This week, we’re going to be covering the ten financial commandments, as laid down by the almighty Andy Hart. You may remember Andy from Session 79 when we talked about financial forecasting – that was a very popular session indeed.

Now Andy has drafted what he believes are the ten commandments of finance, and I know that he uses these as a hook for discussion with his clients at review meetings. I saw them and asked if I could use them for a podcast session because I reckon they’re great stuff. Stay tuned…

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Introduction

The Ten Financial Commandments form a framework for thinking about money. They made me think about some automatic assumptions that even I make, and I hope they’ll do the same for you too.

I did ask Andy if he wanted to be interviewed for this session, but he was happy for me to go through these with you. So Andy – thanks for your input on this mate; hope you approve!

Don’t forget, for a full transcript, you can just hit the button below. Let’s dive in…

The Ten Financial Commandments

1. The Stock Market rewards the patient and punishes the rest
2. Rising prices (inflation) can be your best friend and worst enemy
3. Long term returns come from investing in the great companies (equities) of the world
4. All saving needs to be automatic, or it won’t happen
5. Having and updating your Financial Plan is paramount. Having a portfolio is not a plan and outperformance is not a goal
6. The media do not have your financial future in mind
7. Disciplined behaviour will ensure your financial success
8. There will always be negative news to report. Learn to ignore it. What bearing will today's crisis have on your 30 year retirement plan?
9. Tax is likely to be your biggest expense – learn to control it
10. Never forget Commandment One

Summary

Hopefully these points will help give perspective to you as you go through your personal finance journey. It can be so easy to forget these basic rules along the way, so maybe you can revisit this session once a year or something, and remind yourself of the commandments now and then.

I’d love to know what you think about these. Do you have any to add? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks again to Andy Hart for the inspiration for this session. Listen back to my chat with him in Session 79

Resources and Links

Podcast Session 3 – How to Budget

Next Session Announcement

Next time we'll be talking about Financial Planning for Ex-Pats. I’ve been asked to do this so many times it’s ridiculous, but I’ve found the perfect guy to help me with this subject. That guy is Richard Taylor, a financial planner from the UK but who is based in the United Arab Emirates.

If you have a question on this subject, or any other financial query that you want answering here on the show, then the best way to do that is to leave me a voicemail at meaningfulmoney.tv/askpete