I have a deep respect for the waste disposal workers in my neighborhood. Like many, during quarantine we have cleaned closets and garages – touching everything and finding quite a few items we no longer choose to keep. Like Marie Kondo advises, we have thanked these things for their service and allowed them to leave and bless someone else. Purging stuff that actively prevents you from finding the thing you really need is a good thing. The added bonus is it feels good to have something productive to do.
How have you been filling your time? For those of you who are out working to keep us healthy, fed, clothed, and safe – thank you!
At the end of the day, or over the weekend, or after another blurred day of social distancing, we are all thinking about getting back to normal. In preparation for that sweet sweet day, can we think a little about what that normal might be like?
I think most of us have concluded that the future will not be the past. Sure, we will do many of the same things – but not like we did before and not right away. Tomorrow will be new.
As we start getting together again and doing account reviews, you will likely want to know what has changed. Here are a few of the questions we are currently wondering about:
- As the market comes back, will returns over the next several years be higher or lower than what we are accustomed to?
- Who is going to pay for all the monetary stimulus that the government is using to keep us from having a depression, instead of a recession and when will that happen?
- How will plans as a couple or individual change going forward: will we still travel, where would we go?
Just like the closet or the garage, every once in a while, life gives us the opportunity - or maybe the responsibility - to stop and reevaluate what we really need and what is just “low-value clutter”. Now is a good time to pause and ask the basic question. What do we really value more than money?
It is in the exploration of that question and noticing how your money usage has changed during this pandemic that you might find what really matters to you as a couple or individual. Do you really want to go back to the way it was in every detail and respect? Has this forced reset given you an opportunity to live a better life, more in alignment with what really matters most?
Try to spend some time before you rush out to recapture our old routines. Ask some fundamental questions about what you want more or less of for the rest of 2020 and beyond.
Undoubtedly, when we start getting back together, you will want to ask us what has changed financially. Be ready for me to ask if there has been a change in your priorities.
Stay Safe