1. I’ll invest later, when I have more money. No no no. Do it NOW. The most important part of investment is not money, it’s TIME. Better to put 500 bucks every month starting today than putting 5000 bucks two years later.
2. I need to save like a maniac.. track and categorise all my expenses meticulously. Not really. All you actually need to do is figure out how much you want to save every month. If you have an unstable income, save a percentage. First think about saving and then think about expenses. Whatever remains after saving, spend it wisely. Just START. The whole point is to create a discipline around money rather than use motivation and other external factors. (I’ll talk more about spending later on! 🙂 )
3. I cannot do this. I don’t know how to figure out how much to save/invest. Pick a number you will not MISS. Thats all. You make 10k a month? Pick a number…300? ok done, invest 300 bucks a month. Blah, thats too less. Yeah yeah, but its more than ZERO.
   OR reach out to me at svr@themoneywellnessstudio.com. Let’s talk!
4. I save less than 10% of my income, that’s helped me long enough, I don’t really need to do anything else. Okay. 10% is great!… It’s a great start. If that’s all you can afford, thats okay, keep doing it, maybe push a part of it into investing and keep the remaining as savings. But if you can do more, push yourself to do it. Transition slowly and trick your brain into thinking you’re not really increasing the amount you are saving, by doing it super gradually. It will all add up, I promise.
5. I SAVE over 50% of my income, that should be enough. Awesome, good for you. But are you INVESTING it though? Savings rate is super low and projected to go down as the inflation keeps rising. Same with deposits, which is around 6% or so (in India). Investing and participating in the market is one of the best ways to make your money work much much harder for you. I started investing at Rs.1000 a month!
6. I used up my emergency fund for buying random shit. Put it on LOCKDOWN. Either push your emergency fund into an account for which you don’t have easy access (relatively) or put it in a Fixed Deposit, orrr…put it into a short term Debt Fund. (will get into this later)
7. My life is a hot mess, I keep having emergencies. – you can create a buffer for it, so it doesn’t adversely affect your life. These emergencies can be worked around. Create Sink Funds. This is a smaller more easily accessible emergency fund, that you can dip into. You need to replenish these funds as and when they are used. Same with the Emergency fund.
8. I’m scared of investing, I feel like there is too much to know. Talk to people around you. Be more open about money in your life. Talk about your salary, your wealth, your plans, this will help you think them through. The more candour we have around these topics, the less taboo it becomes. No one knows everything about investing (including me).

Okay, I don’t have ALL the mis-steps. I’ve jotted down whatever I could think of, I will keep updating this list as and when I think of something.