{"id":1515,"date":"2022-10-28T11:46:05","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T10:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1515"},"modified":"2023-06-19T15:09:10","modified_gmt":"2023-06-19T14:09:10","slug":"you-cant-netflix-and-chill-your-way-to-financial-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/you-cant-netflix-and-chill-your-way-to-financial-security\/","title":{"rendered":"You can\u2019t Netflix and Chill your way into financial security"},"content":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t Netflix and Chill your way into financial security<\/strong><\/p>\n

I get it. There\u2019s a lot going on in the world. Events abroad this year have been a worry, and things at home are just plain baffling.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all very downbeat, so it\u2019s easy to become jaded or disillusioned, to turn your back on decisions and plans and just settle down with a bottle of red and Netflix.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s precisely what I did the other night. For a documentary called \u201cGet Smart with Money.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve not caught it, this US production matches four financial experts with families across the US who are struggling to make sense of money.<\/p>\n

Admittedly one of those families included a highly-paid NFL player, and one of the experts spells his name Ro$$<\/strong>, but once I looked past this, there were a few good take aways.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1: Get smart, get educated<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve not had any financial education or done your own homework then making clear, informed financial decisions isn\u2019t only challenging, it\u2019s stressful.<\/p>\n

In the show, this was equally true for the wealthy as it was for those just getting by. In my experience, the best way to combat procrastination, apathy and reduce money stress is to learn<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Or, if you simply don\u2019t have the time or bandwidth, find someone who\u2019s learnt about finance who can offer you advice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2: You can be smart by default<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the guidance from the coaches made me wince but all of them recommended something I agree with.<\/p>\n

Unless you have compelling evidence suggesting otherwise, a well-diversified, low-cost investment fund that tracks the prices of the world\u2019s great companies is an ideal starting point for any financial plan.<\/p>\n

With this passive approach, rather than trying to identify the best \u201cneedles\u201d in the market haystack, you simply buy the whole haystack. And that haystack means that you own a small part of thousands of the world\u2019s great brands.<\/p>\n

The alternative is the active<\/em> approach. Here you pay much higher fund charges to potentially<\/em> find the most profitable needles (hoping they\u2019re not blunt). This approach to investing can work over short periods but is notoriously difficult to sustain.<\/p>\n

Passive investing is therefore a great default investment engine for most financial plans.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3: Turning your brain off can be a smart decision<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s called analysis paralysis. You\u2019ve got something to do, and there are so many options that you just can\u2019t do anything. At all. Ever!<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something I see time and time again. Someone has a hard-earned lump sum to invest in their pension or ISA fund. And that analysis is in overdrive.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs now a good time? Do I wait a week? A month? A year? What if X happens? Or Y, or Z, or \u213c?<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all the pressure from that lump sum and the answer is unknowable.<\/p>\n

Avoid it. Turn your brain off and set-up a monthly standing order, and automatically invest in your fund at different times and prices. It\u2019ll even out those X, Y and Z fluctuations so you get a good slice of the \u213c.<\/em><\/p>\n

The best time<\/em> to invest is rarely obvious, so take the pressure off yourself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4: Being smart isn\u2019t always about sounding smart<\/strong><\/p>\n

You might think the language in this blog, or that the Arkenstone team use when they talk to you is simplistic. Or that the analogies seem a bit basic.<\/p>\n

To get smart with money, it can be invaluable to have someone explain things in a way you can understand. But that\u2019s not the default for the finance profession:<\/p>\n

Netflix Coach: You need to invest in the S&P.<\/em><\/p>\n

Client: The Essen what?<\/em><\/p>\n

There\u2019s so much jargon in finance but over-using it isn\u2019t big or clever. A financial planning meeting shouldn\u2019t sound like an episode of Star Trek.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5: Smart people don\u2019t push. They pull<\/strong><\/p>\n

One couple on the show had a goal, a really clear one. They wanted to reach financial independence as soon as possible. \u201cThe ultimate goal of our money is to never have to think about our money<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

They made sacrifices, downsized their home, cut their expenditure. All huge decisions for their young family. And it was all driven by the pull <\/em>of the future life they craved.<\/p>\n

They weren\u2019t pushed into financial changes by fear or boredom, they were pulled<\/em> along by a meaningful goal.<\/p>\n

If you want to make smart decisions, find your pull.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6: Finally, smart people find help<\/strong><\/p>\n

We all want the same things. Someone we can trust. Someone who can help us understand the complicated things.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s definitely true of finance and true of the families on Get Smart with Money. They found experts to give them straightforward advice when they needed it, or coaching and perspective when that was required.<\/p>\n

A lot goes into a smart financial decision. The best thing you can do is often the first thing. So if you don\u2019t have the time, confidence or expertise, reach out to a professional that does. From there, everything else – goals, strategy, management and administration – naturally follows suit.<\/p>\n

Employing a helping hand could be the smartest thing you do today.<\/p>\n

At the very least, it\u2019ll free up some brain space for you to get back to Netflix.<\/p>\n

Simon<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You can\u2019t Netflix and Chill your way into financial security I get it. There\u2019s a lot going on in the world. Events abroad this year have been a worry, and things at home are just plain baffling. It\u2019s all very downbeat, so it\u2019s easy to become jaded or disillusioned, to turn your back on decisions … Continue reading “You can\u2019t Netflix and Chill your way into financial security”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1515"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1578,"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1515\/revisions\/1578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.arkenstonewealth.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}