How well are you adulting?
by Matthew Bowen
Special to The Gayly
At my place of employment, I teach people how to effectively “adult.” You may be asking, what is “adulting?” The definition of “adulting” varies from person to person. Maybe you always get your oil changed on time, maybe you never miss trash day, maybe your idea of an exciting Friday night is watching Netflix until the “Are you still watching?” message appears on your screen checking on your wellbeing.
Or maybe you are a client of a successful financial advisor (like myself). With all of that said, many of my clients have fallen into traps when attempting to “adult” for the first time, which is why I’m here. I’m your training wheels for the long treacherous road of “adulting.” So, what are the three biggest potholes that need to be avoided on the road to “adulting”?
1. Buying a bunch of ridiculousness: Maybe you went from a broke college student paying for your drinks at the bar with a sock full of quarters (true story), to a young adult with windfalls of cash breaking on the shores of your bank account, every other week. You’ve made it, you have an actual paycheck. Due to this, you may think you need to reward yourself with a $400 brand name Margaritaville Margarita machine. Or, you feel financially capable of spending $100 at Sunday Brunch.
I’m not suggesting that you stop brunching all together (because brunch is essential to the fabric of our nation), but taking a gander at how much your Sunday Funday’s are eating into your overall paycheck is not the worst idea in the world. However, this is our first stop on the road to adult. So, what’s our next stop?
2. Biting off more than you can chew: Just because you can, does that mean you should? So, the loan for your dream home got approved. Congrats! You are now an official adult, you made your first big boy/girl purchase! Fast forward, most of your net worth is tied up in your home, which is great, because you aren’t flippantly throwing money out the window with a lease.
However, you may have made the classic mistake of biting off more than you can chew. How will you know? Like biting off more than you can chew, you usually find out when it is half way down. Many people, new to “adulting,” will fall into the pothole of putting all of their eggs in one basket. So, what’s wrong with this approach?
The problem with this approach is that it leaves you as a defenseless driver. Meaning, you lack the necessary liquidity to properly “adult.” If you find yourself with too much month at the end of your money, without any further investment (savings, investments, retirement accounts), then you have bitten off more than you can chew. Which, hover boards us into our last point.
3. Not freaking saving: Money increases in value overtime. Meaning, you can have one brunch today or 4.3 brunches in the future. Why is this important? If you have fallen into the first two potholes, maybe you don’t want to ride your bike anymore. Maybe, “adulting” just isn’t your thing…. And that’s okay. But, the millennial generation is the first generation that will decrease in net worth compared to the “adultier-adults who hath adulted before them.”
Student loans, obviously, have played a part, as have a myriad of other factors. However, I had a word limit (believe it or not). I’ll say this though, one of the biggest things I’m going to find as your financial advisor (thank you in advance for your business), is the marginal capacity for “adulty-ness.” We are going to make it work, and 4.3 brunches from now, you are going to be “adulting” so hard.
“Adulting” is a bit daunting. Want to get serious for a minute? Too often, I see interdependent facets of a potential adult’s financial universes segmented off into different specialists with little to no communication between them and absolutely no long-term plan with which to speak.
When your head hits the pillow at night, you know that you are “adulting” as well as anyone can possibly “adult.” Turn off Netflix - you’ve seen that episode of Friends anyway. It’s The One with the Embryos featuring Miss Chanandler Bong.
Matthew Bowen is a financial advisor with Opes One Advisor in Oklahoma City. You may contact him at (405) 388-7090.
The Gayly- 4/6/2016 @ 9:15 AM CDT