How to Mentally Recover After a Financial Mistake

Transcript

It’s Brian Preston, The Money Guy. Our buddy Jake has a question. He says, how do I not get frustrated when I have to go backwards in the Financial Order of Operations? I was on step seven, but spending got a little out of control, and now I’m back at step three.

The answer to how to I not to get frustrated, in my opinion, is that there’s not an answer to that. You should get frustrated. It’s okay to be frustrated whenever you have to take a step back, like in your financial life. I was trudging along and crushing it, and crushing it. I had to step back. If you weren’t frustrated with that, you probably wouldn’t be a financial mutant. That’s what makes financial mutants, financial mutants, is they do want to continue to achieve, want to continue to progress, want to continue to move forward. So when we have to move backwards, it’s naturally frustrating.

Now, how you handle that frustration is different. Like if you go into like this negative deep dark spiral mental spin, that’s different. But being frustrated and saying, you know what, okay, I’m going to figure out to relook at the budget, we’re going to figure out how we tighten things up, we’re going to get rid of the excess, we’re going to cut these subscriptions, we’re going to do the whatever the thing is you have to do in order to work back through the Financial Order of Operations, that shouldn’t be frustration, that should be fire. That should get you motivated to start moving back in the direction that you do.

So, the answer is how do I not be frustrated? Don’t try to not be frustrated, try to figure out how can I let this setback, how can I let this thing that I’m going through right now be the motivation that when I look back a year from now, two years from now, three years from now, I say, great, that was a turning point that allowed me to take one step back and then two, three, four, five steps forward.

I think it’s interesting; we work with a lot of tech employees and right now, the tech sector, there’s a lot of layoffs going on. We talk to you on the phone; we know what you’re going through. When you know it was just a year ago, you’re like, man, it’s great. I can’t wait to see what’s coming in the future. And then you find out, man, there’s a chance I might lose my job because a lot of these technology companies are just laying off troves of people. It doesn’t even mean that you’re a bad person or bad employee; it just means that there’s a lot of cost-cutting measures going.

So it’s not uncommon if somebody’s asking how do you go from a seven to a three in the Financial Order of Operations. Well, there’s lots of life things that can happen that can take you a step back. But that’s what I want you to understand, the power of the Financial Order of Operations. It is a maximization strategy on what to do with your next dollar. So, if you have this mission to become a millionaire, you actually have the tools to know. And here’s the thing; I think the first time I drive a place, I’m kind of, I’m looking for landmarks, I’m getting confused. But then by the second, the third time I do it, my man, I got this, I got this figured out.

For more information, check out our free resources here.