Making financial decisions have their own unique and distinct challenges. Sometimes we make certain money decisions and regret it almost immediately whereas other times we do not realise the consequences of our decision until many months or years later.
In my experience as a mum and a professional financial adviser, there are a number of questions women ask themselves when faced with financial decisions.
You may even have an internal dialogue that sounds something like this:
- Will this make my family happy?
- Is this a good time?
- Should I invest now?
- Is this too much?
- Is this too little?
To help you increase your comfort and confidence when making financial decisions, here are some simple tips:
Concentrate on the financials decision you have control of
Fact: You can’t control the investment market, or interest rates or the future cost of items you might want to purchase.
Let’s face it; we don’t know what we don’t know.
Yet, we still stress and worry about the things we don’t have any control of instead of focusing on the things we know and can influence like how much you save or spend and the timing of the goals you want to accomplish.
This is a much more productive exercise and is a good foundation for creating your own financial plan for the future.
Ask yourself why?
Ask yourself why before you make a decision, financial or otherwise, will help you reflect on what brought you to a certain choice in the first place.
Whether it’s a decision about savings, spending, travel, or paying down a credit card, “Why” is much more important than the “What” or “How.”
Block the noise
If you are considered why you’re making a decision and are focused on the things you can control, the next step is to block the noise.
We are constantly exposed to more and more noise every day – from the media to family and friends (and everything in between including Facebook) who each want to share their opinions about what they would have done or what you should do.
At the end of the day nobody is perfect. You are intelligent, beautiful and unique.
Make decisions based on what you can control, why you are acting and remember… block the noise.
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