Regardless of where you are in your financial journey, having a financial planning strategy is critical towards experiencing a positive outcome. A dream without a plan is just that, a dream. You may currently have an idea of what you want your financial future to be. Having a successful financial plan requires time to slow down, pull your resources together while working with your current professional service providers and laying out how everything fits in place today. Looking out into the future will help you determine which items to bring along with you for the future. Follow this simple framework to build, preserve, and spend your wealth.
Guiding Principals
You’re planning and investing for the future, not today. Establish a non-negotiable list of principals that will be with you each step of the way.
- Build a solid strategy which outlines your personal, professional and financial objectives.
- Be realistic with your expectations and the outcomes you hope to achieve.
- Identify trusted advisors with a clear standard of care and regularly keep them accountable. Be prepared to ask questions when things are not up to your expectations.
- Remember that behavior drives decisions; maintain your plan to stay on course.
- Cash flow, cash flow, cash flow. Consider this when building a personal spending strategy or evaluating an investment.
- Actively manage risk in all areas of planning, including career, longevity and generational concerns.
Build
Save and invest according to your needs and your lifestyle. Create a saving plan and use a simple investment policy statement to outline what you’re comfortable owning in your portfolio.
- Think globally and identify themes that you or your fund managers can intelligently allocate to.
- Create a personal investment allocation statement which outlines your appetite for risk, asset allocation and even procedures to minimize losses.
- Avoid the noise – the media does not understand your personal objectives and cannot have your best interests in mind.
- Cash is king and sometimes the best investment is the one you don’t make.
- Avoid the rear-view mirror when it comes to money, there’s a reason for the disclaimer “past performance is not indicative of future results.” History should provide a lesson and not a trigger to expect more of the same.
Preserve
Risk is all around us. Focus on identifying and managing it. Work with your service professionals to help you in this process.
- Encourage and expect collaboration with your various service professionals to identify risk and build this into your planning decisions.
- Diversification goes beyond just your portfolio. Considering diversify your income resources now, and in retirement. Consider the various tax aspects of these income sources, which can be diversified as well.
- Remove emotions by automating and delegating decisions to the advisors on your team.
- An optimal portfolio is one that aligns with your personal game plan; be realistic about how much risk you can stomach. Sleeping well may serve you better than the anxiety that comes with a challenging market cycle.
- Safety and certainty are not the same thing. CD’s and cash can lose purchasing power just as any investment can suffer a bear market.
Spend
What gets measured, gets managed. What better way to keep score than knowing where your money goes and who gets it.
- Create a simple income statement which will help you identify needs vs. wants and unlock free cash flow to fund future goals.
- Maintain a simple balance sheet that lays out what you own and what you owe.
- Keep track of your key contacts and a short memo on what each person or company is doing for you.
- Stakeholders are the people most important to you and your personal plan. Don’t be afraid to involve and educate them because applied knowledge is power to honor your wishes.
It’s your money. Plan Wisely.
Shocks and surprises come up when you least expect them, but lady luck looks out for those with a plan. It’s best to invest time now to set the right course, stick to it and experience better outcomes along the way. Use this framework to help build a financial plan that may help you achieve your goals. If you’re ready to work with a team that specializes in creating personal financial strategies tailored to your own wealth goals, call ProsperiFi at 847-292-4475. We’ll help you plan wisely.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.
There is no guarantee that a diversified portfolio will enhance overall returns or outperform a non-diversified portfolio. Diversification does not protect against market risk.
