What Can We Learn from Baseball?

Did you ever notice how difficult it is for sports teams to transition from “Trying to Win” to “Trying not to Lose”?

🏈How many times have you seen a football team leading late in the game shift to a “Prevent Defense”, allowing relatively modest gains while defending against big plays only to see its opponents mount a scoring drive and win the game?

🏀Late in a basketball game a team may shift from the offensive style that built a lead to one which will work the clock, only looking for a shot once the 24-second clock is winding down. This frequently causes the offense to get out of sync and typically the lead gets narrower or even lost.

🏒Hockey teams pull the goalie when they’re behind late in a game.  This allows them to take chances and turbocharge what is essentially their existing offensive game plan.  Meanwhile the team with the lead is forced to try to defend, getting away from their game-plan and taking few chances which can lead to disastrous results.

Shifting strategies late in games is hard because it requires a specific mindset shift which isn’t necessarily in line with 90% of what the team has practiced or what got them to this point of near victory.

Unless you’re playing baseball.

 ⚾In baseball, teams have dedicated “closers” who enter late in games and are specifically focused on protecting leads.  They are very often dominant and have a high success rate of winning games. In baseball, teams have prepared for the specific situation where they've attained their goal (being ahead on the scoreboard) and they need a new approach to complete the win.

Saving toward a financial goal (college, retirement, home purchase) is like the first 90% of a game, like a team executing what they've practiced over and over again.  However, when you are at or approaching your goal the strategy needs to change just like the mindset shift for a team protecting a lead.   Working with a financial advisor can be like having a baseball closer on your staff, guiding implementation of a new strategy based on your current situation.

So…in managing your finances to meet your goals, which sport are you most like?