normal Americans. So don't use the I work hard, I deserve this, or my neighbor has it. Why shouldn't I type mentality? It's only going to make you make bad financial decisions. 07:57 Set your financial goals and stick to a plan to follow through with them, and remember that 24 hour rule. It will really help. So if you're find yourself on the internet browsing, looking shop and buying stuff, go ahead. You can put it in your cart, leave that web browser open, come back in 24 hours. I guarantee you'll probably delete most of that stuff out of your cart. Thanks for listening. 08:26 Want to achieve financial independence? Go to ruggedfinancialcom where you can download my free PDF of the 12 things to do to win with money, and you can also sign up for my weekly money tips emails where I cover the same tips and tricks and advice I walk all my clients through so you can begin your journey to financial independence. 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