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Why Traditional Financial Planning Sets You Up For Failure

HOW DO YOU MAKE CONFIDENT DECISIONS ABOUT YOUR FINANCES?

PART 1 OF A 6 PART SERIES

What is your rate, Bryan? That was the kiss of death question from a client when I was in the mortgage business. I knew right then and there my goal of helping someone make a confident decision about their mortgage was O-V-E-R.

Here was the challenge: Do you write 6.875% on the check you wrote to the mortgage company in the box next to the $ sign? Nope, you sure didn’t and never will, will you? So why is that the first question most people ask?

Is it because we all don’t know how to ask the real underlying questions that need to be asked. The world has “consumerized” and “commoditized” us all. The real questions, when it comes to decisions about our money, are rooted in and have a foundation in places that have nothing to do with, rate of return, market share, derivatives or fund fees.

In the financial services, planning, strategist, or whatever catch phrase you want to use after the word financial, everyone has access to the same products and services. No one has cornered the market on the “get wealthy pill or juice”. That product just plain old, doesn’t exist.

The real questions are rooted in places most of us never tend to consciously and intentionally go when thinking about or making decisions about our money and overall wealth. The reason we don’t go to those places is because these questions are masked by the questions the world has beaten into us as “the right questions to ask”. They are beaten into us so much and through so many different avenues of influence it makes us think they are the right ones to get us where we want to go.

Ultimately the end game, no matter what questions you ask, point us in a direction to create more personal WORTH, financially and/or figuratively. So how do you create more WORTH by asking questions that serve you better?

A personal mentor of mine, Lee Brower, puts is so sysncly in his book “The Brower Quadrant” when he says:

“The whole notion of worth expressed in dollars is utterly meaningless when we think about how valuable we are to those around us and how valuable they are to us.

Are wealthy parents more beloved or more important than middle-class or working-class parents? Of course not.”

So why is the common thought that the almighty dollar is on a ivory post and should outrank anything else in our decision making process?

The answer is simple:

We are not completely aware of how to identify and optimize all the assets in our lives and how they are all intertwined, needing to live in harmonious balance with each other for us to make confident decisions.

Do you want to live a balanced or imbalanced financial life?

The reason why traditional financial planning sets us up for failure is that in only focuses on our financial assets; neglecting how it will influence and affect the other important and intertwined assets.

So, we need to take a step back and look at how we REALLY are making decisions. We need to become clear on our what and why before we choose any tactic, tool or strategy. The way to achieve True Wealth and completely enjoy financial abundance without neglecting our family, friends, communities and our own search for personal meaning is through the harmonious balance of all 4 of the asset classes in our lives.

The 4 asset classes we all posses are:

1. Our Core Assets – The essence of who we are
2. Our Experience Assets – The sum of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual experiences
3. Our Contribution Assets – Our effect on others
4. Our Financial Assets – Our net worth

By giving yourself the ability to focus on all of these asset classes during life and during the “financial” decision making process you can start creating more wealth and more meaning in all areas of your life. You start making confident decisions that empower you, your family and everyone around you.

Would you like more wealth and more meaning?

As you go through this series you will begin to understand what these 4 asset classes consist of, how to start optimizing each of the them and identify how to use them to make confident decisions.

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

I am confident that you will enjoy these concepts as much as I do. So, keep tuned in to the whole series and start making confident decisions

K.I.S.S Keep It Simple Stupid

I wanted to share something and believe this is valuable becasue at times we seem to make things so complicated in our lives and get overwhelmed.

The more you think about the more you realize that when you keep it simple and apply basic principals you can achieve a very successful life in an uncomplicated way. This will send a ripple affect into your financial life as well. The reason is because, when you are successful with the assets that mean more to you than your money, your finances always come along for the ride into said success.

Here is the Creed that was given to Wooden by his father upon graduating grammar school. Copy and paste it into a document and hang it up so you can see it everyday. I promise you that when you do this you will see magic happen in your life:

1) Be true to yourself.

2) Make each day your masterpiece.

3) Help others.

4) Drink deeply from good books

5) Make friendship a fine art.

6) Build a shelter against a rainy day.

7) Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day

Just applying these simple things everyday can make some great things blossom in your life. #6 is one that when applied to your financial life, can do many many wonders for you.

You can read more info about John Wooden at his website: http://www.coachwooden.com/

Does Size Really Matter?

“Discovery consists in seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” – Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi

What you see is not always what you get. That’s why size really doesn’t matter when it comes to retirement income. The video in this post goes into an explanation but let me cover this and add a little more in a quick synopsis:

Many traditional strategies focus on having the biggest “pile” at retirement age and size doesn’t matter when:

* You don’t have access to your funds until retirement age, somewhere around 59, or you are hit with penalties
* Your tax bracket is higher compared to when you were working becasue distribution is taxed as real income and you have far less tax deductions in retirement
* You have a pile that will disappear when you exhaust it and don’t have the ability to “bankroll” itself”
* You think you have enough to pass on something to your heirs….until the “tax man” comes in and takes a majority

So, begin to take a look at the way you structure your retirement in a different way. See what other’s have seen and think what most have not thought. When we “follow the crowd” most of the time it really is just the easiest thing to do or, understand at that. What has happened in our economy in the past few years has made all of us take a step back, so we can now think “outside the box” for solutions to what we all now want:

A Happy, Healthy, Prosperous and Fulfilling Life in Retirement