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The custodian mindset

There is a phase in our financial lives that is purely about accumulation. We work hard, we save, and we watch the numbers grow. We are taught that a bigger number equals a better life.

But there often comes a point where the goal of “more” stops bringing satisfaction and starts bringing anxiety.

We see this often. People spend decades building a fortress of security, only to find themselves trapped inside it. They worry about losing what they have built. They obsess over market dips. They treat their wealth like a static storehouse that must be guarded at all costs.

This is the trap of the accumulation mindset. It tells us that money is a scorecard to be maximised, rather than a resource to be utilised.

There is a healthier, more dynamic way to view wealth. It is the shift from being a “collector” to being a “custodian”; from storehouses to stewardship.

A collector focuses on gathering. A custodian focuses on care, direction, and purpose.

When we view our money through the lens of custodianship, we acknowledge a simple truth: we are, in the grand scheme of things, temporary managers of these resources. We don’t just own the money; we are responsible for what the money does.

While a storehouse is stagnant, a custodian ensures there is a consistent flow.

The storehouse mindset is often driven by fear. The fear of running out. The fear of the unknown, and this fear urges us to build higher walls and tighter locks.

The custodian mindset is driven by purpose. It asks a different set of questions. Instead of asking, “How much can I keep?”, it asks, “What is this helping me achieve?”

When you begin to answer that question, the grip of fear loosens. You realise that your wealth has three main jobs:

  1. To provide security for you and your family (the foundation).
  2. To provide joy and experiences in the present (the oxygen).
  3. To provide support for the people or causes you care about (the legacy).

Many people struggle to move from saving to spending, or from accumulating to giving. They are waiting for “someday”.

But meaningful financial planning isn’t just about ensuring you don’t run out of money in the future; it’s about ensuring you don’t run out of life in the present.

If your plan is just a storehouse, you may end up as the richest person in the graveyard. But if your plan is a tool for stewardship, you get to see the impact of your wealth while you are still here to enjoy it. You get to see your children buy their first home, or support a charity that changes lives, or take that trip that creates memories for a lifetime.

This doesn’t mean being reckless. It means being intentional.

It means realising that money is like water. If it is hoarded and stagnant, it becomes toxic. If it flows—directed by your values—it brings life to everything it touches.

So, take a look at what you have built. Are you guarding a storehouse, or are you managing a resource?

Remember, it’s about meaning, not money. Peace of mind comes not from the size of the pile, but from the clarity of the purpose.

The boring basics

In the world of finance, it is easy to get distracted by the shiny objects. We hear about the next big tech stock, cryptocurrency, or complex hedge fund strategies. We are naturally drawn to the exciting, the new, and the sophisticated.

Especially after the holidays, when we’ve sat with everyone who seems to have “done so much better” than us.

But true financial success is rarely built on complex, exciting moves… and it certainly isn’t based on comparing ourselves with others!

It is built on the ruthless execution of the basics.

Think of it like building a house. The fixtures and fittings might get all the compliments, but it is the foundation that keeps the roof over your head when the storm comes. If you want to build a plan that is flexible enough to adapt but strong enough to hold, you need to master these six pillars.

  1. Liquidity and cash reserves

A solid investment strategy also acknowledges that you must maintain an emergency fund.

It’s often recommended to hold three to six months of expenditure in an easily accessible cash account. This is not an investment; it is an insurance policy against life’s surprises. It prevents you from having to sell assets at the wrong time (like during a market crash) just to fix the geyser, replace a portion of your roof, or bridge a gap in income.

  1. Risk management and protection

We often focus on “wealth accumulation” (offence) and forget “wealth protection” (defence).

If you were unable to work due to illness or injury, how long would your financial plan survive? Income protection, critical illness cover, and life insurance are not fun to pay for, but they are non-negotiable for a robust financial plan. You are your greatest asset; ensure you are insured!

