I keep expecting someone to hand me the manual for how to lead my life.

Do you have yours? Can I borrow it?

The longer I live, the less likely it seems that the world will hand me that manual I have been waiting for.

I have been spending time learning about personal finances. What I’m realizing is that the education does not consist of finding out exactly what I should do. Indeed, the education consists of finding out my options. Then I have to decide, all on my own because no one can decide for me, what I want to do next.

No one can tell me my risk tolerance. No one can tell me my own inner purpose for wanting to save or invest. No one can tell me if an annuity will serve me better than stocks. No one can tell me if life insurance is right for me.

The thing is, a lot of people are going to try to tell me what is right for me. They will be happy to tell me why their product is the best. They may even believe it, and maybe it is the best for some but perhaps not for me?

Somehow I have to sift through, to figure out as best I can what’s available, and then to make my own decisions.

The same is going to be true for each of us to decide our own risk tolerance in interacting with the world as we take into account the risk of getting COVID-19. Living has risk to it. Now we must account for a another risk, one we didn’t face last year. That risk is going to change in each community and over time, but as the legal requirements change, we will be left to gauge our own, individual risk. Just because we can go out does not mean that it’s right for us, but it also doesn’t mean it’s not right for us.

Are you ready to listen to your own voice in your head once you have good information? It isn’t always easy.