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Fiscally Fit in 2012: Accepting Imperfection The goal of a financial plan isn’t necessary to perfectly predict the future; it is to create a life of relative financial security
Perfectionism ain’t Perfect Perfectionism—or at least, the quest to achieve it—is not a positive personality trait and it isn’t helpful in your budget. A 2008 article in Psychology Today says that perfectionism, “…is a steady source of negative emotions; rather than reaching toward something positive, those in its grip are focused on the very thing they most want to avoid—negative evaluation.” In an article for Missouri Farmer Today this month, financial education specialist Cynthia Crawford said that there were two things that stopped most people from working on their estate plan—and one of them was an aspiration to be perfect. Perfection will almost never be realized in a financial plan or budget, and to expect it of yourself is to relegate yourself to dissatisfaction about your progress, create a lag in motivation, prevent yourself from even getting started, or create a negative emotional association with money. All of which you want to avoid if possible. Life is Uncertain It would be one thing to strive for financial perfection if the ups and downs of your life were already mapped out for you—but that is never going to happen. The closest you can get is following the old adage about death and taxes being the only things in life you can be sure of, and even that’s a bit of an overstatement. With tax deductions, changing tax laws, tax credits and special programs, you can often have difficulty anticipating what your real-life tax liabilities might be. And while your death is certain, the time when it will take place is not. So if these two “certain” things can carry so many uncertainties within them, exactly what might be waiting to spring up on you in your financial life? Luckily, the goal of a financial plan isn’t necessary to perfectly predict the future; it is to create a life of relative financial security so that you are more adaptable within that uncertain future. When you create credit card debt, for example, you are limiting your ability to respond to an uncertain future. You are tying up dollars that you haven’t yet earned and promising to pay them at a later date—a time when you have no idea what financial pitfalls you may encounter. But when you build up savings instead of debt, you secure your future almost regardless of what happens in it. Laying the foundation for your financial future isn’t exactly like building a house. There is no set of concrete instructions, no codes enforcement and no inspection to ensure compliance. You must be okay with doing your best to create a plan that you can stick to and one that puts you in a better future position than you would be without.
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Filed Under: financial | imperfection | plan | accept | perfection | goal | fiscally | |
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