I am no stranger to a good romantic comedy, and arguably one of the best of all time is Sweet Home Alabama starring Reese Witherspoon. At the end of the movie, our leading lady, Melanie (Carmichael) Smooter, needs to decide between staying married to her current, yet estranged husband and first love, Jake (long story, you should probably just watch the movie) or her New York City socialite fiance, Andrew. In this moment her father, the wise Earl Smooter gives her this classic nugget, “You can’t ride two horses with one ass, sugarbean.” And boy is Earl Smooter right, in so many ways, but not when it comes to your finances.
In my application of this epic movie quote to your financial affairs, I’m going to go head to head with Mr. Smooter. I may even take it a step further in saying that you NEED to ride two horses in several areas of your financial life. You can ride a cash back card and a travel rewards card if you spend enough on each. You can ride a 20 year term life policy and a 10 year term life policy. You may want to retire, yet keep riding a part time job to transition into this next phase of life. When it comes to your portfolio, you need to be riding at least two horses in every race.
So the wise Earl Smooter had impeccable timing and wisdom in his assist on picking a groom, but I have a hunch that if he applied the same logic to his wallet, he may have been able to upgrade his Lazy Boy recliner a bit sooner.
Happy Friday! Stay healthy and please be safe!
PS – This post may kick off my new PubGPS podcast season – “Movies and Money.” Stay tuned…