We tend to worry about things that are triggers in our lives, without really taking into account the probability something will occur. It’s totally understandable, but Christine Benz does a great job reminding us that some financial bogeymen are just extremely unlikely:
4 Financial Worries to Cross Off Your List [Morningstar] – “Over breakfast one day after my parents’ passing, I was sharing some of my worries with her, one by one—mainly related to family dynamics. When I mentioned one particularly remote scenario that had been on my mind, she stopped me and said, “OK, yeah, let’s take that one off the list.” She went on to point out that the possibility I had been mulling over was unlikely to come to pass, and if it did, it wouldn’t be a world-ender.”
Rich and Anonymous [Morgan Housel] – “Business Insider recently did a story of lottery winners who lost it all (people love the schadenfreude of these tales). A common denominator of the stories is that lottery winnings have a high degree of, let’s call it, social debt – friends, family, and strangers who feel entitled to ask, beg, and steal in a way that leaves the winners not only broke, but socially exploited.”
5 Big Lessons Popular Personal Finance Advice Gets Wrong [Gen Y Planning] – “Every day, you’re inundated with information. From social media to texts, phone calls, emails, and news alerts—it’s incredible how much information we process regularly. So when it comes to handling your finances, it’s natural to think that the information you hear repeatedly is the best advice to follow. Right? Well, not quite. Here are five pieces of popular personal finance advice we can almost guarantee you’ve heard before and why you shouldn’t necessarily take it.”