Hopefully, everyone has seen the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off! The movie is one of my all time favorites. For me, it’s just one of those movies you don’t ever get tired of watching and in my opinion; it was just as good the tenth time as it was the first time. 
A memorable quote from the move is when Ferris says: “Life moves pretty fast. You don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Those are actually wise words for a kid in high school, but words we should closely pay attention to as adults. Ferris is right. Life moves pretty fast sometimes. But is it because life moves fast, or because we move fast?
If you think about it for a moment, as adults, we experience quite a bit of hurry at times in our lives.
The hurry disease
In his book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted, John Ortberg talks about a disease many of us have called hurry sickness. So, what is hurried sickness? Well, many of us feel like we need to hurry at absolutely everything we do, including financial management and decisions with money. Just think about these common examples:
Examples of hurried financial decisions
- Work to retire young fast and rich
- Buy now on credit versus with cash later
- Get rich quick schemes or ideas to make you rich overnight
- Extreme financial goal attainment mindset versus planning for some entertainment or celebration along the way. No time to play!
- Tinkering with investments, or selling quickly when the market isn’t performing
- Becoming susceptible to limited time offers and sales gimmicks
- Ignoring your checking account or not managing cash flow because of a lack of time
- Make big purchases, such as with a house or car, based on your own decisions and not seeking the advice of others such as a spouse or trusted advisor
Unfortunately, all the efforts to hurry and move fast in our financial lives tend to have negative impacts to our financial health. They often result in people spending more money, or losing money amongst other things.
Impacts of hurried financial decisions
- Hurry leads to more stress and anxiety. Especially, when the hurrying doesn’t pay off.
- Hurry increases the opportunity to make mistakes. Have you ever rushed through balancing your check book and go back later and find it full of mistakes?
- Hurry leads to bad decisions. Who has looked back upon a financial decision and realized they made a mistake because they were in a hurry? Perhaps someone wanted to rush you through the signing of a new car loan? You hurried and regretted your mistake later.
Hurrying, in all of its shapes and forms limits our ability to be and do our best as financial stewards. Even more disheartening, hurrying, can rob you of your joy in life.
How to eliminate hurried financial decisions
Find time for quiet
It’s important we all make time for ourselves and find time to step away from the craziness sometimes life can bring. It requires separating yourself from a large list of to do’s to think about and plan your finances. Find a place that is quiet and go to that spot every time you need to create your monthly budget or in reviewing your cash flow. Distractions often lead to poor decisions or neglecting to plan properly.
Resist temptations around you
There are so many temptations around us that lead us into a life of hurry. While all these pressures can make you feel like you need to jump into the rat race, resist them. Go at your pace and avoid comparing yourself to your neighbor who is on a different financial journey.
Plan ahead and plan often
The more you can plan for events, the less you’ll have to prepare at the last minute. Spend 10-15 minutes each day just planning. Resist the temptation to dive into work immediately. Gather your thoughts and plan your way.
Practice slowness
One of Ortberg’s ideas from his book is to practice the art of slowness. The next time you’re in a grocery story, choose the longer line. Also, don’t rush through the store trying to get all of your groceries as fast as you can. Practicing smaller acts of slowness, such as driving in the slow lane home, can help carry this steady pace over to other areas of your lives.
Is it ever okay to hurry in making financial decisions?
Probably a good example of when it might be okay to hurry is paying off debt in order to live a debt free life. I don’t know that I could ever recommend someone take their time in paying off credit card or consumer debt But as debt is paid off, remember to celebrate each debt milestone along the way which can be an example of how to incorporate unhurriedness into your debt pay off plan.
Final thoughts
The opposite of hurry is patience or steadiness. While people often want to accomplish much quickly in reaching financial milestones and making financial decisions, patience and steadiness will enable you to make wiser decisions. Remember the examples of hurry from above? Think about these examples again written form an unhurried wise financial decision perspective…
Examples of unhurried wise financial decisions
- Work to become debt free and retire with a purpose
- Save now and buy with cash later
- Get wealthy over time
- Celebrate attaining each financial goals along the way
- Don’t make hasty decisions based on market fluctuations. If you’re tempted work with a trusted advisor or counselor.
- Ignore limited time offers and other gimmicks. There will always be a good offer.
- Review your checking account and cash flow for a short period of time each day
- Make thoughtful, slow decisions for major purchases such as a car of house
What examples of hurried financial decisions can you think of and how do you unhurry them?
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