For the last two weekends, I have been attending some kind of a dance convention with my daughter. She is a participant in these and they are pretty rigorous workshops combined with competition, cramped into one weekend.
Overall it is a good place to congregate, perform and compete on well know platforms, sponsored by well known organizations.
There are a few key traits that a dancer has to demonstrate to succeed in these competitions. Some of them are:
- Disciplined practice
- Coordination with team members
- A lot of positive attitude
- Setting goals and winning
There could be more, however if we just focus on the above 4, we can find out how they are necessary for a good financial future too.
Disciplined practice
This is the living within your means part, sticking with a budget month after month. Initially, you may have to document your daily expenses before going to bed, but over time the discipline takes a rhythm.
The end result is that over a very long term, the discipline of living within your means is what makes people wealthy.
Coordination with team members
Personal Finance is personal. You may be then wondering who these team members are.
Well, the execution of a well oiled personal finance system needs other professionals to be hired and worked together with. These professionals are the Tax advisor and preparer (CPA), Investment advisor (CFP), Financial Coach and an Estate Planning Lawyer.
These professionals add a lot of value and advise when there are difficult personal finance decisions to be taken. So coordinating well with these professionals timely will make your finances that much better.
A lot of positive attitude
Well, we know positive attitude can move mountains. However in personal finance, we need to get closer to reality as well.
When you are evaluating investments, thinking only of negative scenarios will miss out opportunities. On the other hand, being stupidly positive is also not a good move, as you may lose money.
The best attitude for personal finance decisions is cautious optimism.
Setting goals and winning
Like everything else in life, you need a goal to achieve something worthwhile. In personal finance too, if we do not set goals, then saving, spending and investing money just becomes a chore.
We need to know what we are saving for, what are the time horizons of investments and what do we love to spend on. It is the blend of these things, that will form the core of setting goals and winning in life.
Conclusion
Personal Finance is a well coordinated dance endeavor. There are all sorts of outside factors like the economy, the markets, financial products, human psychology etc.
At the end, the choreography you create to match your life goals is called Personal Finance.
The Log House 