Inward Bound

I recently spent 5 days in Key Largo with a group of financial planners who had gathered to attend a program called “Inward Bound”. The purpose was to explore aspects of ourselves – subconscious behaviors, transformative experiences, and life purpose – and to practice skills that will help our clients make good, well-grounded decisions.

The fact is money is more complex than many of us realize. And there are two sides to money – the emotional subjective side and the technical objective side. Both are equally important. We may think we are making good objective decisions around our money when often times those decisions arise from our emotions. Take for example the Mini Cooper I bought in 2006. I fell in love with the Mini back in 2003 when I first spied this modern version British import as it zipped along Route 95. Delightful and rebellious, spunky, sassy, adorable and hip – the car screamed “own me!” Clearly BMW (the auto maker) made a direct connection with the less rational side of my brain. Had I bought the car just then, there would be nothing objective about the decision process. But I waited three years, saved some money, gave it a lot of thought and when the time came to put my Saab 900 to rest due to exorbitant and unrelenting repair bills Vinnie encouraged me to buy “Bettie”, the name I gave to my hot new Mini Cooper.

What took place for me in that time frame between 2003 and 2006, between wanting the car and acquiring the car was some bridge building between my emotions and reasoned thought – a merging of the subjective and the objective. Such that I explored the financial ramifications (the car is pricier than on average and what am I willing to give up?), the practical implications (can we fit a large man, a German Shepherd, a Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever and me along with any bundles?), and the drive behind my goal (what makes the car so special and does this justify the purchase?)

As financial planners, we often witness this gap between the emotional and the technical. We see it in a choice to fund a child’s education at the expense of saving for retirement; when an unhappy career is sustained to support a particular lifestyle; when fear drives investment decisions, when impulse blows a budget; when procrastination prevents implementation of a plan. The Inward Bound experience has made me a little wiser on the topic and I hope to utilize this knowledge and help make a difference in our clients’ lives. ~Susan