246: How to Make Decisions with More Confidence (and Less Stress): A Conversation with Michelle Florendo

“Can you just make the decision for me?”

As an adult, it seems like life is a never-ending stream of choices. From little decisions like what’s for dinner to big decisions about your career or financial investments, the choices keep coming–and there rarely seems to be a “right” answer.

I’m in regular conversation with clients about their financial choices and planning for life transitions. (Do I sell my company shares now or later? How much should I save for retirement? Can I afford to take this vacation or send my kid to that college?) So when I had the chance to interview a decision engineer on Love, your Money, I had to say yes.

I couldn’t wait to get Michelle Florendo’s insights, because as a Stanford-trained decision engineer, she’s made it her life’s work to teach people how to make decisions with less stress and more clarity.

In this conversation, we talk through how to feel confident that you’ve done your decisions due diligence, while also going beyond the process-driven elements of engineering to talk about how our feelings and emotions influence our decisions… especially the ones that impact our finances.

I learned some things that are going to help me become a better financial advisor–and that’s something I don’t say lightly! I often find myself talking clients through options that might feel counterintuitive, and the process Michelle shared is going to be a huge support in helping them navigate uncertainty. 

Michelle has frameworks that apply to every decision–personal or professional, big or small–and we talked through some money-related examples that really bring the concepts to life, from investing and IPOs to daily spending habits.

If you’ve ever struggled with making a decision, planning for the unknown, or articulating what you value most… this is a conversation you do not want to miss.

So hit download, listen in, and make sure you check out the expanded show notes at hendershottwealth.com/246 for even more decision-making education from Michelle.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this week’s episode of Love, your Money:

• Decision engineering, finance, and emotional resistance–i.e. how do you account for irrationality in decision engineering?
• The core components of a decision–objectives, options, and information, plus a case study in how they apply
• Reconciling what is “unknowable”, what is unchanging, and what is impactable 
• Using a Relief/Regret matrix (“happy face/sad face”) to inform decisions, moving through uncertainty and the clarity from knowing “enough”
• How to improve the options component of decision making, and the power of self-created options
• How risk appetite influences financial decision making, like selling concentrated positions of company stock for security versus holding out for more growth
• What “resulting bias” is, why so many of us default to resulting, and what you can do instead 
• How an outdated Money Operating System® can sabotage your money choices, and untangling “fast thinking” emotional processes to gain confidence in your decision making

Show Notes
To get access to the full show notes, including all the resources mentioned, visit: https://hendershottwealth.com/pod

Hendershott Wealth Management, LLC and Love, your Money do not make specific investment recommendations on Love, your Money or in any public media. Any specific mentions of funds or investments are strictly for illustrative purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice or acted upon by individual investors. The opinions expressed in this episode are those of Hilary Hendershott, CFP®, MBA.