On our way to church the other morning, my daughter was listening to her usual medley of Disney songs. This is probably somewhat common for you who have 6-year-olds, but my baby is 17-years-old, and we listen to this selection every week. If I’m honest, I usually don’t pay much attention to the music, but this week, for some reason, I was listening.
In my day, the princess in these movies, usually waited for her prince to rescue her. She was stuck in a tower and needed a kiss, or some witch was trying to feed her a poisoned apple, and coincidentally, she needed a kiss.
There was something different about the princesses in my daughter’s world. They were chopping off their hair, heading to war, pulling out bows and arrows, and fighting for their own hand in marriage. Far from waiting for a prince to rescue them, oftentimes, they rescued themselves, the prince and the rest of the kingdom.
This makes me think of some of the clients that I have had over the years. Sometimes, they came to me at the worst moments of their lives, when circumstances changed, and they faced the daunting task of dealing with their financial future alone. They were often uncertain and worried if they could understand financial concepts and make good decisions independently. A lot of times, honestly, they didn’t really want to learn about cash flows or net worth; it was big and scary (and most of them said boring, but I promise you that isn’t true)
We could all take a lesson from some of these more modern princesses. We are more than capable of taking our future into our own hands. We don’t need to wait for rescue from the complex monster of the financial world. We are smart, brave, and perfectly capable of understanding complicated things. And if the answer is, “I’m sure I could slay the dragon, but I would rather play with molecules in my lab,” there are financial geeks like me around to help.
So, in the words of Rapunzel, “Venture outside your comfort zone. The rewards are worth it.” – Rapunzel (Tangled)
