by Blog Writer

Typical Choke Points to Sabotage Success 

  1. Beginning your adult life with too much bad debt. Student loans, credit card debt, expensive vehicles and homes, plus a high cost of living area, all fit in this category.
  2. Having no cash reserves for unexpected emergencies – they will happen.
  3. Having no extra cash available after expenses to invest.
  4. Having no plan or written goals on what you want from life.
  5. Having no qualified mentors. Figuring out how life works on your own can cost you decades. It can only take a few errors in judgment to go into the ditch and stay there.
  6. Having poor tax management. Taxes will be one of your largest expenses. It’s not what you make but rather what you keep.
  7. Everyone has to use money. An unwillingness to learn how money works sets you up to fail. No one will care more about your future than you. Educating yourself on how money works is a learnable skill. Money is not everything, but it is like oxygen. When there’s not enough, it’s all you can think about. Money is opportunity and choice.
  8. Having a spouse on a different wavelength or value system. When you’re not pulling together, it’s almost impossible.
  9. Failure to realize that you are disposable (age discrimination, death, disability, being fired; being replaced by technology). Recognize that a job is vertical income. It’s only one income source that’s taxed heavily, plus you’re a free agent (disposable). The job is simply used to feed your family PLUS help build horizontal (passive) streams of income (dividends, interest, rental income, pensions, etc.) You’re never free until you have enough horizontal income. Forgetting that is hoping to be lucky or simply denial. Single points of failure can be catastrophic. Losing a job at a key time of life can be just that.
  10. Failure to guard your health. You’re not invincible.