It's Personal: Hello & Put it on Paper

Hello:

Hello to all! First, I need to thank Anthony for the opportunity to write the articles. I will be writing “It’s Personal” articles on various topics associated with personal finance. The array of topics covered will be very wide. Some examples are employer and self directed retirement accounts, Insurance, Estate planning, business planning, education funding, and a host of other topics related to personal finance.

Put it on Paper:
A good financial plan starts with you, not the advisor. It’s your goals and objectives that drive any good financial plan. Money and time are the resources that will feed the plan and a great advisor can map it out on paper. Money unto itself serves no purpose. Think about it, it’s only a little green piece of paper. Time is a limited resource. We only have so much of it in a given day, week, year, and lifetime. The advisor can be hit or miss. A great one asks what’s important to you and not how many zeros are after the decimal point. A great one will also have your personal financial plan on paper, like a road map. So, until you have goals and objectives, in which to plot a course, your money, in a way, is floating in a timeless no man’s land.

Plans fail. The main reason why most plans fail: they are not documented on paper. This stands true for all sorts of plans: retirement, estate, business succession, education funding, etc. Goals and objectives give your time and money purpose. Mapping those goals out on paper now give the goals a concrete foundation in which to be measured. Each goal has approximately x amount of time to accomplish and require y amount of money to fully fund. By measuring a goal along the way, you can easily see over various time frames if you’re on target to hit the goal or if you are not and need to make some adjustments. Similar to how a contractor constructs buildings. They have blue prints, time frames, and budgets. They always know if they are ahead of schedule and under budget or not. If the goals and objectives aren’t on paper, like a road map or blueprint, then how can you measure your results along the way? Wouldn’t you like to know you’re behind well in advance and adjust accordingly? What if you are over funded based on time? Do you allow over-funding to continue or do you now have some extra play money?

cpetz@hammer-financial.com

Correy Petz, Associate
Hammer Financial Services
330-523-5016 (direct line)

Securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a Broker/Dealer, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advisor services offered through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered invest¬ment Advisor. Cambridge and Hammer Financial Services are not affiliated.
These views are those of Hammer Financial Services. This is for informational/ educational purposes only and should not be acted upon as individualized investment advice. Please contact a Registered Representative/Advisor for advice. Cambridge, nor its affiliates, offers tax advice. Please see your tax consultant for these services.