  1. Cash flow modelling

You cannot manage what you do not measure. This isn’t just about budgeting or denying yourself coffee; it is about understanding your “burn rate”.

Cash flow modelling helps to visualise your future. It helps us answer the big questions: “Do I have enough?”, “When can I stop working?”, and “Can I afford to help the kids?” It turns a static spreadsheet into a living map of your future.

  1. Asset allocation

This is the engine of your growth. Research consistently shows that the mix of assets you hold (stocks, bonds, property, cash) determines your returns far more than stock picking or market timing.

A strong portfolio is globally diversified. It accepts that markets are volatile in the short term to capture the returns of human ingenuity in the long term.

  1. Tax efficiency

It is not just about what you make; it is about what you keep.

Whether it is maximising pension contributions, utilising tax-free allowances, or structuring investments correctly across different jurisdictions, tax efficiency provides a guaranteed return. It is one of the few “free lunches” in finance.

  1. Estate planning

This is the final act of care for the people you love.

Does your will reflect your current wishes? Do you have lasting powers of attorney in place? Without these, your family could face a legal and administrative nightmare at the worst possible time. A good plan ensures your legacy is a blessing, not a burden.

  1. Alignment and context (a bonus point!)

This is the most critical step, yet it is the one often missed by spreadsheets. Before we put on the financial planner hat, we must put on the life hat.

You can have the most tax-efficient, perfectly allocated portfolio in the world, but if it doesn’t align with what truly matters to you, it is worthless. A “good” return isn’t just a percentage; it’s the ability to live life on your own terms.

Your plan must be built around your specific anxieties, your family dynamics, and your wildest dreams. Strong financial plans are not perfect. They’re personal.

These steps are simple to understand, but they are not always easy to implement. They require discipline, patience, and the ability to ignore the noise.

But if you get these boring basics right, you earn the right to stop worrying. You build a floor below which you cannot fall, giving you the confidence to reach for the life you truly want.

Your values are the foundation, your money is the tool. Make sure the tool is sharp.

The high cost of hurry

We live in an era that seems to worship speed. We are conditioned to believe that faster is always better. Faster internet, same-day delivery, instant replies, and real-time market updates.

When we face a problem—whether it is a stalled career, a family complication, or a sudden shift in the economy—our instinct is often to match the speed of the issue with the speed of our response.

We feel a compulsion to do something.

This is the tyranny of urgency. It whispers that if we don’t act immediately, we are losing control.

But in our experience, the most expensive decisions are rarely the ones we failed to make quickly. They are the ones we made in a rush.

When we are driven by urgency, our vision narrows. Psychologists call this “tunnelling”. We become hyper-focused on the immediate threat or opportunity, losing sight of the broader context.

In financial terms, this looks like changing an investment strategy based on one month of bad news, or rushing to buy a property because “everyone else is doing it”.

Urgency feels like action, but it is often just anxiety in disguise. It creates motion, but not necessarily progress. Real financial wisdom usually requires the opposite of speed. It requires the courage to pause when the world is telling you to run.

This is where we move from urgency to clarity, and the fog starts to clear.

Clarity is not about knowing exactly what the future holds; none of us have a crystal ball. Clarity is about knowing exactly who you are and what you value, regardless of what the external world is doing.

When we operate from a place of clarity, we stop asking, “What is the market doing?” and start asking, “What does my life need?”

If you are feeling the pressure to make a big decision, or if you simply feel overwhelmed by the noise, here are three ways to shift gears.

  1. Create a gap 

Viktor Frankl famously wrote that between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose. If you feel an urgent impulse to move money, switch jobs, or make a significant purchase, enforce a mandatory “cooling off” period. Sleep on it. Walk on it. Give your logical brain a chance to catch up with your emotional brain.

  1. Return to the foundation 

Your values are the foundation; your money is the tool. When faced with a complex problem, go back to the blueprint. Does this potential solution bring you closer to the life you want to build? Does it align with your definition of security and freedom? If the answer is “I don’t know”, then the urgency is a distraction.

