What poetry can teach you about your finances

Some of the best financial planning advice is in T.S. Eliot’s poem “East Coker.”

“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope

for hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,

for love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith

but the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.

Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:

So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.”

It is hard to be still. It is even more difficult if we are feeling anxious about money, or even worse, problems unrelated to money. We often feel like doing something, anything, that can bring us relief. And one of the ways we often try to do something is through spending or changing our investments.

While action can temporarily assuage uncomfortable feelings, it doesn’t last. And worse, if we spend what we don’t have or make poor investment changes, it will increase our discomfort.

So how do we know when we should take action and when we need to sit in stillness? This is how to approach it:

When something major has happened in your life: Wait. If you just had a baby or got a new job (or retired from one) or lost a loved one, wait before you change anything. Waiting gives you time to integrate what just happened so that you experience the impact of these events. Changes are inherently unsettling. If the change was something you were hoping for, waiting allows it to feel real. If it was something you did not want, waiting gives you time to adjust.

If you are bored: Wait. How many times have you found yourself mindlessly online shopping as a way to fill time? Boredom is good information if you are still enough to attempt to understand why. Stimulus, pause, response will serve you better than stimulus, response.

But there is a difference between waiting and being stuck. You can tell the difference by what you are saying to yourself. Fear is future events already ruined, and if you are not taking action because of fear, then waiting is an excuse for not making the changes you want that can enhance your life. Treat these changes as experiments, and don’t make the stakes higher than they need to be.

Spend your life wisely.

Ross Levin is the founder of Accredited Investors Wealth Management in Edina. He can be reached at ross@accredited.com.