Financial Planning Guide: Master 2 Core Mindsets to Overcome Savings Anxiety
In this article, you'll learn:
Hi, want to be “Lazy to Be Rich” with me? In today’s world of low wages and high prices, low interest rates and high scams, “financial planning” isn’t just a buzzword—it’s an essential life skill. Many people often wonder why they’re always living paycheck to paycheck or can’t seem to save any money. This article will explore the mindset and methods behind saving, and provide practical financial planning advice to help you build a healthy savings mindset and positive expectations for the future. Let’s be Lazy to Be Rich together.
Why Is “Saving”—the Foundation of Financial Planning—So Hard?
In Chinese, the words for “saving” (存錢) and “spending” (花錢) differ by just one character, yet the outcomes are worlds apart. Many people think they can’t save money, and one possible reason is that they don’t have clear goals or expectations for the future. But the truth is, the future keeps coming whether you’re ready or not—and it won’t stop. Whether you’re judging based on past experiences or have no expectations for the future, neither of these perspectives or decision-making models is a complete solution to the saving problem.
Saving Based on Past Experience
“I’ve never been able to save money before, so even if I manage to save some, I’ll just spend it right away—so why bother?” Sound familiar? Or maybe you have other excuses for not being able to save? These are all based on past experiences, and without adjusting or changing these patterns, there’s no point expecting different results.
Having No Expectations for the Future
If we try to discuss saving through pure logic, it’s incredibly difficult. Setting aside money for your future self seems logically correct—but reality often works the opposite way. For example, we might choose to spend now because we’re worried about future uncertainty (like inflation). This mindset is essentially a self-limiting cycle that does nothing to help steady financial growth.
It’s precisely because there are no expectations for the future that people think: “Rather than preparing money for the future, I’d rather live a little better right now—that’s more practical.” I get it, I really do. But isn’t making your future self suffer just a form of deferred punishment?
Lacking Goals and Confidence
The real biggest reason people can’t save is the lack of specific financial goals. Without clear goals and positive expectations for the future, sustaining a savings habit is genuinely difficult. As the saying goes: “If life has no dreams, how are you different from a salted fish?” Everyone has motivation and methods when it comes to becoming wealthy, but often the simplest methods are the ones nobody can follow through on—and that’s earning money and saving money. If you don’t know what you’re earning for, how can you have the confidence to spend wisely?
How to Save Effectively
Effective financial planning isn’t just talk—it requires action. A simple and effective formula is: Savings = Income - Expenses. In other words, we should first decide how much to save, then arrange our spending around that. This sounds like common sense, but surprisingly few people actually do it.
Saving isn’t just about feeling secure today—it’s about investing in your future and your dreams. By investing the money you save wisely, you can build greater expectations and confidence for the future. Remember, saving isn’t the hard part—the hard part is staying consistent.
The reason you don’t save is that you think you have no money to save. The reason successful savers save is because they know there will be money in the future. The question is: do you actually know what money your future holds? How much? That’s why you don’t commit to saving.
Saving Means Living with Peace of Mind Today
In financial planning, “saving” isn’t something that happens overnight—it requires long-term persistence and discipline. This isn’t just about managing money; it’s an attitude toward life and a responsibility toward the future. Starting today, let’s build clear financial goals together, learn to control spending wisely, and actively seek investment opportunities. Let’s weave “financial planning” into our daily lives and carve our own path to growing wealth.
In this process, every small saving has its value, and every rational spending decision is an investment in the future. Let’s stop seeing saving as a burden and start seeing it as a way to pursue a better life. Once we learn how to manage our finances, true freedom and peace of mind will follow.
Investing Means Having Confidence in the Future
“Given enough time, the market will always go up.”
Investing is the essential path toward a better future. Its purpose is to let wealth keep growing and create more possibilities.
Although investing seems risky, as long as you plan your finances properly and follow these 7 steps that everyone can understand, you can more easily achieve peace of mind and confidence. I always say, “Given enough time, the market will always go up.” If you invest in “the market,” the market will eventually give you the returns you deserve.
From 2010 to today, VOO (the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF) has grown 4x. That means without doing anything, NT$10K became NT$40K, NT$1M became NT$4M, NT$10M became NT$40M—but the prerequisite is: have you prepared the capital to invest?
Through proper financial planning, crafting the right financial strategy, and then choosing the right financial tools—whether bonds, stocks, real estate, or insurance—each has its own unique risk-return profile. Financial tools are independent and neutral. As long as they help you achieve your financial goals, they’re good tools.
Investing is not just a way to accumulate assets—it’s also a one-way journey of self-discipline that requires rationality, persistence, and discipline. Only through perseverance will wealth compound like a snowball rolling downhill.
Everyone’s Financial DNA Is Different
Life has no right or wrong—what feels right is right for you.
An American was strolling along the docks of a small coastal Mexican village when he noticed a small boat with several large yellowfin tuna. He complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his catch and asked how long it took to catch them. The fisherman replied, “Just a little while.”
The American then asked why he didn’t stay out longer and catch more fish.
The fisherman said the catch was enough for his family’s needs. The American asked, “So what do you do with the rest of your time?” The fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take a siesta with my wife Maria, and stroll into the village each evening to sip wine and play guitar with my friends. I have a full and busy life, señor.”
The American scoffed, “I’m a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing, buy a bigger boat, then several boats, and eventually own a fleet. Instead of selling to a middleman, you’d sell directly to a processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You’d control the product, processing, and distribution. You could leave this small village and move to Mexico City, then LA, and eventually New York, where you’d run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But señor, how long will all this take?” The American replied, “About 15 to 20 years.” “And then what, señor?”
The American laughed, “That’s the best part. When the time is right, you’d announce an IPO, sell your company stock to the public, and become very rich.”
The fisherman said, “Become very rich? Then what?”
The American said, “Then you could retire. Move to a small fishing village where you’d sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take a siesta with your wife, and stroll into the village each evening to sip wine and play guitar with your friends.”
I pulled up a chair and sat in the American’s seat. So which one are you—the American or the fisherman?
Take this story as food for thought. Not everyone needs to be extremely wealthy, and not everyone needs a life without work—because every person's life has been unique from the moment they were born, just like how there are currently no two 100% identical DNAs in this world. Your financial DNA is different from everyone else’s, too.
Think about how you want to live your life! Don’t just take it one day at a time.
Further Reading
Lazy Da’s Conclusion
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