{"id":41970,"date":"2024-04-10T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/propertyupdate.com.au\/?p=41970"},"modified":"2023-10-25T14:08:58","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T03:08:58","slug":"nothing-isnt-financial-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/propertyupdate.com.au\/nothing-isnt-financial-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Doing Nothing Isn\u2019t a Financial Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve heard those words a lot over the years.<\/p>\n

Smart, successful people with good educations would sit across from me and tell me they\u2019d done little to no financial planning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

They just didn\u2019t know what to do, so they did nothing.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not surprised.<\/p>\n

\"financial<\/p>\n

Uncertainty has a way of paralyzing even the smartest people.<\/p>\n

If we don\u2019t know exactly what we\u2019re doing or when we\u2019re doing it, we tell ourselves we\u2019re better off waiting until we do know.<\/p>\n

The problem with this logic is that we\u2019ll never know everything.<\/p>\n

Life will happen.<\/p>\n

Plans will change.<\/p>\n

The unexpected will occur.<\/p>\n

We need to adapt.<\/span><\/h2>\n

Adapting doesn\u2019t come easily to everyone, but it\u2019s a valuable skill when we\u2019re dealing with goals and money.<\/p>\n

We can start by treating our financial planning a little more like a vacation than a board meeting<\/p>\n

For instance, instead of a minute-by-minute agenda, start with a list of things you\u2019d really like to do.<\/p>\n

Then, give yourself windows of time to check things off the list. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say you planned on going to the museum on Tuesday, but Tuesday looks like it will be the sunniest day that week.<\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t it make more sense to take your walking tour that day and save the museum for when the weather turns chilly on Wednesday?<\/p>\n

\"Finance\"<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not talking about throwing your plans out the window but giving yourself wiggle room.<\/strong><\/p>\n

You still want certain things to happen.<\/p>\n

But instead of chiselling them in stone, you give yourself permission to guess what will happen and go from there.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say the big-picture stuff looks the same 10 years from now.<\/p>\n

You still live in the same city.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re still married to your spouse.<\/p>\n

But the rest of life looks a little murky.<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re still working for the same company, but maybe you\u2019re not.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re still living in the same house, but maybe you\u2019re not.<\/p>\n

Does that mean you shouldn\u2019t be setting goals and saving money over the next 10 years?<\/p>\n

Just think about what\u2019s happened during the last 10-20 years<\/span><\/h2>\n

Today, we walk around with smartphones glued to our hands and college tuition equals the GDP of a small country.<\/p>\n

Who could have predicted that future perfectly?<\/p>\n

We simply don\u2019t know for sure what will come next, and the freedom that comes from admitting that we don\u2019t know is huge.<\/p>\n

Instead of beating ourselves up for not being able to predict the future, we commit to the process of guessing.<\/p>\n

And over time, we adapt as needed and keep moving towards a future that looks more (or less) like the one we envisioned.<\/p>\n

Editor's note: This article was originally published a number of years ago and has been republished for the benefit of our many new subscribers<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\r\n\r\n

<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d I\u2019ve heard those words a lot over the years. Smart, successful people with good educations would sit across from me and tell me they\u2019d done little to no financial planning. They just didn\u2019t know what to do, so they did nothing. I\u2019m not surprised. Uncertainty has a way of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":69,"featured_media":128989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,653],"tags":[1015],"class_list":["post-41970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-property-updates","category-personal-finance","tag-money-you"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDoing Nothing Isn\u2019t a Financial Plan<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cI don\u2019t know what to do.\u201d I\u2019ve heard those words a lot over the years. 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