How To Stop Overthinking Your Financial Strategy

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One of the things we hear most from our followers at TFD is the struggle with procrastination. Work gets overwhelming, which causes housework and life admin to pile up, and when you’re faced with a mountain of tasks, getting started at actually tackling them might feel like a huge ask. And when it comes to making financial decisions, procrastination honestly makes sense: money is security, and there’s no doubt we all want to be sure we’re making the best possible choices with it. And when you don’t have extra time to research, well, that just keeps falling further and further down the list. 

But analysis paralysis — the anxiety that comes with having too many choices — often means we end up putting off those choices to a detrimental extent. Because the biggest problem with investing isn’t doing it wrong; it’s waiting too long to do it at all.

And with plenty of tools available to you, there’s no reason to overthink your financial strategy. Here are our top three tips for letting go of perfection and just getting started already:

1. Use automated investing to take out the guesswork.

With the automated investing options available to us these days, there is zero reason to put off investing any longer. We’re led to believe that investing your money should feel like your second job, but with Betterment, that doesn’t have to be true. With Betterment’s automated investing tools, they build and manage your portfolio for you. So you can focus on you. They simplify the complex, and put your money to work, optimizing day after day, and again and again. You simply answer a few questions about your goals and timeline, set up recurring deposits, and they’ll take care of the rest.

Because while your money doesn’t need a work/life balance, you do. Make your money hustle with Betterment — click here to sign up in minutes.

2. Trick your brain into thinking you have less spending money at your disposal.

Let’s be clear: this only works if you have disposable income to begin with, so be kind to yourself. But if you struggle with budgeting and saving money, the “pay yourself first” method is tried and true for a reason. By divvying up your paycheck into various direct deposits towards retirement investing and other long-term money goals, the number you see hit your checking account may be less than you’re used to. But eventually, you get used to living on that lower number, and your long-term money goals start seeing real growth. Just make sure that new number accounts for all of your necessary spending, plus a reasonable amount of disposable income each month!

3. Redirect raises and windfalls — immediately.

This could go for income increases, new income from a side gig, tax refund checks, monetary gifts, etc.: the less time you give yourself to sit with that money, the less likely you are to spend it on instant gratification. If you get a raise, for instance, and you were already living within your means, it’s a good idea to redirect the “extra” income immediately to your savings or investments via automated direct deposit. That way, you don’t even give yourself the choice to spend more on unnecessary lifestyle inflation.

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Chipping away at your money goals may feel opaque and overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to. Start with these simple habits, even if you can only put away small amounts at a time — because the less time you spend overthinking your money decisions, the more time your money has to actually work towards your goals.