Welcome back to our continuing series, The 10 Beliefs. We’ve outlined the seven most common mistakes we see people make in planning and saving for retirement. In our last post, the fourth belief, we shared our belief that you should ask for help with your finances. Now we’re going to walk you through the fifth belief, we need to stop guessing with our financial future.
If you missed a post, or would like to start at the beginning, scroll to the bottom of this post for a complete listing.
Belief #5 - You Shouldn’t Guess With Your Financial Future
Can you believe that most successful savers don't have a plan for retirement? A true plan answers all of your questions. There’s a level of clarity and planning that you could have that would take you from off-the-rack guesswork, to custom tailored.
Most smart, successful savers don’t have a plan for retirement. And the few who say they have a plan, really only have a general idea not a true plan. What’s the difference? A true plan answers all of your questions. Because they don’t have a plan, they take guesses with their financial future. They pick retirement dates, investment options and so much more on an estimate. And then what happens?
Well, have you ever bought a pair of pants without trying them on? You probably have a fifty/fifty shot they won’t fit right, or maybe you just won’t like the way they fit. It’s not a problem, you can return them.
Now… What if you bought those pants without looking at the size tag? You just eyeballed it---you estimated—you guessed. “These look like they should fit,” and you take them home.
How well do you think that would turn out for you? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say not too well. They would probably be returned the next day. And you know what? If you guess with a pair of pants, you can return them. Try taking back your financial future when you find out it doesn’t fit.
Yeah… Not going to happen.
While none of us know the future, we can do a lot better than “estimate” and “guess.” But most of us aren’t aware that we’re guessing. We don’t realize that there’s a level of clarity and planning that we could have that would take us from off-the-rack guesswork, to custom tailored.
When making decisions that impact your financial future, make sure you:
• Know where you stand financially
• Know what the risks are
• Know where you want to be when you retire
And that’s just to get started… In truth, you need to look at your complete financial picture before you make decisions like this. We use your unique Financial Framework to craft a Custom Financial Blueprint.
Have you settled for less than you deserve? Are you following advice that is specific to you and your situation? Are you free from the nagging worries about your finances. Do you have the help you need to manage and plan for retirement? Are you guessing with your future? Our next belief talks about keeping money and politics separate. You can read that here.
You can also grab all of the mistakes and beliefs in a free download. Grab it here.