Jag and Amy discuss the importance of celebrating financial milestones and the psychological benefits of doing so. Amy emphasizes that acknowledging financial achievements, such as reaching a significant net worth, completing estate planning, paying off a mortgage, or achieving retirement goals, is crucial for several reasons.
First, celebrating these milestones motivates individuals and gives them a sense of accomplishment. It acknowledges the hard work and dedication that goes into achieving financial goals. This recognition acts as a powerful motivator to continue striving towards financial aspirations.
Secondly, celebrations reinforce positive financial behaviors and habits. When people see the results of their sound financial decisions, it encourages them to keep making wise choices. This helps maintaining disciplined saving, investing, and planning for the future.
We also cover the psychological benefits of celebrating financial successes. These celebrations boost self-esteem and confidence, validating individuals' financial decisions and choices. This validation enhances their sense of security about their financial future. Moreover, celebrating these milestones helps develop a positive money mindset, which is essential for long-term financial success.
Celebrations also create a sense of fulfillment and well-being, allowing individuals to reflect on their progress and appreciate how far they've come. This reflection can significantly reduce stress and anxiety related to financial matters. Additionally, these celebrations foster a sense of gratitude and happiness, encouraging a positive outlook that can influence other areas of life.
Amy suggests various ways to celebrate these milestones, from simple dinners with loved ones to more elaborate events like special trips or charitable donations. The key is to choose a celebration method that aligns with one's values and is appropriate for the milestone.
We should set both big and small financial goals and to celebrate these achievements as they come. These celebrations are not just about acknowledging progress but also about reinforcing positive financial behaviors.
Jag: Welcome back into ThimbleberryU, I am Jag Jag, and I'm joined as always by Amy Walsh from Thimbleberry Financial. Happy New Year, Amy.
Amy: Happy New Year, Jag. Hope your holidays were good.
Jag: Yours as well. We're celebrating a new year. In that spirit, we're talking about celebrating successes today. What can listeners expect from our episode?
Amy: Jag, I hope that our listeners today walk away thinking about a different way of approaching financial goals or milestones. That it helps them understand and act on the importance of that recognition.
Jag: We're talking about financial milestones, and it's so easy to get caught up in the stress of finance, the psychology of finance, of which we've talked about for 100-some odd episodes now. Your point today is it's important to celebrate certain milestones when you hit them, right?
Amy: Absolutely. Let's take examples of reaching a net worth of $1 million, $2 million, $5 million, as well as achieving significant goals like getting your estate planning done. Hey, listeners, see our last episode. Paying off a mortgage or hitting a specific retirement asset target. Those psychological benefits are so important. I know we'll touch on that today, but recognizing those can positively impact your financial journey.
Jag: Okay, so let's dig into the psychology a little bit. Why is it important to celebrate these successes?
Amy: Yes, well, celebrating financial milestones serves several important purposes. First, it provides motivation and a sense of achievement. When someone sets ambitious goals and reaches them, it's important to acknowledge that hard work and dedication, right? It takes effort to reach a goal, especially when it's a big goal. Celebrating those moments can be a powerful motivator to continuing that work to reach the next milestone. By celebrating, we actually encourage and develop more motivation.
Jag: Okay, so it's all about staying motivated on that journey. What else does celebrations bring to the table?
Amy: They also reinforce behavior and habits. When someone sees the positive results of their financial decisions, it reinforces the idea that they're on the right track. It's similar but different to motivation. That reinforcement can be a good reminder of the importance of discipline, savings, investing, and planning for the future.
Jag: On the flip side of things, if you make some poor financial decisions, in a sense, you're punished because you may not be able to afford a bill or you may not be able to go out to dinner that weekend, you have to cut your grocery budget back, whatever the circumstance might be. This is the flip side of that is rather than just being punished for any bad decisions you make, it's important to reward the good decisions you make.
Amy: Absolutely. I think the thing to remember here, if we think about life and we think about growing and learning. My take and I understand that this is generally known, but I couldn't cite any specific studies off the top of my head, we learn better from making mistakes.
Jag: Sure.
Amy: Right? As long as we're open to learning from them and making changes, we learn from our mistakes. I learn a lot more from my mistakes than I do from my successes. Therefore, my successes often go unnoticed. They don't feel important and valuable. What sticks out, given all of our conversations over 102 episodes now about bias are the mistakes that I've made. Yet the celebrations reinforce the positive and how far we've come. What those mistakes or, going down the wrong path, if we don't want to call it a mistake, in some cases, it's just off-trail exploration.
