3 Mistakes a Financial Planner Says Too Many People Make

• Most financial dilemmas don’t need an immediate answer — don’t feel like you need to rush.
• Before committing money to any plan, figure out ways to test whether it’s really right for you.
• Plan ahead — build a budget, automate your savings, and schedule a monthly check-in.

As a financial planner, I’ve seen people make all sorts of money mistakes that could have easily been avoided with just a little bit of insight and education.

Here are three big errors I often see people make that you can sidestep entirely if you know what to watch for.

1. Always pushing for immediate action or answers

Sometimes, you need to move fast to resolve a financial matter.

There could be an actual, objective deadline, like a due date for bills or filing your taxes. Or there could be a cost to waiting, as there usually is with letting an investment or account management error go unresolved.

But it’s a mistake to rush through bigger-picture and longer-term financial decisions like:

• Deciding on your housing situation, from where to live to what type of housing you want to determine whether you should rent or buy
• Considering your next career move or evaluating job offers
• Setting very large goals, especially if you have a partner or significant other
• Choosing the right investment strategy to help you reach those big long-term goals
• Acting on anything that’s hard to reverse, very costly to undo, or both

Slowing down can help you think more fully through the situation and even identify solutions you didn’t think of initially. Take some time to:

• Have multiple conversations with a variety of sources about your questions or decisions to make. Gather as much information as possible from people who know you, have some credibility with you, and genuinely want to help you.
• Schedule structured brainstorming sessions. Use this time to come up with potential tactics, options, paths forward, and so on. Anytime you feel you only have one or two ways of achieving something, push to come up with a third alternative. If you find yourself thinking “either/or,” brainstorm how you can make it “both/and.”
• Let things play out a bit. When we start moving fast, we tend to gloss over critical details or jump to conclusions. Take time to gather more information, and to let your mind sift through the data you already gathered. New ideas appear when you give topics a rest!
• Write out your thoughts as you go. Writing is an excellent way to clarify your thinking — or to identify when your thinking actually doesn’t make much sense.
• Run things by an objective third-party or independent expert. Before you execute on a strategy, get a second set of eyes or an outside opinion on the situation to check your blind spots or point out potential errors.

2. Committing to a major decision without a trial period

A byproduct of rushing to get an answer or make a choice is another financial mistake: getting yourself into a big commitment that you didn’t give yourself a chance to test first.

Take everything you can for a test drive first. Anytime you can test your ideas in the real world, you should take advantage of that opportunity.

Thinking about switching jobs, or changing your career completely? See if there’s an opportunity to volunteer, pick up extra hours, or do preliminary training before you leave your current position or field to see if the new path still appeals to you.

Want to move to a new location, whether that’s a different town or across the country? Rent a home in your location of interest. This makes it much easier and less costly to reverse course if you decide it’s not the place for you — with the added benefit of giving you a “boots on the ground” experience to help you understand the exact neighborhoods you may want to buy in (or which ones you want to avoid).

If it’s not physically possible to give something a trial run before committing to it, you can still:

• Run thought experiments around the idea
• Sketch out a variety of different plausible scenarios that could play out and see how you feel about each
• Make a list of “what if” questions and explore counterfactuals to your initial idea
• Know your exit route and have a backup plan(s) ready to deploy

3. Being reactive with your finances

The fastest way to find yourself on a downhill trajectory with your money is to let things happen, and then wonder what there is to do about them.

You put the focus on damage control rather than optimizing, elevating, and leveraging opportunities.

Avoid this trap by getting proactive, paying attention, and planning ahead. If you’re not sure where to start, use this cheat sheet:

• Use a budget to track and manage your earnings and spending
• Build an emergency fund (start with $1,000 in cash, and consider building from there until you have enough savings to cover at least three months’ worth of your expenses)
• Automate contributions to savings and retirement accounts; consider doing the same with bills or debts, but regularly review invoices and credit card statements for errors
• Review any tax concerns each fall, so you have time to make adjustments before year-end deadlines
• Look over all investment accounts quarterly to confirm your portfolio is properly balanced and all cash is invested
• Set monthly money check-ins with yourself (and your partner if you have one) to review your finances, note any questions or concerns, and make a plan to address them

Thinking and planning proactively can help you identify the right moves to make with your money before you start firing off decisions and locking in transactions.