Financial Planning

The Concept of the Four Tax Buckets 

I cleaned out my garage last weekend. I tend to accumulate things I don’t need or don’t often use. I pile up things that should just be thrown away. I stack tools on my shelves instead of putting them back where I got them. Instead of taking an extra minute or two out of my day, I end up creating what becomes a weekend long project each year – cleaning out my garage.

Last week we discussed some common financial planning mistakes that even financially conscientious people make. With as complicated as our financial lives can be, it’s understandable that we sometimes lose focus on the main parts of our plan and simple things end up slipping through the cracks.

Sometimes progress is as much about knowing what NOT to do, as it is about figuring out what to do. The path to growing wealth takes some basic building blocks, but it also requires avoiding certain mistakes along the way.  You may not think a lot about it, but small missteps can have big, negative impacts on one’s wealth accumulation over time. 

Change can bring out a lot of our emotions, some at opposite ends of the spectrum. For some, change can be exciting. For others, it can be incredibly uncomfortable, even bringing out fear and anxiety.  I think it’s true that we, as people, prefer order and predictability in our lives, which probably makes us naturally resistant to change.