If you read last week’s post, you know that we are focusing on the five strategies that help determine how successful you are going to be with your wealth building focus. Just to refresh your memory, the five strategic areas are:
- Engagement
- Governance/Accountability
- Model/Goal
- Execution/Implementation
- Environment/Self Management
You can get the overview of all five here, but today we will focus on MODELING and EXECUTION.
People who engage in financial planning (at least, with Creative Money) understand exactly how to allocate every dollar to make the most of their ENTIRE financial situation (again, retirement is important, but so is a lot of other… Click To TweetModeling or Goal Planning
This is about the financial plan. You can’t feel engaged and empowered, or really care about governance unless you’re moving toward your own PERSONAL financial vision. People who engage in financial planning (at least, with Creative Money) understand exactly how to allocate every dollar to make the most of their ENTIRE financial situation (again, retirement is important, but so is a lot of other stuff). You’re not just investing to invest; investments, cash savings…everything has more relevance when you map it out and see how one area might affect another area.
And BTW – it’s not static. I compare this to weight loss (I’ve lost a few pounds, so I can say this with reasonable authority). My eating plan now is not the same as my eating plan was 40 pounds ago. Things change, priorities, stress level, environment…so a plan needs to be adaptive over time.
Questions
- To what extent do you understand the interplay or constraints between short-term and long-term money needs and wants?
- How specific are you in the purpose behind allocating different resources and investments toward goals?
- To what extent are you aware of how much you need to save for different goals?
- To what extent do your goals align with your specific values and priorities?
- How confident are you that you’re making the best use of every dollar coming in and going out of your household?
Aside from financial planning, you can always use SMART to identify your financial goals. Here’s a link to our Smart Goals Worksheet to help with that.
Execution and Implementation
Once you have a model, then you need to execute on it. This is where a lot of people start to fall down, either with unrealistic plans, non-specific plans or quite simply, through procrastination. Sometimes, people don’t understand the connection or importance of executing on their plan. If you’ve decided to do something, things start to peter out if you haven’t connected it to your higher financial purpose. Without that, there is no urgency. If any aspect of your financial plan isn’t meaningful to you, then you might never get around to doing it.
Questions
- To what extent are you a procrastinator?
- How specific is your existing process to decide financial actions and what to do?
- To what extent do you understand the obstacles you face in implementation?
- To what extent have you engaged in a tracking process to manage financial goal execution?
- How do you assess progress toward short-term and long-term financial goals?
The best way to manage implementation is to BOOK TIME to do it. Block out a half hour every week to devote to moving money, consolidating accounts, reviewing whatever… I guarantee if you give yourself 30 minutes to think about money, you will fill that time.
And BTW, we can help with some ideas, wherever your challenge might be. Although, sometimes people want things done FOR them… can you imagine if I could pay someone to lose weight for me? The same goes for finances, you have to assume control (and have the right support systems in place).
If that sounds good, then you can always sign up for our free resources here, or even book a consult to chat more about the specifics of your situation.