People who feel they’re not good with numbers sometimes assume this means they have no hope in managing their personal finances. We don’t believe this because we’ve helped many people overcome these concerns. With assistance, most people can learn the do’s and don’ts of managing their money.

The reason is that while math skills certainly help the process, your behavior is ultimately what determines your success. A financial advisor or other trusted individual can help you get a handle on the numbers and develop a plan to try to reach your financial goals, whatever they may be. Sticking to the plan is the tough part, but we haven’t seen much evidence that a math major has any particular advantage in this than the rest of us. The reason is that your day-to-day financial decisions have a strong emotional aspect to them. Setting a goal and committing to it is more important than understanding exactly how the math works. And the good news is that means any one of us has a chance to do well!

Consider credit cards. Why did you choose the ones you have? Most likely you considered the rewards points and whether there was an annual fee. What about the annual interest rate? For anyone who carries a balance on their credit card, the differences in rates between two cards may be much more significant than any difference in rewards points. Still, most consumers do not place a high emphasis on the interest rate.

The reason why might surprise you. Most consumers don’t pay attention to the interest rate when applying for a credit card because they never intend to carry a balance. Alas, the fact is that many of them will end up carrying a balance, potentially a large one. This is a perfect example where you could be a math genius in calculating the difference in interest cost when carrying a balance, but what matters more is whether you can predict how you will behave. Many people underestimate their ability to control their spending. All the math in the world won’t help if you consistently spend more than you earn.

So don’t let an aversion to numbers keep you from working towards your goals. With some help crunching the data, you can develop a plan that will help drive your behavior towards making the right decisions.