Net Net TOUGH-Gaps in your Financial Plan-Pyramid
Course #2 of 9 – 4 Steps to Seeing the Gaps in your Financial Life
Being an age 30-50 adult is hard; don’t let anyone tell you differently. If you ask 100 happy seniors, you’ll find that most of them wouldn’t want to live through those years over again. Why not? There are too many things to worry about: family, career, pleasing people, friends, work balance, what to do when you grow up–the list is endless. That’s why it would be doing most adults a favor to give you one less major concern in life. Because you could have fewer worries, and because it would save you money, adults should complete this Financial Gap exercise.
When you build a house, you build a foundation out of concrete first. This foundation in a “financial plan” and is all about reducing risk. Having the appropriate insurance so you can feeling good when considering taking more risk to capture opportunities is risk management at the core.
Having an emergency savings, awareness around your debt and having a home to live in is important. From there you are moving up the Pyramid and starting to invest or acquire income producing assets, like rental real estate. As things get a little more complex ensuring your are aware of your mental health… this is not talked about in most financial planning offices, but good mental health leads to better financial decisions. Having money set aside for when you retire and then getting the conversation going around why, how and when you are going to sell your business.
Finally, at the top of the pyramid, not only is estate planning important but for my younger families… this box refers to what are you teaching your children about money, wealth and financial behaviors now. This is your greatest legacy, the ability to help your children make great decisions.
Quick Resources:
- 10 Life Skills to Teach Your Child by Age 10
- If you are over age 50, HOW READY IS YOUR ESTATE PLAN? Have you completed our Willing Wisdom Index? CLICK LINK to See How You Score on how Ready Your Estate Plan is.
- Have you read the book Principles for Success by Ray Dalio?
- Want to know how many check marks you have?
What you have already checked off your list and what questions you need to answer and finally what areas of your life have a CLEAR GAP and need immediate attention.
Action Steps:
- Print the above Pyramid image
- Mark a check mark on all the areas you have taken care of already… if you have life insurance check it off
- If you don’t know if you have something. Put a question mark and go find the details, ask your Financial Professional if you have __ or go dig it out of your filing cabinet
- If you know you don’t have something, then put an exclamation mark
Now you know where you need to focus – on the ” ! “