It's what they have led us to. By focusing on that progress and appreciating the journey we've been on and where we've gotten to, we can actually reduce stress and anxiety related to financial matters. That's huge.
Jag: That is the selling point right there, reducing stress when related to finances. If I could fly that above us on a plane right now, I would. Okay, you mentioned specific financial milestones earlier, like reaching a net worth of $1 million, $2 million or more. Can you share some insights on how to celebrate some of these achievements?
Amy: Yes, of course, Jag, celebrating can be as simple as a quiet dinner with loved ones to acknowledge the milestone, or it could be something more elaborate, like planning a special trip or making a significant charitable donation. The key here for our listeners is to choose a way that resonates with you and aligns with values and also aligns with your goals. For example, maybe my net worth, I hit $1 million. That's probably not the kind of thing I'm going to throw a $15,000, $20,000 party to celebrate.
Jag: That would defeat the purpose.
Amy: Exactly. It needs to be right-sized, but maybe, and in fact, studies show this is one of the best ways to go into retirement. You've retired. You know you're Okay. Your financial advisor has said, "Yes, you're okay to retire." One of the best things you can do is retire to something. Rather than retiring and being at home at the beginning, retiring and taking a big trip, can be a very good thing to do it. You've got something from going from being at work to being at home. It serves the purpose of bridging that gap and a celebration.
Jag: It's almost like you're shaking the Etch-A-Sketch and clearing it on the dated reference, I know, but you're like having that reset. I think it's important, too, to do something that you're going to enjoy because the idea is to reward yourself for reaching that milestone. I know, that depends on age, too. I'll give birthdays, for example, my 30th birthday, we rented out the back of a nightclub and I had a bunch of friends come and we drank and had a great time. My 43rd birthday last month, my wife and I went to a steakhouse and had dinner, just the two of us. These things change as you approach different phases of your life.
Amy: Absolutely. Right now, my husband and I go to the neighborhood pub and play cards. That is truly one of our favorite things to do and to celebrate. It feels magical when we can just go spend that time doing something, maybe I'll call it silly, but just mindless. It's the best celebration for us at the moment.
Jag: Something that fills your proverbial cup. Got it.
Amy: Yes.
Jag: It's important to make the celebration meaningful, align with your goals and values. What about other milestones, we talked about dollars, but estate planning, paying off a mortgage.
Amy: You could throw a mortgage-burning party. How many of us now have fire pits in our backyards? Maybe, even print out since we do so much online, those statements and burn them and celebrate, with family and friends. Estate planning, same thing. To me, that could be brunch with my family members and being like, "Yay, we did it." I think all of those things work. It's got to be something, though, that resonates with the person celebrating.
Jag: Look, and I think the overall key here is to celebrate the positive. I know my wife and I are looking at our potential financial milestones. We log into our accounts and we take a look and your clients have the ability to do that, too, with every financial you can track the good as opposed to, every negative headline you see in the news. Right?
Amy: Absolutely. Saying that it's going to go up and down. Overall, you're making progress and we want to celebrate the progress.
Jag: I like that progress. Any final thoughts before we wrap up today, Amy?
Amy: It's really easy to think I don't need to set small financial goals. I'm focused on the bigger things. Retirement, my kids' college. By setting some of these smaller goals and celebrating them, we know we have more positive thoughts, less anxiety, less stress about money, and it can create more gratitude and thankfulness. I would just encourage our listeners to think about setting those small goals and track them. Maybe it's once a month, maybe it's every six months, depending on how far off you are in order to have something really fun and positive to celebrate.
Jag: I like it. Celebrate the positive as we roll into 2024. Amy, if our listeners have questions about their financial future planning, celebrating the milestones, getting to the milestones, any of the above, how do they best find you and your team at Thimbleberry Financial?
Amy: They can find us by giving us a call at 503-610-6510 or they can find us online at ThimbleberryFinancial.com.
Jag: Good stuff as always, Amy. We'll talk soon.
Amy: Sounds great, Jag.
Jag: Securities offered through registered representatives of Cambridge Investment Research Inc., a broker-dealer member of FINRA SIPC. Advisory services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc., a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and Thimbleberry Financial are not affiliated. Discussions in this show should not be construed as specific recommendations or investment advice. Always consult with your investment professional before making important investment decisions. Securities offered through registered representatives of Cambridge Investment Research Inc., a broker-dealer member of FINRA SIPC. Advisory services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc., a registered investment advisor. Cambridge and Thimbleberry Financial are not affiliated.