Your Answers
I am a TRADER. As one, I ask
questions - lots of questions. I'm the absolutely without a doubt the
most skeptical person that you'll ever meet. For the record,
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I was born at night, NOT last night.
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I think the drivel that is served up
as “financial planning” is a lot of bunk. Life is complicated and you
need a map to get from one place to the next. Does financial planning
have a place in life? Yes – without a doubt.
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What I don't like is how financial
planning is packaged and sold.
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I don't like boilerplate and the
back-end nonsense.
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I believe that the “planners” should
plan and the investment pros should do the investing.
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I think there's a HUGE and FATAL
conflict of interest when financial planner creates and completes a plan
for a client and then gets PAID to implement the plan. And vice versa.
I’ve been doing this along time and I can say from the basis of fact
that anyone who puts together a plan and then implements it is doing you
a HUGE disservice.
Financial Planning means different things to different
people.
When you strip away all of the boilerplate, it really
boils to this:
In order to be successful as an investor or trader,
you must have your house in order.
Is your house in order?
If you have a specific question comment on this
section, please click on the link that follows to contact me directly.
Have a Question?
Financial
Planning is really finding answers
to these
EXTREMELY important questions.
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Do you know exactly what would
happen to your family if you didn’t wake up tomorrow?
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Do you know exactly what would
happen to your family financially if you became disabled and could no
longer work?
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Who will you need to, or just want
to help, educate? When? And do you have your arms around what it will
cost to do so?
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How and when do you see yourself
retiring? What will you do, and what will it cost to do it – not just
the day after you retire, but 10-20 and even 30 years later?
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Are you parents living? If so, will
you be expected to contribute to their support at some point? And have
you made any provision for the possibility that you may need nursing
home or other care, late in your own life?
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How important is it to you to be
able to intervene in the financial lives of your children and
grandchildren – while your still here, as legacies, or both? How do you
plan to do it?
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Assuming, as we have to do, that
when you’re both gone, up to half your estate will get taxed away, how
do you want the tax to be paid? If you want the kids to just pay the
half, will they be forced to sell something you really wouldn’t want
them to have to sell?
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Heaven forbid, but is there a
special needs child in your family?
Action Steps
Go out and buy a notebook, paper and
some dividers.
Each question is its own section in the notebook.
Then sit down by yourself and answer ALL of the
questions. Make notes, jot down your thoughts. Keep in mind that there
no right and wrong answers. When I did this exercise for myself, it took
me about 2 weeks to think through and answer each of the questions.
Don't take this lightly – your family’s financial
future is at stake.
Once you are done, ask your spouse, partner or
significant other answer the questions.
Once they are done with it, schedule an appointment
with each other and sit down together and review your answers.
Where are you on sound footing?
Where do you need some help?
If you need some help, seek out a
qualified professional to help you with that particular question.
What you have done is take the first and most
important step to becoming financially independent AND you have spent
more time planning your financial future than 99% of the rest of the
population.
Each quarter, take out the notebook and review it.
Update it with anything that has changed.
Good Luck – You’ll sleep better at night knowing that
you’ve done all you can you’re your loved ones.
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