Sunday evening as the sun was setting, I threw on my skating playlist, hopped on my board and pushed off into the horizon.
I skated 10 minutes to our new house. Then I walked back.
It was an experiment to see if skateboarding or walking was a higher “value” activity for fitness tracking. (Did I mention I’m obsessed?)
My assumption for the last 4 months was the standing still on a piece of wood on wheels has to burn less calories and activate a lower heart rate zone. Right?
Nope.
Turns out I burn more calories and get my heart going quite a lot more skating than walking. It wasn’t even really close.
So I’ve been walking everywhere since January instead of riding everywhere based on a hunch that proved to be completely incorrect.
The lesson?
Question your assumptions.
We all have blind spots, but they can be especially costly when it comes to our financial future.
Here’s three of the big ones we hear on a regular basis.
- “Financial advisors are only for rich retirees.” Sure, a lot of the traditional industry is set up exactly that way. But our average Fianncial Zen Member is 38… and trending lower every year.
- “A financial advisor just invests my money. I have Wealthfront for that.” Not quite. We don’t sit around looking at stock charts all day. Financial Zen is basically a family office for the masses, planning and executing on everything from your taxes to your cash flow to your “Now What?” early retirement goals.
- “I can probably just do it myself.” Maybe you can. But it’s incredibly hard to coach your own golf swing. There’s a reason every single professional golfer on the tour still pays for a swing coach. You need an objective, outside perspective to spot the flaws you’ve gone blind to.
Operating on poor assumptions is how you end up working a decade longer than you actually need to.
Don’t let a bad hunch dictate your financial future.
Question your assumptions and get an outside perspective. (And maybe push off into the sunset burning mucho calories!)