Own your future. Draft your blueprint. Beat the clock.
Successful business owners are, by definition, movers and shakers whose attention, wisdom and insights are in constant demand. The trick for these hard chargers is balancing their endless “Must Do Now” list against the reality of a relentlessly ticking clock. After all, as a wise friend said in a conversation about the passing of my 87-year-old mom, “sadly, time is undefeated.”
Unfortunately, an ocean of priorities, constantly interrupted by the tyranny of the urgent, challenges even the most capable, well organized business owners. The need for a solution is universal; however, and more than a little ironically, bringing such a solution to fruition often demands even more precious time and effort. Oddly enough, the time spent to construct a customized, dynamic personal financial plan may well be the first step in creating a blueprint for successful business succession and future life plans.
We all know that having blueprints is a requirement to build a home and that a comparable development plan is required to build a neighborhood or a “town center” community. However, when it comes to thinking about our lives as a whole - the ultimate destination and the plan to get there - most of us operate without a financial plan serving as the foundation of our life-plans. But the fact is, the thought and effort involved in creating the former, if done properly, will inform the grand design of the latter.
The baseline checklist of items included in a comprehensive financial plan is telling and reveals the breadth and scope of the many variables affecting our lives. As an interesting side note, one of the most difficult numbers to determine is the “estimated annual income need.” Amazingly, the vast majority of people do not know this critical number, and in this instance, ignorance is most assuredly not bliss. Not knowing wastes precious time and increases long-term financial risk exponentially.
Financial Plan Checklist
- Year-end credit card statement(s)
- Most recent mortgage statement(s)
- Life insurance and Long-Term Care insurance policies
- Recent account statements (checking, savings, investment, IRA, 401k, etc.)
- Car payments/statements from car loan(s)
- Estimated pending education liabilities
- Estimated annual income need
- Anticipated one-off future expenses
- Estimated current value of your business
- Projected value of your business when it’s sold
No matter where we plan to go in life, time remains undefeated. So regardless of where you are on your personal journey, a well-conceived, personalized financial plan can, and should, inform the design, timeline and decisions involved in your journey’s successful execution. Investing time and effort into building a customized, dynamic, personal financial plan will create the foundation for your next Act. It will inform multiple decisions along the way and include a corresponding timeline to ensure you get to the place(s) you want to go and arrive there on time.
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, and the time to build your plan is now.