Financial planning is a process used to identify your life goals and provide an actionable plan towards accomplishing these goals.
Financial Planning is not about the money. It’s about your life.
You can use Financial Planning as a tool to get rich or get out of debt, but we would argue that a better use of financial planning is to help you live your life free from the worry and control of money.
Financial planning is not about the accumulation of more money, but a better life.
Why is Financial Planning important?
Financial planning is important because money should be a means to an end, but without a plan, the accumulation of money can become our goal and we lose sight of what is truly important.
Financial planning is important because it can help us focus on a satisfying life rather than on our net worth.
Financial planning is important because without a plan, money will take more of our attention than it should.
Financial planning is important because it can help us control the impact money has on us.
How should you go about Financial Planning?
Financial planning starts with identifying your life goals. Some of this will be easy and some of this will take a good imagination and a lot of time.
The next step in financial planning is quantifying your goals. Including inflation, how much will your goals cost?
An important next step is creating a plan for accumulating the savings in various forms (retirement accounts, savings, investments, charitable funds, etc.) that will be used to satisfy your financial goals. This step is often more art than it is science.
Based on your current lifestyle and ability to save towards your goals, you may need to make adjustments to your goals or to your current lifestyle depending on the importance of your goals.
One of the most valuable assets most of us have is the ability to adapt financially to our circumstances.
Successful financial planning should focus on the value of money rather than the quantity of it.
Spend less time planning the accumulation of wealth and more time planning how to give it away and spend it well.
