National Retirement Security Week - Plan Vacation or Retirement?

National Retirement Security Week - Plan Vacation or Retirement?

October 16, 2020

Welcome to the Weekly SUMmary - 10/16/2020

We're going to take a week or two break from specifically discussing Tax planning.

This week, October 18-24 (appropriate timing for such a scary subject) is National Retirement Security Week. What does that mean??? Regardless of age, it means, START PLANNING NOW!

As a CFP® professional, my career revolves around financial planning. There are six major areas of financial planning, listed below:

  1. CASH FLOW
    • There should be a purpose for every dollar, even if that's discretionary (food, gas, entertainment, etc.)
  2. RISK MANAGEMENT/INSURANCE
    • Review all coverage or lack thereof and assess potential changes/additions.
  3. INVESTMENTS
    • Plan contributions, review allocations and much more.
  4. RETIREMENT
    • In addition to accumulating as much as possible, how does one coordinate/create income from all possible sources? What are possible unexpected expenses?
  5. TAX PLANNING
    • Where to begin? See other blog posts. It should be the umbrella over this entire process.
  6. ESTATE PLANNING
    • What will happen if you become incapacitated or pass away? Our October webinar later this month addresses one of these items and November's webinar will dig deeper into the subject.

According to the CFP BOARD, there are seven steps in this process when working with a planning professional.

Regardless if you are trying to do this on your own, or working with a professional, make sure you are actively engaged in this process. Some crazy statistic out there is that approximately 10% of people have spent more time financial planning than planning for a future vacation. Take a second to ask yourself how much time you've spent planning, not paying bills or balancing a checkbook, actually planning for your financial future/retirement. Now, how much time have you spent planning for vacations over the last few years, from researching flights, booking lodging, rental cars, entertainment on site, etc, etc. You owe it to yourself to spend a bit of time on this.

Reference for these items is based on education acquired working in the financial industry and advanced education programs.

This is for informational purposes only and not intended to be investment advice. 

SUM  Financial Service Group and LPL Financial do not provide legal advice or services.  Please consult your legal advisor regarding your specific situation.