Guilty? I admit I was.....

I wasn't really sure of where to begin - this being my first post and all - adrenaline rushing and thoughts of "hey I'm finally blogging". I admit I've come to the party about 10 years late, but hey I'm here :-)

Amidst all the confusion of where to begin, I thought I'd start by penning down some very common financial "sins" (if you can call them that). I can say that I have been guilty of committing a few of them not so long ago, before I checked into Vanguard's "clinic" of low cost Indexing for rehab :-)

So, to cut to the chase - are you guilty of

1) Hiring a financial "advisor" who has suckered you into "great" investments such as variable annuities, Life "insurance" policies, or high cost/load mutual funds. Yeah - those are really "great" - one small caveat - great for HIM, not for you!

2) Chasing "hot" stocks - either thru a "tip" from a friend or on bubbelvision (CNBC, Cramer)?

3) Not having an investment plan, based on your risk profile and financial goals and randomly making investments (be it stocks, mutual funds or Deposits in a bank) thinking that that'll suffice (or even make you rich)

4) Chasing high returns (yesterday's winners) and not understanding the risk - only to sell in panic when the first downturn hits?

5) Not planning your investments to be tax efficient? Remember that Uncle Sam takes away a LOT of your investment returns.

6) Not diversifying your investments - either held on to too many company stock options, invested large amounts in only a few stocks/funds that were not diversified across sectors and countries

7) Not having an emergency fund (about 8 months of living expenses) BEFORE making any other investments

8) Being "scared" of the stock market and parking too much cash in bank accounts/Deposits only to be eaten away by inflation and taxes