Today is the day. Today, I am moving to change myself and my financial situation to become more financially secure future. What does a more financially secure future mean? Well it is different for everyone and can change throughout your lifetime. Where do I start? I started by making a list of what is important to me:
- My family.
- My stuff.
- My future.
That is a little over simplistic but you get the point. Knowing that these are things important to me, I think about what is effecting these important things. Then I came up with another list. This list would start with I would feel more financially secure if…
- My income and property are protected from disasters and lawsuits
- My paycheck is protected
- I have and maintain personal budget
- I have a plan for retirement savings
- I have a plan to pay off my debts
- Knowing that my financial house is in order
Those are just a few to start. Now, I need to make these items actionable. I need to address my insurance, financials and my own attitude towards them as well. I have enlisted the support of my wife, my insurance agent, and a financial planner. I think that in support from these 3 will give me the ability to make sound decisions to get to my goals.
A happy wife, a happy life:
My wife and I have sat down to have a frank discussion about our finances and our financial goals. What do we spent money on each month, and why. Where do we want to get to in life. What kind of lifestyle should we live? Do we ant to be debt free? Will we be able to retire? What will retirement look like? So after a few discussion on these subject we found some common ground and wrote it down. Writing things down seems to make things more concrete.
Insurance agent:
I will say that after doing some research on insurance. I found that my current insurance person and I where not on the same page. He was not actively “earning” my business. Our relationship was I pay the bill and he accepted it.. We never talked about my situation and things that had changed in my life in the past 15 years I was with him. (Other than changing things when I asked.) In the course of learning about insurance. I learned how important knowing your net worth. More on this in my next article.
Financial Planner:
I have never had one of these before. I thought that they were for the rich people of those that had a lot of money. (That has never been me.) However, my bank has a financial planner that offers his services to bank members. I stopped in the bank one day and asked to see him. He and I had a small discussion about what he does and I told him of my Financial Security goal. He offered a lot of FREE advise and offered to help in any way that he could.
Well, this is the beginning of my journey. Please be on the look out for my next article.
