I don’t have time to learn about money. Am I really missing out?
November 28, 2023Save articles for later
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What would you say to someone like me, who doesn’t have the time or interest to learn about finance? I know we could be doing better. We’re getting by fine, we earn well, but we don’t know what we’re doing with our finances, so I’m sure there are opportunities we’re missing (like investing). But between my job and raising kids, I don’t have the time or the interest to dedicate to figuring it all out.
I’d say this is the greatest obstacle most people face on the journey to fixing their finances.
One of the greatest obstacles people face when it comes to finance is taking the time to properly understand it.Credit: Simon Letch
Contrary to what most people think, it’s not the journey itself that’s hard. So many people think that figuring out your finances must be really complicated and difficult.
But for most people the biggest challenge isn’t the journey itself. It’s the resistance they have to even starting the journey. It’s the years of avoidance and procrastination that keep them stuck.
Some would say that the short, quick answer is: hire a financial adviser to sort it out for you. I don’t quite agree.
You are always better off having a basic understanding of your own finances even when working with a professional. This lends itself to a healthier client-professional relationship, where you can ask good questions, understand the advice given to you, and take part in decision-making.
I’m not a fan of fully and blindly outsourcing your finances to a professional without even a basic understanding of how finance works because this can leave you vulnerable and dependent. At the end of the day, it’s your money. No one will care about it as much as you.
So today, I want to challenge you to think a little differently about how you’re approaching this.
1. Is it really a ‘lack of time’ that’s the problem? The way we spend time says a lot about what is important to us, and what we value.
I’m not saying you aren’t busy, or you’re making excuses. But if you really wanted to, if it were really a priority, you’d likely be able to find half an hour a week.
You might not be interested in the subject of finance, but you likely are interested in financial security and success.
So, can you literally not find half an hour a week? Or are you choosing to spend that half an hour a week on something else?
Usually, time is just the easiest reason to give ourselves because who can argue with that? There’s only 24 hours in a day, so if you’re out of time… not much you can do about it, right?
But when you dig a little deeper, often you’ll find out that the real reason is something else. What’s stopping you from finding half an hour a week for your finances?
Is it that you’re scared of what you’ll find if you sit down and look at your money? Is it a fear that it’s going to be too complicated, and you won’t get it? Is it that you don’t want to feel the anxiety and overwhelm that comes up, when you realise you have no idea what you’re doing?
Or maybe you just see it as another chore? Not something you actually value the importance of, but rather just another annoying admin task on your never-ending to-do list?
How would your actions towards the task change if you started to recognise and appreciate the enormous impact it could have on your life? If you started to think of your finances as something that was critical to you, not just something you had to tick off your to-do list?
2. You don’t need to be interested in finance. The entertainment industry paints a very specific image of what a finance person looks like. It looks like Leonardo Di Caprio in Wolf of Wall St, or Damien Lewis in Billions. They wear slick suits, they’re money hungry, and they love the game.
But you don’t have to be passionate about finance to manage your money well. You don’t need to love watching the finance news, or enjoy tinkering with spreadsheets.
In fact, it’s usually the other way around. You start enjoying it when you start getting good at it.
No one enjoys things they’re bad at. It’s painful to be bad at something. It’s embarrassing. It hurts our ego. So, we avoid it like the plague. But that’s the hardest bit. Getting over the discomfort of being bad at it.
Once you give yourself permission to be a beginner, you’ll start making progress and having small wins. This will build your confidence and your excitement as you start seeing changes.
Eventually, you’ll realise that even though you’re not interested in the subject of finance, you are, in fact, very interested in the outcome of financial security and success.
That’s a pretty good reason to develop an interest in your own finances, don’t you think?
Paridhi Jain is the founder of SkilledSmart, which helps adults learn to manage, save and invest their money through financial education courses and classes.
- Advice given in this article is general in nature and is not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.
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