Here is my recommendation for this year's New Years Resolution: make and start executing a strategic plan to achieve your financial goals over the next ten years. And do it now.
Why Now?
Because we're at the starting gate of the new business cycle. It's winter on the calendar, but it's financial spring right now, and it will be followed by financial summer, then autumn and winter. Guaranteed. Financial spring - now - is the time to start sowing economic seeds to nurture, grow and harvest in this next business season. Whether you want to start a new career or create a business, build wealth for financial independence or plan for retirement, you couldn't ask for a better time - financial spring- to get started designing the future you want.
Is it really financial spring?
Well, we look around us and this is what we see:
- long-term interest rates are at historic lows
- real estate values have bottomed and regained value at a sustainable pace
- employment is rising and unemployment levels are falling to manageable averages
- GDP is rising to growth levels
- Inflation is low
What to do now
Make a Career or Business Plan:
If you're planning on starting a new career or opening a business, the winds are at your back. Job opportunities are really starting to grow, and if you're starting a business, piles of capital are out there looking for a good investment. Get a detailed plan together and include the exact dollar amounts you expect your plan to create. Even if you're happy at your job (congrats!), write a plan down now detailing where you expect to be a year from now and what you need to do to hit your goal.
Financial Plan:
This is where you park all of the cash you create from your B plan. It's your personal budget and long-term investment plan. Wealth comes from growing cash after you create it. Contrary to popular belief, most rich people are not money-burning jet setters that inherited their money or won the lottery. Most wealthy people are the "millionaire next door", spending their days running small, but profitable, businesses and watching their money carefully.
Estate Plan:
This is not just a subject for rich old people! And even if the subject sounds mind-numbing, you have to do it. Estate planning is the part of your investing strategy that protects what you work so hard to build. The way you plan - or don't plan- your estate can affect your family fortunes not just in death, but you while you are still living. Do you own a trust? Is your home owned by the trust? If you need long-term care, will the trust provide the funds if you are incapacitated? If you don't have a trust, do you have a Will? As an SRES, I talk to people every week that are experiencing huge hassles because of poor estate planning. You shouldn't do estate planning yourself. You need expert legal advise from a competent attorney that specializes in elder law and estate planning.
That should get you started...
Don't the let opportunity of this business cycle pass you by. We each get only so many springs! Make your future happen by design. Write down your goals and plans to achieve those goals NOW
It doesn't feel like spring outside today, but it is certainly early spring in this next business season. And the spring - now - is the time to start sowing seeds that we can nurture, grow and harvest in this next business season.
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