Money Lessons from the Touch It Dance Challenge

One of the upsides (and sometimes downsides) of my job is that I have to spend a lot of time online. For work, that means having calls with clients, actively managing various social media communities, and keeping up with the latest developments in finance. 

The fun side, however, is that within all the seriousness, I get to see the fun and light-hearted things. On social media, different challenges come and go. One of the challenges that I find interesting is the "Touch It Dance Challenge."

"Touch It" is a song by the popular rapper Busta Rhymes. In a few seconds, people can either dance or perform some actions within the time frame of the song when it goes "touch it."

The ones I really love the most are those people who change different sets of clothes rapidly. There are so many videos on this that cut across age and nationality. The creativity is amazing. Some people do it alone. Others do it as a family. Some other people even have their pets change clothes as well. 

It is easy to get sucked into a hole watching one video to another. The Challenge, however, taught me a few things about money and investing. 

1. The first is there is no such thing as being too late to do something. There are a couple of videos on the Challenge by elderly people. Who says the proverbial old dog cannot learn new tricks? The same applies to money. While one may have to taper down the amount of risk one can take, it does not mean totally eliminating risk. A pinch is allowed. 

There is also no such thing as too late to invest if you have not started your investment journey. Even at over 60, you can still invest! Who really determines when it is too late? It is never too late to imbibe good habits.

2. The next thing that struck me about the Challenge was its uniqueness. Every video I took the time to watch was unique in its own way.

In the same way, everyone has their own financial journey. We can be inspired and learn from a person’s financial journey or from what may be the buzz of the moment (there’s always something buzzing in the world of investing). 

What is important is that we take out the time to craft what works for us. It is just like clothes; if they are ill-fitting, you will feel it. They might look all nice and good to the public, but the wearer is the one who feels the burden if they are ill-fitted. 

3. Lastly, when it comes to taking part in this Challenge the same attitude and energy can be channelled to how we manage money. 

As human beings, we unconsciously distance ourselves from the things that we associate with pain (or that cause actual pain) and embrace the things that we derive pleasure from.

While many of those videos may be for a few seconds, it can take hours to shoot and edit. So why do people take part in this or any other Challenge? Different strokes for different folks, I guess. But one common denominator is that everyone loves a challenge. 

If you consciously or unconsciously associate money with pain, difficulty, and everything negative, you will either leave things as they are or do nothing. 

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