A huge part of our work as financial advisers is protecting our clients from their worst enemy – themselves.

We’re all guilty of sabotaging our best efforts, of undermining ourselves or of setting ourselves up to fail.

That nag that lives at the back of our brain, berating every step we take.

That fearful lizard brain that jumps at shadows and ‘risk’.

We can help with the nag and the lizard brain, but only when people ask us to.

What we can also do is help you when you’ve decided to make better financial decisions.

And it does need to be a conscious decision. Very, very few people ‘fall into’ making better financial decisions.

 For instance, how would you look at these scenarios:

 1. Your friends are talking about heading away for a week or so to celebrate you all turning 40.

Some are saying let’s head overseas, some are talking about staying in Australia. You can’t afford to go overseas (without hitting that credit card) but could probably make a trip to Queensland work. 

 2. You and your family are finding your current house too small, and you’re absolutely ready to move to a bigger home.

With the amount you’ll get for selling your current place, plus your savings, your deposit will either get you a 10% deposit in your ideal area, or a 20% farther out from the city.

 3. You’ve just been promoted, and it’s come with a tidy raise in your take home pay.

You were scraping by before, but these extra funds have really loosened things up financially. You could afford a new car (loan) and start going out more often.

But you also want to buy your first home in the next few years, which seems impossible – even on the new wage.

There’s a pretty clear ‘correct’ answer in each scenario, right? But really, how many people do you think do the ‘right’ thing in those situations?

And that’s not because they’re silly or frivolous. It’s just that it’s often easier to make the ‘wrong’ decision than the ‘right’ one.

And if people do that often enough, that’s when they get into real trouble.

But when you’ve had enough of buying the wrong thing, or too many things, or funding it wrong, or not getting ahead, or falling behind, we can help.

And our next post will go into a little more detail on that.