1. Assuming you’ll save more later. It’s very easy to procrastinate on setting up retirement accounts and making saving a priority. You’ve got a paycheck now and too many places to spend it. Maybe in the future, when you’ve gotten a raise or two, you can amp up your retirement savings. But that kind of thinking is a great way to have no savings for retirement. You can’t count on higher paychecks in the future. And even if you do make more later, any day you wait is a day lost to the magic of compound interest. There are plenty of ways you can get bailed out and still live a comfortable retirement, but none of them are guaranteed and the chances of any of the good fortunes happening aren’t great. The only thing you can count on is that you can do the responsible thing now.

Assuming you’ll save more later

2. Putting yourself last. We all want the best for our children and our families, but it’s dangerous to sacrifice your own future for them. Don’t be tempted to fund your child’s college education ahead of your own retirement—they can always take loans to continue their education, but there is no loan for retirement.On the flip side of the coin is trying to financially take care of aging parents or other hard-up family members. While it can be difficult to watch your loved ones struggle, don’t allow their financial problems to become yours. It could start a cycle where your children feel obliged to sacrifice for you because your “retirement” was spent on the previous generation—and it could continue on down the line. Give yourself and your family the gift of a well-funded retirement.

Putting yourself last

3. Thinking you’re invincible. The solution seems simple for many who haven’t saved enough for retirement: just work longer. But that assumes any number of things can’t and won’t go wrong, including a pink slip, illness, or injury. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that the world is unpredictable. Who would’ve thought that so many governments around the world would actually force businesses to shut down?My friend owns a couple of bars and made a small fortune catering to tourists in a city nearby before the pandemic hit. Money problems were far from his mind just a couple of years ago. But he told me he lost over $400,000 last year because bars are deemed high risk and were forced to close for much of the year. And even when they were allowed to open, they were not allowed to have more than a handful of customers at a time. On top of that, they had to pay a boatload on cleaning supplies and masks for all their workers.He’s been fighting for his survival for months, but it could be worst. He can’t even imagine how tough it has been for his employees who he’s had to let go, re-hire, just to let go again. Life is unpredictable. Hope for the best but plan for the worst—so make sure you can retire even if the date of your retirement is not entirely under your control.

Thinking you’re invincible

4. Tapping your retirement for emergencies. Sometimes crises arise and your emergency fund isn’t enough to cover the expenses. It can be tempting to look at all the lovely cash sitting in your retirement accounts and think about how it could solve your crisis. But not only is this a dangerous precedent to start—you never want to view your retirement as a cash cow you can tap anytime you want—but you’ll also be hit with any number of penalties for using the money early and for anything other than retirement. Then there are the taxes you’ll pay on top of that. You could easily lose half or more by taking money out prematurely. Pretend that money isn’t there until you need it, and find other ways to deal with financial emergencies now.

Tapping your retirement for emergencies

5. Underestimating the destructive power of inflation . Most people understand that inflation wreaks havoc on any budget, but few people plan for it. Just look at those around you who’ve retired. Have you noticed that many of them start out living pretty comfortably and then they slowly become more and more frugal? Why do you think that is? When you plan for your golden years, it’s simply not enough to assume that your spending will stay the same forever. If you want to maintain your quality of life, it’s mighty important to not only plan for a sustainable withdraw but an ever-increasing one.

Underestimating the destructive power of inflation

moneyandinvestments

Money & Investments

5 Money Mindsets That Could Hurt Your Retirement

It’s hard to disrupt the industry that pays your bills. People are taught a way of doing things, and companies pride themselves on their systems and processes, all codified in lengthy and monolithic manuals. “Reputation” and “experience” allow certain businesses to charge insanely high fees or prices, even if their services or products are subpar and don’t fully satisfy their customers' needs.I’m a Latinx immigrant who has called the <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/united-states">United States </a>home for more than 20 years. Even as a naturalized American citizen, being an immigrant will forever render me an outsider. But that has also been my greatest advantage.I entered the <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/art">art </a>world only 12 years ago as an interloper. When I opened my art advisory and consulting company, I had been practicing law in a big <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/new-york">New York </a>firm for several years. I was miserable doing something I never enjoyed, and in 2009, after plotting an exit for a few months, I left to open my own <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/business">business </a>with no formal education, background or experience in the arts. Being outside of the industry's inner circle ended up propelling me to success, and here are three advantages I've found along the way:

Unstoppable

I decided to go with my gut and was informed by passion. As a lawyer, I had started collecting emerging artists, visiting galleries and attending art fairs in my very limited spare time. Meanwhile, my novice eyes noticed how opaque and impenetrable the art world could be. Other advisors seemed to have no excitement and were only interested in the transaction. Blogging, expanding their knowledge on <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/social-media">social media </a>or branching out to different areas and projects that diversified revenues and kept their businesses relevant wasn’t being done. They saw other ventures as a waste of their time — time that should instead be spent selling.This odd behavior struck me as an opportunity, and while putting together a <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/business-plan">business plan </a>, I drafted a <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/mission-statement">mission statement </a>that is still valid today: to open a company that bridged the gap between collectors and artists and demystified the art world. I wanted to help my clients understand and live with contemporary art, use all forms of social media to educate and enlighten my audience (Back then only <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/facebook">Facebook </a>and <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/twitter">Twitter </a>were somewhat widely used, video wasn’t prevailing and <a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/topic/instagram">Instagram </a>didn’t exist), and never stay complacent or afraid of exploring different areas of an industry that today has become a <a href="https://www.ubs.com/global/en/our-firm/art/collecting/art-market-report/download-report-2021.html">$50 billion global market </a>.

You find opportunity where others don‘t

Being out there with a distinct outlook from those who accepted “the way things were” helped me enter the art scene with a certain naivete and zero preconceptions. This blank canvas allowed me to differentiate myself and my business in an industry known for chaining itself to old ideas.Years after I opened my company, venture capitalists began funding websites that sold art online. Slowly, those websites started using content and social media to drive traffic and boost their sales. Brick-and-mortar galleries followed suit. Even until a couple of years ago, some gallery owners told me their businesses still hadn’t joined Instagram because they didn’t understand the value. It turns out that in 2020, Instagram was by far the most widely used social media channel by art collectors and <a href="https://www.ubs.com/global/en/our-firm/art/collecting/art-market-report/download-report-2021.html">34 percent of them used it to purchase art </a>.

You become a blank canvas for new ideas

Insiders are usually hard-wired for self-preservation — once they reach a certain level, long periods of smooth sailing can lead to complacency. Coming up with ideas that disrupt requires unlearning “how things are done.” Even if you aren’t an immigrant or an outsider to your industry, there are ways you can challenge the status quo.Having an outsider’s perspective has allowed me to keep asking the question “What else is there to explore?” Twelve years later, I not only have sold more than $60 million in art inventory while operating with minimal overhead costs, but I’ve had the exciting opportunities to curate exhibitions in three continents, collaborate with world-famous artists and create and host my own TV series, among many other exciting projects.Sometimes groundbreaking ideas come out of situations you encounter daily. What could be done better? Where can a middleman be cut? Leave all your assumptions, hard knowledge and biases at the door. Ask yourself why something has to be done in a specific way. How many other ancillary areas can be incorporated into what you offer? Does your idea violate the laws of nature? Is it illegal? Usually the answer is no, which means you can keep exploring and eventually, disrupting.

5 Money Mindsets That Could Hurt Your Retirement

How Being an Outsider Helps You Disrupt Industries

Harshdeep Mehta