Financial planning; what is it and why is it important?

Posted by: Joseph Kuo | January 21, 2019

At Abundance Wealth Planning, we approach financial planning guided by the truth that people want to live happy, meaningful lives. Lives based on their own standards of what happiness and meaningful mean. While some may prefer a life of luxury and ease, others may want a life of challenge and achievement. Yet, the path to that ideal life can be full of twists without–

Even while the planning process will maximize the likelihood of us getting what we want, when done right, it will also foster the confidence that we will live a fantastic life regardless of the uncertainties we face.
1. a practice of contemplating what we want, we frequently find ourselves being pulled by whatever is triggering us at the moment;
2. without a direction, it is easy to be influenced by fear and focus on avoiding current pain;
3. without thinking through what we hope to achieve, we can become stuck on the little things and fail to recognize the world of possibilities in front of us.

Financial planning is more than just making plans

When financial planning is comprehensive, it brings all those things to bear. Many of us associate money with at least some of our most important values; therefore, conversations around money are incomplete without also exploring what having, or not having, money means to what we want and who we are. Money is like a puzzle piece in the jigsaw puzzle that is life; it is much harder to put together a puzzle without seeing the whole picture.

The best financial planning starts with exploring our deeper motivations:

• What are the things that excites us? Can we pinpoint the qualities that made the difference and apply them to other activities?
• What are the things that keeps us up at night? Can we isolate the truth behind those fears and mitigate them?
• What are the opportunities and risks in front of us, given this deeper level of understanding?

This is even more important for business owners

Even while the planning process will maximize the likelihood of us getting what we want, when done right, it will also foster the confidence that we will live a fantastic life regardless of the uncertainties we face.
We also have to consider the following questions:

• What business am I really in?
• How does my business fit into my family life and legacy?
• What is my exit strategy so that I can remove myself from the day-to-day operations

A never-ending process

As the future is uncertain and people change, these explorations are ongoing dialogues. Instead of focusing on a financial plan that is static and inflexible, we cultivate resilience and resourcefulness by engaging in a financial planning process that is dynamic and robust. Even while the planning process will maximize the likelihood of us getting what we want, when done right, it will also foster the confidence that we will live a fantastic life regardless of the uncertainties we face.