Navigating the Messy Middle: Financial Survival Strategies

Financial struggles are common; prioritize small, smart decisions to navigate the "messy middle" and build a secure future.

### Navigating the Messy Middle: Embracing Struggles and Making Small Decisions
* 🌪 "When you're in a tornado, what advice do you have? You just got to figure out, '**How do I survive this thing?**'"
* 🤝 Many people find themselves in the messy middle of life, feeling overwhelmed with various challenges and uncertainties, but it's essential to remember that **you are not alone**.
* 🔍 Focus on making the "**very best next decision**" rather than trying to fix everything at once, as small, incremental choices can lead to **significant improvements over time**.
* 📈 Utilize tools like the financial order of operations to guide your decisions and keep you on course during difficult times, ensuring that you don't make **permanent solutions to temporary problems**.
* 📱 Social media can create an illusion of success, but it's crucial to recognize that **many people are struggling just like you**, and embracing this reality can provide **solace**.
* 🏞 Don't forget to make memories and enjoy life, even when finances are tight; there are plenty of **affordable ways to create joyful experiences** without overspending.
* 🎶 Reflecting on past struggles can reveal that even challenging times can hold their own **special sweetness**, teaching valuable lessons about **resilience and gratitude**.
* 💪 Embrace the messy middle as a shared experience with a community of others, and remember that these moments, while tough, can lead to **growth and fond memories** in the long run.

My wife and I are in the messy middle. These times are crazy! What advice do you have to organize life and get through this season? What's that funny acronym people say, "hodl"?  What is it? How do I say, "hold on for dear life"? That's it.

Just... just grab on! Oh man, let me let me give you some solace. So you asked what advice we have to organize life and get through the season. Man, it's hard, because like, when when when you're in a tornado, what advice do you have, man? You just got

Sometimes it literally is, "How do I survive this thing?" But you're not alone. Uh, and this is what I found, and this is the accounts I give. There's a lot of folks that are in the messy middle, and there's a lot of folks

that go through the messy middle, and it's not easy. You have a thousand different things pulling you in a thousand different directions, and all of a sudden a thousand different unknown unknowns fall on your plate. You don't have any money left over, you don't have

any time left over, you're exhausted, and you just have all this different stuff going on. So what you have to focus on is, what's the very best next decision I can make? And sometimes that decision might be, "Hey, I'm not going to shut off the

Roth funding." "Hey, I'm not going to pull money out of the emergency fund to do this thing that I want to do." Or, "Hey, I'm just going to keep my head down." "Hey, I'm going to make sure I got a pay raise and I'm going to save an additional 2% into"

My 401k... sometimes you just have to focus on making the very best next small, marginal decision until you can get through it, because a lot of people, they get in the messy middle. My financial life was an absolute disaster. How do I fix it all?

And unfortunately, it's going to be really hard to fix it all, so you've got to try to fix one small thing at a time. And one of the ways that we want to help you do that... Brian, can you hold the thing up? We have the financial order of

operations that, even as you're going through the messy middle, will help you stay true. Okay, I was doing great, and then something happened, and then I was doing great, and then something else happened. If you can use that as your... as your barometer, as your litmus test, is that right?

If you can use it as your brace to make sure that you are staying on the line that you should be. Compass; you're navigating. If you can use it as your compass... let's do some more analogies. If you can use it as a tool to

make sure that you know you're not getting too far off course, there's a very high likelihood that your future self, when you come out of the messy middle, when you get to the back end of it, will say, "Man, I'm so glad I did not"

deploy some permanent solutions to temporary problems; like stopping my savings rate, racking up credit card debt, borrowing more money than I should have, making negative financial decisions I'm going to pay for for decades that maybe I could have avoided if I would have just, like, stayed the course and kept my

Head down for the messy middle, Brian. I would share, break the illusion... um, so many people out there currently, I think because of social media, they think everybody's doing great and you're the only one in the world that's struggling, because you're looking at everybody's

highlight reel. I mean, when you look at Instagram, when you look at any type of social media, people aren't being real with you; they're telling you kind of their highlight reel of how great their life is, and that's why we did a show...

YouGov had this survey that showed how many people, um, that made half a million versus how many people made a million, and the percentages of what the public thought were crazy. I'm talking 20, like 20-plus percent on a million dollars

and that, meanwhile, you know, that's like a percent of a percent or something; it's like nothing. There aren't many people doing that. So I want you to know, Brian, everybody is struggling through what you're going through. I want you to embrace this messy middle...

where you're short on time, you're short on money... um, know that there are more people just like you than there are not, despite what social media is saying. And Bo is exactly right: each decade of your life is going to have its own special sweetness, even if it's a

struggle. And I want to encourage you: don't give up on still following the financial order of operations, but also don't give up on bedazzling your basic life and still making memories. Nothing says you have to book airfare for five... um, to go make memories; you can do

On road trips, you can do all kinds of crazy things. National parks; there's lots of ways to embrace the moment and still maximize it, both from the financial planning goals as well as from the memories.  And I don't mind sharing my experience. Shar and I put this in our 'Millionaire'

Mission,' and I've shared it on the show a bunch of times. Even in my trajectory through life, I didn't feel comfortable with money until I got to be 42 or 43 years of age. And that's with making lots of good decisions, but also going through

the messy middle of moves, you know, starting a business, changing jobs. There's all kinds of things that put me in my own messy middle. Embrace that! There's a whole community of us, and probably more of your peers are struggling through this. It's just that

we're not always honest with the people around us because, in this new modern world, we all kind of 'fake it till we make it.' And I'm saying, throw that out! Break the illusion and just realize it's going to be hard. But even this, you will

look back on just like a good country music song, and you're going to say, 'You're going to miss these years where, yeah, maybe you were short on time, maybe you were short on money,' but there's going to be its own special sweetness.  Because I even share that in the book: that my

happiest time in childhood was actually when my dad was unemployed and money was the hardest for my parents. And that's probably something to be learned from, to make sure you're not squandering the memory part of this, even when money's tight.

Survive & THRIVE In The Messy Middle!

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The Money Guy Show

Seeking advice for navigating life's challenging periods

Request for advice on organizing life during difficult times.

Acknowledgement of the difficulty of the situation, comparing it to navigating a tornado.

Emphasis on the shared experience of many people facing similar challenges.

Description of the overwhelming nature of the 'messy middle' with limited resources and numerous unknowns.

Advice to focus on making the best next decision, even if small, to stay on track.

Strategies for financial stability during challenging times

Introduction of a financial order of operations to maintain financial stability.

Importance of using a consistent framework to stay on track and avoid drastic measures.

Use of analogies (compass, barometer) to illustrate staying on course.

Warning against permanent solutions to temporary problems.

Examples of negative financial decisions to avoid during difficult times.

Addressing the illusion of perfection portrayed on social media

Highlighting the unrealistic portrayal of life on social media.

Reference to a survey showing the public's misconception of wealth distribution.

Statistics illustrating the rarity of high incomes.

Encouragement to embrace the shared experience of struggling and not feel alone.

Maintaining balance between financial planning and life experiences

Emphasis on finding joy and creating memories even during financial hardship.

Suggestions for affordable ways to create memories (road trips, national parks).

Personal anecdote about overcoming financial insecurity later in life.

Sharing personal experiences of navigating the 'messy middle'.

Encouragement and perspective on overcoming challenges

Encouragement to be honest about struggles and break the illusion of perfection.

Perspective that even difficult times will be looked back upon with fondness.

Personal anecdote about a happy childhood despite financial hardship.

Importance of cherishing memories even during financially challenging times.