Part 2 Why Traditional Financial Planning Sets You Up For Failure

“Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is at the Core of your Worth? Is it your home, your 401k, your pension, your portfolio? Are those the things that define your Worth?

When we sit down with clients one of the first questions we ask is:  “What the largest asset that you have?” Typically, like most of us in our society, they go right for the money part and you may have to. We get answers like 401k, home and portfolio. The challenge is that these are NOT the Core of our Worth.

So, let me rephrase the question, what is the largest asset that you have that means MORE to you than your $$?

Where would you start your list? Maybe, your family, friends or health is where you would start. Don’t these things have a value or worth that is far greater than any mound of money you could accumulate? Sometimes these things are described as priceless because no financial value can ever be placed on them.

Some of the others are:
-Unique Ability    -Spirituality    -Values    -Beliefs    -Heritage

So, if these are more important to you than your money, are you capitalizing and optimizing them like you are your financial assets?  The challenge is that most of us don’t know how to optimize and capitalize them is because the question has never been asked us.

More importantly, Core Assets influence every other quadrant of assets that we have. Any time we make a decision in our Financial, Experience and Contribution quadrants it has a direct impact on the Core and vice versa.  Understanding how we can optimize this quadrant is vital to harmoniums balance in our lives.

So, the way we start this process is by doing two things; 1) capture it and 2) share it. Here are some ways you can do this with some of your core assets:

Values & Beliefs Asset: You and your spouse want your children to understand what you as a family stands for and how the world should see your family.

To Do: Draft a family mission statement that represents what defines your family’s values and beliefs and hand it out at a family dinner. A good time to do this is at your wedding anniversary every year. All you have to do is hand it out and have a discussion at the formal family dinner most people have.

This way, as you celebrate your marriage every year, you also celebrate and share what the family that you created is all about.

Heritage: You want the history, customs, of your parents from a foreign country to live on in your family from generation to generation.

To Do: Slice out some time to sit down with your grandparents or parents and video tape them talking about the customs, history and heritage that they have brought with them to this country and to this family.

Then make a copy of that and send it to the whole family and/or share it at a family event. Many of us have not taken the time to just sit down and have this conversation with our elders. By you doing this and sharing it with the whole family you have just leveraged your experience for the rest of the family. You have now optimized and capitalized on your heritage asset.

When you start doing things like this, what type of impact do you think it would have on your family, not only vertically (your kids and their kids) but horizontally (your siblings, cousins, nieces or nephews)? It would be a hugely positive impact, right? The odds of these things living on from generation to generation in your family just got a lot greater.

So, now is the time to start optimizing your Core Assets. Make a list of your values, beliefs, family mission and unique ability. Then share it with your family friends and an confidants. When you do this you will find a higher level of clarity, graciousness and confidence in your life. This is where you will start to begin to make confident decisions about your money because you know It will be in alignment with the Core Assets in your life.

The next post I will talk about experience assets and how you can start identifying and optimizing those assets in your life. I look forward to you coming back and reading that part of the series.

If you would like to schedule an appointment to speak with Bryan McDonald directly in more detail about these concepts click on this link now:  TALK WITH BRYAN

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