I like that saying, because it reminds me that while I can’t change the past, now is exactly the right time for me to get started on (or continue working on) the things I want to do.

Financially, this means that I can start out each day by asking myself what I can do to move forward.

Saving money and investing is important to me, so I can move a little money toward those items — or at the very least I can ask myself whether what I’m about to buy is worth it before spending money.

It also means that I don’t need to keep actively kicking myself about that $1000 that I spent unwisely years ago, or about the time I withdrew money from my 401k.

Instead, I can focus on now. Now is exactly the right time — and the best time.

I have all kinds of quotes about the power of focus, and I know that you get a whole lot further with something if you can focus on it and make it a priority.

In fact, one of my favorite focus-related quotes is:

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.”
~Swami Vivekananda

So I was excited when I saw the link to the Prioritizer that Consciously Frugal had in her post about prioritizing goals.

“Great!” I thought, “Maybe it’ll confirm what feels like the priority to me, if I have to pick one.”

The Prioritizer turned out to be a fickle little thing, only working when I just entered a single word for each goal, but what it eventually spit out was this:

Yup, three out of my four major money-related goals (get my business very profitable, pay off our house, take some expensive trips, and have enough money for retirement) were tied for my #1 priority.

I saw that and laughed, because it’s so typical. I just can’t decide, and you know what, that’s ok. I’ll probably get to all of the goals a little slower, but I’ve been driving myself crazy trying to focus when in fact I am a hummingbird.

It’s time to just go with who I am, and maximize the advantages that brings me. There ARE some, really. Maybe I should stick to one garden as I buzz from flower to flower, but that’s enough of a focus to still make steady progress.

Focusing IS the best way to really make significant progress. When you put all your energy into one thing, you go a whole lot further (and certainly a lot whole lot faster).

But if you’re like me and you’re just not built for focusing long term on a single thing, maybe you’ll join me in implementing some things I read about in Daniel Pink’s book Drive: FedEx Days and 20-percent time.

FedEx Days are what an Australian company called Atlassian has on occasion. They’re days when their employees can work on whatever they like, but they have to produce the results the next day. (Get it? Overnight.)

20-percent time is similar. Google offers 20-percent time as one of their perks. Their jobs page explains, “We offer our engineers “20-percent time” so that they’re free to work on what they’re really passionate about. Google Suggest, AdSense for Content and Orkut are among the many products of this perk.” So basically 20% of the time, they’re working on whatever strikes their fancy.

Letting your creativity fly like that probably makes the things you’re already doing a whole lot more interesting as well. There’s something about a little inspiration that livens up your life.

Anyone up for being a hummingbird with me?

• Creating a will
• Making a spending plan/budget
• Funding retirement
• Saving for college

Notice anything interesting about that list?

The first two items deal with things we’d rather not think about. If we make a will, we admit in black and white that we’re going to die someday. Who wants to admit that?

If we make a budget or a spending plan, we might have to change, or at the very least shine a spotlight on our current habits. We resist being “told what to do”, even when we’re the ones doing the telling.

The next two items deal with things that feel very far away, so they are easy to put off. Other things feel more urgent, right up until the very last minute. That’s when we realize — too late — that we’d have been a lot better off if we had only started sooner.

Or we may assume we don’t need to plan for those things at all. We intend to work forever and our children will get scholarships. But what if we can’t and they don’t? At that point our choices are limited.

It’s not too late to handle any of the things we’ve been putting off. In fact, it’s time to take action today.

Choose one thing you’ve been avoiding and write it down. (I like to use Google docs for stuff like this, but anything will do.) Now make a list of the things you need to find out about the subject before you can take action. Those are your first steps.

Do one of them today.

Maybe you actually ARE doing exactly what you thought you’d be doing, but a lot of people aren’t. At least, no one I’ve met has ever spent their life doing exactly what they thought they would be doing.