  1. Seek a second opinion 

We all have blind spots. A trusted partner, whether a spouse, friend or financial planner, can help you see around corners. Their role is not just to give you answers, but to ask the right questions that help the fog lift.

It is easy to confuse a quiet strategy with a passive one. But standing still and thinking clearly is an active choice. Plans that are flexible enough to adapt, but strong enough to hold, are rarely built in a panic. They are built with intention.

So, when next you feel the tug of urgency, give yourself permission to stop. Breathe.

We don’t just plan for markets, we plan for life. And life is too important to be rushed.

The paradox of plenty

We tend to assume that the journey to financial success is linear. We imagine that as our net worth rises, our stress levels will fall. We believe that once we hit a certain number (let’s call it the “freedom number”), anxiety will simply evaporate.

Yet, in our conversations with successful individuals and families, we often find the opposite is true.

There is a strange gravity to success. As you accumulate more, the stakes feel higher. The focus shifts from “how do I grow this?” to “how do I not lose this?”

When you are starting out, risk is a necessity; it is the engine of growth. But when you have “arrived”, risk transforms into a threat. This is where success itself can become a risk factor to your peace of mind and your decision-making.

This is known as loss aversion. The pain of losing money is psychologically about twice as powerful as the joy of gaining money.

As your wealth grows, you have more to lose. This can lead to a state of paralysis. We see investors hoarding cash in high-inflation environments because they are terrified of market volatility, guaranteeing a real-term loss in exchange for the illusion of safety.

Paradoxically, the fear of losing your wealth can become the very thing that erodes it.

This is what we call the complexity trap. You see, success rarely comes in a simple package. It usually brings complexity with it.

You might have business interests, cross-border tax liabilities, multiple properties, and trusts. With every layer of complexity, the mental load increases.

Suddenly, you aren’t just managing money; you are managing a system. This complexity can obscure clarity. It becomes difficult to see if you are actually making progress or just spinning plates.

Perhaps the subtle risk of success is the “golden handcuffs” of lifestyle creep.

As income rises, expenses tend to rise to meet it. The bigger house, the private education, the club memberships. These are wonderful privileges, but they also raise your “burn rate”.

When your lifestyle requires a high level of income to sustain it, you lose flexibility. You may find yourself staying in a high-pressure career you no longer enjoy, simply to service the lifestyle that success built. The tool (money) has become the master.

So, how do we inoculate ourselves against these risks?

It starts with defining “enough”. This is not a ceiling on your ambition; it is a floor for your contentment.

It involves separating your net worth from your self-worth. It means building a plan that accounts for the emotional weight of money, not just the mathematical efficiency. If you feel the weight of your success more than the freedom of it, it might be time to pause.

We need to ensure your plan is robust enough to protect what you have built, but flexible enough to let you enjoy it. We don’t just plan for markets, we plan for life.

Sometimes, the best financial move isn’t another investment; it is the decision to stop worrying about the score and start looking at the game.

Peace of mind is a return worth investing in.

Action creates momentum

Have you ever found yourself waiting for the “right time” to tackle a difficult task?

It may be a complex conversation you need to have with a partner, a looming deadline, or simply opening an envelope from the tax people that you have moved from one side of the desk to the other for a week.

We often tell ourselves that we are waiting for motivation. We are waiting to feel ready, energised, or confident before we begin.

But behavioural science suggests we might have the equation backwards. We often assume that feeling good leads to doing good. However, more often than not, it is the doing that leads to the feeling!

THE TRAP OF WAITING

When we feel low, anxious, or simply overwhelmed by the noise of modern life, our natural instinct is to retreat. We pull back to conserve energy. We tell ourselves we will look at the financial plan or book that family trip “once things settle down”.

The trouble is that avoidance tends to feed itself. By avoiding the things that bring us mastery or connection, we cut ourselves off from the very sources of energy we need to feel better.

