Financial planners like me talk a lot about goals. We ask our clients to go beyond present-day concerns and think deeply about what financial success means to them. Then we work together to create a path to achieve that success, understand the tradeoffs along the way, and recommend and implement strategies to keep progressing toward that goal (and of course, adapting the plan as lives unfold unpredictably, the way they do).
Clients are often scared off when confronted with the amount of money they will need to save to achieve their big goals, especially when the time horizon is very long. So I generally don’t show them at first - the numbers are so large it’s unimaginable that the sum is reachable. But the individual steps really are, and don't seem as daunting. So these are better thought of as a series of objectives that must be met on the way to the ultimate goal.
This year, I’ll be sharing a series of monthly posts with small, achievable tasks. By the end of the year you will have addressed every major area of financial planning and hopefully gained some insight into what you would like a professional to help with, what kind of an investor you are, and what is standing in the way of creating a plan. All of this is intended to provide a clear path so that you can think about bigger goals.
Happy New Year!
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