If you are like most of us, you filed your income taxes last week. I always find it a bit of a relief. Now 2022 is done and we can focus on the future. How did you do with your financial goals last year? What’s your next financial priority? How are you doing in preparing to stop working for money one day?
For most of us born after 1950, our largest financial goal is to stop working for money. We might not call it retirement, because it’s not stopping work when it works best. It’s changing of work. The freedom to do what you LIKE and to do it in the WAY that you like is often the best definition of the “after-career” stage of American life.
How is your game plan to transition into not working for money going? When will you be ready? In a few years, or 5, or 10, or even 20?
Now would be a great time to reflect on your progress and tighten up your game plan to get to that big goal successfully.
Keep your eye on the ball. As Benjamin Graham, the father of value investing, once said, “The best way to measure investing success is not whether you’re beating the market but by whether you’ve put in place a financial plan and a behavioral discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go.”
As you progress through life, there are a few shorter-term goals, leading to a larger goal so you can shift from working for a living to living for fun and fulfillment and only working because it brings you joy.
In general, I would suggest you consider these perspectives:
- It’s not how much you make, but how much you keep.
- It’s not how your savings performed against a benchmark, but how quickly you were able to achieve your goals.
- It’s not how much you have so much as it is how confident you are that what you have will get you to your goals.
I’m a fiduciary financial planner, so I’m an advocate for my clients in all my dealings. I generally talk a lot about holistic financial planning. When you look at all of a family’s financial life, you often find many things that will help them reach their goals, in addition to upgrading the quality of their investment management.
A holistic financial plan will include a review, assessment, and recommendations in 8 areas of your financial life:
- Cash flow and debt management.
- Employee benefits planning.
- Risk management and insurance planning.
- Investment planning.
- Income tax planning.
- Education funding planning.
- Retirement income planning.
- Estate and legacy planning.
Maybe as you are reading this you get to wondering if you need to take action. Maybe we should talk. I’m a fiduciary financial planner. I’m an experienced, well-train CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. I’m always a fiduciary and I love meeting new families. Reach out and we can have a get-acquainted visit. Just follow this LINK to find a time that works for you.
Yes, I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. I’m always a fiduciary and I work on a fee basis. And yes, I’m still taking on a few great families to be part of my financial planning practice.
If this article has you thinking about your own circumstances, contact my office at rdunn@dunncreekadvisors.com. I am always happy to meet with people who are working on their retirement plans. Dunncreek Advisors does not provide legal or tax advice, nor is this article intended to do so.