What Can Frozen Teach us About Finance?

If you have any little girls in your life — or if you have ever done a self-guided tour of the rabbit hole known as YouTube (this one induces chills at 0:48) — you’ve probably heard about the latest squeal-inducing, parody-inspiring, stuck-in-your-head-till-you-just-can’t-take-it song: “Let it Go.” Oh sure, it used to be a perfectly harmless colloquialism, now uttering those three words tend to elicit an amateur musical number. (Is it just me and my friends?)

What does the latest Disney classic have to do with your finances? Let’s review.

It’s about a pair of sisters who have been through difficult times. One is either cursed or blessed (depends upon where you are in the movie) with powers she has trouble controlling. They encounter great men, and not-so-great men. In the end, (spoiler alert) it is the sisters’ love for one another that ensures victory. Through this journey, they learn to let go of their past mistakes and hurts.

Now does it sound familiar?

Maybe it’s a new concept for you, this release of past mistakes. Especially in the money realm where we tend to privately carry our shame around as if that yoke is fair penance for our stupidity.

You know what? You’re not stupid. And you’re not the only one who feels that way. I hear it from women all the time, “I would be your worst client ever!” Implied in that statement is shame that stems from one of the following feelings:

• “I’m terrible at math!” That’s what calculators (both the hand-held kind and the tools you find online) are for. You’ll do fine. Have you ever managed a household before?  Then you have what it takes. Let it go.
• “I don’t know enough about my finances to control them.” I understand, the financial industry has rendered itself a foreign entity with all the jargon. But truthfully, there are a very limited number of terms you need to comprehend as you pursue financial wellness. Let’s learn those concepts so you can let this one go too.
• “I’ve made financial mistakes before.” If being financially perfect simply required head knowledge, we wouldn’t have disasters like Madoff (who shamefully garnered trust he didn’t deserve) or the 2000 bursting of the Dot.com bubble. We make mistakes because we’re human, and because it’s extremely difficult to look at your own finances with clear-minded objectivity. That’s why sometimes you just need to hire an expert to walk you through particular financial decisions so you make progress in your financial journey. Either way, you need to learn from the past and embrace the future. Let it goooooooooo!

As a financial coach, I use a system to map out a path to my clients’ financial goals. And rather than looking backwards in judgment, we set our sites on the future with optimism. Certainly, there are people out there who should get a veritable hand slap for their lack of financial responsibility. But that’s not you. How do I know? Because people like that are rarely reading financial blogs in hopes of improving themselves, even if they were lured in because they like the movie Frozen.

So as for your shame over past mistakes, I think you should take a word of advice from Queen Elsa (go to 1:52 of the video below),

“It’s time to see what I can do, to push the limits and break through.”

Look forward, it could make a big difference in breaking the spell of your financial winter.