• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Wealth Pilgrim

No Money Worries. No Matter What.

Neal Frankle featured in
  • Home
  • Life Insurance
  • Investing
    • Build Strong Investment Building Blocks To Avoid Going Broke In Retirement
    • Systematic Mutual Fund and ETF Investing
    • Stock Market Investing Guide
    • Choosing the Right Investment Brokerage Guide
    • How Bonds Work Guide
    • How Banks Really Work Guide
    • Annuities – What You Need To Know Before You Invest
    • A Beginners Guide To Buying Individual Stocks
    • Create A Pool Of Great Mutual Funds and ETFs To Pick From To Secure Your Retirement
    • ETF and Index Fund Investment Guide
  • Earn More
  • Banking
  • Retirement Planning
    • Retirement Guide
  • Ask Neal a Question
  • Reviews
    • Upgrade Personal Loans Review
    • Lending Club Review
    • Prosper Review
    • Ally Invest TradeKing Review
    • CIT Bank Review
    • LegalZoom Review
    • Lexington Law Review
    • Airbnb Host Review
    • Should You Drive For Uber?
  • Tax
  • Courses
    • Raise Your Credit Score So You Can Buy a House – Free Video Course

A Lesson In Financial Balance By Elmer J Fudd

by Neal Frankle, CFP ®, The article represents the author's opinion. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info.

Have you ever felt like you were a little lopsided when it comes to finance?  Do you spend way too much time and energy focused or worried about money or your job? I’ve struggled with this myself and at times I still do – no balance.  One great example of a person out of balance (albeit not around obtaining money) is Elmer J Fudd – famous cartoon character.  He can teach us all about the dangers of this myopic thought – and how to escape that prison.

Elmer J Fudd was one of Bugs Bunny’s arch rivals. Mr. Fudd was a very wealthy man who had a slight speech impediment. He is best known for uttering the words, “Be wewy wewy quiet. I’m hunting wabbits!”  Elmer spent all his time and money hunting “wabbits.” That’s all he did.

Fictional Mr. Fudd is a colorful illustration of how narrow our lives can become. The cartoons paint a picture of a man obsessed with this one pursuit to the exclusion of everything else.  It’s an extreme case but I think Elmer illustrates the dangers of this mindset – and a way out.

How this applies to you.

Finances are important – if I didn’t understand that, I wouldn’t write this blog.  But finances are there to help us have a full life – not take it over. Fudd started out hunting for fun but it quickly became an obsession; and end unto itself. If you watch those cartoons you’ll see that he wasn’t having very much fun at all once he forgot about his overall goal.

My experience tells me that it’s very easy to lose sight of our big picture “mission” just like Elmer did.  In fact, if we don’t work hard at keeping the “eye on the prize”, it’s almost inevitable to fall into this narrow minded thinking.  And once we do, we are robbed of the full life we deserve.

Are you chasing your own “wabbit”?

Before seeking out a solution, you have to be clear on what the problem is.  And it’s really hard to self-assess when it comes to knowing if you are balanced or not.  Had you asked Elmer if he thought he was a little obsessed about Bugs he would say you were the “cwazy” one – not him.

There are many ways to get right-sized when it comes to money but the quickest and cheapest way is to write up a quick “big picture”  for yourself.  This isn’t a financial plan – it’s what you do before creating your plan.

Right down on a piece of paper what’s most important about money to you.  It could be security, taking care of family, travel or whatever it is for you.  Just take 5 or 10 minutes to write it all down.  Next, write down how you spend your time and determine if your behavior matches your mission.

For example, if taking care of my family is most important to me that’s great.  But if I make risky investments that fail to pan out time after time, my behavior isn’t consistent with my goal.  Or if I spend money going to Vegas rather than buying adequate life insurance, I’ve failed in my mission to care for my family.  Right?

Take a few minutes to go through this exercise and then share what you have with a trusted friend or mentor.  This will help you find your balance friend. And it’s worth it.

Financial decisions, like any important decision, have to be made in an adult, awake state. If I become obsessed with money or work, I become just like Mr. Fudd and my life will become very narrow (wewy wewy nawwow). In fact, it will be just like a cartoon. Only it won’t be funny.

Have you been chasing rabbits or have you been able to maintain a balanced approach to your life and finances?

 

Tweet
Pin
Share3

Reader Interactions

User Generated Content (UGC) Disclosure: Please note that the opinions of the commenters are not necessarily the opinions of this site.

Comments

  1. SJ says

    March 25, 2009 at 10:03 AM

    Great point! Actually, you could replace the “bunny” with any obsessive goal…
    be it retiring early, stuff, etc…
    Everything in moderation right!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Are You Human? * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

Primary Sidebar

Who is Neal Frankle

Neal Frankle

I'm a Certified Financial Planner™ with more than 25 years of experience. I feel very blessed and hope to share my personal financial experience and professional wisdom with readers of WealthPilgrim.
Read More »

Stay Connected

Facebook Twitter YouTube RSS

More Categories

Career Development
College Funding
Credit Cards
Credit Score Fixes
Money and Marriage
Debt Relief
Estate Protection
Property Investment Loans
Small Business Strategies
Spend Less Money

Disclaimer

Wealth Pilgrim is not responsible for and does not endorse any advertising, products or resource available from advertisements on this website. Wealth Pilgrim receives compensation from Google for advertising space on this website, but does not control the advertising selection or content. Please do the appropriate research before participating in any third party offers. The information contained in WealthPilgrim.com is for general information or entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional financial advice. Please contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your specific situation. Wealth Pilgrim does not provide investment advisory services and is not a registered investment adviser. Neal may provide advisory services through Wealth Resources Group, a registered investment adviser. Wealth Pilgrim and Wealth Resources Group are affiliated companies. In accordance with FTC guidelines, we state that we have a financial relationship with some of the companies mentioned in this website. This may include receiving payments,access to free products and services for product and service reviews and giveaways. Any references to third party products, rates, or websites are subject to change without notice. We do our best to maintain current information, but due to the rapidly changing environment, some information may have changed since it was published. Please do the appropriate research before participating in any third party offers.


About · Contact · Disclaimer & Privacy policy

Copyright © Wealth Pilgrim 2021 All Rights Reserved