Feeling the urge to spend? Wait 72 hours then think again

We're chatting about finances on Girls With Goals this week.

If ever there's been a time to have a solid financial plan in place, it's now. Wages are being slashed, unemployment is at an all-time high and financial anxiety is (understandably) rampant. The Covid-19 health crisis is having a detrimental effect on economies across the world. Unlike the downturn of 2008, we can't play the blame game or point fingers and despite the comforting 'we're all in this together' rhetoric, the fact remains that we have bills to pay and debt is debt. With this in mind, I wanted to dedicate an episode of Girls With Goals to finance. Susan Hayes is a financial analyst with Hayes Culleton, she's published three books on economics and she's also known as 'The Positive Economist'. With a mixture of realism and positivity, Susan manages to talk about the situation we're facing, how the recovery might look and what we can expect in the months ahead from an economic perspective (28.38). Our other guest this week is financial planner and author of 'How To Be Good With Money' Eoin McGee. One of the first questions I asked Eoin was "Do you have to be good with money in order to read How To Be Good With Money?" The answer was no... huzzah. You can listen to the full episode by clicking the link below:   Eoin goes in to detail about the different types of debt that people are faced with, he breaks it down as 'Happy Debt' and 'Crappy Debt'. Guess which one most of us have? That's right... it's the crappy one. It's the car loans and the one-off holidays and the things that give instant gratification but are usually expensive and ultimately may not be worth it.

What's the difference between 'Happy debt' and 'Crappy debt'? @EoinMcGee chats to @Niamh_Maher on this week's #GirlsWithGoals about financial anxiety and how waiting 72 hours before you buy is crucial!

Listen to the full episode here:https://t.co/sETqfJE5Sf pic.twitter.com/y0yfmVjQ78 — Her.ie (@Herdotie) April 21, 2020

As we're all watching our finances, I also wanted to delve into our spending habits. We're being encouraged to 'treat ourselves' which, of course, is crucial for staying positive but can be expensive when it includes signing up for the latest online fitness class or buying the best gym equipment online. How can we cut through the torrent of marketing and spend wisely? Eoin told us there is a way:

"If you really want to buy something, whether it's online or we're back to normal and it's in a shop, put it back and 72 hours later go and buy it then. Now, if you've forgotten about it in the 72 hours you probably never needed it or wanted it in the first place it was the marketing department winning. But if you go back in 72 hours and you still want it, it's probably something you wanted as opposed to the marketing department subconsciously was suggesting you buy and you were falling for that"

Eoin goes on to say that this isn't about penny-pinching, it's much more than that:

"Good financial planning and good management of your day-to-day spending means that you spend the money on the things that you want to spend it on and not what some marketing department wants you to spend it on."

Words to live by. Check out more from Eoin here.