Financial Planning " What you need to Know and How I do it and getting started
Financial security is more than wealth. We all know people who were briefly wealthy from a lucky bet, an inheritance, the right job at the right time, or an exceptional investment. The key is to achieve financial independence/freedom and to stay wealthy. If you are ready for that goal, its time to talk to me at Raymond James Financial Services. Financial independence/freedom means retiring with a lifestyle which suits you according to your needs. It can mean the difference between a job you love and that brings in the most money, or being able to help your children obtain the education they will need to succeed in life. Financial security gives you the opportunity to enjoy life and achieve your personal goals. The good news is that you have access to more tools for buiding financial independence/freedom than any time in the past. Why do so many poeple fail to achieve that level of independence/freedom?
- They don't have a plan, and
- They don't have suitable financial advice.
My goal is to make my clients financially independent. What that means in terms of net worth depends on the individual. You are rich when you have few material wants and are free to pursue that which is most important to you. We know firsthand, from working with individuals such as yourself, that to become financially independent you have to have a plan and faithfully execute that plan. I want our clients to achieve the level of financial indepndence/security they need to be able to enjoy life more fully and to have the opportunity to pass on their wealth to the next generation, or to causes they support. To do so, I help you understand how to build and preserve wealth. This process starts with a plan. By establishing a investment plan, you gain a better picture of where you are and where you want to go. This provides a roadmap that can help eliminate some of the zigzags and detours that might keep you from reaching your goal. Your roadmap is based in part on your risk tolerance. For any financial plan to work, it has to be a plan that can evolve and change with the market and with your needs, so that you will stick with it for the long haul. The surest way to build your net worth is not with the swift kill, but with the steady, relentless impact of compounding, as principal and earnings produce more earnings over time. To succeed, you have to give compounding time to work. That requires a good understanding of your plan, what it will take to accomplish your objectives and commitment to the plan. This is where my "coaching" plays a critical role. To help my clients plan for the future, I continually interact with my clients and provide them with information to help them be more knowledgeable investors and to make suitable financial decisions. That information includes consolidated monthly reports showing portfolio positions, performance and asset mix, and the progress you have made in achieving your objectives. The next step is the devolpment of your customized investment policy statement. This statement governs the type of investments, risk structure and return objectives for your portfolio. Your customized investment policy statement assists me in proposing an investment mix for you and positioning your portfolio along the continuum of conservative, moderate or growth objectives. Your policy statement also incorporates your need for income, desired tax efficiencies and directives such as socially responsible investing. The investment policy process, developed and refined over years of experience, results in what I call "crafted portfolios for the thoughtful investor". What's Your Story? Before I can deliver a plan for taking specific actions, it's essential that clients have a story about how they want the future to turn out. This story may include the details surrounding retirement, children's education, home ownership, and other interim situations the client has committed to producing. Developing your story is fundamental to our Financial Planning process. When you choose to create a plan with us, we will gain a deep understanding of your story about the future. Our recommendations will be prudent given your current situation. We will take care to deliver an action plan that will help you balance all of your financial concerns and commitments, for the sake of helping you live a full and satisfying life. Getting Started: We typically begin by discussing your personal concerns, current financial situation and goals for the future. We will ask you to provide information on a worksheet that includes your current assets, investments and personal ambition for retirement(when and how much annual income in today's dollars). If you have children, we will ask you to specify your ambition for education planning. Based on the information you share, we will create a first draft of scenarios for taking new, more powerful actions. We will then meet with you to discuss these scenarios. In most cases, this conversation triggers new possibilities for designing the future. We then integrate these new possibilities into a second set of scenarios, which leads to a follow-up conversation. This process continues until you are satisfied that we have delivered a valuable tool for helping you produce the future you want.
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