And that’s the thing. Life isn’t linear. It doesn’t proceed in a nice straight line along a pre-planned route.

Instead, there are bumps and hurdles along the way. There are bonuses, too. Sometimes things turn out better than we’d ever imagined. And…sometimes they don’t. Rarely though, do they ever turn out exactly like we had imagined.

That’s what can make planning our financial futures difficult. We may think that we’ll go to college, get a great job, and pay off those loans. Instead we get that MD and decide to stay home with the kids. Or we buy a house with the expectation that housing prices will continue upward, and instead end up unable to sell the house if we want to move.

Things just don’t always happen as planned. So when you’re planning out how you hope you’ll use your money in the future, or making a decision about what to do with your money right now, take alternate scenarios into account too.

How will you feel if things turn out exactly the opposite of what you had hoped or planned? What type of financial situation will you be in then? Is that something you can accept? If not, what could you do differently that might help to avoid that situation entirely or mitigate it if it does occur?

Planning for the best while preparing for the worst is an idea that often leaves you in very good shape. Sometimes preparing for the worst ends up making the best even better when it happens.

Would tutorials or case studies interest you? If so, on what?

I would love to get your feedback on things I could do to make MoneyCrush more useful and interesting to you. Please comment or email with your ideas and suggestions.

On a marginally related note, I know at least some of you are considering of starting a small business. Would a course related to choosing a niche and getting over the initial hurdles that stand in the way of taking the plunge be of interest?

Ok, enough with the questions. I’m looking forward to your responses. And as always, thanks for being a reader.

But oh, sometimes it’s so hard to be patient!

Because I want what I want, and I want it right now! (Are you channeling your inner three year old along with me?)

Of course, I want stuff like a large enough net worth to reach financial independence, and maybe even a large enough net worth to be able to make some major investments. (Like buying houses for cash…)

I see things out there that I would just love to invest in or to try my hand at, and I’m just not there yet. So I stick to the plan, and just feel impatient inside instead.

I try hard not to let impatience lead to unwise action, because a lot of those tempting side streets along the road to wealth are really just dead ends. Or worse, they lead to somewhere that’s nothing like what the travel brochure advertised.

If your financial goals seem a long way off, there are things you can do to help curb impatience, unwise side trips, and backtracking.

Think back to when you originally started — maybe you knew nothing about money at all, or were making all sorts of classic mistakes — and see how far you’ve come since then. Often the progress is more substantial than you realize.

Compare what happened in the past when you got impatient or overly enthusiastic. How did things turn out then? Usually that’s when we make the most (and biggest) mistakes. A good look at those is usually enough to prevent a repeat for me.

What types of things have worked for you when it comes to gaining the patience to take the steady (and ultimately rewarding) route?

It makes sense on the surface, especially if you can get a relatively low or no interest loan. Why not just lump everything together so you can make one big payment each month and be done with it?

Logically, consolidating debt means that more of your payment will be going toward principal each month, allowing you to pay off your debts faster. You’ll also reduce the chance of late fees, since there will only be one payment to make.

There’s just one thing wrong with that theory, and it’s a biggie: People don’t always act logically. If we did, we wouldn’t pay thousands of dollars over the years for things we probably don’t even remember buying.

Usually the problem with debt is NOT high interest rates and late fees — those are just the things that hurt. They’re symptoms.

If you have non-medical debt, the real problem is that you’ve been living above your means for some reason. And if you’ve been living above your means, consolidating debt is almost certainly going to put you even deeper into debt — no matter how well intentioned you are.

You’ve got to fix the underlying problem first. You have to stop borrowing money. Period. For any reason.

Borrowing money is not the solution. It’s just something you’ve gotten used to doing almost automatically. The next time an emergency happens, pretend that no one will lend you money, not even the credit card companies.

What would you do then? Do that thing instead and break the cycle.

Once you’re consistently living below your means and scraping up extra pennies to throw at debt, then a loan to lower your interest rates might be beneficial.