Financial Planning – What You Need To Know About Planning Your Finances

No one in their right mind would jump out of a moving plane with an umbrella instead of a parachute.

However, when it comes to money, you would be surprised at how many people spend all their time cleaning and decorating their umbrellas in the hope that they will secure a safe landing when they jump out of the plane.

That plane could be your job or your business or whatever activity from which you hope to retire at a later point in your life.

A solid financial plan

When it comes to achieving your financial goals, a solid financial plan is your parachute to safety.

Planning your finances is a habit you have to adopt if you are to change your current financial situation for the better and allows you to take charge of your financial destiny.

Waiting for the government or your employer to determine your financial future is a recipe for disappointment.

Why financial planning is overlooked

One of the reasons why most people put off planning their finances is because it sounds like too much work, it seems complicated and it is not perceived to be a fun activity.

However, financial planning does not have to be boring, complicated and intimidating, and do not wait to reach a low point in your life to get started.

This is because at this point, your mind is preoccupied with worry, fear and doubt.

Your aim is to seek a more abundant life from a perspective of gratitude as opposed to one of greed and lack.

Without a commitment to achieving your objectives, not much will happen. As soon as you commit yourself on paper, you increase your chances of improving your life.

The starting point is setting tangible financial goals. This is very different from wishful thinking.

If you don’t have goals, you will end up drifting through life until you run out of steam.

When financial planning takes center stage in your regular activities, you will be able to quantify your financial goals.

As a result, you immediately start to notice the strategies that are a mere waste of your time because they cannot get you to where you want to go.

Take a look at how you plan your time.

You only have 24 hours in a day, and if you are relatively organized, you have daily targets to benchmark how close you are to achieving your overall objectives.

Notice how planning your time allows you to focus on the most important activities that will give you the end results you are looking for.

This is because the planning horizon is merely 24 hours, as opposed to months or years when it comes to financial planning.

The financial road map

Your financial plan is the road map for your journey to a better financial future. You do not want to get started without one, and you need to know where you are going before you can plan your journey.

Most important of all, you need to know where you are today before you can map out a course to your destination.

If you don’t have a financial plan and would like to start planning your finances today, click here to discover how to create one in four quick and easy steps.

You also get free financial planning worksheets in PDF format, professionally designed to save you time and effort.