Seriously, Are You Working With a Worthwhile Financial Plan?

A wisecrack that readily captures the universal need for planning is the one that says that if you fail to plan you simply plan to fail. It not only underscores the absolute need for planning in any endeavour, but strongly highlights the inevitable cost of neglecting to plan: failure - an expensive end indeed. One situation where the imperative of planning is easily obvious to everyone is in warfare. Planning a battle is an engaging, even tedious process, perhaps because of the clear danger to life, both for combatants and those they seek to protect. Yet, many areas of life, top of which is the aspect of financial management and advancement, are battles in themselves. It may not be readily felt as in a situation of war, but missing a firm hold on one's finances could be as costly and even life-threatening as real war. How many times have people lost loved ones (a parent losing a child, for instance), just because they couldn't afford timely medical attention to manage even a not-seriously-threatening ailment? It could be that expensive to miss one's financial track!

Planning your financial success entails taking a deliberate approach, first, to look at your immediate financial circumstances and the direction your are currently headed, realistically speaking. If everything looks great, you've probably by default achieved great results for yourself and may just keep doing what you do. Chances are high, though, that most people will find serious flaws and problems, possibly some danger ahead, if they do this thorough self-examination. That's what calls for a clear decision on what you consider worthy and realistic financial goals, both for the short- and long-term, to give real meaning to your life and bring a sense of fulfillment. It necessarily demands specific action steps to pursue, since no sane person aims for results without hoping to take action that makes them possible. All this is strongly hinged on that fundamental belief that when a person seriously sets his mind to specific goals and shows true commitment to their pursuit, he hardly fails to achieve a substantial part of them. Financial planning is consequently a life-changing process that can easily set the tone for one's financial success, because, like in preparing for warfare, it sets goals and devices strategies for victory. It further compels action since a war cannot be won by just conjuring victory: you decide on your mission, go into the trenches, execute manoeuvres, re-assess progress, do more shooting and overall, press on until victory is won. If you don't model your financial advancement effort in that mould, you may just be paying lip service, which hardly works.

So, you may just have to ask yourself that all-important question: "have I really done justice to my future by taking time to plan what I want and what I need to do get those results?". While planning is not an end in itself, it is a big starting point, even though easily overlooked by many, to their detriment. Deliberate financial planning would ensure:

• Self-realisation
  Nothing could make as much impact as the self-realisation that could come through honest self-evaluation. When you assess your progress, especially against what could have been possible, you may be jolted by the outcome. A few what-if questions can easily bring home the cold reality of what hasn't been and cause a paradigm shift that can save the feature. Check this: what-if I am incapacitated now and can't work actively again, how would I fare? You may possibly find that you left yourself open and unprotected, yet there are instruments of such protection that you could deploy. Such is the playing turf of personal financial planning which can help tidy a lot of loose ends in your personal financial management.
• Goals that Drive Action
  A key outcome of a good financial plan is the setting out of clear, meaningful financial life goals. It's not all about owning aircrafts, for instance. But goals must be set as to the things that are important to you. Like the education of your children. Like a reserve fund to cushion life's exigencies. Like a tidy portfolio of investments to serve as a backbone. Like the provision of the housing needs of your family. Individuals have different priorities and you get a good chance to define yours for yourself, when you plan your finances. A major fallout is the drive that results from have exciting accomplishment expectations that lie before you. When you know where you are heading, you get energised to push relentlessly forward.
• A Compass for Your Journey
  It's great not only to have that beacon ahead that points the way forward but to even have clarity of purpose as to what to step on. When you set your financial plan, you also decide what you need to do, step-by-step, to get the results you want. You simply establish the sure steps that will deliver the results you seek. That way, you can work with confident strides that, all things being equal, will lead to your goals.

In all, proper financial planning will change the thrust of your life, turning it from a dangling, unstable rope-walk into surefooted, sturdy strides through to your future. If you haven't seriously worked on a financial plan, you need to think again: you may be denying yourself the benefit of a liberating strategy that all who go to battle do not toy with.

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