There is a concept in psychology called “behavioural activation”. While it sounds technical, the premise is beautifully simple: do not wait for your mood to dictate your actions.

Instead, use your actions to shift your mood.

Structure and small habits can nudge us toward flourishing, even when we don’t quite feel like it yet.

HERE’S HOW THIS CAN HELP:

In your financial life

Anxiety often thrives in ambiguity. When we don’t know the full picture of our finances, our imagination tends to fill in the blanks with worst-case scenarios.

If you have been avoiding a specific money task, try scheduling a brief, non-negotiable appointment with yourself. It doesn’t need to be a marathon session. Just 10 minutes to organise your documents, review your spending, or read that update from your planner.

Action can be the antidote to anxiety. Peace of mind is a return worth investing in, and often the price of admission is simply getting started.

In your relationships

True wealth is rarely found on a spreadsheet; it is found in the quality of our connections. Yet when we are busy or stressed, our social world is often the first thing to shrink. We rely on text messages or likes on social media, which are superficially efficient but rarely deeply nourishing.

Try to put something real in the diary this week. A walk, a coffee, or a phone call with no agenda other than to connect. Do it even if you feel tired. The energy you get back from genuine human connection is almost always greater than the energy required to show up.

In your personal growth

We talk a lot about “retirement planning”, but we prefer to think of it as “life planning”. What are you actually retiring to?

A life of flourishing requires a sense of purpose and mastery. This is a great time to start a tiny habit related to a skill you have always wanted to learn. Pick up the guitar, plant a garden, or write the first page of the journal.

This isn’t about becoming a professional or monetising a hobby. It is about the feeling of competence and growth. It is about reminding yourself that you are capable of learning and doing new things.

Permission to be imperfect

Please remember that this is a permission slip, not a punishment note. You do not need to overhaul your entire life by Monday. Strong financial plans are not perfect. They’re personal. And the same goes for our daily habits.

If you are feeling stuck or if the path ahead looks a little foggy, you don’t need to see the whole map. You just need to take one small, purposeful step.

Usually, that is enough to let the light in.

Diworsification or Diversification?

We often talk about the emotional side of money, but sometimes the barrier to peace of mind is purely logistical.

Over a lifetime of working, moving, and saving, it is normal to accumulate a “financial junk drawer”. You might have a pension from a job you left ten years ago, a savings account opened on a whim, an investment app you stopped checking, and perhaps an old policy collecting dust in a filing cabinet.

Maybe you’ve emigrated recently and had to explore a whole new landscape of financial systems and products.

There is a common misconception that having money scattered across many institutions provides safety. It feels like you are avoiding “putting all your eggs in one basket”.

However, in our experience, this is often “diworsification” rather than diversification. When your wealth is fragmented, it is impossible to see the whole picture. You cannot accurately assess your risk, your true costs, or your performance. You are flying blind.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Bringing your financial life under one virtual roof doesn’t just tidy up your paperwork; it clears your mind.

If you are ready to turn the chaos into clarity, here is a practical checklist to guide you.

  1. Gather all your accounts

Start by playing detective. Locate every statement, login, and policy document. This includes workplace pensions, private investment accounts, and even old bank accounts.

Don’t ignore the small ones. Those “forgotten” accounts often carry high administrative fees that quietly erode their value over time. Get everything out on the kitchen table, or into one secure digital folder, so we can see the full scope of what you own.

  1. Label and document key details

Once you have the pile, you need to understand the data. For each account, note down:

  • The tax status: Is it tax-deferred, tax-free, or taxable?
  • The fees: What is the “all-in” cost? (Look for platform fees, fund charges, and advice fees).
  • The access: Are there penalties for withdrawal? Is the money locked away until a certain age?
  • The beneficiaries: Are your nominations all up to date?
  1. Review and simplify

Now look at the underlying investments. This is where we often find “overlap”. You might own the same US technology stocks in five different accounts, meaning you are far less diversified than you think.

