It’s not you, it’s the paperwork — Paperwork Anxiety is Real

“I avoid dealing with my paperwork. There’s no excuse. I just don’t do it. The thought of having to sift through websites, paper, and sit on the phone with someone to handle bills, loans, etc. is almost as bad as eating poop.” — Client response to the question: What is one financial habit you have that you don’t like and would like to change?

If you hate dealing with paperwork, don’t worry — as you can see above, you’re not alone 💩 Paperwork and forms are usually where people get stuck. You decide that today’s the day you’re going to open an IRA….

It starts off easy — name, address, date of birth… okay, I can do this.

Driver’s license… okay let me go get that…

Are you or a family member a control person of a public traded company?…. No??

What is your investment objective?…

What’s your annual income?…. What you’re net worth?… what’s your federal tax bracket?…

Skip

Skip

Skip

Who are your beneficiaries?… Okay I know how to answer this, I want to leave the IRA to my sister….

Beneficiary social security number…

You close the tab and scroll through instagram for a few minutes to get the ick out of your brain.

Here’s the thing about paperwork — it’s not you, it’s the paperwork.

Paperwork used to be internal documents businesses filled out for you. They’d use it to build a relationship with a client (can you imagine??) and learn more about you while streamlining their own internal processes. Because they were meant to be internal documents, they were poorly formatted, full of jargon, and longgggg.

Then it became the customer’s responsibility to fill out these forms, but they stayed just as complicated and confusing, because racism:

Forms transformed the face, and the interface, of bureaucracy. “Earlier public administrations also used forms and questionnaires, but these were filled by officers instead of by citizens, and thus by members of the same organization. In contrast, 20th century governments delegated the increasing administrative workload that resulted from large social welfare programs to citizens — who then had to fill out forms on their own. In consequence, forms took over the role of officers as mediating interfaces between citizens and public administration.” [Harms], summarizing [Becker] — An Unofficial History of Forms

Then somewhere further along the way, paperwork became a barrier to access.

Forget to fill out a checkbox? Redo the form.

Fill something out wrong? Denied the loan.

Filled in something you shouldn’t have? Application rejected.

The system is designed for us to fail, to shrink, to fall back, to just take what we can get and paperwork is another obstacle to navigating the financial system. If English isn’t yours or your family’s first language, if you’re disabled, you don’t have reliable internet or a computer, the barriers compound.

No wonder we have so much anxiety and fear around filling out paperwork. If it feels like there is a lot at stake, there is. So much of getting personal financial tasks done revolves around paperwork and forms, which is why one of the core features of our services is helping clients get through the sludge of paperwork.

In all our Brunch & Budget programs, we support clients through doing this messy work. We’ve helped clients open IRA accounts, update beneficiary forms, apply for credit cards, fill out mortgage applications, download credit reports, refinance student loans, you name it, we’ve seen it.

One client told us recently, “I’ve never had anyone help me fill out a form before, that was great!”

If you get locked out of your logins after three attempts, have no idea the name of the street you lived on when you were 8, or if you opened a Victoria’s Secret card in 2009, we got you.

Reach out to letsbrunch@brunchandbudget.com if you want to schedule a FREE Quick 15 to chat with one of our team members to see if we can help. You’ll also get the tea on how your money personality affects your wallet.

Please feel free to leave a comment with your own paperwork phobia stories. I think it will make us all feel better to know that we’re not wrong, we’re not stupid, and we’re not alone.