Recently I watched a presentation given by world-famous economist, Jim Rickards. His track record seems impressive in terms of being able to predict economic change. I want to use his economic outlook to illustrate my point, which is that we have more options today than ever before due to some very significant changes in our economy and society. The way we communicate has changed. The way that we learn has changed. They way we market has changed. They way we spend and save money for the future has changed. We have seen start-up companies become Facebook, Google, Twitter and so many others. Our lives are so different from just 25 years ago. You cannot walk down the street without seeing most everyone using his or her smart phone. Don’t you agree with me, that the past gives little to no indication of what the future will be? Maybe we can expect change as the one thing that won’t change? My point is that with this constant change brings uncertainty.
That does not mean that the unknown future is hopeless or need be more scary than it really is. The fact is, it is brighter and has more options than ever before. The problem is that with so many options we experience paralysis by analysis. When we arrive at the end of our life and ask the question, “what has my life stood for?”, I’m afraid we will find that we went in so many different directions all at once that we maybe stepped one inch in any of those directions, not really achieving anything at all because we did not focus on any one thing.
Jim Rickard’s predictions indicate that we will experience the domino effect in the coming year in terms of economic change. How will those changes affect you? The only way to make sure they don’t affect you negatively is to be certain you are focused financially and not trying to head in several different directions at once. With so many financial options and so little understanding of how those options all must work together, it is more important than ever that you get focused in this new year on what really matters so you can manage your money (and your life) more wisely. The key is to see clearly where you want to go and stay focused. For more information on how to clearly prioritize where you want to go financially, go to www.moneymastery.com.
