A friend from work was telling about her weekend and getting a bit more organized financially. After going through a divorce a year or two ago, she was forced to refinance her shared home at a time that was "not ideal" to do so, going from a pretty decent mortgage, to one that was far less so. Now, she has started the process of shopping around for a better deal on her mortgage, in the hope that there will be something that either is cheaper, or provides more benefit than what she has, as there are some benefits to stay put also.
Regardless of whether she find something or not though, going through the process means making decisions with intention, and not just out of necessity. This tends to lead to heightened awareness that builds knowledge and is better able to identify opportunities now, and in the future.
I think that one of the reasons that our general economic and financial literacy is so low these days across the entire population, is that we are increasingly removing the direct sight of a lot of our activities, either as we spend through contactless payments and the internet, or through the growing number of subscriptions we hold, nearly all for pure entertainment purposes. Taking a step back and reflecting on where we are financially, looking at where we are i8mpacted, and the alternative options we may have, gives us an insight not only into our economic position, but also into our habitual condition.
The more we proxy, the less aware we become of our own behaviors and how they impact on us. For instance, for those who have many subscriptions, if you were to identify them all, add up the costs, look at your usage, and consider what alternative uses there may be for that amount, would you get rid of any of them? If you had to choose a single subscription, which would it be? Yet, out of convenience, we rarely cutback on our spending, until we are forced to do so.
A business of any size is constantly monitoring spending, as well as opportunity. They are making forecasts on expectations, reviewing them monthly, quarterly, at the halves and yearly, so that they are able to better react, by predicting what moves will likely need to be made. Sometimes they beat expectations, sometimes not, but a lot of companies highly value the accuracy of the forecast. Much like the weather report, for a forecast to be useful, it has to accurately predict conditions, whether positive or negative, otherwise it is useless.
Shouldn't we be doing similar in our personal lives?
Life isn't "set and forget" as it is lived on shifting sands. Unfortunately though, we are pulled in all directions simultaneously, and most of us don't have a team of specialists collecting, evaluating and making suggestions on all the factors we need to take care of that impact on us. However, like my friend, we can put aside some time and designate it to parts of our life where we want to improve. It is interesting how "hard" it is to do this, even though we are able to find time to watch the latest episode release of our favorite shows, or similar.
Over the space of a couple decades, the difference between paying some attention or ignoring these types of topics, is going to have a fundamental effect on our financial lives. It is like eating poorly and not moving for decades, and then wondering where our health went, and why we feel so bad. While we should all "DYOR" on our investments, it is also up to us whether we do anything at all, and the biggest risk to our financial lives, is doing nothing about it.
In general, the people who are in crypto, tend to be more actively aware of their financial possibilities than those who are not, because it is essentially baked into the experience, and it requires some level of responsibility. However, this is a generalization, and I think that it is always worth taking a step back from our habits, to see if they are doing what they are intended to do -
Make our lives easier.
Are yours?
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
