Be In Control Of Your Financial Life
Saturday, July 4, 2009, 7:34 AM | 1 Comment
There is an article at forbes.com titled “What I’ve Learned: Once A Broke Student, Now A CEO” written by David K. Randall, published on 07.02.09. The article tells the story of Betsy McLaughlin who is now CEO of Hot Topic – The Company is a mall- and web-based specialty retailer operating the Hot Topic and Torrid concepts, as well as the e-space music discovery concept, ShockHound.
Excerpts from the article
It’s no secret that 18-year-olds have a supernatural ability to tune out anything that sounds too much like helpful advice. But somehow, something Betsy McLaughlin read in a magazine the summer after she graduated from high school stuck with her.
“It basically said that you are in charge of your own life and you need to make up a blueprint if you want to live the life you want,” she says. The same day, she sketched out a plan.
When she moved out of her house, she didn’t know how to balance a checkbook or boil an egg. The goals she set were borne out of desperation. “I didn’t want to be broke forever,” she says.
McLaughlin drew up five headings–Career, Salary, Assets, Health and Personal/Social–and set goals for herself at different ages. By 20, she wanted to own a car free and clear. By 25, she wanted to own a home. At 28, she wanted to put 5% of her income in a 401(k.) At 40, she wanted a new hobby.
She accomplished all of them because she learned how to compromise. To get out from under her car payments meant she didn’t have much of a social life in college. To buy her own home meant that she couldn’t have any credit card debt. But because she was committed to her plan, McLaughlin says she didn’t resent sacrifices like forgoing vacations.
Moral of the story
Now how many of us can do what Betsy did as a teenager and in her 20s? You don’t have to be a financial genius to do what Betsy has accomplished. Most people who get financially successful are hard workers, plan ahead, stick to the plan and just follow it through to completion.
Read the full story “What I’ve Learned: Once A Broke Student, Now A CEO”
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