For the last three years, Lilly has decided what she wanted to be for Halloween a full year in advance.
When she was three years old, she returned from trick-or-treating and proclaimed that very night, “Next year, I want to be Belle!” And she remained steadfast in that decision until the following Halloween.
After completing her round as Belle the following year, she immediately decided to be Cinderella for the next go-round (another decision that she didn’t waiver on), and then after Cinderella, she set her sights on Jasmine (which she’ll fulfill next week at this time).
Amos, on the other hand, isn’t quite as decisive. In the last year, his costume ideas for Halloween 2019 have ping-ponged from Spiderman to Gekko from PJ Masks to Bernie Sanders before finally landing on Bingo from Puppy Dog Pals. (I might have made up the Bernie Sanders part, but when his hair gets too long and unkempt, there are some similarities there).
The thing that’s notable about their respective sartorial decision-making processes is the fact that it’s the complete opposite of how they make decisions on everything else.
Every morning when it’s time to get dressed, Amos has a very strong opinion of what he wants to wear. Very strong. As in, don’t even point to a different shirt in his closet other than the one he’s already decided on.
Lilly, on the other hand, might change outfits three times before heading off to kindergarten for the day.
On the (relatively rare) occasions when they’ve been delightful human beings and get rewarded with the opportunity to pick out a new toy, Amos can walk into the toy section at Target and have a toy in his clutches within seconds. Meanwhile, Lilly will meander around for 20 minutes agonizing over her options.
So Amos is usually incredibly decisive while Lilly is not. But then they completely swap roles when it comes to picking Halloween costumes.
Very often, I see this same phenomenon when it comes to people sticking to a financial plan. Sometimes the people who are the most decisive and disciplined in their everyday lives have no discipline at all with their finances.
I can point out a significant number of people who are remarkably disciplined when it comes to fitness—constantly getting up early to go to the gym and making good nutritional decisions every single day—but who are simply unable to stick to a certain budget or spending plan.
On the other hand, I know people who eat out almost every meal (because they’re incapable of having the forethought for meal planning) and they’re constantly late to work (because they like to sleep and don’t like moving quickly in the morning), but if you tell them to make sure they max out their Roth IRA every year, you can bet that they’ll do it every single year until you tell them to stop without missing a beat.
For whatever reason, being organized and disciplined in other areas of your life just isn’t correlated to behaving the same way financially.
So, here’s three simple tips to make financial discipline easier:
1) Automate. Bill payments, estimated taxes, and retirement contributions can all be automated. If any of these are a struggle for you, make as much of it automatic as you can.
2) Segregate. All of your dollars don’t need to be performing the same job. Keep strict boundaries between different piles of money—for instance, your emergency fund shouldn’t be invested the same way as the money that you’re saving for your kids’ college. And the kids’ college money shouldn’t be invested the same way as your retirement accounts. Keep them separated and make sure each dollar has a specific job description.
3) Delegate. For the aspects of your financial life that don’t come naturally to you, it’s ok to delegate those other people—whether it’s your spouse, a financial advisor, or some other professional.