Finance with Don Fraser Fraser Farm Finance

'Be responsible for your actions'' is another of my simple messages and related to last month's philosophy called 'A rural handshake no longer means enough”.

We often think that things are covered or presume somebody else has taken responsibility for our detail.

A good example here is where we entrusted other people with our money to invest in dodgy finance companies with the consequences being history.

I tell my clients to always stay in control of their money and their assets. You need to be able to see your money or drive past your assets or at the very least, to be in control.

Often clients will tell me that the accountant or solicitor has sorted that only to find that yes, it has been discussed, but no action has been taken. Why? Because they failed to instruct in writing.

My business is built around getting people to take responsibility to make decisions and then being accountable for the resultant actions, and following through.

When you sign a contract of any sort, you must know what you are signing and be ready for any action or consequences that may flow from that signature.

It is mindful to realise that with every action there will be a reaction. Consider what the reaction may be and plan for it. In other words, take responsibility for your actions, or inactions.

It is just too easy to blame everybody else for your failure. 'This was not done and that happened ...” In actual fact, it was probably just your failure to take responsibility for your actions that caused the loss or problem.

I am seeing it now in the poor economy, with farmers failing and blaming the bank for lending them the money. Yes, the banks were over generous and very keen to lend more and more money, but at the end of the day, it was us who wanted to buy the neighbours farm, build a flash house and a big rotary shed. It was also us who signed the mortgage documents, so we must be accountable for our actions.

So, we need to dig deep and realise that we are responsible for our own actions and the consequences that flow from them.

Ducking down, blaming others and not identifying who actually took, or did not take action will see us stuck.
We must stop the blame game and be accountable for our own actions.