Ask yourself: does this account serve a distinct purpose? If you have four different “pots” all doing roughly the same job, it may be time to consolidate them. Merging them can often reduce fees and make rebalancing your portfolio significantly easier.

  1. Check cross-border considerations

For our globally mobile clients, this step is critical. Financial products do not always travel well.

An investment that is tax-efficient in one country might be punitively taxed in another. Before you move money across borders or consolidate international accounts, you need to check the tax treaties and reporting requirements of your current (and future) residence.

This is a technical minefield, and a moment where “slow down to make better decisions” is vital advice.

  1. Update, store, and review regularly

Once you have consolidated, create a “master file”. This is a single document or secure portal that lists where everything is. Share this location with your spouse or a trusted family member.

A streamlined financial life is easier to protect and easier to manage.

When your finances are scattered, decision-making becomes paralysing. When they are consolidated, you regain control. You can see your asset allocation at a glance. You can see if you are on track. You stop guessing and start planning.

Remember, we don’t just plan for markets, we plan for life. And life is a lot lighter when you aren’t carrying around a dozen different login passwords and a nagging sense that you’ve missed something.

Break the cycle: why it’s time to talk about money

For generations, families have carried financial stress in silence. Conversations about money are so often still avoided, shared in whispers, or shut down entirely. Sometimes out of shame. Sometimes out of tradition.

Often out of fear.

But what if we could change that?

What if you could be the generation that stops the silence and starts the conversation?

Because here’s the truth: secrecy breeds anxiety, not security. And when we don’t talk about money, we don’t just miss out on financial education, we miss out on emotional growth. That silence can cause misunderstandings, misalignment, and even mistrust, especially when it comes to inheritances, long-term care, or lifestyle changes.

You might have grown up in a household where financial matters were “none of your business.” Or where wealth came with guilt, and hardship came with shame. But you don’t have to carry that into the future.

You can break the cycle.

We’re still learning just how much secrecy costs us. Silence doesn’t always protect us; sometimes it isolates us.

It stops us from planning together as a family or a company. It prevents us from learning from one another. And it often leaves the next generation feeling confused, unprepared, or even resentful.

In many families, for example, adult children first learn about estate plans after something tragic happens — only to be left guessing what the real intentions were. Others grow up never learning how to budget or invest, because those topics were “too grown-up” to discuss.

By the time we are managing our own households, we’re often flying blind — repeating the same patterns we saw or swinging to the other extreme. Not from wisdom, but from reaction.

Breaking a generational pattern doesn’t mean you need to expose every detail of your financial life. But it does mean creating an environment where openness and honesty are welcomed.

That might look like:

– Talking to your children about how you make spending decisions

– Discussing your values before your numbers

– Explaining why you’ve made certain estate planning choices

– Inviting questions, even if you don’t have all the answers

And if you don’t know how to start those conversations — you’re not alone. That’s where financial planning comes in. Creating a safe space to talk.

Part of our role as financial planners is to help you clarify your goals, understand your choices, and communicate them clearly. That includes helping you bridge the gap between generations.

We can help you:

  1. Create family-friendly versions of your financial plan
  2. Prepare for intergenerational conversations around wealth and responsibility
  3. Build systems that align with your values, not just your income

Of course, this doesn’t replace emotional support. If you’re working through deep-seated financial trauma or anxiety, we encourage you to work with a therapist or trauma-informed professional. Financial planning isn’t counselling, but it can be a powerful complement.

Because peace of mind isn’t just about how much you have — it’s about how well you’ve communicated what it’s for, and who it’s for.

You don’t need to carry unspoken expectations or unresolved emotions into your financial future. This is your chance to build something better. To be the generation that talks about it. That plans wisely. That shares openly.

To break the silence and begin a new story.

Transformation takes more than information

(This is the last blog of three about biases and how they impact our financial planning, all published this month.)

If you’ve ever walked away from a brilliant webinar or insightful podcast thinking, “Yes! I’m going to make a change,” and then done… nothing, welcome to the club!

