People generally have varying opinions on handling finances and assets, but one thing is for sure: there are blind spots we need to avoid to prevent future regrets.

Almost every person has doubts when it comes to money management. At the end of the day, we’d all just like to know if we’re doing the right thing. There are people who are quite frugal in pursuit of saving every penny, while there are the happy-spenders who rack up on purchases.

According to Morgan Housel, author of “The Psychology of Money,” people tend to do crazy things with their money. However, opinions on the best practices in financial and asset management will always vary. There may be some things we do with our money that other people think is crazy and vice-versa. 

The differences in judgments lie in our personal backgrounds: the economic environment we grew up in, the habits we learned from our families, and the lessons we learned along the way. All these factors shape how we view and handle money. However, regardless of our backgrounds, we all have our blind spots.

Keeping Up with Social Media Trends

Around the 1980s, wealth inequality was becoming more evident in society. Unfortunately, what did not change is people’s expectations that everyone should have the same lifestyle. This resulted in more people taking loans to fund the things that they must have, such as bigger estates, nicer cars, and private schooling for their kids. 

This phenomenon of unrealistic lifestyle expectations was further fueled by social media in today’s world. While the pressure to take on more debt to afford things has been around for over six decades, social media has just made it even greater, touching across all demographics. Seeing other people flaunt their expensive lifestyles may encourage you to spend more in order to keep up, but in the end, you miss out on accumulating true wealth.

Evolving Goals

As you grow older, your goals and personal preferences will change. This makes it even more difficult to make long-term financial plans. Life milestones such as starting your own family and having children can ultimately change how you view your money. 

How exactly can you future-proof your savings and spending habits? The first step is to reevaluate your current financial standing and expenditure. This will allow you to cut down on unnecessary expenses and, instead, funnel the money towards savings. It is always best to avoid extremes such as under-saving, which could lead you to struggle financially in the future.

Savings Can Give You Freedom

Having extra savings can provide you and your family flexibility and comfort through unexpected situations. This means that you could still be able to cover your necessities when you find yourself unemployed and waiting for a new opportunity or when your business is affected by a global pandemic. According to Housel, the independence that you will gain from having sufficient savings is the biggest benefit that you and your family will enjoy.

Climate change is coming sooner than later, which is why climate action is necessary to avoid problems to rise after. Here’s how owning stocks help us.

The US presidential elections are a few days away, and there is a possibility of a political solution that will resolve the climate crisis. Should the Biden administration get elected, they may provide us with climate legislation. However, no one has any guarantee of when that will happen and what the outcome will turn out to be. 

While we are under the current administration, the Department of Energy has settled with referring to natural gas as US freedom molecules. This not the introduction to carbon tax the Republicans are hoping for. 

So who can we turn to when it comes to immediate climate action? The corporations need to step up. We can see that some companies are jumping into action, like Beyond Petroleum, who is working on implementing their slogan. The company announced that they plan on cutting oil production to 40% in the following decade and expect to reach zero emissions by the year 2050.

It has joined hundreds of companies that are looking at science-based processes when it comes to cutting emissions. Nearly 300 companies that range from apparel to automotive to cutting their emissions to 35%, which is a great objective considering that these companies are responsible for having more emissions than Spain and France combined. 

For tech companies, they seem to be in an arms race for sustainability. In 2019, Amazon promised to purchase 100,000 electric delivery vans to go carbon neutral by the year 2040 and to reduce enough carbon to offset all its past emissions.  

Meanwhile, Microsoft is participating in Transform to Net Zero, which is a group of private companies that aim to achieve net-zero global emissions by no later than 2050.

The latest update for climate action has received both hopeful and cynical reactions—hope that the changes made by corporations can make a significant difference, but cynical about whether or not these commitments will be achieved. 

However, Americans who own stock have the capacity to force corporations to take their own step towards climate action. If the 137 million Americans that own stock can convince the corporations they own stock from to take these steps, you can ensure that the climate will improve overtime.

It’s normal to feel some skepticism towards the actions of the corporations as some companies share the lack of concern towards the climate, but with the help of shareholders and voters, they can force these corporations to provide tangible proof of their climate action. 

Their reward for this is that they can keep their shareholders because, at the end of the day, you can’t have shareholders if the world isn’t sustainable for living and that companies need shareholders to support their companies and products. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the economy hard in more ways than one. Most people have lost their jobs, and more are thinking of downgrading as well.

The coronavirus epidemic continues to affect everyone’s life in more ways than one, especially when it comes to livelihood. According to data from Lean In and McKinsey & Company, women are affected in a disproportionate matter. 

Based on a statement from the Women in the Workplace, one in four women are thinking about leaving the workforce or downgrading their careers because of the damage brought about by COVID-19.

Sheryl Sandberg, the founder of Lean In, says that this is the most alarming report they’ve seen. She believes that the coronavirus has a highly adverse effect on women and poses the risk of undoing all the progress that has been made for working women.

From the start of 2015 up to the start of 2020, the population of women who occupied senior vice president positions rose from 23% to 28%, with the total amount of women in the C-suite going from 17% to 21% during that time frame. While this growth shows great promise, Sandberg is emphasizing that the impact brought about by the pandemic poses a threat to this progress. 

For the first time in the years that this report has been released, Lean In and McKinsey and Company research staff are seeing proof that women are leaving their careers at higher rates than men. 

In the previous six years of this report, data showed that women and men leaving the workforce were at similar rates. 

The ongoing increase in the number of women leaving or considering leaving their jobs is due to the caregiving crisis that women are faced with, and this has only worsened because of the pandemic with most daycare centers and schools staying closed.

According to a study from Lean In and Mckinsey & Company, mothers are three times more responsible for most of the childcare and housework than fathers during COVID-19. 

Aside from that, mothers are said to be more worried about their performance in work being judged negatively because of their responsibilities when it comes to caregiving during the coronavirus pandemic.

For Sandberg, a lot of women are still held back by the broken rung on the corporate ladder, which is the first step to getting promoted to managerial positions. For every 100 men getting promoted to manager, only 85 women are able to reach this position. 

The only way women can reach positions that are male-dominated is by understanding the unique problems that women face. The goal of the Lean In founder is to make work work for both women and men, and she notes that you can make work work for parents by being flexible and giving people the support they need, so they progress forward.