2558: Don't Take Financial Advice From Pop Music by Michael Smith with Financial Finesse on Personal Finance

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[00:01:47] Don't take financial advice from pop music by Michael Smith with FinancialFinesse.com.

[00:01:53] And I'm Dr. Neil Malek. Hey there and welcome to another Sunday bonus episode where I share an

[00:01:58] article from one of the other podcasts in our network. Today's post comes from Optimal Finance

[00:02:04] Daily, where articles covering everything from saving to budgeting to investing and more are read

[00:02:10] to you every day. You can find Optimal Finance Daily wherever you're hearing this. So with that,

[00:02:17] here's Diana with the post and commentary as we optimize your life.

[00:02:25] Don't take financial advice from pop music by Michael Smith with FinancialFinesse.com.

[00:02:33] I was out with friends recently and a new song from Pitbull and Neo started playing.

[00:02:38] The song created a rush to the dance floor. And given that when I dance, people think I'm either

[00:02:43] having a seizure or in some kind of pain, I opted to grab beverages for our group instead of risking

[00:02:49] injury mostly to others on the dance floor. As I was waiting for the drinks to be poured,

[00:02:54] I started listening to the lyrics of the song. In time of our lives, the lyrics talk about not

[00:03:01] being able to pay rent, but being able to go out to the club, order shots, party it up and have

[00:03:07] the time of our lives. As I was hearing this and seeing my friends dance and sing along with the

[00:03:13] song, all I could think was, this song is promoting fiscal irresponsibility. I shared that sentiment

[00:03:19] with my friends who told me to think less and dance more or at least think less. But me being

[00:03:25] me, I couldn't just let the thought pass. The song clearly talks about knowing that what you're doing

[00:03:32] is probably not the most responsible course of action, but taking that course of action anyway.

[00:03:37] It's making a bad decision with the full knowledge that it's a bad decision. Everyone at our table had

[00:03:43] experience with making iffy choices while knowing they were making that choice. I asked each person

[00:03:50] if they've ever done that. If I have to be honest, I've done that in my life as well. So how can we

[00:03:55] translate that into a way to make better financial decisions? That's when an article from Entrepreneur

[00:04:01] Magazine flashed through my brain. It's a great article about the science of decision-making with

[00:04:07] some very interesting findings. I highly recommend reading the whole article. Here are some of the

[00:04:13] quick takeaways that can easily translate into our financial lives. Number one, plan tomorrow's day

[00:04:20] before you go to bed tonight. If you have a sketch of your day, you're far less likely to be distracted

[00:04:26] and find yourself going out to a pricey dinner because you weren't thinking about what you would

[00:04:31] cook when you get home. Simple things like what you're going to wear, will you hit the gym before

[00:04:37] or after work, what's for breakfast, etc. can take minor decisions out of the next day and give you

[00:04:43] more mental energy the following day since you'll be making fewer small decisions. There's a concept

[00:04:50] called decision fatigue that makes sense. We wear down a little bit after each decision, so making

[00:04:56] fewer decisions during the day keeps you fresher mentally. Financially, this could help you avoid

[00:05:02] impulse purchases and allow you to make more of your spending planned spending so that you can

[00:05:08] maintain better alignment with your budget. Number two, do the most important thing first.

[00:05:15] How often has your day spiraled out of control and when you are just about to shut down your

[00:05:20] computer for the day, you look at your to-do list and realize that you didn't check off a single item

[00:05:26] you had planned to do. For me, sadly, that used to be a relatively common scenario. Pick one task

[00:05:33] that's important and get it done very early in your day, maybe even before you officially start

[00:05:38] your day. If you get the most important thing done, you set a pattern of accomplishment and create a

[00:05:45] positive momentum that can carry you throughout the day. Translating this to your financial life,

[00:05:51] make sure you pay the important bills first, like the rent pitbull, before spending on less

[00:05:57] important items. Pay the critical bills, set aside money for retirement and emergencies, etc.

[00:06:03] before having the time of your life. It may allow you to have the time of your life until you're

[00:06:09] 110 years old rather than living on social security during your retirement. Number three,

[00:06:16] make commitments, not mini decisions. Saying I'm going to work out more is a great decision.

[00:06:23] Putting time to exercise on your calendar is a commitment. The more things you can make

[00:06:28] commitments and put into your calendar, my iPhone has my work, personal, kids and a few other

[00:06:34] calendars all merged together so I can carve out blocks of time for what's important. The more

[00:06:39] likely you are to achieve success. Carve out time to review your budget, carve out time to look at

[00:06:45] your 401k and run retirement projections. When you stop making small decisions, you minimize your

[00:06:52] decision fatigue. Convert decisions to commitments in your financial life and you will see progress

[00:06:59] rather than hopes of progress. And number four, simplify things. This is a huge thing that saves

[00:07:07] time, saves energy and allows you to stay mentally refreshed and avoid the fatigue that clouds

[00:07:13] decision making. I recently unsubscribed from a huge number of newsletters. I was getting more

[00:07:19] emails on a daily basis than I could process. So I would either delete everything and not read the

[00:07:24] newsletter or I'd try to read as much as I could, which took hours. I unsubscribed to all of them

[00:07:30] and now my inbox is uncluttered and I can start over with only those that I found super helpful.

[00:07:37] Streamlining my inbox has made my life better. You can automate or simplify your financial life too.

[00:07:43] You can automate your savings, sign up for your company's contribution rate escalator feature on

[00:07:48] the 401k, pay the big things like your mortgage, car, student loan, etc. with an automated debit.

[00:07:55] Create a simple financial life and you are on your way to creating a successful financial life.

[00:08:01] With a quick rethinking of how you make decisions on a daily basis, you can prevent yourself from

[00:08:07] making the same kind of poor choices that Pitbull and Neo sing about. By the way, these are two guys

[00:08:14] who probably have multi-million dollar recording contracts and fly on private jets, so are they

[00:08:20] really in touch with not being able to pay the rent? When you hear that song, go out and dance,

[00:08:25] but make sure you have the bills paid before hitting the dance floor. You just listened

[00:08:34] to the post titled, Don't Take Financial Advice From Pop Music by Michael Smith with FinancialFinesse.com

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[00:09:59] I did enjoy the advice in this article, however. I would file it under how to adult. In addition to

[00:10:14] planning out your day the night before, you might consider roughly planning out your week before

[00:10:19] you dive in Monday morning. I like to plot out on my calendar when I plan to get things done

[00:10:25] in addition to my scheduled appointments. And I also make sure to leave plenty of open space

[00:10:31] in my calendar for other things that might pop up and to allow me flexibility in my plan. If I don't

[00:10:37] get to something I planned on a specific day, I will often move it to an area on my calendar

[00:10:43] that has open space. And I use my calendar to log how I'm using my time. When I inevitably start

[00:10:50] beating myself up over not doing enough, I can look back at the calendar and show myself that

[00:10:56] I'm actually getting quite a bit done. So while Michael talks about putting something on your

[00:11:00] calendar as a commitment, I look at it as more of an intention, except when it's an appointment

[00:11:05] with another person. I've had to learn to be a bit gentler with myself because I too often have

[00:11:11] high expectations of what I can get done in a day. And I'll end the day never feeling like I did

[00:11:17] enough. This process of moving things around on my calendar and logging how I'm spending my time

[00:11:24] helps me combat my overachieving tendencies. At the end of the week or month or year, it

[00:11:31] ultimately all gets done. Just maybe not exactly when I thought it would. That's a wrap for another

[00:11:37] Thursday show. Have a great rest of your day and I'll be back tomorrow as usual where your optimal

[00:11:42] life awaits.