Financially mating the google grazer with the bone idle apathetic songbird.

Author - Paul Smith

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Financially mating the google grazer with the bone idle apathetic songbird.

Going alone in the world of financial planning is no bad thing, let's face it - there is a wealth of information, knowledge and general consensus online regarding what you should or should not do and It's a fair bit cheaper doing it yourself as well! So why wouldn't you?

Well there is the old adage that a "little bit of information is dangerous", no more so than within the realms of financial planning. The times that I have sat back and inner sighed at the decisions new clients had previously made. Decisions like taking an annuity from their pension provider without looking around, like telling me that gold is the best thing since sliced bread and one of the funniest for any adviser is to be sat with a client who says that they are adverse to risk but would happily plug a large percentage of their salaries into their employers share save scheme! (Any employee of a bank would be feeling this)

Why do we do this? why do we feel that jumping in with both feet is somehow putting our best foot forward? Yet not realise we are sinking whilst standing still? In my experience recently, it's down to the apathetic songbird and the google grazer!

The apathetic songbird

It's easier to sit back on our laurels and hope for the best, to put our faith within financial institutions in that somehow they know best and not review the status quo. Yet we blame others for our own inaction. I'm flabbergasted when new clients have known they should have taken a course of action but were too lazy to make a decision, because it's easier not too. This mainly down to fear of making the wrong decision. Ironically it's always someone else's fault that they didn't review their finances.

The google grazer

It's great to scour the internet for general facts and others experiences, any information on any given financial situation is available online. We spot some other persons situation within forums and force empathy upon ourselves in that "what's right for them, must be what's right for me, I can identify with that, I'll buy into that - that's the decision for me"! We put blind faith into our decision process without even meeting the person or understanding that persons real circumstances - blind empathy! No two people are the same when it comes to financial planning, we are all unique! So following the herd, because others do is plain barmy.

In short we can all but fail in our financial decisions, blind ignorance can usually sail us through yet not to a chosen destination without solid planning!  But for those that understand that insight is the understanding of not what can be done, but what you should do given your current circumstance. For the ones that appreciate the difference between internet knowledge and the power of insight, I salute you.