This post is a preview of WorthPointe’s e-book Evidence-Based Investing: Separating Fact From Fiction, written by Certified Financial Planner™ Scott O’Brien. In Evidence-Based Investing, Scott discusses the myths and misinformation that most often slow or halt our financial goals. Get your free copy of Evidence-Based Investing here.

Most families spend more time planning their vacations than their financial lives. With financial planning, it’s not just your finances at stake; it’s the quality of the rest of your life.

Why Do You Procrastinate?

The biggest reason you procrastinate has to do with urgency. You falsely believe because retirement is in the far- off future, you don’t need to do anything about it now. But nothing in this life is free. If you want “paid” time off when you retire, you need to save, invest and plan for it now.

People who put off financial planning remind me of a joke from Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the Chicken Soup series of books: “My banker asked me for a statement. I said I was optimistic.”

Scott Wenger, editor In chief of Financial Planning Magazine, states, “People don’t want to plan — they want the effects of planning or the benefits of planning. People don’t go to the doctor for a colonoscopy. You go to make sure nothing is wrong with you, and they might do a colonoscopy.”

Aim For A Target

If you don’t have a target, how do you know if you’re on track?

At the 2004 Summer Olympics, Matthew Emmons was in the lead and expected to win a gold medal as he prepared to fire his last shot in the rifle competition. All he needed to win was a score of 7.2 on his last shot. He hadn’t scored lower than 9.3 that day.

Emmons took aim, fired and hit the bull’s eye. The only problem was that he hit the bull’s eye on the wrong target. Instead of hitting the target in his lane, he hit the target in the lane next to him. China’s Jia Zhanbo took the gold medal and Emmons ended up in eighth place. Ouch.
Read the rest in Evidence-Based Investing. Get Your Complete Copy of the Book Now.