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Blog71: Just Start…..Please!

20th May 2018

Paddy Delaney

This week we are trying to share a simple message, an appeal to you, one which we hope will help move things forward for you in a positive direction. When we procrastinate about or delay committing to positive action we will always manage to rationalise it in our own heads, always! We are masters at it!

Some of us are more prone to this than others, personally it’s one I regularly struggle with. No matter how blatant our delaying tactics are we will quickly come up with an excuse, a rationale as to why delaying it is the right thing to do. Even if we know deep-down that we are dragging our heels and jeopardising the thing that we really do want to do, achieve or get. That’s what makes us human, and so very interesting beings!

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A friend of mine shared with me an example of the very opposite of procrastination today. She excitedly told me about her mother-in-law who had just handed her 17-year-old son a cheque for €8,000 to help with his college expenses. Her mother-in-law had been saving a relatively small amount every single month since her son was born. Every month for 17 years, a relatively tiny amount was saved, patiently being squirreled away, motivated by the desire to eventually hand over a considerable amount of money to go towards a young man’s education and progress through life. Good on you Granny!

Irrespective of whether you feel you need to be saving a small amount or a big amount, or whether you feel you should have taken steps to start something, or begun to pay-off something then start now, why wait! If Granny had looked at the small amount that she was going to be putting aside but decided it was too small to make a difference, what would have happened to the €8,000 that she accumulated? Why, it would have been spent on stuff, on nothing that amounts to anything of consequence…….instead she decided to commit to action, to create something of tangible benefit and consequence to a loved-one.

Whether it is for a loved-one, or indeed for yourself, all I ask is that you start, whatever it is! It may be a pension you’ve been putting off, it may be a regular saving that you’ve been questioning and reneging-on because you wanna spend it, it maybe an investment in the markets but you’ve been waiting to find THE perfect low cost investment. Perhaps you are waiting until the perfect advisor, sent direct from God, arrives at your door (they are legally prohibited from door-knocking by the way so that should never happen!)…….time and time again it has been proven that in the long-run it will work out so much better if you just start now, don’t wait, start now.

Yes of course you will want to do your due diligence, to make sure you are not entering into something that will turn out to be a poison chalice, that goes without saying, but please stop using the excuse of waiting for the perfect solution before starting!

If you do start, your goal will become closer. That deposit for your future home is one step near, that desired pension pot will be closer to becoming a reality, that investment will be invested and will be benefiting from the constant upward growth that equity markets have offered investors since records began. We could talk about the benefits of compounding and do some calculations to show just how phenomonal it is but you know all that, you are aware that it’s costly to not be in the game…….so what are you waiting for!

Start.

Written with nothing but positive intent.

You’re a legend!

Paddy Delaney

QFA | RPA | APA | Qualified Coach

 

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