Finance MYTH 1: “ I don’t get investing. I guess I’m just not smart enough ...” A myth that prevents many people from ever starting their wealth-building journey. Many people are intimidated by often-confusing, overly technical financial language and statistics, so they delay opening an investment account, put off investment decisions and avoid engaging in the topics of finance and investing altogether. Here’s the truth: the most successful investors in the world are not necessarily the smartest people in the room. They are, rather, the most disciplined: they don’t allow their emotions to distort their investment decisions. And the most open: they seek out differing opinions and they don’t get “locked in” to a particular idea or way of thinking. Perhaps counterintuitively, they also tend to be the most humble: they’re quick to acknowledge the limits of their understanding and they admit when they got something wrong. No doubt that financial knowledge is a very powerful thing, and you should try to further yours whenever possible. But you don’t need PhD-level financial knowledge or special intelligence to cultivate a powerful money mindset. What you need is discipline, an open mind and just a bit of humility – qualities available to anyone. MYTH 2: “Debt should always be avoided.” A myth that many people come by honestly, in that they’ve seen the financial hardship and sleepless nights which debt can create. Seeing how difficult it is to manage debt can lead them to thinking in absolutes: debt is a financial vulnerability, a severe stress or an economic evil of the highest order. But the idea that debt is some kind of financial bogeyman – that’s a myth. Most of us are wise enough to understand how the high-interest debt charged by credit card companies can be financially ruinous. But we can also understand that the lower-interest mortgage which we signed to buy our homes allowed us to build a good deal of wealth. The key to using debt properly is to think about it in much the same way as you think about fire: as an incredibly useful tool, as long as we’re cautious about where, when and how we use it. Those who use debt strategically to acquire appreciating or income-producing assets – for a down payment on a rental property, for example, or as startup financing for a promising business idea, or even to fund an advanced degree that gives us (or a family member) additional earning power – can harness a powerful, wealth-building strategy that can boost their net worth over time. CSANews | WINTER 2025 | 29
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