DAMON CARR
The paradox of singles and money is—the good thing is that everything falls on you and the bad thing is that everything falls on you. When you’re single you have the luxury of spending, saving, and investing money when, where, and how you want to. You are independent, self-reliant and self-sufficient. You don’t have the nagging money fights that many couples have about money. The downside of being single is that the income, decisions, and responsibilities associated with spending, saving, and investing money starts and stops with you. There’s no one to fall back on in the event you lost your job or source of income. There’s no nagging partner who will challenge you and force you to rethink certain money decisions that oftentimes lead to mistakes. As a result when you’re single, you have to be twice as smart, twice as cautious, and twice as responsible than the average couple with money.
Whether you’re married, single, shacked up or have a lifetime partner, we all have similar financial goals. We desire to work in a career that we enjoy and that pays well. Other financial goals include buying a home, saving for retirement, saving for college, building an emergency fund, eliminating debt, buying a newer car, making repairs to home, taking nice vacations, paying off home early, purchasing investment property, building an investment portfolio, giving to charity, becoming financially independent and building wealth.
The only real difference that we have is that we are at different phases in our life. Because we are at different phases in our life, our financial goals are prioritized differently. A younger person just starting out may be more focused on career planning and buying a home whereas a person who is nearing retirement may be more focused on paying off the mortgage early before retirement and saving for retirement. Given the fact that we all have similar financial goals, the process of financial planning is similar. You have to identify short-term and long-term financial goals and identify financial concerns and fears. Prioritize your financial goals. Develop and execute a game plan to achieve your financial goals and tackle your financial concerns and fears. But because singles are doing it alone, they have less room for error. Singles have to be more strategic in their planning and error on the side of caution when making financial decisions. For example, it’s recommended that you should have 3-6 months worth of living expenses set aside for emergencies. If you’re married and your spouse works, 3-months of living expenses will be okay. But if you’re are single, your goal should be saving the full 6-month worth of expenses.
There are four types of singles: Never been married, Divorced with no kids, Single parents, and Widows. Each type of singles has their own set of unique circumstances.
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