MoneyWiseWomen

When Routines Replace Common Sense

Every couple of years, my husband and I get in a debate about the term “common sense”. I believe common sense is something people either have or don’t, and he believes that it revolves around skills that are learned. Regardless of wherever it comes from, the question still remains:  why don’t more people use it?

Each week I receive communications from people that are in dire straits financially. Most have waited more than a year to think about changing their job search strategy. (Thinking about change typically occurs when the unemployment checks are about to run out, or shortly thereafter). It is still surprising to me that when I ask how they have been searching for work, many describe the same process.

5 Steps to Healing Your Financial Regrets

Recently I was deeply struck by a post called The Statute of Limitations on Regret-  posted on the Get Rich Slowly blog. It was on the author’s reaction to a couple who was beating themselves up for the money mistakes they made.  And now they are focused on just getting through the day, marking time and feeling depressed. Yikes.

Well, we all make money mistakes. And on top of our mistakes, we feel horrible about them. Do you struggle with being critical of yourself over a money mistake? Are you plagued with regret over what you did- or didn’t do? Do you keep thinking and thinking and thinking- swirling in a circle—wishing you’d done things differently?

To compound our woes, we rarely talk about them. When we make relationship mistakes, we often hash over the “I can’t believe I did that” with girlfriends over a glass of wine. But when it comes to money, we can be extremely self-critical—suffering pangs of regret and remorse- replaying our money mistakes over and over in our head– mostly in isolation.