Do Not Allow Past Financial Decisions Destroy Your Future

For the first blog post, I want to write about a topic that is both non-finance related as well as finance related. The topic of choice is decisions. It’s an interesting topic because of the subjective nature to the word. Yet, I feel it’s completely appropriate for a first topic because it was a myriad of decisions that lead me to creating this website in the first place.

Everything we do in life requires some sort of decision making process. Our mind generally tells us whether turning a thought into action is a good or bad decision. However, our mind is generally made up of things we’ve seen in the past or the type of culture we grew up with. So how do we really now whether a decision is good for us?

Backstory

For myself, I’ve grown up in a family of accountants and engineers, so the intelligence is high and the creativity is low. Listening to our family sing “happy birthday” will both make you laugh hysterically and make your skin crawl at the lack of pitch. It often reminds me of the scene from “Office Space” where the drone employees are singing to Bill Lumbergh.

I was lucky enough to grow up in an environment that preached frugality and thought about every decision. Impulse purchases were rare and successful role models were prevalent everywhere in my life. I was a lucky one! However, after a certain point, there comes a time when you leave the house. You rely on yourself and your new surroundings to start making your decisions going forward.

In all reality, it is our decisions that make up who we are as a person and define us to the outside world. Our decision to work in a specific field or work for a specific company has a huge impact on the direction our life takes it. It also impacts who we spend time with for 40+ hours a week. When meeting someone new, one of the first questions they generally ask is “what do you do?” Our answer to the question undoubtedly has an impact in the other person’s mind. Our decisions purchase clothes to keep up with the latest fashions or pick up fishing as a hobby. Whatever it is you like to do, that’s great! It’s your decision.

Past Decisions

I’m writing this post to let you know that while decisions may define who you were in the past, your current and future decisions will define who you are in the future. It’s OKAY to disagree with a decision you have previously made. In fact, it’s healthy to sometimes disagree with your past. You’re in a different place in life now than when you made the decision. What was right for you then isn’t necessarily right for you now.

Disagreements with previous decisions are incredibly common in personal finance. For some, the disagreement comes later than it does for others. Almost everyone made a stupid purchase that they regret or spent all of their money in their teens or twenties. For me, my biggest financial regret was purchasing my first car with 6-year financing. If I needed to pay for the vehicle over 6 years, I couldn’t afford the vehicle. This set me back years in my financial plan early in life. But that decision is in the past and all I can do is…

Get over it!

Now is the time to right the ship and make financial decisions for the present and future. Today is the day to start saving for the future and setting yourself up for financial success. Every day that passes without making a decision to save for retirement is day that you’ll have to make up for in future savings.