🟣🟢 Everyone's doing it...

👋 Welcome back

In today’s Financial Stuff:

• 🕰️ Is it just habit driving us to change the clocks?

• 🔦 The illusion of ‘normal’ when it comes to money.

Let’s get started 👇

Did you remember that the clocks went back this morning?

My body clock was oblivious. Whilst my family enjoyed the extra hour in bed, I was wide awake at silly o’clock, drinking coffee and wondering why we all still do this twice a year.

Habit, I suppose. Like half the things people do with money. Because everyone else does.

I watched a Mel Robbins interview this week with Dr Todd Rose. He’s a Harvard researcher who studies indiividuality and how people make decisions.

He’s best known for showing that the idea of an “average” person doesn’t exist, and that we often copy what we think others value instead of what actually matters to us.

He calls it a collective illusion.

It’s when most people secretly want one thing but act as if they want another because “that’s what everyone else is doing”.

It made me think about how often I see this in money decisions.

It shows up in all sorts of ways…

People take lump sums from their pensions because everyone else seems to be doing it, even though they haven’t thought through the downside…

They buy a rental property because it feels like the smart thing to do, then spend years juggling tenants, repairs and tax changes, only to realise it’s barely beating what a simple investment portfolio could have done…

And crypto? Well, everyone online seems to be making money don’t they? It feels exciting, modern, a bit rebellious. But most people don’t really want that level of risk, they just don’t want to feel like they’re missing out.

And if you run a business, you’ll know how easy it is to get caught in the comparison trap. Social media is full of posts about seven-figure exits and “financial freedom at 45”.

But you don’t see the full picture.

You don’t see the debt, the stress, or the nights they lie awake wondering if they made the right move.

That’s the problem with collective illusions: they make perfectly smart people feel like they’re behind when actually, they’re doing fine.

A better question to ask is, what do I actually want my money to do for me?

That sounds simple, but it’s surprisingly hard to stop and answer it properly.

Maybe it’s flexibility. Maybe it’s security. Maybe it’s to know that you could stop tomorrow if you wanted to.

This is where proper financial planning earns its keep.

Not because of the spreadsheets or the forecasts, but because it forces you to pause and make sure your plan is about you, not everyone else.

The people who end up happiest aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest portfolios.

They’re the ones whose money actually matches how they want to live.

If that’s something you’ve been meaning to sort, but haven’t quite got around to, our Financial Strategy Review is a good place to start. It’s where we look at your goals, your numbers, and your version of financial freedom, not anyone else’s.

And if you’re curious, the Mel Robbins interview with Dr Todd Rose is worth a watch.

😎 THAT’S IT FOR THIS WEEK!

If you have any questions at all, do ping me a reply.

Hilary 😉

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