Why Most Financial Advice Doesn’t Work (And How To Fix It)

Most of the time when we're giving financial advice, so as a professional or maybe you as a caring individual, you're giving advice to somebody.

The person receiving it has to have enough mental and emotional bandwidth to apply it.

And most of the time when we're giving it, that's what we're assuming.

We're assuming that the person can receive it.

And in reality, quite often the person can't receive it.

And they're not going to tell you they can't receive it.

They just look at you and they nod.

Or they fight it.

They aggressively fight it.

And they'll say, well, that's not my experience, whatnot.

And it's not because that they're careless or they don't care.

It is because that their life is already too unstable.

There's too little margin.

There's too many unresolved stress points.

And their mind is having to filter things.

And their mind is saying, we've already committed to this line of thinking.

Can't go there.

Or the mind is saying, we've got this existential threat we're already dealing with.

This doesn't seem to connect with that.

So therefore, we're just going to ignore it.

I've been there where we can literally sit with somebody and say, you make these decisions, it's going to make a seven-figure difference to you.

And they'll say, yeah, but not right now.

And you're like, how is that possible? How can we look at a situation and tell you that we're fairly confident that you can make a six or a seven figure difference by the decisions you're making today and you won't change the decisions that you're making today or you won't take action today? And the issue is the brain is overloaded.

Whether they're dealing with thin reserves or unexpected expenses, no time, the calendar is just too full, too many other pressing issues, too much stuff happening at work, too much stuff happening in the world.

I just can't focus on these issues right now.