Getting the Right Diagnosis

Let’s say you’ve been feeling under the weather for about a week or so. After accepting that you’re not improving, you go see your doctor. You explain your symptoms…you’ve been feeling tired, have no appetite, experienced night sweats on three occasions and chills throughout the day. You’re asked some routine questions, “When did you first start to feel bad? What medications have you taken? Are there any other symptoms?” He takes note of your basic vitals, and as he leaves the exam room, lets you know that he’ll write up something that should help you feel better.

His medical assistant returns with piece of paper on which is scribbled the doctor’s prescribed treatment. “Add a layer of clothes to avoid chills, drink plenty of water, and get adequate rest”. Would you feel that you were evaluated properly? Are you confident that your condition has been adequately diagnosed?

Probably not, right? But when it comes to our financial health, we‘re so willing to apply superficial advice that overlooks the more concealed threats to our economic well-being. A majority of issues that you need to focus on may not directly relate to financial decisions. Sometimes, the things you need to consider most involve behaviors, your perceptions or your emotional ties. When thinking about your financial fixes, it may not literally be your money that is the problem.

Over this next month, sit down and review different aspects of your finances and begin to evaluate your financial health. Resist focusing on the symptoms and give thought to those issues that contribute to your economic dis-ease. Just as adding several layers of clothes is an inappropriate cure for body chills that are symptomatic of a bacterial infection, your money matters may not be remedied by an apparent financial fix. You can do little to bring about change unless you realize where change is needed. This is a dose of reality that may be the most potent medicine in improving your financial wellbeing.