Posts
Social Security Spousal Benefit Calculation Before FRA
10 months ago
Blogged Business Planning
I have started a second blog which you may find interesting if you are a financial professional. I will be using this blog to create a business plan for a financial planning practice. My goal by going through this process on a blog is to create a practice which has total transparency to potential clients and partners. And I hope for the blog to be a space for sharing of practice management ideas between financial planning professionals. I would like my business plan ideas to be vetted in a public place, but I also hope that other professionals will be able to draw ideas and inspiration from the discussion that occurs on the site.
It is not yet a certainty that I will pursue the path of building a financial planning practice (there remains at least one alternative employment opportunity which I am pursuing that would excite me greatly), but I think this exercise can be valuable to myself and others. Therefore I have decided to start this process now.
Please feel free to join me at the Blogged Business Planning blog to discuss practice management ideas, review my business plan and practice thoughts and to join a place to have a critical discussion about what a financial planning practice should look like.
It's Not About The Damn Product
No Financial Product Will Achieve Your Financial Well-Being
If you've worked with a financial professional who has claimed that a financial product would be the solution to achieve financial well-being, you have been sold a lie. There are no financial products that are the answer to financial well-being. Consider financial products to be similar to over-the-counter medication. They can often treat symptoms making things seem better, and can occasionally provide a narrow solution to a problem; but they are never the solution to overall financial-well being. Financial products must be a part of a comprehensive strategy which only good financial planning can provide to achieve a path to financial well-being.
Returning to the over-the-counter analogy, consider trying to lose weight and live a more healthful lifestyle. You would not simply purchase weight-loss drugs and expect you life to become more healthy. You may lose some weight, but your heart would not become stronger and your endorphins would not increase (both benefits of aerobic exercise), you would also not enjoy the benefits of improving your diet. You would have treated the symptom of being overweight, but not have gained the overall health benefits of an overall lifestyle change.
Purchasing financial products is no different. The product may help with one problem, but you will not enjoy the benefits of focusing on your goals and values, crafting a path to reach those goals, understanding your cash flow and understanding your relationship with money. Your financial well-being might be slightly improved, but you would not have enjoyed the major improvement possible with good financial planning.
Don't allow a financial product salesman to sell you a bill-of-goods they cannot delivery. Financial products are not the answer.
LFA Blog Post Frequency
Since I began this blog, I have been trying to write a post every week day. Except for a couple days were circumstances dictated that I focus on other items, I have met this goal. Over the past couple weeks, however, I have felt like I have been forcing some content and not written the quality material I hoped to. So I will be refocusing and writing three posts (minimum) per week. I believe this should give me the space to write better content and bring more value to my readers. Let me know if you disagree.
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