Change is hard. Not because we’re lazy, but because our brains are wired for survival, not clarity. In this final blog of our series on cognitive bias, we look at the subtler biases that shape our sense of normal, our timeline for success, and even our self-worth. These aren’t always loud, but they’re powerful.

Let’s dig into a few that may be influencing you more than you think.

Constancy / baseline bias

We tend to normalise whatever we experience repeatedly, even if it’s stressful or unhealthy. If your household never talked about money growing up, silence might feel “normal.” If debt was always present, financial pressure might feel “expected.”

This becomes your emotional baseline. It takes real work (and often some outside perspective) to reset that baseline and build a new normal. One rooted in calm, clarity, and sustainable choices.

Consciousness (readiness) bias

Some things can’t be seen from where we are.

This isn’t about intelligence; it’s about perspective. We may simply not be ready to take in certain truths until something shifts. A relationship deepens. A crisis hits. Or we hear a story that unlocks something. (choice or trauma)

This is why compassionate financial advice matters. It’s not about shaming someone for what they haven’t done. It’s about walking with them until they’re ready to see something differently — and act on it.

Cleverness bias

Sometimes, we’re so determined not to be fooled that we become cynical. Especially if we’ve been burnt before by a dodgy financial product, a business partner, or even a parent who mismanaged money.

We distrust everything that sounds good, write off new ideas as too naïve, or reject help as unnecessary. But suspicion is not the same as wisdom. Building trust again, with yourself, and with your financial team, is part of healing.

Cash bias

It’s hard to question the system that pays you. If your job, career, or business relies on a certain status quo, like high stress, unhealthy margins, or keeping up appearances, it can be incredibly hard to challenge it.

But avoiding the question doesn’t mean the cost isn’t real. Separating the values of who pays you from what you truly believe or want is helpful in removing cash bias.

Conspiracy bias

When we feel threatened or ashamed, we tend to invent explanations that make us feel better, even if they’re not true! “The system is rigged.” “There’s no point trying.” “People like me don’t get ahead.”

Sometimes, these feelings are rooted in very real experiences of injustice. But the danger is when they freeze us. When they become a story we repeat instead of a prompt to reflect, reframe, and respond.

Bias is human. But awareness is powerful in that it enables us to see differently and choose differently. And financial planning, when done well, is not just a numbers game; it’s a chance to reflect, recalibrate, and reset the trajectory of your life.

Hopefully these three blogs will be an invitation to self-reflect, not to become self-critical. An invitation to pause. To ask, “What’s shaping me?” And then, with support, to shape something better.

Plan responsibly and still live beautifully

There’s a myth that responsible planning means sacrificing joy. This myth often has people believing that if you budget, you’ll feel restricted. If you invest, you’ll have to wait forever. If you plan ahead, you’re not really living in the moment.

But what if the opposite is true?

What if responsible planning is the very thing that allows us to live beautifully, with intention, freedom, and peace of mind? Responsibility is not a restriction.

For some of us, the word “responsible” often conjures up images of paperwork, rules, and saying no: the class captain, the union rep and the one who keeps others in line. But real financial responsibility isn’t about saying no to the things you love. It’s about knowing what matters most and making space for it… consistently.

It’s about having the right guardrails in place so that life’s bumps don’t throw you off course. It’s about making decisions today that your future self will thank you for; not out of fear, but from a place of calm confidence. To borrow a line from our previous blog; “The cost of your good habits is in the present. The cost of your bad habits is in the future.” (James Clear)

Planning is a way of paying in small, manageable steps so you’re not left paying all at once when life catches up.

And, as we keep learning: beauty needs room to breathe.

Beautiful living doesn’t always mean luxury. Often, it simply means alignment.

Time for the people you love. Space to explore what lights you up. Margin in your days, in your calendar, and in your finances.

