Many people know they should review their will and other important legal documents to insure that their wishes are carried out on their demise.
This is what you should be doing:
• Review your Insurance program to see if you can save money as well as create or leave a legacy for your children or grandchildren.
• Review your retirement/ investment portfolio to make certain that you will live comfortably regardless of any investment portfolio risks or other unforeseen circumstances which should of course include remaining independent in the event of an unreimbursed long term illness.
• Review your medical insurance to make certain you will get the best value for your premium dollars, as well as the best care in the event of an illness.
• Review and update your budget and credit line information to insure you will pay the least dollars for any loans be they long or short term.
• Hold a” Family Meeting” to let your family know your intent and wishes with regards to where you would like to live , who would provide you medical care , and your financial management and support in the event you become incapacitated.
Take the time to teach your kids or grandkids about some important fiscal information regarding saving spending, budgeting, credit, debt, living within their means, to prevent them from being taken advantage of by credit card companies, and assist them in becoming an independent young adult as they get ready to enter college or the workplace.
But the fact of the matter is that the great majority of individuals reading this just won’t make the time to plan. They have what we call P.D.D Planning Deficit Disorder. Don’t get caught up in an unnecessary crisis.
A person I respect a great deal used to say “A smart person learns from his own mistakes, but a wise person learns from the mistakes of others.”
I view my role as a Certified Financial Planner as one who gets people to do the things they know they should do but just haven’t gotten around to doing yet. It’s simple to see from my perspective what happens to individuals and families that spend the proper amount of time planning, thinking about today as well as tomorrow.
I also see what happens to the greater majority of individuals who unfortunately spend more time planning a vacation than planning their future. These same people will sometimes waste many hours and sometimes days going from one auto dealership or retailer to another trying to save several hundred or thousand dollars on a better deal, yet do nothing to take advantage of several thousands of dollars of potential savings right in their own Insurance or investment portfolios, because they are not reviewed as often as they should be.
Over the last 35 years I’ve seen the benefits and the detriments of not doing what we should do as responsible family members and business owners. We all go through similar stages in our lives. Typically they can be broken down into an accumulation phase in our 20s-40s and then a conservation phase in our late 40s to late 60s and then ultimately a distribution phase in our mid 70s to mid 80s.
It becomes very important to employ a different set of strategies appropriate for each phase we go through. The big mistake is that many people aren’t aware of the importance of using different strategies at different times in their lives.
I’ll be sharing some of those experiences and specific suggestions in the hopes of prompting some of you who would otherwise have chosen to take the easy way out “Doing Nothing” as opposed to the much harder choice of actually taking action and in all probability saving yourself ,your business ,and your Family many dollars, lost opportunities and disappointments leading to unnecessary stress and aggravation in the process.
I’d like to leave you with one important thought: Successful people do the things that unsuccessful people don’t like to do. Join me and become a wiser and more successful Individual.
Henry Montag CFP,CLTC
516 695-4662
www.financialforumsinc.com
henry@financialforumsinc.com
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