CSTMR Fintech Marketing

Let’s talk about squirrels.??? When I watch squirrels, I marvel at their behavior. It’s easy for a creature so familiar to fade into the background. Squirrels are unbelievably resilient, brave, and resourceful. Skeptical? Watch this video from YouTube creator and former NASA engineer Mark Rober: https://bit.ly/3Ys5uIi. But squirrels can also teach us about finances, specifically saving money. First, let me say I’m on a journey with my finances, just like you. I’m not where I want to be, and I still make mistakes. It’s easy to feel like everybody else has their finances in a better place than you do. But when I talk to my friends and colleagues about this issue, nearly EVERYONE nods in agreement. Do some napkin math on that: if everyone feels behind, maybe it’s just a feeling and not reality. You and I are not the only people struggling to make wise financial decisions. It bothers me when financial advice comes across as preachy, hypocritical, and judgmental. Maybe worse still is when the advice seems completely out of reach. For example: the suggestion that you have 3-6 months of living expenses saved up. That amounts to a minimum of $20k for three months at the median (not average) American’s income. For anyone living paycheck to paycheck, that number might as well be $100k or $200k. I’m not going to bore you by running the budget numbers on how a person making $80k a year might sock away $20k. It’s a tall order from every angle. According to Bankrate’s annual survey (https://bit.ly/4dT8h1N), if you’re like 60% of Americans, you’re uncomfortable with your current level of savings. If you’re like 25% of Americans, you have no emergency fund at all. The deeper issue here is not mathematical. It’s psychological. If you’re carrying credit card debt (as half of Americans do, according to this article from LendingTree - (https://bit.ly/48duCFO) then your prospects for saving are even farther out of reach. It’s tempting to just give up. What do squirrels have to do with this? Squirrels start small and they NEVER give up. And that’s my recommendation for anyone struggling to save money and pay off debt. Start small. Can you automate a tiny direct deposit to your savings account? Again, $5 is a good start. Ideally, pick a number that makes you a little uncomfortable. You never see a squirrel hauling a bucket of nuts to its nest. They move one or two at a time. You’re proving to yourself that it’s possible. Because that confidence is what you need to make the next step, which might be selling some stuff on Facebook Marketplace or eBay. Look for ways to create “squirrel funds” and automate the money going into them. Saving money can feel emotionally painful; technology lets you “set it and forget it.” I really can’t overstate how powerful this idea is as long as you keep it simple and refuse to give up. You’re after progress, not perfection. I might be a CEO, but I’m still taking lessons from the squirrels.

Do we live in an age of abundance or scarcity? Maybe we’re at the end of an age of abundance, tipping into scarcity. Or it could be the reverse: a world on the cusp of unimagined prosperity. Obviously, the answer to that question depends on who you ask. Let me spoil my own mini-essay here and tell you that whichever answer you come up with is most likely correct. If that sounds like a cop-out, then let me explain. Speaking from experience, my sense of scarcity or abundance has fluctuated with the events of my life. Success at work? Abundance! Failure at home? Scarcity. And vice versa. Tossed by the waves of fortune and relationship. What I hear a lot of people talking about today seems to come from a belief that scarcity prevails. And while it’s vital that we look directly at our problems and take ownership for them - focusing on scarcity is a recipe for failure. Just consider the fact that most of the world’s population are wealthier and will live longer than at any time in history (https://bit.ly/4hmBJQB). There are exceptions, but by objective metrics, the last 200 years have brought increased abundance to most of the globe. Whether you experience that abundance is subjective, because your experience is informed by your mindset (mostly*). In his classic book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey popularized the idea of the scarcity and abundance mindsets. It’s taken me years to fully embrace what Covey was talking about. Here’s how it tends to play out now: When I’m facing an apparent shortage of time, clients, money, energy, or even empathy, I take a step back and pause. I remind myself that life isn’t a zero-sum game and there’s enough for everyone. Without fail, the shortage becomes an abundance, and solutions emerge. If I fail to make that shift, the problems persist or even multiply. It’s just like Henry Ford put it, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t — you’re right.” Now, maybe you hear that quote as a quaint truism, but I see it as a fundamental statement about the world. If you believe that resources are scarce, then you’re far more likely to experience the lack. If you choose to believe in abundance, you’ll discover resources and solutions that you couldn’t have dreamed of or asked for. I’m not talking about naivety, where you’re trying to stitch silver linings into tornados. I’m merely echoing the words of another deeply wise man, Victor Frankl, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” If we can stay humble and ambitious, trusting in the abundance and remembering that we aren’t “owed” anything in life, I believe that we can accomplish big things. We can create more for everyone — not just ourselves. * If you’re living in extreme poverty, you can’t just fix the issue by changing your mind. You still need something to work with.