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This Begins with One Person, and Two Financial Lives
Each of us carries finances everywhere
we go. We interact with money in a stream
of transactions and decisions each day.
Spend, pay, defer, earn, save. Most of the
decisions we make are disconnected from
each other – your cellular bill doesn't mingle
with your mortgage. All financial decisions
are intertwined, whether you realize it or not.
From the cost of living to the things you do
for fun; from your rainy-day fund to your
irrational late-night shopping. As you interact
with money, a pattern of daily financial
behavior and outcomes emerges, but for
most everyone, understanding, and managing
this swirl of transactions and interactions is an
undertaking of rough guesses.
Then there's the future. We have aspirations;
whether it is a new home or a dream
retirement, we work to make progress in
life and we have achievements in mind.
These things require money. However,
future financial management is more
complicated and even more opaque than
our daily financial life. We have accounts
that yield things. We have 401(k)s. We have
IRAs. We have savings. We own a few stocks
and a bond fund. Most don't track these
in one place; they gauge their success by
performance and do not have any sense if
these point in the direction of the goals they
want to achieve.
All financial decisions are intertwined, but
interacting with money day-to-day and planning
for the future is an undertaking of rough
guesses that requires connection.
