It’s always puzzled me how hard it is to ask for help, and I think I finally know why. Because when you ask for help, you admit you have a weakness is the easy answer – the other more difficult to understand reason is that you risk rejection. What if you admit you have a weakness and you need help with something and you are rejected? The ask could be something simple like “I need help with my investments, can you recommend a financial advisor?” or more serious like, “I need to talk to someone about my high credit card debt, do you know who I should talk to?” In either case, you have to first admit something about your finances to someone, then you have to hope they have an answer, because if not, you have to ask again or run the risk of feeling rejected or judged.

Yes, these are all subjective perceptions. And yes, feelings aren’t really an indicator of reality, it is just an aha I had this week while pondering why it is that for many people it’s hard to ask for help – particularly when it comes to issues around money.