My husband and I play this game that we borrowed from the popular TV series This is Us. When confronted with a difficult situation, the two main characters ask each other, “What’s the worst case scenario? GO!” And then we hear them blurt out extreme and creative things they imagine may go wrong. My husband and I use this game in a variety of circumstances — including purely for entertainment — but I find that the exercise is helpful in taming our anxieties. There’s something calming about saying those anxieties out loud.  Perhaps that’s because when we name the fear, we gain agency over it. 

Reframing uncertainty to help you build resilience

As a financial planner, my job is quite literally to help you plan for those worst case scenarios to make sure you are protected and resilient. We look at what may happen in the world, to your work, your health, or your home and how that may impact you at a personal level. Most people (myself included) hate uncertainty. But if we’re playful with it and entertained the question, “What’s the worst case scenario?” more often, we can find ways to build resilience and confidence in our plans.

Talking through the real worst case scenarios

I’ve been using this ‘game’ more in my work with clients. I see fear and uncertainty creeping into our conversations when clients talk about investments: “What if I invest this money and the world ends?” Well, if we do confront the apocalypse, let’s first understand that money is likely the least of our concerns! But underlying that question are realistic worst case scenarios: 

• What if I invest this money and the stock market falls 50%? 
• What if I invest this money and I discover that I suddenly need it? 
• What if I invest this money and I lose my job? 

I find it helpful to talk these scenarios out. Let’s assume — catastrophic world-ending scenario aside — that you invest your money and the stock market does indeed fall 50%. That would mean your investments are now worth $X, instead of $Y. Would that endanger any of your life plans? If not, we can move onto the next question. (If yes, then we have a completely different set of issues to address.) 

Assuming your answer is no, your work still may be at risk from economic uncertainty.  Let’s play that out together: You have enough in cash savings to cover your expenses for a year and that’s not even considering the safety net of unemployment insurance. Given all the above, would the stock market falling 50% actually change what you’re doing today? Would having a portfolio $X (still a positive number, by the way!) mean that you couldn’t pay the bills? Or would it mean that you’d have to sell your apartment or house? It doesn’t. 

Now that we’ve talked through your fear of losing your job during a stock market crash and found that you would be just fine, you can take a breath and let that fear go. Or, if you still aren’t comfortable, we could plan to invest less to put more in cash savings for the time being and help soothe that anxiety.

Writing your “worst case scenario” playbook

We can use this approach to talk through a number of big life decisions: 

• What if we buy the house and hate it? 
• What if something happens to me and my partner’s not protected? 
• What if I get burned out at my last job, and I need to quit before I’m ready to retire? 

None of these scenarios would be easy to endure. But, confronting them from a practical perspective can help us decide how to proceed or help us alter our course to prevent the worst from happening. Suddenly, we have a playbook for what to do: 

• If we hate the house, we’ll sell it. It wouldn’t change a thing about our lives and we’re okay with that financial risk. 
• I want my partner to be protected more, so I’ll get life insurance so I make sure they are fully protected the way I want them to be. 
• If I need to quit, I’m going to take 2 months off, clear my head, use the cash savings I’ve accumulated, apply for social security, and find a part-time job for the next five years.

After working through what action you would take, it somehow makes these worst case scenarios less scary and more manageable in our heads. 

My own “worst case scenario”

When I started Thinking Big, my worst case scenario was that the business would fail. And I built my own playbook: If the business failed, what would I do? Go find a job, of course! Would I have to move? No. Would I have enough savings to support me? Yes! The probability of a business failing is quite high, but I got more comfortable with the risk because I realized I had the agency, support, and resources to deal with a worst case scenario if it happened. And I also figured I wasn’t completely unemployable! 

I hope this helps you to tackle those big life goals (many of them intertwined with our finances) more easily and with more conviction. The one sure thing in life is uncertainty, so let’s have some fun with it, shall we?