<img decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-747 lazyload" src="https://michaelhbaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/shutterstock_592266896-300x205.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="205" srcset="https://michaelhbaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/shutterstock_592266896-300x205.jpg 300w, https://michaelhbaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/shutterstock_592266896-768x524.jpg 768w, https://michaelhbaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/shutterstock_592266896.jpg 1000w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" />We live in an amazing digital age. Today, thanks to technology, I am able to not only connect with friends from all parts of the globe—I can video chat with them, see their life moments in (almost) real time, and participate in their funny jokes and videos they share online. This connectivity is wonderful in that I am able to maintain a relationship with others that would never have been available to me a few years ago.
Like anything in life, moderation is important. Technology has not only enabled us to connect with long lost friends and family, it can also bombard us with hourly with notifications about things that are truly insignificant in our lives. The BREAKING NEWS story… the ever-changing Facebook news feed…Text Messaging, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, LinkedIn… I could go on and on. The distractions are endless today. What’s worse, is that all of these distractions are likely not serving you in your personal life or in your finances.
For instance, did you know that we now have a word for people who are constantly on their phone instead of being present in the moment or in the conversation? That’s right— it’s now called “phubbing.” This is the world we live in folks.
Now, you may think all of this distraction may seem irrelevant or insignificant; however, the truth is, that it likely impacts you in some way. In our profession, the biggest impact we see from this new age is how these daily distractions can slowly pull someone’s focus away from their financial goals. Here’s a news flash:
The market does not care about your goals. It does not care about your timeline for retirement, nor does it care about how much money you need each month…or your tax rate. Nope, it doesn’t care about the estate planning you haven’t completed, and it doesn’t care about your emergency fund. It doesn’t care about your plans to travel or your dream home.
These are things that you must care about.
I spent the better part of my 20s living and working in New York and California, and one of my acting coaches said to me once, “Michael, no one is going to care more about your career that you do.” And, while it may be true that we as financial professionals do our best to advocate for our clients…help them plan and prepare… coach them with investments and monitor their financial plans—one thing we cannot do is care more about their money than they do. It’s simply not possible.
That’s why we must continue to stay diligent and focused amid a world that constantly bombards us with craziness. The loss of focus can turn into procrastination, which can begin a negative compounding effect. We want to avoid that kind of outcome.
So, how does one stay focused? It’s actually quite simple….it’s just not always that easy. The first thing you must do is find a qualified financial professional that can help you create a comprehensive financial plan. Once you’ve completed this step— all of your future financial decisions should be made in context of that plan. Then, you enjoy life— monitor and adjust your plan as needed. You don’t need the continuous news cycle or online fear mongering to
distract you from the things in life that are truly important. The good news is that if you have a financial plan as a guidepost, you always have something to help you re-center if you get distracted by this noisy world.
*Special thanks should go to Ben Carlson at www.awealthofcommonsense.com who wrote a killer piece titled “14 Things The Market Does Not Care About”— it’s a wonderful article and part of the inspiration for this post. Check out Ben’s article here.