Financial Myth is a common sense explanation for a financial observation. Even though these explanations seem to make perfect common sense they are totally wrong. The problem with Financial Myth is that they are usually commonly accepted in society as truth and sometimes even touted by financial institutions and experts as wisdom. Nevertheless, the popularity of a concept or its apparent common sense never makes anything true.

For example, you may have heard people mistakenly saying that they are afraid to get another pay raise because if they make any more money they will be bumped into the next higher tax bracket. The myth is that if you go over the tax bracket that the taxable rate on all of your income jumps to the next highest rate. This simply is not true, The truth is that we have a marginal tax system which means that you are taxed at the higher rate on only the income that exceeds the tax bracket threshold. You can readily see that this completely erroneous myth, though it seems to make perfect common sense, is not only wrong, but causes people to make poor emotional decisions based upon poor facts and conclusions.

We believe in a number of Financial Myths in our society that seem to make common sense and are accepted by society, but they are totally wrong and destructive to your financial well-being. If you read through these articles you will begin to identify the myths that you hold to be true, and replace them with the truth so you can make better decisions that will serve you through to retirement.

Many of you believe that you are not doing as well as you could because you have no discipline or you just are not financially minded enough. Some of you believe you are very financially savvy that you don’t really believe in any financial myths. Everyone believes in some financial myths. The key is being open minded enough to question what you know to be true. Questioning reality is how all human progress has been made.

Let me prepare you to begin the reprogramming of you financial minds by telling you a story. Once upon a time the whole world including the Pope, the Kings, the philosophers, the lawyers, the scientists, and the peasants believed that the sun traveled around the earth. Galileo was nearly burned at the stake by the Pope who was a college friend of his because he dared to challenge this erroneous but widely held belief that the sun circled the earth. Why would we believe something so silly? Because everyone else did; and you could plainly see that the sun traveled around the earth every day. This story made perfect common sense to everyone, but it was nevertheless dead wrong. Don’t be afraid to challenge what you know to be true. You might find that life is better without the myths.