The Most Expensive Story You Tell Yourself
What if the long-term financial plan I built five years ago is now describing a family I no longer have?
That is the question I have been sitting with. December 9, 2010, is the day my triplets were born, and the day I founded TAMMA. Fifteen years in, I can tell you neither plan I wrote that day survived. And that was never the goal.
In this episode, I share the count of short runs I did not account for in my own life, walk through a composite client family who has been through five major transitions in five years, and unpack why senior professionals can be sophisticated about iterative planning at work and unsophisticated about it at home. The dissonance is not capability. It is that flexibility is a maintenance burden, and most plans have nobody carrying it.
The action step this week takes fifteen minutes. Name the last three transitions your family went through in the past five years. Then ask, for each one, what financial decisions in your current plan still assume you are the person you were before. That is the work.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES YOU MAY LIKE
1 Big Idea to Think About
The biggest risk to your financial life isn’t a bad market. It’s the story you’ve been telling yourself that sounds too reasonable to question, like “we’re fine” or “someone is handling it,” while nobody coordinates the whole picture.
1 Way You Can Apply This
Write down the three financial narratives you repeat most often to yourself or your spouse. Then test each one: is it actually true, or is it just comfortable? Start with the one that makes you the most defensive.
1 Question to Ask
Whose voice have I been ignoring, maybe my spouse’s, maybe my own gut, because the story I’m already telling myself is louder?
Resources Featured in This Episode:
Places to Hide Aren't Roadblocks