Top 5 Signs You’re Managing Your Money Like Wall Street

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Some of the smartest people in the world work on Wall Street. Yet the news is ripe with Wall Street’s woes. Today, we’ll discuss some lessons that you can learn from their mistakes.

We talked with Jake Novak on The Bigg Success Show. He shared his five signs that you’re managing your money like Wall Street. You can hear all of the fun if you listen to the show.

About Jake Novak Jake is a comedy writer whose material is used by more than 100 radio stations across the world! His humor is also featured in weekly columns in Newsday and The Jewish Week. When Jake's not making people laugh, he teaches Journalism at New York University. Jake is also with the recently-launched Fox Business Network.

Top 5 Signs You’re Managing Your Money Like Wall Street

#5 – You'd run up huge debts on your credit cards, then demand that the government forgive those debts, cut interest rates, and then send you and everyone else you know checks for $600.

#4 – You'd hire someone to handle your finances, and even after he failed miserably, you would give him a $100 million severance bonus. Then you'd prove you learned from that mistake by hiring a new financial advisor with a guaranteed severance of at least $200 million.
 
#3 – After losing your shirt in a string of bad investments, you'd immediately go on a crusade to convince all your neighbors that your problems are their problems too. CNBC would give you as much air time as you want to get that message across.
 
#2 – You'd spend 364 days a year exaggerating how rich you are, then spend all of tax day telling the government you haven't made a dollar all year.

#1 – After going over your finances and finding you're nearly broke, you decide to blow your last dollars getting the local little league baseball field named after you.

Lessons

• Beware of following the herd.

The herd often gets over-exuberant. Smart investors often do the opposite. We recently wrote an article on how John Paulson made $3 billion last year [article, 169] with his hedge fund doing just this.

• Don’t pay more taxes than you owe.

You must pay taxes, but you don’t have to pay a dollar more than you owe. Studies of Main Street millionaires show that they take tax planning seriously. Take a lesson from Wall Street and Main Street – hire a good tax planner!

• Watch your debt load.

Don’t buy it unless you can pay cash. If you do use a credit card, pay it off in full every month. If you can’t do that, you can’t afford it. After all, YOU can’t count on the government to bail you out!

• Look out for ego boosters.

Forget the little league field. Dump the stock when your company gets their name on a major league stadium. That’s just one of the signs that the CEO is likely building his or her legacy, not your nest egg!

If you’ve laughed with the lessons learned today, share it with a friend!

Our bigg quote today is by the writer Gertrude Stein.

In every market, there are winners and there are losers. Use these tips so you end up with more than pocket change.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day so we’ll discuss the heads-up way to follow your heart.

We give a bigg thanks to Jake Novak for sharing his wit and wisdom with us today!

Until next time, here’s to your bigg success.