Welcome to my once every couple of months self-serving post. Today I want to talk about something I hear a lot that I think misses the point. Often, I have prospects (and others) tell me that they want to get organized or just take care of some financial housekeeping before starting to work with me. I think that’s a mistake.
What I hear
It’s mostly in that intro paragraph but many times I’ve had people tell me that they want to get organized before meeting with me or that they’re embarrassed for me to see how disorganized their personal finances are. Sometimes it’s how much debt they have. It’s always some sort of embarrassment.
What I think
I get it. Money’s one of those things that’s pretty taboo in our culture. It’s something we use to measure our worth, even if that’s not its best use. Plus, it’s something that everyone has to deal with. Or at least everyone in a position to be reading an online article. I suppose there are some people who live outside of money but it’s not many.
Anyways, it sucks to get financially naked because that’s a position of vulnerability and vulnerability can be dangerous. It requires a lot of trust. If you’re working with someone new it can be tough to open up.
However, you’re not going to fix a problem if you’re too ashamed to face it. Facing it can suck. However, my job as a professional isn’t to sit and judge you. It’s to figure out what you need and what can help and inform you about it.
Conclusion
Don’t let embarrassment stop you from working with a professional to get help if you need it. In my case it’s on the money side but this also applies to legal, tax, therapy, or anything else you might need.
You don’t have to figure this out alone. This is what we do- help streamers and young professionals make great money decisions. If that’s something that sounds interesting to you reach out me or schedule some time for a free consult. You can check out what I do here.
