Dumbledore was probably the first to open my eyes to a different way of approaching my greatest fear.
Initially, I titled this issue Albus Dumbledore, the Greatest Financial Coach There Ever Was, but it felt like a bit of a stretch. While seemingly omniscient, I don’t remember Dumbledore doing much teaching as it pertains to smart financial habits in the Muggle world.
However, that’s not the point of this issue—instead, I want to talk more about how fear drives us to make decisions and take actions, for better and for worse.
It’s incredible how far we’ll go to avoid our fears. We’ll pick uglier evils that we have rationalized to be “acceptable” rather than address fear head-on. In its darkest form, this looks like addiction and deceit; for the purposes of this discussion (i.e., finances), it looks like many things, including but not limited to the following:
- avoiding looking the numbers or talking about them completely (this one is most common),
- self-diminishment,
- giving up,
- doubling down on poor decision making,
- short-term thought patterns and actions.
What about finances is there to be afraid of, though? Well, there are plenty of things and if you’re reading this, I’m sure you’ve experienced fear of at least one of these:
- the amount of debt you’ve accumulated,
- how much you’re spending on a monthly basis,
- how little you’re saving and investing on a monthly basis,
- uncertainty of your future, including your family and loved ones,
- all the technical jargon and acronyms that make everything sound like a paragraph of Terms and Conditions,
- what others think of you: job, income, car, home, clothes, etc.
Don’t get me wrong, there are MANY more things for you to be afraid of when it comes to finances. It makes sense too, seeing as there are tens of millions of Americans struggling daily with managing their money—there’s an endless number of financial boobytraps set and ready to snatch up anyone who isn’t mindful of the circumstances.
My financial fear? It’s best described as fear of the uncertainty of my future. However, my fiance and I have set up our financial situation in such a way that has mostly mitigated that fear. I want to instead look one step further. I think my true greatest fear—which is not financial—is more of a gift because it makes me take action while I have the ability to and has led me to be proactive in my finances.
So here it is, the reveal that accompanies the first sentence hook that convinced you to read this far: my greatest fear is that the thoughts I have as I take my final breaths are ones of regret for not having given my best effort to the things that matter to me.
It’s wordy and not at all punchy, but it’s real; I consistently lose sleep over this fear. I worry that I’ll die upset at myself for not giving myself a real chance at succeeding in whatever. In the past, it was college baseball and education; nowadays, it’s family, small business, and living a life full of glittering memories that seem to shimmer brighter as the sun in my mind grows older.
This is where Dumbledore comes in.
One of my favorite quotes in all the Harry Potter books comes from Dumbledore in Philosopher’s Stone: “To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” In short, what I gathered from this is that my fear of dying with regret can be combated. For me, it’s by having my foundational core ideology, setting up a plan on top of that foundation,, and making conscious efforts and decisions to act accordingly.
I applied this approach to my money and now I do not have fear of regretting this portion of my life.
Maybe your fear is the credit card statements that you refuse to look at. Maybe you’re afraid that you aren’t smart enough to understand and manage money. Maybe you’re afraid that you aren’t going to have enough to retire. Maybe you’re afraid that you are going to suck your significant other and/or children into your financial tornado. Maybe you’re afraid of what other people will think of you if you make the necessary lifestyle changes needed to get your finances out of the hole.
Whatever that fear is, you need to face it head on. No more avoiding, no more self-diminishment, no more giving up, no more helplessness. The way I see it, fear also has an interest rate—the longer you wait to address it, the more it’s going to compound until it becomes unmanageably paralyzing.
If you want help figuring out how to get from where you are to where you want to be, consider working with me! I too am on this journey and have the experience and knowledge to help you come along with me. Schedule a free 30 minute consultation below, or take the “Is Financial Coaching Right for You?” questionnaire to see where you stand with your personal finances!
Until next time!
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