The theme this week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast is: 5 Behaviors of Emotional Investors That Lead To Ruin

Today, I’m talking about decision fatigue. Decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions that you make when you’re in a situation where you must make a lot of different decisions. When you are burdened with too many decisions, it’s just so exhausting, that you can’t stay sharp. So you start making some pretty terrible decisions, just because you’re not as sharp.

The key to overcoming decision fatigue is to just decide on what you can, when you can and stop putting so much pressure on yourself to figure it all out. 

I see this happen a lot with social security. It can be a very overwhelming decision, especially when you’re married, and there’s too many options about when to start your benefits, spousal benefits, how social security will be taxed, and how that decision about social security will impact your finances for the rest of your life. It’s a complex decision that requires an understanding of how that decision will impact everything else in retirement. 

And then what do we do? Make a knee jerk decision because our head is about to explode, or we decide to defer the decision until later down the road, which may not be a good decision either. 

Sometimes the weight of making decisions on your will, your estate, your social security, medical insurance options, your retirement is overwhelming. And it's tiring. That’s when you know you’ve crossed the danger zone. 

The worst thing you can do when there’s too many decisions that are confusing and frustrating you is to press on, because your fatigue can lead you astray into some poor decisions. 

If you’re truly overwhelmed and don’t know where to begin with an important decision, seek some help. Often, the cure for decision fatigue is just to step away. For an hour, a day, a week, or a month. Sometimes you feel pressured to make a decision right then and there, but unless you have the presence of mind to realize that you’re not capable of making a smart decision in the moment, you may make a decision that’s fatigued. 

That’s it for today. Thanks for listening! My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the Retirement Quick Tips podcast. 

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Tags: retirement, investing, money, finance, financial planning, retirement planning, saving money, personal finance