Someone once gave me advice when I was young and eager in business, to live just below my means. Have a nice car and loan to go with it, and other niceties of life, I was told that this would motivate me to succeed. He said that living on the edge this way would keep me hungry to work hard. One of the worst things that sales people and self-employed people should do, which I was both of, is to live near, at or above their income. Earning an income through sales and self employment is hard and stressful enough without the added pressure of bills. If you don’t have a steady pay-check, one should live well below their means, and have adequate savings to keep one afloat during difficult seasons. When one is desperate to make a living, sometimes this leads to creative ways to work, but for me it was just more distracting and exhausting. Err on the side of wisdom should have been my reaction, but the appeal of living a nice lifestyle was attractive to me then, and I bought into the advice.
What is the worst financial advice that you have been given? Comment below…
