Planning For Imperfection
Shhhhhhh, please don't tell my wife I'm sharing this story. However, if you know her, you know what I'm about to say is 100% true! Sarah has an interesting approach to time and logistics. If she needs to be at an event that begins in 20 minutes, she will walk out of the house at such time that if everything goes PERFECTLY, she will arrive at the event exactly on time.....and not a minute earlier. Do you know how often things go perfectly? Zero. She hits a few extra stop lights, forgets something and needs to run back in the house, construction creates a traffic backup, or she ends up parking further away. Things never go perfectly, and as a result, she's inevitably late to nearly everything. While it hasn't ended our marriage (yet), it's a maddening way to approach life. Things NEVER go perfectly.
No, I'm not seeking marriage counseling today. Rather, I think Sarah's example is a perfect representation of what happens when we plan as if things will go perfectly. When that's the baseline assumption, bad outcomes are inevitable.
This brings me to a more serious version of this phenomenon. Many families operate their finances as if everything will go perfectly. They structure their standard of living, monthly costs, and lifestyle choices all the way up to their current income. As long as things stay good and steady, the train will remain on the tracks. However, you probably already know that life doesn't usually go perfectly. Things happen. People lose jobs, kids get sick, the engine in our car dies, the furnace breaks down in the middle of winter. Life happens!
My Meaning Over Money business partner, Cole, often asks me how so many people can continue to live this way without consequences. It feels like there are no negative repercussions to planning for perfection. "Soon enough," I respond. It's only a matter of time for many. Eventually, life catches up, and the imperfection creates a gaping chasm in people's lives.
Fortunately for many, we've ridden an unprecedented wave of positive since the 2008 recession. Things have been uncharacteristically good for an uncharacteristically long period of time. However, it feels like we're starting to turn a weird corner. The problem, though, is that it doesn't impact you until the moment it does. Everything is perfectly fine......until it's your worst nightmare.
This nightmare has recently struck several people I know. For years, these families have enjoyed the fruits of positivity. Life has been good, really good! The bad news: they were planning for perfection. All it took was one job loss to knock them completely off course. Instead of being able to navigate the tricky situation that life threw at them, their lives are in turmoil. Selling houses, spouses leaving dream jobs to secure other income streams, pulling kids out of activities, whipping out the credit cards.
I'm not condemning them. In fact, I have so much empathy for them. It didn't have to be this way, though. Instead of planning for perfection, we should plan for imperfection, knowing that life will hit us. Moderate the lifestyle, create more monthly margin, stay out of debt, keep a healthy cash savings. Allow for life to happen......because it will.
Most of us still have time to recalibrate for imperfection before life hits us. Let's seize this opportunity!
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