in Advice, Personal Finance, Quicken

I really do enjoy PostSecret because so many of the “secrets” resonate in some fashion or another with me, and one this week really did hit home:

Process is not necessarily a solution

At first it’s kind of funny to think of folks who are that tied up with doing “To Do” lists that they turn it into their raison d’etre, but think about the implications on Financial Planning.

If you dutifully collect data about your Financial Life using whatever tools you have available, but you never really look at the data all you are doing is collecting receipts!

I am guilty of this myself, I have Quicken Data going back to 1999, but do I regularly run the Spending Reports to see where my money is going? Not very often, and my suspicion is that I might learn a lot more about my money if I did this.

Sometimes the Journey is more important than the Destination, but if if you catch yourself obsessing about how you collect your financial data, and the importance of collating the data, without worrying about why you are doing it, you might be on a Fool’s Journey.

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originally published on May 29, 2013 { 5 comments }

• My Own Advisor May 29, 2013, 8:54 PM

  Love lists…mine aren’t as nice as that one.

  Mark

  Reply
• Bet Crooks May 29, 2013, 8:41 PM

  I see the above list follows the two most important rules:
  always put something you’ve already done as the first item on the list
  always put something very easy that you’re definitely going to do as the second thing on the list
  It’s much more satisfying when you can check things off quickly

  I think most of us know what we need to do with our finances months or even years before we actually get motivated and do it…..which reminds me, I really should move that $2000 out of my Canada RSP one of these days……

  Reply
• krantcents May 29, 2013, 12:12 PM

  I use lists too. It keeps me organized and focused. I try to not let information keep me from doing things. Too much data can be worthless.

  Reply
  • bigcajunman May 29, 2013, 12:51 PM

    Pretty much, what tool do you use to do your lists? Pen and Paper or some whiz-bang app?

    Reply
• Rob_M May 29, 2013, 7:33 AM

  Flashback to my old Nortel days…….

  Activity is not a measure of success. These days I am obsessed with the 80/20 rule, and trying to do most things within the first 20%. The rest is noise….

  Good post, got me thinking…..

  Reply

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