Financial Lessons from “Humpty Dumpty”

As I prepared to write, a strange thought popped into my head. Write about Humpty Dumpty, the cute round egg.  Sounds insane, doesn’t it?  BUT I have done crazier things than this to get attention. If you are unfamiliar with the legends of Humpty Dumpty, you are welcome to read about them here … The rhyme goes like this (in case, you’ve forgotten!)

                    Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall,

                    Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

                    All the king’s horses

                    And all the king’s men

                    Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty

                    Together again.

The way I interpret this nursery rhyme is anyone could be “Humpty Dumpty”. We may think we are invincible.  We have a steady income; we can afford anything we want as long as we have access to credit. We’re on a roll.  In other words, like Humpty Dumpty, we are sitting on the wall, with a great view on life. 

Then something happens.  A disaster occurs.  The disaster could be a vehicle accident, leaving us permanently disabled (or dead).  We may have lost our high-paying job because of the drop in oil prices; or possibly we borrowed too much and now we can’t pay back the loans and credit cards.  That’s our great fall, an unfortunate event.  Nothing we can do on our own or with the help of others can put us back together again unless we were adequately prepared financially to cushion the fall.

You see, in hindsight, if we knew disaster was approaching, we would do everything in our power to avoid the collision. The truth is “When it’s too late, it’s too late”.    

The media hype in November, Financial Literacy Month, was geared to create awareness about the importance of financial planning and to have Canadians take control of their financial destiny.  I’m not convinced everyone was listening.  Now my curiosity is piqued about effective marketing campaigns to motivate people to take action.  

How would you react if you were told, “There’s no way you can save $2,400 by next Christmas. (That means saving $200 each month.)”  Would you be more motivated to prove them wrong or discouraged and believe they’re probably right?

Recently, I came across Donna Freedman’s article, “The 10 Best Ways to Blow Your Money” on Money Talks News. Not only did Donna come up with her list of “ten”, her readers responded with their “10 Best Ways to Blow Money”.  Before rattling off her list, Donna made a facetious comment.

“What is money for, anyway, except to enjoy? You work hard for a living and deserve all the perks that salary will buy.  Be daring, not dull.”

Then she persuasively adds:

“Thinking like that is a great way to put yourself perpetually into debt, or at least living paycheck to paycheck.” 

Do you believe this thinking-in-reverse article is more effective than one which read, “The 10 Best Ways to Save Your Money”?  Perhaps we are more apt to recognize our blunders than our successes.  We may be more likely to stop existing behaviors if we knew they were bad rather than start new behaviors even though we know they are good. Hmmmm!

Let’s return to Humpty Dumpty.  If Humpty Dumpty knew he was an egg and that he was very fragile, do you think he would have taken the chance of sitting on the wall?  After all, it was a huge risk on his part which ended badly. I don’t want the same thing to happen to us. What financial risks are you facing today which are not being addressed?