Sunday, April 22, 2012
Today's Financial Plan or Non-Plan… Where Do You Stand?
With all the economic concerns and uncertainty around the world today, it is imperative everyone pay very close attention to their personal financial house. Careful and often extreme attention to one's future financial plan is needed and more important today than, I believe it has ever been. Unfortunately, many have simply dropped the ball where financial planning is concerned.
A recent Northwestern Mutual survey found that 45% of Americans do not have a formal written financial plan, many of them because they approach finances informally or because they have not set financial goals at all.
While there is no specific template for a financial plan, most licensed professionals will include knowledge and considerations of the client's future life goals, future wealth transfer plans and future expense levels. Extrapolated asset values will determine whether the client has sufficient funds to meet future needs and desires.
A comprehensive financial plan can alert you to changes that must be made to ensure a smooth transition through life's financial phases, such as decreasing spending or changing asset allocation. Financial plans should be reviewed regularly, at least once a year and should also be fluid, with occasional updates when financial changes occur.
The first step toward planning your financial future is to understand where you are today, where you want to be tomorrow and when it is, that tomorrow will be.
Next in the process will be to clearly define achievable goals, as this is a crucial part of anyone’s financial plan. A financial goal is the amount of money needed for a specific purchase or service at a definite date. Making goals precise allows you to determine how much you will need to set aside each month and allow you to track your progress.
There are three types of goals: short-term, mid-term, and long-term. Short-term goals are achieved in under a year, mid-term in one to five years, and long-term in five years or more. Emergency savings, family vacations, and home electronics are typical short-term goals. A down payment for a house or for the purchase of a vacation time share is a common mid-term goal. Long-term goals may include saving for retirement and your child’s higher education
.
There are a few old saying that come to mind here;
“Nobody Plans to Fail… They Simply Fail to Plan”
“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.”
I cannot state strongly enough how critical goal setting is to the financial planning process. Goals-based financial planning involves not only defining your goals, but prioritizing them as well. As this will identify and allow for the proper adjustments in the plan if and when needed.
As a licensed professional, my job and passion, is to help folks enjoy their lives more by helping them plan better and invest smarter. And doing that job today is both challenging and rewarding, more than it has ever been.
Why? Because it seems there are more people now who are worried about retirement than ever before. Many are confused, scared and have lost confidence that they can have the future they dreamed of. Well, I believe I can help, as I have recently introduced a new service I believe will help my clients feel better about their retirement; including determining how their recent investment losses have impacted it.
It is called Retirement Lifestyle Planning.
I believe; A Retirement Lifestyle Plan will help my clients clearly identify and prioritize all their financial and retirement goals and determine how they may maximize their chances of attaining them, even after suffering investment losses. Creating your own personal Retirement Lifestyle Plan is easy and will only take a few hours of your time. I am confident it will help you feel more secure today and improve your chances for an enjoyable retirement.
If you or someone you know would be interested in learning more, I would encourage you to give my office a call.. 724-260-5492
Investment Advice is offered through E S Yetman Advisors, LLC
A Pennsylvania Registered Investment Advisor
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
What An Advisor Meeting Should Be!
For most, taking that important first life altering step, visiting with a properly
licensed financial professional to formally plan for a secure financial future,
should be and often is a very exciting and pleasurable experience.
Unfortunately sometimes, this is just not the case and we have found this,
far to often, to be true. For some, simply meeting with an advisor for the
first time will cause some anxiety. For others, who have already been in a
long standing relationship with their current advisor, having concerns about
how their portfolio has been performing and seeking a review with another
advisor, hoping to be assured they are still on the right track. Or worse yet,
the new client who has been totally ignored by some commissioned broker
after the quick sale! These and many other negative situations often create
a tremendous amount of emotional pain and/or an incredible level of stress.
Rest assured, there is no need for you to be concerned with these issues.
We have effectively eliminated the number one reason for all this anxiety.
"Being pressured by a pushy salesman to make a quick decision!"You see, E S Yetman Advisors has put in place a firm, unbreakable rule
and continue to live by it everyday.
"No One Can Become A Client With Us In A First Meeting!"
Our first meeting, "The Assessment Meeting" is designed to be nothing
more than time to get to know one another. It will be kept light and will take
about thirty or forty five minutes to complete.
We will share with you, who we are, a bit of our investment philosophy and
explain how we work. We will also be asking you a series of general
questions and please understand with our fiduciary responsibility to you,
only those necessary to determine if a professional relationship with you,
would be of value to you, benefit your investment strategy and/or planning
goals and most importantly, be in "your best interest".
If after this assessment, we feel we could in fact be of value to you, it will
then be entirely up to you, to decide for yourself, if you feel we are the type
of firm you would feel comfortable working with.
If mutually agreed, we will then be able to schedule a second meeting.
If not, that will be perfectly fine as well. We will thank you for visiting with us
and simply part ways, happy we were able to make some new friends.
If the decision is a second meeting is in order...
You will then be asked to provide to our office additional, more specific
information prior to our next meeting. This will allow for a more in depth
review of your situation and to time to formulate our preliminary conceptual
recommendations.
If during "The Recommendations Meeting", you like what you hear, you
may at this point, simply hire us and we can then move forward together!
As you can see, we have made the entire process as painless as possible and believe, it should be!
http://www.esyetman.com/
licensed financial professional to formally plan for a secure financial future,
should be and often is a very exciting and pleasurable experience.
Unfortunately sometimes, this is just not the case and we have found this,
far to often, to be true. For some, simply meeting with an advisor for the
first time will cause some anxiety. For others, who have already been in a
long standing relationship with their current advisor, having concerns about
how their portfolio has been performing and seeking a review with another
advisor, hoping to be assured they are still on the right track. Or worse yet,
the new client who has been totally ignored by some commissioned broker
after the quick sale! These and many other negative situations often create
a tremendous amount of emotional pain and/or an incredible level of stress.
Rest assured, there is no need for you to be concerned with these issues.
We have effectively eliminated the number one reason for all this anxiety.
"Being pressured by a pushy salesman to make a quick decision!"You see, E S Yetman Advisors has put in place a firm, unbreakable rule
and continue to live by it everyday.
"No One Can Become A Client With Us In A First Meeting!"
Our first meeting, "The Assessment Meeting" is designed to be nothing
more than time to get to know one another. It will be kept light and will take
about thirty or forty five minutes to complete.
We will share with you, who we are, a bit of our investment philosophy and
explain how we work. We will also be asking you a series of general
questions and please understand with our fiduciary responsibility to you,
only those necessary to determine if a professional relationship with you,
would be of value to you, benefit your investment strategy and/or planning
goals and most importantly, be in "your best interest".
If after this assessment, we feel we could in fact be of value to you, it will
then be entirely up to you, to decide for yourself, if you feel we are the type
of firm you would feel comfortable working with.
If mutually agreed, we will then be able to schedule a second meeting.
If not, that will be perfectly fine as well. We will thank you for visiting with us
and simply part ways, happy we were able to make some new friends.
If the decision is a second meeting is in order...
You will then be asked to provide to our office additional, more specific
information prior to our next meeting. This will allow for a more in depth
review of your situation and to time to formulate our preliminary conceptual
recommendations.
If during "The Recommendations Meeting", you like what you hear, you
may at this point, simply hire us and we can then move forward together!
As you can see, we have made the entire process as painless as possible and believe, it should be!
http://www.esyetman.com/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)