moneyFYI
Financial Freedom Is Merely Organized Common Sense
Planning Influences Your Future
People like the future to be reasonably predictable. Get a job with a big company, one that is likely to go on forever, get group benefits, get a pension, get holidays. As long as the salary is big enough, that’s a good deal. Key elements of the future are there.
People who have worked at Sears, or GM, or any of a dozen others, found the predictable to be almost predictable, but with some potential deficits.
Planning helps
If you can identify the future you want and you have the resources ot get it, it is just a question of organizing what you have to get what you want. For some others they will have to create the resources. The self-employed for example. Being a doctor, or a business owner does not come with group benefits and a pension plan. These people must create their own resources and then allocate them. Not so easy.
Planning is the process of attaching resources to hoped for outcomes. It does not guarantee the outcome but it does other things:
- It clarifies the goals
- It creates a time dimension
- It assesses the importance of each goal and assigns priorities.
- It assesses the resources available to attach to the goals and in what order.
- If there are not enough resources, it permits a coherent study of ways to change that.
- The study may involve reorganizing debt, minimizing taxes, upgrading skills, or changing lifestyle.
- Identify the cost of lifestyle and treat it as a key factor in all your planning.
- It identifies others who are affected by the actions or the outcome.
- It permits methods and products, like insurance and investment funds, to be understood in context of what you are trying to do.
- It identifies risk.
Risk is the part most people ignore
There is a thought that applies “Risk is what’s left over when you think you’ve thought of everything.” Carl Richards
The sobering thought there is you cannot think of everything.
How do you deal with that?
Most people just ignore it and assume they cand eal with what happens. Theya re likely right, but should they have thought about dealing with it with a plan and some resources. That’s what Emergency Measures Organizations are supposed to do. Have a plan for something that could be harmful and preposition resources to deal with it.
Identify possible problems
- Get laid off
- Lose your job
- Get sick or injured
- A child gets sick and needs care.
- An unforeseen expense. Maybe the roof is leaking.
- Someone in your extended family needs help
- The list is nearly endless and it is different depending on circumstances.
The key observation is unforeseen and unforeseeable are not the same thing. Spend a little time and think about what you would do. What you do early matters most and if you have not thought about it, the response could be seriously wrong.
You can see the need for some easily organized tools. Insurance is one, an emergency fund another. Everyone know sabout those and you’d be surprised how few people do anything about it.
You won’t think of everything and you won’t be able to solve everything perfectly in advance. You can get a better answer than if you don’t think about it all.
The takeaway
The future will not be an endless repetition of the present.
You will be forced to deal with changes
You will accommodate change better if you have thought about the possibility ahead of time.
Planning is a process and it is never finished
Stay alert for new changes.
I help people have more retirement income and larger, more liquid estates.
Call in Canada 705-927-4770, or email don@moneyfyi.com
moneyFYI 