I mentioned in my last blog entry how I believe that the worlds finest financial planning book was written by one of the greatest children’s author ever….Dr Suess (you can read the previous entry here) and what I’m going to do over the course of the next few blog entries is explain why “Oh! The places you’ll go!” is the best (unintentional) financial planning book of all time!

The Art of Taking Financial Control

You can see one of the first lines of “Oh! The places you go” in the image on the right.

It’s classic Seuss. Simple, slightly silly but incredibly insightful.

Personally this statement highlights 3 clear realities…

1) We are responsible for our own direction…financial or otherwise.

In “Oh! The place you’ll go” Dr Seuss always talks about you. However many of us spend way too much time focusing on ‘them’.

It’s easy to blame other people. When it comes to your financial reality it’s easily done (and something I’ve written about a bit). We could talk about banks (and bankers), energy providers (and their ever expanding prices), interest rates, stock markets or any one of the million factors which impact our financial affairs.

However let’s look at the reality….

The largest influence on your journey towards financial independence is….you!

It’s up to you to decide whether that’s going to be a negative or positive influence. However if you spend time blaming everyone else for your financial situation you’re already being a negative influence.

One thing it’s important to mention is that “Blame” is fundementally different to “Owning the problem”. It sounds obvious doesn’t it but let me explain how with my next point….

2) You NEED to have a plan AND take action

Dr Seuss talks about having “Brains in your head and feet in your shoes” and you might be wondering what that’s got to do with achieving financial freedom? Let me explain…

Wherever you are in your life you need a plan. An idea of where you want to head (both financial or otherwise). You may have plans with different timescales but to have the big picture goal is important to have.

After all, if you don’t know where you’re heading how you going to get there?

However whilst I believe that planning is fundemental….there’s a problem with Planning.

Planning something for the future might mean that you’re tempted to delay the most important component of achieving any goal.

The problem with some planning is that it makes you temporarily feel better. Until that feeling wares off and you find yourself in the same position you were….

You still know that your gas bills too high but you had a plan to solve that!

Your investments are still in the wrong place but you had a plan to solve that!

You still aren’t saving enough but you had a plan to solve that!

but lets be clear….

Plans are pointless unless you combine them with one thing…..action!

Interestingly making a positive change (and the difference between blame and ownership) is the action you take….

If you know your domestic bills are too high have you called the provider to work out whether they can do anything for you? or have you shopped around for a better deal?

If you’re concerned about your investments have you taken time to talk to your adviser (if you have one) or understand why there have been recent changes which concern you?

If you know in your heart of hearts you aren’t saving enough. Have you planned your budget to see if there is anything else you can do to either save more or spend less?

So instead of blaming external factors, or ‘the plan’. Have you considered that you didn’t take the action the plan required to ensure it was made into a reality.

The important point here is the combination between your head (creating the plan) and your plan (taking the action).

3) The journey to anything worthwhile (including financial security) isn’t quick.

Interestingly Dr Seuss doesn’t talk about “Jumping in any direction you choose”. The word he uses seem to be intentional. He uses this phrase:-

“You can steer yourself in any direction you choose”

Anything worth anything doesn’t happen quickly. This includes the one to absolute financial freedom.

“yeah but Chris, how about lottery winners? or huge inheritance windfalls?”

I could write forever on these subjects (and I probably will explore this at a later stage) but suffice to say that there is plenty of evidence to illustrate that financial independence isn’t only about the money…it’s about the skills you learn along the way.

Those skills come through making mistakes, going through tough times and learning the best path for you.

The art of financial control isn’t only about taking responsibility and action but also taking control of your emotions to ensure that you learn from your mistakes and ensure you can continue to build understanding.

It seems that Dr Seuss (being a smart guy) knew all this and therefore seemed to talk about a journey as opposed to a jump and talked about steering (a slow intentional process) as opposed to turning.

He was a smart guy that Dr Seuss wasn’t he?

Next time I’m going to tell you what Dr Seuss can teach us about why it’s important to do your financial homework…