How to make better financial decisions—without regret—in a crisis

The Decision Crisis Playbook 

A decision crisis is when you have to make big decisions at a really difficult time but your basic needs for food and shelter are met, and your personal freedoms and security are intact.

1. Don’t make decisions in panic mode. Find a hopeful outlook, even if just for a moment. 
2. Make long-term, values-based decisions versus short-term, relief-seeking decisions. 
3. Control what you can, if you can. 
4. Set boundaries, or guardrails, so you don’t run out of time or money. 
5. Embrace your next normal.

When you find yourself in a decision crisis, be it life altering or momentary, you can use the Decision Crisis Playbook to make no-regret decisions. The playbook works, it’s repeatable, and it will ensure you not only survive your decision crisis but thrive later, regardless of the outcome. 

What is a decision crisis? 

Difficult decisions in difficult times. When life as you knew it vanishes and your next normal awaits (often without your permission). A decision crisis is very much characterized by the uncertainty about future outcomes combined with the need to make major decisions at the worst possible time. 

Just lost your job? Should you take the lesser-paying job right away or wait it out and hope for a different job with a more livable wage? Recently separated? Do you buy out your ex-partner’s share of the matrimonial home or take your half of the sale of the house and move on? I’ve spent the last 10-plus years helping people navigate all manner of decision crises. Major. Life. Decisions. Over the years, I’ve come to identify a decision crisis situation as follows: 

Uncertain outcome (loss of power) + high stakes (emotional or financial) + difficult decision(s) 

The most stressful part of a decision crisis are the choices, or series of choices, you need to make while stressed out: You’re in a situation that feels bad and scary. Now, add the need to make critical decisions that will have a huge impact on your life, not only in the short run but also the long run. No pressure! 

I’m not talking about simple decisions like should you order takeout tonight or not. I’m talking about massive, life-altering decisions. Do you move to England to follow a dream but leave behind your family in Canada? Do you divorce your partner who you respect but don’t love anymore? Do you freeze your eggs to give yourself the option to have kids later? These are complicated questions with complex constraints and multiple outcomes with no certainty of how any decision will play out. Each mega decision comes with numerous micro decisions and high emotional and financial stakes. It is scary. You don’t want to make the wrong choice and have regret. Regret robs you of confidence and peace of mind. And that’s what this whole book is really about: Finding your way out of a crisis and back to a place of confidence and peace of mind. 

At some point in life, we all have to navigate a personal crisis. Some small, some life altering. There are two types of decision crises that I work through with my clients on a weekly basis: External decision crises and crossroad’s decision crises. 

An external decision crisis is thrust upon us: a colicky newborn, a death in the family, a messy breakup, a bad traffic accident, a job loss, a pandemic.

A crossroad’s decision crisis, however, is the result of locking ourselves into behaviours and choices that violate our own core values. In a crossroad’s decision crisis, things sneak up on us, over time. Think midlife crisis or career crisis. Nothing happened to you, per se, but you kind of wake up one day and realize “This can’t be my life anymore.” Living a life that violates your core values day after day will only lead to stress, anxiety, and guilt. 

In both kinds of decision crises, the future is uncertain, the emotional and financial stakes are high, and you have to make decisions to see your way through. There is no way to avert it. You’re already in it. 

The Decision Crisis Playbook is your survival guide, not only mapping out the decision-making process so you have one less thing to worry about while you’re going through it, but also ensuring that you’ll trust your decision-making process now, next year, and 10 years from now. 

The cool thing about my job as a Certified Financial Planner is that I meet with people year after year. I see them before, during and after a crisis, so I get to see how their decisions played out. I see who thrived and who did not. The difference always comes back to the same thing: Those who thrived after a decision crisis made no-regret decisions.

Shannon Lee Simmons is a Certified Financial Planner and founder of the New School of Finance, an advice-only planning firm. She also speaks about personal finance at speaking engagements and workshops. You can hear her on CBC’s Metro Morning as the On The Money columnist, or watch her on The Marilyn Denis Show, where she’s featured as a financial expert. 

This article was excerpted from No-Regret Decisions (Harper Collins, January 2023). You can order the paperback version on Amazon.

Read more about financial planning:

• What is financial psychology?
• How financial advisors can help at different life stages
• Married with money: How to combine finances with your partner
• “COVID made me do it”: Taking stock of pandemic money decisions