MONICA MEHTA: Secret spending among spouses is practically an underground economy. A study by CreditCards.com suggests that one in five adults has concealed a purchase of $500 or more from a significant other. A 2012 study of 23,000 adults, conducted by Today.com and Self.com, pegged the percentage of married people who keep money secrets from their spouse at 46%. Read more
Finance expert Monica Mehta offers advice to entrepreneurs tackling real-world personal finance issues. Ask her a question and your query might be the inspiration for a future column.
Q: I want to quit my job to pursue a startup, but have $35,000 of student loan debt. Is there a way to shrink my loan payments while we are trying to get off the ground? — Eric Lee, Austin, Texas
Today student loans represent the single largest debt burden for people under 40. In fact, from 2004 to 2009, only 37 percent of federal borrowers managed to make timely payments without postponing or becoming delinquent. Those most likely to default are unemployed or underemployed. Startup life, where income is anything but certain, qualifies you for the high risk camp, so it’s important to know your options. Read more at Entrepreneur.com
Posted in Columns, Print, Uncategorized
When faced with fear and failure, the brain is wired to quit. But it’s possible to outwit brain chemistry by activating the reward pathways and tricking yourself into persevering. Read my latest column for INC Magazine
Posted in Articles on Risk & Instinct, EI Blog, INC, INC Magazine, Print
Put an end to failed New Years resolutions by setting goals your brain likes. Check out my recent story for Entrepreneur Magazine based on the science covered in The Entrepreneurial Instinct. Read more here
By Monica Mehta. What we can learn from Susie Crippen, who used visualization to quit her waitressing job, get out of debt, and build JBrand in an $80MM jeans empire.
For the entrepreneurial underdog, day dreaming with your eyes open can hold the key to realizing the seemingly unacheiveable. Your mind actually has a hard time distinguishing things you are doing now from actions you anticipate and memories of the past. That’s why visualization is so powerful. As you visualize yourself accomplishing a goal, your brain can’t really tell if you’re remembering something you’ve already done or planning for something you will do.
Read more at Inc.com
By Monica Mehta. Entrepreneurs can leverage the same brain chemistry that helped the Miami Heat’s Shane Battier shine in the NBA finals. Here’s how.
In business, sports, or anything else, getting on a hot streak isn’t luck. It’s physiological. If you can understand how the brain processes success and failure, you can create your own winning streak, jump-starting your productivity.
Read more at INC.com
In the early days of starting a business, you might be tempted to gloss over ownership structure, equity stakes, and other seemingly boring details. After all, you might think, as long as you keep taxes low, paperwork uncomplicated, and partners motivated, better to deal with the big stuff first. But these decisions can have a significant cost down the road, particularly for entrepreneurs who seek outside investors. Read more of my latest column at businessweek.com
Aspiring entrepreneurs preparing to start businesses will find that savings, credit access, and credit scores matter more than market research and investor presentations
Read my latest story for BusinessWeek
As the recovery limps along, small business owners looking for bank credit and loan officers assessing their applications have their work cut out for them. Read more from my latest story for Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
By Monica Mehta
After a decade’s lull, the IPO is back, stoking dreams of entrepreneurs looking to cash out. Yes, dramatic market swings have changed some game plans recently, but in the first two quarters of 2011, 79 companies issued initial public offerings generating $24.3 billion, more than double the amount raised in the same period last year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. Often overlooked by newbies: By the time a company is ready to go public, the founders usually have diluted their personal ownership stakes considerably through previous financing rounds.
The Entrepreneurial Instinct (McGraw-Hill, Sept 14 2012)
Monica Mehta is an investor, author and finance expert. She is a frequent contributor for CNN, Fox News, BloombergTV, MSNBC, INC Magazine and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. She is the author of The Entrepreneurial Instinct (McGraw-Hill, Sept 2012)
Monica Mehta 