Last week we wrote about the process of documenting your deeply held values, your “why” and why that is probably the most important element of success in financial planning. Read last week’s post here.
After establishing your deeply held values, it’s time to come back down to earth and describe the desired end point of your financial planning journey - your goals. Your financial goals require money, planning and time to achieve. Otherwise, assuming you have the financial resources set aside, short term goals are essentially an exercise in smart purchasing. There’s not time for saving and investing.
Typical financial goals are “retirement” or “financial freedom” - when you wish working to be optional, or at least not as much is needed. Another is saving for college. You could have a charitable goal. Or, a goal for “travel” or other “extra” activities for a “deluxe retirement”.
We ask our prospective clients to name their goals - any name they want. It can be a “fun” name like “Spend it Down!”, or simply a utilitarian name “Retirement”. Everyone is different.
For each goal we establish a dollar amount, date or series of dates.
The fun part - for each goal we ask our clients to close their eyes and imagine they are at the future date of their goal and imagine how it feels knowing they accomplished it!
Goals are often changed, so we encourage our clients to not worry about “getting it perfect” as they will be revisited once or twice a year and modified.
Next on your list Deliverable #3 - 30,000 foot view of your current finances - click here.
The Mind Map created during the Discovery Meeting.