To Get Organized
If you are like most people, you are busy and have a ton of moving parts in your life. You might be juggling the demands of your career, family, community, and finances, in addition to your personal health and well-being. Financial planning encompasses multiple areas of our lives. It can include daily cash flow, college funding, retirement planning, insurance coverage, taxes, large asset transactions, debt management, and career trajectory. Striking a balance between these competing priorities can be challenging and overwhelming. Chances are, you may have several “financial” folks in your life. Accountants, attorneys, bankers, brokers, human resources reps, and insurance agents each advise on just one aspect of your financial picture.
A financial planning process provides a framework to organize all the pieces of your financial picture. Combining and coordinating all the parts helps you see how each decision you make in one area affects another. For instance, saving for your children’s college education may impact your ability to retire on schedule. How your investments are allocated affects your tax situation. And, how your insurance is structured affects your estate planning. A financial planner helps you sort through the “noise” to focus on what is important for your family, and on accomplishing your goals.
To Make Sure You’re On Track
Have you heard the phrase, “By failing to plan, you are planning to fail?” Many people blindly throw their hard-earned money in different directions, then hope they are making the right choices. It can feel like your money controls you, but it should be the other way around. You can take financial control by making a plan to turn your goals into a reality. With a financial plan, you take the guesswork out of your finances. You can go into tax season with a ballpark estimate of how much you will owe or get in a refund. Savings won’t be a mystery because you will know how much to save each month to reach your goals.
Not sure if you have the right type of life insurance coverage or the right amounts? A financial planner can help you determine the amount and type of policy that is appropriate for your situation. You can rest at ease knowing that if something happened to you, your family will have the resources to continue their current lifestyle. Your financial planner will help you identify your goals, create a plan, and take action to achieve those goals.
To Have Someone In Your Corner
A financial planner can also act as an accountability partner, coach, and liaison between all the other advisors in your life. They essentially serve as your personal CFO to help you evaluate scenarios and make choices that are in your best interest. A planner helps you decide when is the best time to exercise stock options, or how much tax to withhold from your paycheck. They review your tax return to make sure you’re not missing key deductions, and help you sort through your employee benefit offerings, as well as help you choose an investment allocation that fits your needs. You can use them as a sounding board for ideas like starting a business, choosing whether to buy or lease a car, deciding between a high deductible health plan and other insurance offerings, or how to make your next career move.
Life will throw surprises at you along the way. You’ll be better prepared to handle those surprises if you have a plan in place that offers strategies for the unexpected. You don’t have to face these challenges alone, hire a planner to help you navigate through life’s financial obstacle course.
So, where can I find one? The CFP (Certified Financial Planner) Board and XY Planning Network are two great places to start. You can search by geographic area or specialty. Here are the respective websites:
https://www.letsmakeaplan.org/
https://www.xyplanningnetwork.com/
You can also schedule a free consultation with me by clicking this calendar link: https://go.oncehub.com/JamieBosse
Jamie A. Bosse is a Certified Financial Planner professional at Aspyre Wealth Partners® and a board member of the Financial Planning Association of Greater Kansas City. For help with your specific situation contact Jamie at jbosse@aspyrewealth.com
