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Whilst waiting for the anaesthetic to kick in at a recent appointment my dentist was interested to learn about my work as a financial coach and financial wellbeing champion.
This then reminded her about her ongoing slow-burning task to find an IFA to discuss investing. She confided that by the time work is done & she heads home, the last thing she wants to think about is this so it becomes a ‘future her’ problem.
As someone who appears so dedicated and diligent in her professional capacity and having the insight to be aware of her behaviour, I found this so interesting. Infact it occurred to me that many people may feel exactly the same about being proactive and disciplined when it comes to having good dental habits! After all it takes effort, consistency, routine and discipline to look after our dental health and sometimes after a long day, choosing water over a sugary pick-me-up or flossing can be a thought and a half. Exactly the same applies to our financial health. Conscious healthy financial actions are harder to consistently prioritise over easier quicker wins until they become regular habits.
As I left and waited for the anaesthetic to wear off and for my mouth to return to normal her words echoed.
‘At the end of a busy day, no one wants to think about it’.
Holiday planning or going on a lovely evening out with friends or even binge watching the latest must-see series – count us in!
Yet reviewing the best cover and price for our home insurance, checking our credit card balance or logging in to pension platforms on the other hand….somehow many of us proclaim we just don’t have the time for it.
Why?
The human mind naturally craves pleasure and the quick easy option. As the fantastic late laureate Nobel peace winner and award winning Economist Daniel Kahneman explained –
‘As humans we think both fast and slow’.
We tend to avoid the huge mental drain on making too many complex decisions so get around this by using a set of mental shortcuts (heuristicsics). Not because we are lazy (well ok, maybe a little!) but because our brains are fatigued with up to 35,000 decisions in a day – that’s approximately 2000 an hour accounting for 7 hours of sleep per day. Whilst it is hard to estimate the number of decisions humans make in a day, these are the estimates we are working with.
So, it is unsurprising when confronted with an issue we don’t really want to think about particularly in a tired, emotional or hungry state, we are unlikely to take action but instead procrastinate.
One word: mindset. Therefore often it is not about money or a lack thereof; it is instead all about how we feel about money and finances and our ongoing relationship with money.
I’m not sure if my dentist would agree with this parallel or let me off the hook for thinking fast when it comes to my dental health….
Maybe a conversation for another day!
One thing we both agreed upon, having an app-based way to manage finances makes life easier. Leveraging automation eliminates the mental load thinking about it and avoids delaying the decision until another time as the decision is taken out of our hands.
How about you?
How easy do you find it to motivate yourself to tackle financial life admin?
Maybe you’re really good at automating savings and/or investments?
🌹And the obvious question I’d love to know the answer to, would you rather sort your the finances and life admin or go to the dentist?!
Until next time.
Sources
How Many Decisions Do We Make Each Day? | Psychology Today United Kingdom. Krakow, Eva. M. Found at : https://share.google/fFAfHjNQNdp6jAoQ2
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