Are you asking or telling?

How many times have you caught yourself uttering some variation of the following statement to your kids?

“I’m not ASKING, I’m TELLING!”

This statement seems to be getting a LOT of play in the Plain household these days. 

While the long-term benefit of teaching your children the difference between asking vs telling is obvious, it’s important that we remember to apply a similar framework to our own lives.

For example, let’s say you’re considering buying a bigger house.

Have you made the time to ask yourself if it makes sense financially? 

Or have you told yourself you deserve this and will figure out the financial impact afterwards?

Now it’s easy to say, “Of course we’re asking before making those big decisions!” But here’s the thing:

We’re all susceptible to making emotionally driven decisions despite our best efforts. It’s just part of being a human being.

That’s why the bigger the decision and the greater the financial impact, the more important it is to insert some space between our desires and taking action on them.

When we know deep down that creating that space will give us the answer we NEED to hear and not the one we WANT to hear, it’s so easy to just let our emotions take the wheel. And that’s why it’s so important to remember...

Asking before acting is how we maintain our financial breathing room.

The more space we can make up front to ask questions before deciding, the more breathing room we tend to maintain for ourselves. This process also puts us in the favorable position where not everything needs to break exactly our way for things to work out.

So when it comes to making big life decisions, make sure you’re asking rather then telling. Doing so will increase your odds, despite life's many uncertainties, of maintaining your financial well-being both now and in the future.

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