The Type B philosophy is a much more relaxed approach to financial planning. In my experience, the personal financial planning field is dominated by "Type A" individuals that obsess over preparing detailed budgets, selecting complicated and expensive investment portfolios, and calculating retirement projections that are forty years or more in the future. This is a waste of your time and money.
A better approach is the Type B philosophy, characterized by automation, a long-term investment horizon, no budgets, low cost investments, and lower stress levels. We focus on doing our best in the present rather than worrying about an arbitrary retirement goal forty years in the future. If we manage our money as best we can today we will be as prepared for tomorrow as we possibly can be.
None of us, even the PhD's on Wall Street, know for sure what tomorrow will bring. Let's do the best we can today and enjoy the important things in life. Whatever you do, don’t spend your time worrying about your money! Stay healthy, do your job well, and spend your time doing what you love with the people you love. Please do not spend your time reading thousand page financial books from Wall Street tycoons or agonizing over how to invest your money so you can beat the market. Embrace the Type B Financial Planning Philosophy. Keep it simple, take control of what you can control today, avoid the big financial mistakes, automate whenever possible, do your best, and enjoy your life. That is what is important!
