Striving for Gold Part 1: Putting the Jigsaw Together

- By Darren Smith

You need a big picture or end outcome you are seeking before you can make sense of all of the pieces.

Our financial wellness team get the pleasure and privilege to share stories, lessons learned and experiences around managing money. A lot of these come from direct or indirect lived experiences.

Quality engagement comes from the authenticity and vulnerability we show when we are running sessions with teams, sharing both the things that have worked and perhaps the things that have not gone to plan. We also get the participants to share the same with us so we can listen and learn.

We try and relate everyday activities and principles to managing money.

One that I use is an activity that my wife and I have enjoyed doing together over the last couple of years - working on some big jigsaw puzzles. It is something we can do together to create something that does take time, but the reward of completing it and working it through together makes us feel good. 

We have progressively built up to 15,000 piece puzzles. There are several insights from doing these that apply to the way that we manage money.

Understanding the big picture - what are you trying to build or create. Having a clear goal and outcome is a great place to start as it gives an anchor and comparison point. The picture on the box can be a life saver. 

It is then about having a process for where you can start and make sense of the overwhelming number of pieces. In the case of the puzzle, it is about jointly finding all the outside frame pieces of the puzzle and trying to establish a framework or boundary to work within.  For many households, when it comes to money it can be equated to the budget or having one as a framework for making decisions. 

What we have then established is we each pick an area that we want to build out, again normally a corner connected to the frame. We take ownership for it, then try and identify the connected pieces.  We do get a little bit competitive in terms of progress, but we know who is responsible for what section. Same should apply when it comes to managing money – having clear roles is as much important as sharing the load and responsibility.

Again, with the bigger projects, you do you get to the point where you need a break - you need to walk away and get your mind into something else.  Sometimes this is just an hour or so, or sometimes it is several days or a week or two. Same applies to managing money.

Sometimes you feel stuck, and you need a point of reference so you can identify the next connectors or clusters that will help bring it together.  Grouping like or similar pieces into clusters as you go also means that you can very quickly get a collection of pieces that come together, and you get that sense of progress.

Getting your money organised in a way that is easy to manage and come back to when you do have a break is important for reducing stress.

With the big projects, it is also a good idea to take a break from one section and put a bit more focus on completing another to freshen it up and keep it interesting.

Checking in with your partner and looking out for pieces that might help them goes a long way. Just asking and communicating with them to see if they need help is important and can be a great basis for a support system in the long run.

As we complete these on the kitchen table, we quite often get other family members passing through wanting to get involved and help. Normally these are short bursts, but they all help (most of the time).

As you hit that point where there is more on the puzzle than loose pieces, you start to get a sense of satisfaction and excitement about continually closing the remaining gaps.

Of course, the last couple of pieces when you can see the whole picture and it matches the box is a moment of celebration, and a quick selfie for the socials is normally on the cards.

Whilst puzzles are not for everyone, there are some lessons to be learnt.  Everyone can approach these projects differently but as you do more and more of them, you get better at getting organised and finding a way through some of the frustrations. A little organisation and structure goes a long way…