‘Ah, it’ll be grand’, well maybe it won’t
It can be tempting to just trust that things are going to work out. Sometimes they do…and sometimes they don’t. When it comes to your finances, you really want to avoid the second scenario.
Unfortunately, that means that ‘it’ll be grand’ might not be the sentiment to follow. Instead, double checking every promise and making sure the fine detail tallies up, while more time consuming and cynically minded, is probably more likely to lead to things working out.
“Ah, it’ll be grand”
As a life philosophy, this happy-go-lucky attitude may be a great way to stay upbeat. Sadly, in the world of your finances, it can too easily become blind optimism. And that leaves you wide open to hitting the stumbling blocks in the financial world: the hidden fees, the catch in the too good to be true deal, the actual pattern in the investment value rather than the positive spin spiel.
The proof in the pudding
We don’t have to look far for times when this ‘it’s all going to work out just fine’ mindset backfired. Constant optimism, both on the parts of consumers and financial professionals, lead to the feeling that house prices were always going to go the way we wanted, that those loans weren’t going to come back to bite…
And then we had a financial crash that very thoroughly disillusioned pretty much everyone, and let it be known quite clearly that things weren’t just grand after all.
It’s an easy trap to fall into. The glowing promises of low interest loans, of a world where your investments just keep growing, are appealing. However, just trusting that things will work out plays right into the hands of people who gain from making those promises and hiding the downsides in the paperwork, at your expense.
Think critically
Despite how it can sometimes feel, there are plenty of bankers and other financial professionals who really do want to help you. Unfortunately, you only need a relative minority to be far more focussed on their own benefit to tar everyone with the same brush.
There’s also the problem of working within a system – even if the person you speak to on the phone really wants to help, they still have to work within the rules and systems set up by the industry around them.
So not taking things at face value and not falling into the appealing trap of just trusting it’ll work out is essential. Keeping your eyes peeled for the loopholes, hidden fees, and other hazards in the fine print can make all the difference when it comes to your finances.
Not that a little optimism and faith that it might work out is always bad in finance. At some point, investments are always going to become a little risky – and if you’ve made an informed decision, there will be a point where you have to hit the button and just hope it pays off in the end. The key is to make sure that up until then, you’ve taken all the steps to make it as likely as possible that it will all be grand in the end.
