Financial planner: What to do when you make money mistakes

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• Everyone makes money
  mistakes.
• Certified financial planner Eric Roberge shares his
  advice on what to do when you’ve made a mistake with your
  money. 
• Instead of beating yourself up for the money mistake,
  acknowledge that it happened, and take responsibility.
• Commit to making better financial decisions, and
  actually take action. 

Let’s take a quick quiz. Count
how many times you answer “yes” to the following
questions:

Have you ever…

1. Overdrafted your checking
   account?
2. Forgotten to pay a bill?
3. Spent more than you
   earned?
4. Acted on bad financial
   advice?
5. Chosen to spend your money
   instead of save it?
6. Ignored a financial problem
   instead of dealing with it?
7. Procrastinated on an important
   task in your financial life until it was too late?

Now, add up the total. Is your
score “1” or higher?  

Congratulations! You’re perfectly
normal.

Everyone makes mistakes with their
money

.
The first thing you need to do
when you make a money
mistake is to understand that it’s not the end of the word,
and you are not alone. Even financial professionals, money
experts, and so called “gurus” of personal finance advice can
make financial mistakes.

Once you recognize that it
happens to everyone, there are a few other steps you should take
that can help you better deal with money mishaps.

1. Don’t beat yourself up

Before you can move forward, you
need to let go. I can’t tell you how many times people have told
me they waited to ask for help with their finances because they
were ashamed or embarrassed about mistakes they made months, or
even years, ago.

But what’s done is done — there
is no use in beating yourself up over it. And the longer you wait
to address the mistake or ask for help in fixing an error, the
worse your situation will get.

Read more: The biggest mistakes 7 billionaires have
made with their money

However, “don’t beat yourself up”
doesn’t mean forget about the mistake — or blame someone else for
it.

2. Take responsibility

This is often the hardest part of
dealing with a money mistake: acknowledging that

you

messed up.
It can be easier to let go when you feel it
is not your fault, but instead of pointing fingers,

take ownership of the
mistake

.

Let’s pretend for a moment you
overdrafted your checking account or went into debt because
someone hit your car and you didn’t have enough cash to cover the
repair bill.

Surely the other driver is at
fault for your predicament, right?

REUTERS/Alessandro
Bianchi

No. It might have been the other
driver’s fault for

causing the accident,

but that driver did not force you
to overdraw your checking account.

You

were the cause of the overdraft because you
didn’t


have an emergency fund

available for these kinds of
situations.

Could you have predicted someone
slamming into your car and the subsequent repair bill?
No, but life is unpredictable and
sometimes things go wrong. You can plan ahead, even if you don’t
know what specifically might not go your way, and set aside some
cash to use if an unexpected or emergency expense comes up that
you can’t otherwise afford.

In this instance, taking
responsibility would mean saying, “I made a mistake. I didn’t
have an emergency fund.

But now I’m going to take action to build
one.”

You might find that taking
responsibility actually leaves you feeling more
empowered. 
Once you
take responsibility, life is no longer something that just
happens to you. Life becomes something in which you have power
and agency, and then you’re more well-positioned not only to
avoid future mistakes but also to 

be
financially successful by making better
choices

.

Which brings us to step number
three:

3. Commit to making better choices

If you made a mistake,
acknowledged it, and took responsibility for yourself, the next
step is to commit to learning from what happened and preventing
yourself from making that same mistake again.

It’s never too late to get back
on track, or to start making progress toward the kind of
financial success you want.

Read more: 9 money mistakes to avoid in your
40s

Again, there’s no point in
ruminating on the past. The only thing that matters is your
commitment to taking the right steps, right now.

4. Turn your commitment into action

As James Clear writes

in his new book,

Atomic Habits



,

“people think they lack motivation when what
they really lack is clarity. It is not always obvious when and
where to take action.”

This is the main challenge you
face now, as you prepare to move on from your money mistake and
make better financial choices in the future.

You might be very motivated to
succeed — but without the clarity to know what to do, how to do
it, or what to focus on, you may continue to make mistakes
despite your best intentions.

You need the following in place
if you expect to start doing better with your money, and continue
building good habits into the future:

• A way to track money coming in
  and money going out of your accounts each month (in other
  words, your cash flow).
• A method to prioritize both
  your needs
  
  
  and your financial goals
  
  .
• A system to get and stay
  organized as you work toward what you want.
• A guide who can help you check
  your blind spots and filter through all the information that’s
  out there so you only follow the best advice for you.
• An accountability partner to
  ensure you continue taking action (even when you don’t want to
  or lose motivation).

This is exactly what, as a
financial planner, my


specific planning process helps people
accomplish

.

Eric Roberge is a
certified financial planner.

Photo by Dina
Konovalov

But you don’t necessarily need to
hire an expert to help you (although depending on the complexity
of your financial situation, you should consider it).

You can check these boxes by
using apps and tools. You can read personal finance books and
follow podcasts from experts in the field. You can join
communities where you can share tips and get accountability from
others who, like you, are committed to achieving success.

The most important thing is that
you take the first step — and that you take it now.

Everyone makes money mistakes,
but few people go through this process of learning from them and
improving because of them.

Be one of those few, and you’ll
also be on your way to being one of the few who enjoys true
financial success.

Eric Roberge is a certified
financial planner and the founder of Beyond Your
Hammock.