Cynthia M. Martínez
Creator of My Barely Famous Life and Founder Lead Up Labs
Most people underestimate the power of making sustainable and profitable decisions. It is a very common mistake to think that this only applies to business owners. You must be aware that in designing your future, especially when it comes to the reality of your personal finances, you must make wise decisions, especially when you are an older adult.
The word profitable according to the University of Oxford means: it produces a benefit that compensates for the investment or effort that has been made.
While the word sustainable, said academic institution defines it as something that is capable of being preserved or reproduced due to its own characteristics, without the need for external intervention or support.
As we see, it is worth making efforts to make decisions thinking that our goal will be those results that will give us benefits accumulated throughout our lives and will impact the well-being of our family and friends. If you haven’t started mapping out your financial future, these 3 strategies for making important decisions are great places to start:
1. Be objective and see reality as data without going into much emotional detail.
Financial mistakes hurt us. The financial irresponsibility of those around us or any factor of a bad investment bothers us to the depths of our being. When making a decision you must see the lesson and not the situation. Learning from that event is what lifts us up in the future and the situation stagnates us in the past. If we saw what having made a bad investment caused us, such as being left “bare” with almost nothing until the next check, we must analyze more thoroughly when making decisions about future investments so that it does not happen to us again. instead of focusing on the emotion and suffering it caused us.
2. Design a plan with variants.
The future is uncertain. We must take into consideration that life happens and we do not know what may happen in the future. I give you my own example: my grandmother is already 85 years old and everyone thought that she would not be with us at this date. However, she is the only one of her entire close family who is alive, only her grandchildren remain. There was no plan with variants, only a plan adjusted to her husband as the main caregiver. She plans thinking about ALL the different events that can happen.
3. Be specific when documenting your needs.
We often think: “that’s common sense”, I regret to inform you that common sense is the least common of all the senses. Thinking that you shouldn’t specifically describe what you want for your future, because it’s obvious, is like thinking that everyone has the same perspective on life. In society we all think and see the world differently. Give yourself the opportunity to paint your future the way you want. Take 5 minutes and write down your needs on paper or in a diary and place them in order of priority. This will give you a clearer picture, help you plan better and establish strategies to solve them.
Unfortunately, in Latin culture we are inclined to think that planning some aspects of life can bring us bad luck in the future. I remember talking to a family member about starting to plan details for life insurance and a will. I told him the benefits of this and unfortunately, he told me that he was afraid of making those decisions because he thought they brought many superstitious results to his life, such as dying suddenly. These myths limit us and stagnate us in an uncertain future. You as a leader must understand that planning your future is the best gift you can give yourself after working hard on your goals and taking care of your family. Believe me, you will thank me, and you will not regret it.
About the Author:
Cynthia M. Martinez is a rebel with a cause, entrepreneur, and life and business strategist with a specialty in leadership and innovation. As part of her extensive trajectory as a strategist, she has been developing leaders in the field of direct sales, market opening, and consulting at the corporate and SME levels for more than a decade. She is the creator of the social media movement in a blog format called “My barely famous life” in which she equips followers with leadership and technology tools through her educational program. She is also the founder of Lead Up Labs, a digital platform that has all the tangible and digital tools for participants to increase their productivity and achieve their goals.
