Frightening Finance

I’m not afraid of the creepy clowns running around this year. If you really want to scare the Wicked Smart Investor on Halloween just come to my door dressed as procrastination. This horror show makes me jump right out of my skin. Okay, maybe it’s not Old Granary Burial Ground at midnight with ground fog and howling coyotes kind of scared, but the procrastination ghoul will certainly elicit blood curdling screams out of me! To be on the safe side, I’ll hang some garlic cloves on the front door before trick or treating starts.

Here are the reasons I find procrastination so scary:

1)Investment Decisions: Your money is not working for you while you ponder investment decisions. If you have some investable assets but hold these funds in an account paying low interest rates your money is simply depreciating. Or, maybe you have assets in 401(k)s here, there and everywhere. You have no understanding of your asset allocation, true diversification and risk.

2)Life Insurance Decisions: The Grim Reaper owes us no warning, no explanation, and no apology. We simply don’t know when our time will end. If you have people depending on your income, get life adequate life insurance NOW. In most cases, the policies offered at work don’t have enough coverage and a term policy is a cost effective supplement. When you delay purchasing insurance, the cost increases or maybe you have a health problem that makes you uninsurable. You could pass away uninsured and throw your family into financial dire straits.

3)Creating a Will: If you pass away without a will, also known as dying intestate, your assets will be distributed according to the laws of the state of residence. This could cause costly litigation among your heirs. Also, the courts will decide who has custody of your children. Maybe you have relatives like The Munsters or the Adams Family. Do you want Johnny and Jane to be raised by them? With a last will and testament, you’ll be able to speak from the grave and posthumously do the right thing for your children.

Sometimes I think of visiting the witches in Salem and hiring them for a consulting project. I’d like them to cast a system wide spell on the Gregorian calendar and designate a day as “the perfect day for financial planning”. On that day, the whole world would stop so everyone can do their financial planning. I think I’ll have to hire quite a few witches to accomplish this. In the meantime, it’s up to YOU to get these things done. Set a date and stick to it. You will have quite possibly closed the door on some evil spirits that can wreak havoc on your financial future.