112 | Creating the Space to Make Better Financial Choices

We make a lot of financial decisions on autopilot, and sometimes those decisions have a negative impact on other things we want to do financially.

In each of those situations, whether we recognize it or not, we have a choice to stay on track with our goals or to go in the opposite direction.

In this episode, let’s talk about the importance of creating space to make those choices intentionally and one strategy to help you create that space for your own financial decisions.

Topics Discussed

• examples of autopilot decisions that can derail your goals
• the choice between stimulus and response
• real-life examples of my clients’ autopilot decisions
• what happens when we exercise the power of choice
• the impact of one choice vs. many choices over time
• one strategy you can implement to give yourself space to make more intentional choices in certain instances
• the ultimate goal you’re aiming for with your choices

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Resources mentioned

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If you’re ready to learn the mindset and strategies to master your money, let’s schedule a call. 

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Email: hello@rhothomas.com

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Lightly Edited Transcript

You’re listening to Wealthyesque. We are a community of lawyers who believe that true wealth is having control of our time. I’m Rho Thomas, and as a busy wife, mom and former Biglaw associate, I know all too well the tension between the culture of the legal profession and pretty much everything else you want to do in life. That’s why each week, I’m bringing you the information and tools you need to improve your money mindset and manage your money to create true wealth. Because ultimately, it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom and flexibility the money affords.

Hey friend. Welcome back to the show. I hope you’re doing well and having an amazing day so far. Today we are talking about creating the space to make better choices for your finances. And in particular, we’re talking about those isolated decisions that we made that can add up to more overtime and add up to us not making the market that will make any real troubles. When you decide to do a shopping spree that doesn’t fit in your plan because of the sale for example, or when you decide to order takeout again, instead of cooking the food you buy at the grocery store. Basically, when you have a choice between doing something that can keep you on track with the goal you have or doing something that takes you away from the results. I heard a great quote from Viktor Frankl that says between stimulus and response, there’s a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. That quote is perfect for these isolated choices that we’re talking about. Because before you do that shopping or order that takeout or whatever the thing is for you, you have the power to do something different, that choice ultimate response that you have can lead you closer to your goals or further away. So this comes up often with my clients. For example, one of my clients had a specific savings goal one month, and when we were reviewing his spending for the month and the fact that he had fallen short of that goal, he was telling me about some extra things that he had bought because they were on sale. So he wasn’t planning to buy these things. But he came across them he thought they were just a really good deal and he didn’t want to pass them up. But in buying those things, he didn’t achieve the goal that he had set. He didn’t save the amount that wanted to save and that month so he essentially prioritized these items that were on sale over the savings goal that he had. That might not have been an intentional decision he made but that was the effect of the choice to buy those things. And going back to the Viktor Frankl quote, in that space between seeing the stuff on sale and actually purchasing the stuff, there was a space for him to make a choice. In this instance, he made a choice to buy the stuff but he could have just as easily made a choice not to buy the stuff. We talked about the fact that there’s always a trade off when you spend money because the money spent isn’t available for other things we could be using that money for. So we’re always making choices, but often we’re making unintentional ones. And those unintentional choices rarely lead to outcomes we want there’s a space between an opportunity to buy the thing on sale, an opportunity to go out eat one more time, an opportunity to splurge on the thing that you don’t really need maybe wanting to use or whatever it is right. There’s a space between that and you actually spending money where you can take me to make sure that you’re acting with intention that you’re making an intentional choice. When you exercise the power of choice between stimulus and response, we exercise the muscle of discipline. So we learn to do things that we may not want to do in order to achieve the ultimate goal that we have. I heard someone say once that discipline is a matter of making decisions and doing things you may not always want to do to achieve something you want more and I love that way of looking at discipline, right? Our decisions or choices can either take us closer to the things that we want the goals that we have, or they can take us further away. Typically no one talks in isolation, we’re going to keep you from achieving the goals that you have or not, but as the aggregate of all the responses over time that make a difference. Eating one cookie isn’t going to completely derail your fitness or nutrition goals, but eating cookies everyday over time adds up. If you find yourself making spending decisions that are throwing off your financial plans, there are ways you can create the space between stimulus and response that allows you to make the choices you want to make. You just need it gives you the space to make more intentional decision about what to do. For example, some of my clients when they come to me have a credit card information saved in their phone and they would buy a lot of things on impulse, right? They see an ad and just immediately buy it now with one click and didn’t even think about it. And then the stuff would show up at their houses, and they’re not really interested anymore. What if instead of having a credit card information stored and have to actually go get your card when you buy something right when you delete that information. So it’s a conscious decision for you to get that card to make the purchase. It just gives a little bit of a buffer for you to make a conscious choice about whether you wanna buy this thing or not. Because it’s a lot different when you’re buying something and all you have to do is click versus when you’re buying something and have to think about it and go get your credit card and put the information in and all that. Giving yourself that space to intentionally make a decision can make all the difference. A lot of companies like storing your information not for your convenience as they may say, but because it removes purchase friction. Friction is anything that makes buying a little more difficult to buy. The more friction present, the less likely someone will buy. By creating friction for yourself by deleting your credit card info. Then you create a space between stimulus and response as Viktor Frankl talks about. It’s that space where you are making the intentional choice to get your credit card and spend or not. When I notice my clients making decisions that are taking them away from the goal, I give them strategies like this one to help them create the space to make better decisions. The overall point is that in your financial journey. There’ll be things that pop up that can derail you and you get to choose how you respond to them. The goal is not to always make the exact right perfect choice every single time, right, that’s unrealistic, that probably won’t happen. But if you can make more choices in line with your financial goals than not then you’ll keep moving forward toward where you want to be. When you create the space for yourself to make intentional choices rather than making default choices, you’ll see more of the progress you want to make. And if you’d like some help with creating space to make better decisions for your finances, head to rho thomas.com/call. And let’s talk about how we can work together. Alright, that’s it for this week’s episode. Come connect with me over on social media I am most often on LinkedIn, rho Thomas and on Instagram at I am rho Thomas. Subscribe to the show and leave a review both of which help people to find the show and please think of a friend or two you think could use this information and share it with them. As we close out, friend, I pray that you take the information you learn here. Apply it in your life. And open up to the realization that wealth is available to you. As you do that consistently, week after week, you’ll continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth, and live the life of freedom and choice you deserve. Talk to you later.