Time to Downshift?

Though “standard” is still often used as a synonym for cars with a manual transmission, it has been decades since automatics became standard, with manuals now in a minuscule number of new cars. Given how many young people don’t know how to drive them, they are now even effectively an anti-theft device!

But despite the convenience of automatic transmissions, manuals do have an important advantage: giving much greater control over an engine. They allow for a faster response to driving conditions, whether giving a burst of power to evade a rapidly approaching obstacle or assisting the brakes to slow down by shifting to a lower gear.

There are lessons here for thinking about your financial strategy. First, just as it’s no longer accurate to call manual cars “standard,” are there ways that your conceptual schema may reflect past circumstances, rather than today’s reality? Second, instead of depending on automatic “gear changes,” make sure your “driving” reflects the turbulent conditions we’re living through by consciously “downshifting” to give you the power and control you need to get past whatever obstacle comes your way.

Remember that the road to the realization of your financial goals is not a brief trip but a journey, so let me be your co-pilot to help get you there.

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