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Are you spending too much time worrying about money? The first step toward financial peace of mind isn’t just about having more money. Rather, it’s becoming crystal clear about what’s most important to you. What are you trying to accomplish? Who are you trying to protect?
Sure, you need a certain sum of money to support your lifestyle. However, the allure of “more,” sometimes obscures the importance of “enough.”
The Problem With “More Money”
95% of the clients that I’ve worked with over the years have overtly expressed a desire for “more money,” yet relatively few have a good idea of how this translates into their particular aspirations. The landscape is replete with examples of professional athletes, lottery winners, and others who indeed got “more money,” but ultimately failed to achieve their aspirations.
Social comparison often generates a push for “more money,” but usually results in dissatisfaction.
Create Financial Stability With Clear Goals
Do you have written financial goals? Do you and your spouse agree on these goals? You need affirmative answers to both questions in order to make real progress. We see far more intra-family tension about finances today than in the past. You simply can’t move forward with one person pushing and another person pulling.
When you unpack financial goals, they likely represent elements of both greed (you deserve to be paid), and fear (you’re afraid things won’t work out as planned). Greed is self-justified and blinds you to reality. Fear can transform into self-doubt and inertia. It’s a dangerous intersection.
While you can’t fully escape the innate parts of greed and fear, having clear financial goals helps avoid the really destructive elements. Without clarity around your most crucial goals, fear can morph into being apprehensive about almost anything that’s uncertain.
The things that matter most to you should form the foundation for setting priorities. You likely can’t accomplish all of your aspirations at one time. If saving for retirement is your primary focus, perhaps you will have to defer some other goals along the way. Your ability to understand and accept trade-offs is a superpower in building financial independence.
Does More Money = More Happiness?
The quest for “more money” is directly related to happiness. You might posit that if you only had “more money,” you would be happy.
In reality, happiness is usually a fleeting emotion. Contentment is much more enduring. The most direct path toward contentment is to actively pursue what’s really important to you. If you aren’t clear about your aspirations, the ‘more money equals happiness’ syndrome will easily take hold.
Wealth and happiness are two separate, but related things. Your mindset about what you want or need is one piece of the puzzle. The other part is what you have now.
Any hope that you have of accomplishing your most important goals rests with staying focused on these goals, instead of on what’s happening this minute.
That’s a tall order in our increasingly fractured world. As author Nick Murray puts it, “Our clients are subject 24/7 to a firehouse of negative fact, opinions, data, information, and journalistic trivia.”
The aphorism “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there” seems fitting. Your first task as an investor is to “know where you’re going.” If you get crystal clear on that, everything else is easy. Start there. Ready for a real conversation?
Related: Cumulative Knowledge: The Power of Long-Term Thinking in Financial Success