The most common money mistakes normal people make
Posted On July 30, 2022
Arindam Nag will tell you the 2008 financial crisis wasn’t really caused by Wall Street. It was caused by the general public’s lack of financial literacy.
That’s a problem Nag has been trying to solve as CEO and co-founder of CentSai.com, a financial education platform that seeks to provide the public with the financial guidance it needs to make informed decisions.
In the latest episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston,” Nag explains why 2008 was a lesson that just because you can doesn’t mean you should. He also shares why, with longer life expectancies leaving some people retired for longer than they worked, “saving a bit of money every week or every month” isn’t enough to prepare you for retirement.
Nag, a graduate of NYU’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, spent over two decades working as a financial journalist for Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones editorial. He shares with us the most common financial mistakes people make:
- Not saving enough money for retirement. By the time you reach your 40s, he said, you should be putting 10 percent of your earnings into retirement. “Even if you can’t put 10 percent in your 20s and 30s,” he said, “I think you should work toward that number in your late 30s, early 40s.”
- Living on borrowed money. Remember, when you live off credit cards, interest compounds your debt. “My advice is, if you can’t afford something, ask yourself: Do you need it?” he said.
- Not having a financial plan. Particularly in times of inflation, as we are now experiencing, you need to look at your upcoming financial needs and gauge whether your income will meet them. “You can no longer live life without a solid financial plan,” he said.
Nag also discussed the misconceptions about women and their handling of money, the wisdom of alternative investments, and why even dipping into your retirement savings to pay off debt is a bad idea.
“The power of compound interest … you don’t want to miss out on that opportunity,” he said.