Devil's advocate: It's OK to ignore your problems
Posted
Jan 22 2008, 10:46 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
This devil's advocate post comes from partner blog Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.
I must confess that for the past month our budget has flown out the window. I have not even done the math to see the damage yet. I'm avoiding it because I know it will be ugly.
I read the statement above at A Penny Closer, and it's something we see quite often -- ignoring your problems. Now, you might jump to your feet and scream, "Ignoring your problems won't make them go away!" or something else equally petulant, but before you do, I want you to hear me out.
I think there are very good reasons to ignore your problems, and that is the subject of this edition of Devil's Advocate.
Now, fortunately for Melissa at A Penny Closer, she has done one thing right: She has found a reasonable explanation for her busted budget -- she recently moved. In the course of that move, they've been eating out a lot and not clipping coupons or doing comparison shopping.
While the ideal situation would have been to budget for the move, let's be honest with ourselves. We rarely plan in that manner. However, just because the budget is busted doesn't mean you should panic. In fact, in this particular case, ignoring it wasn't a bad idea because moving is stressful and there are a lot of other issues you have to deal with, the least of which is whether you overspent this month by eating out.
It was important that she ignored the budget problem for a little while in order to focus on other issues, and it's equally important that she set a timeline for resolving the problem.
Let me outline the reasons why I think you can ignore your problems temporarily.
You have only so much energy. You have only 24 hours in a day and you have a number of problems to deal with. In all likelihood, you cannot solve them all, so you are forced to ignore -- or at least mitigate -- some of them in order to solve the higher priority issues. In Melissa's case, it was more important to focus on the move and less important to focus on cutting coupons, cooking regularly and all the other things she mentioned in her post.
Prioritization enables you to ignore problems. If you properly prioritize all of your action items, you can intelligently "ignore" some of them. By identifying which tasks or problems are more important, you can be sure you are focusing on the ones that require immediate attention. While we often don't make a list (and we don't check it twice), having even a mental picture of priorities is enough to help you make decisions.
You can allow yourself time to regroup. A budget is a budget is a budget, right? It is, unless you're stressed out about moving all of your life's possessions into another home. A budget is simple, unless you're selling your house and conducting the largest business transaction of your life. A budget is really easy to do, unless you're dealing with one of the more stressful events in your life. Mistakes are made when people are stressed. Messing up your budget because you ate out more often than usual is something you can correct in the next week or month. Messing up your budget and then making a manageable situation worse because you're stressed out might be a little trickier. So, allowing yourself time to regroup -- the proverbial "count to 10" mantra -- may mean you have to set one on the back burner for a while, and that's OK.
Time heals all wounds. This is not related to Melissa's budget-busting issue, but if you ever have any emotional difficulties with someone, you'll find that ignoring that for a little while will mellow out feelings.
Ultimately, the point is you can ignore your problems but only temporarily. Melissa's problem is relatively simple; she didn't spend thousands of dollars on a whim. However, the crucial part is that she's now taking steps to resolve it.
So, if you ever feel overwhelmed or under-prepared to tackle a problem, consider setting it on the sidelines for a couple days (unless it's due in a couple days).
Other devil's advocate posts at Blueprint for Financial Prosperity:
"You don't need college to succeed"
"Don't get married"
"Adjustable-rate mortgages are awesome"