It’s very difficult to experience any of this when you’re running from one crisis to the next, or making decisions out of pressure rather than purpose.

A beautiful life is one where your values and your resources work together, where you’re not chasing someone else’s definition of success, but crafting your own. This is why one of the most powerful tensions in financial planning is the balance between vision and discipline.

Vision gives your life direction. Discipline gives your vision durability.

That doesn’t mean denying yourself or sticking to a rigid plan no matter what. Life is far too dynamic for that.

But it does mean having a structure that’s flexible and intentional. A plan that can absorb surprises, adapt to change, and still keep you anchored in what matters.

We often need to be reminded that the goal of planning isn’t perfection; it’s preparedness. You don’t need every answer, but you do need a framework for responding wisely to the questions life throws your way.

Beautiful living doesn’t necessarily mean big houses, perfect holidays, and curated routines. For most of us, it’s simpler — and deeper — than that.

It’s the ease that comes from knowing your bills are paid, your will is updated, your family is protected, and your goals have a roadmap. It’s waking up with options, not obligations. It’s being present in the life you’ve chosen, not distracted by what’s missing.

You can plan responsibly and still live beautifully.

In fact, we’d argue you can’t have one without the other.

Being “rational” isn’t always the goal

If financial planning were just about logic, calculators would replace conversations. But as we all know, that’s not how life works.

Your relationship with money isn’t built solely on maths; it’s built on meaning. And meaning is shaped by how we see the world, how we were raised, the communities we belong to, and what we believe makes us “good” or “successful” or “safe.”

So let’s pack those calculators away for just a second.

This second blog in our series on bias looks at how identity-based and emotion-driven patterns can subtly (or not-so-subtly) shape financial decisions — even when they conflict with our goals!

Let’s explore a few examples:

Conservative / liberal bias

We’re not talking political parties, but rather the emotional undercurrents that shape how we define fairness, authority, liberty, or security.

Some people gravitate towards fairness and nurturing, wanting to provide, protect, and support. Others lean towards loyalty, structure, or personal freedom. These instincts affect how we approach money.

Are you more likely to help others first, or protect your independence? Do you seek consensus or prefer taking bold solo action? A financial plan that ignores these drivers might look great on paper, but won’t feel sustainable in practice.

Certainty / closure bias

Our brains hate not knowing. In fact, we’ll often grab onto the first answer that makes us feel safe — even if it’s not the best answer.

You see this in how some people rush to sell investments when markets dip, or how they hold onto outdated plans because at least “something” is in place. But reaching for closure too quickly can cost more in the long run.

The better approach? Create a plan that holds space for uncertainty. One that’s responsive, not reactive.

Comfort bias

Yes… this was mentioned in the previous blog, but it deserves repeating. Comfort bias is the emotional nudge to stay exactly where you are, even when the cost of inaction is high.

We avoid facing estate plans because they make us think about death. We delay tough conversations about money with family because they’re awkward. We procrastinate updating our cover or our will or our risk protection because “it’s not urgent today.”

A good planner helps you move gently, but firmly, through this fog. Small steps, big difference.

Catastrophe bias

We remember the big scary stories: job losses, market crashes, that one time a friend lost everything. But we forget the quiet, consistent wins, the savings that grew over time, the insurance that protected a loved one, the plan that kept a family steady during chaos.

It’s not that catastrophes don’t matter. But they’re not the whole story. Financial resilience is about zooming out, not just reacting to what made headlines last week.

Contact bias

If we’ve never truly listened to someone different from us — a different culture, class, gender, or generation — our assumptions often go unchecked.

This shows up in how we approach generational wealth, gifting, shared expenses, and even who we ask for financial advice. Sustained contact with “the other”, or simply hearing different perspectives, helps broaden our sense of what’s possible.

It helps us think better, together.

In the next and final blog of this series, we’ll explore the subtle biases that affect our sense of time, status, and self-worth. Because often, what feels like a “money issue” is really a mindset moment waiting to be reframed.