{"id":38243,"date":"2024-11-18T00:38:22","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T00:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/?p=38243"},"modified":"2024-11-18T00:38:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T00:38:23","slug":"the-c-s-lewis-quote-that-could-transform-your-financial-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isafespend.com\/?p=38243","title":{"rendered":"The C.S. Lewis Quote That Could Transform Your Financial Future"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Some of the most profound truths are those, once revealed, that seem self-evident. And that may also be the most potent gift possessed by the greatest writers and thinkers\u2014the ability to reveal something we already know with such clarity that we can act on it.<\/p>\n

One of my favorite contemporary thinkers, Shane Parrish, recently shared a quote from one of the greatest writers of (at least) the 20th<\/sup> century, C. S. Lewis, that can be a helpful guide in any number of pursuits, especially financial wellness. Implicit in his counsel is the answer to the question, \u201cHow do we fix broken financial plans?\u201d Let\u2019s check it out:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n

How much time and how many calories do we spend wondering what could have been rather than acknowledging what is and progressing forward?<\/p>\n

The good news, at least, is that if you\u2019ve suffered from this tendency, you\u2019re in good company. Through behavioral finance, we\u2019ve learned that we, as humans, have some tendencies\u2014maybe even biological hard wiring\u2014that can manifest as suboptimal in pursuing our best interests financially.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

For example, from Kahneman and Tversky, we learned that we feel the pain of loss (at least) twice as intensely as equivalent gains. This tendency (dubbed \u201closs aversion\u201d) may lead us to amplify our financial failures and inhibit us from more confidently pursuing preferable outcomes.<\/p>\n

Yet, at the same time, we demonstrate a propensity to put good money after bad. Arkes and Blumer suggest that we may cast rationale aside and continue to invest in bad investments, doubling down to prove that our original hypothesis could have been\u2014should have been\u2014right. A better understanding of the \u201csunk cost fallacy\u201d helps us acknowledge when it\u2019s time to part with our past and pursue a preferable future.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re likely aware of the \u201cstatus quo bias\u201d\u2014the fact that we tend to be more comfortable enduring a less-than-perfect present that we know<\/em> than charging into a better future that we don\u2019t<\/em>. And Dr. Hal Hershfield has helped us understand why\u2014that we, as humans, struggle to view our future selves with the same level of familiarity as our past and present selves. He\u2019d suggest we may even see our future selves as strangers,<\/em> which could certainly help explain why many struggle to save for the future\u2026because we don\u2019t even see that act as something we are doing for ourselves.<\/p>\n

These tendencies can manifest as suboptimal, however, that doesn\u2019t mean they must. In fact, Dr. Meir Statman does an exceptional job of helping our understanding of behavioral finance evolve\u2014by pointing out that these inclinations that are often accompanied by seemingly pejorative words like \u201cbias\u201d and \u201cfallacy\u201d aren\u2019t unfortunate accidents and have likely helped us, as a species, survive. And it is through our acknowledgment of reality and a better understanding of the human condition that we can identify the formerly unknown and exercise our volition to our own benefit and those we love.<\/p>\n

So how, therefore, can we fix broken financial plans?<\/p>\n

1) Start with the present<\/strong>, because it is the most accessible.<\/h2>\n

No matter how sophisticated the analysis, the first step in every financial plan is to answer the questions, \u201cWhere am I?\u201d and \u201cHow am I doing?\u201d This is the reality check, and while a skilled financial advisor can be helpful in each of these three steps, it may be especially important here because of the benefit of an outside perspective. Please also acknowledge that this is one of the reasons so many people don\u2019t ultimately benefit from a healthy relationship with a financial advisor\u2014because revealing ourselves as we are can feel exceptionally vulnerable.<\/p>\n

2) Examine the past<\/strong>, because it reveals our personal tendencies, for better and worse.<\/h2>\n

We don\u2019t want to get stuck in the past, but only through its assessment can we determine our optimal course forward. Or, as S\u00f8ren Kierkegaard illuminated, while life \u201cmust be lived forwards,\u201d it \u201ccan only be understood backward.”<\/p>\n

3) Act into the future. <\/strong><\/h2>\n

That might seem like a strange way to articulate the third step in this triune prescription, but it\u2019s quite intentional, because all the illumination and understanding we can muster through self-analysis is useless without action designed to improve our futures. As a necessity in honing our craft, we, as financial advisors, conduct a great deal of hypothetical analysis\u2014and we have our own biases and tendencies that may lead us, and our clients, to arrive at surprisingly high degrees of satisfaction upon completing said analysis. But such satisfaction is bordering on dangerous, because an unimplemented financial plan is worthless.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t change the beginning of your financial plan, and I encourage you not to judge yourself based on the past. Instead, view your financial planning as an opportunity to rewrite the ending and judge yourself not on past performance, but your future trajectory.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some of the most profound truths are those, once revealed, that seem self-evident. And that may also be the most potent gift possessed by the greatest writers and thinkers\u2014the ability to reveal something we already know with such clarity that we can act on it. One of my favorite contemporary thinkers, Shane Parrish, recently shared<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-retirement"},"yoast_head":"\nThe C.S. Lewis Quote That Could Transform Your Financial Future | iSafeSpend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some of the most profound truths are those, once revealed, that seem self-evident. 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