Most people have money goals, whether short term or long term ones. It might be paying off college loans, buying a bigger house or building a retirement fund.
Whatever you wish to achieve, your actions need to be directed in order to attain your objectives. This is where financial planning comes into play.
Financial planning is the process of wisely managing your resources so you can achieve your goals and objectives.
It is important to have a plan that serves as the anchor to your actions to keep you on track in achieving your specific goals.
At Leeward Wealth, our belief is that a good financial plan is the first step towards financial security. We also believe a financial plan needs to be flexible and regularly updated to ensure as life circumstances change, it continues to reflect your financial goals.
Calculate Your Net Worth
Your current net worth is the total worth of your assets less the total of your liabilities. In order to understand this fully, let us define terms:
Assets - is anything you own of value. It includes your car, home, artwork, expensive furniture, cash in the bank or investments like stocks, property or money invested in a 401(k) plan.
Liabilities - refer to your financial obligations and may include credit card debts, unpaid student loans, outstanding mortgage or a car loan.
To look at it another way, your net worth is what you will have in cash if you sold off all your assets and paid off all your debts.
Determine Your Cash Flow
Before any financial plan can be drawn up, it is important to determine where you spend your money on a monthly basis.
This is a crucial step to determine how much money you need for monthly necessities.
It is also important to determine how much money you have left to put away in savings or for investing.
Done properly, it also gives you a clear picture where you may be able to cut down on spending, if necessary.
Here’s how a Leeward Wealth Financial Planner can help:
- We can help you to better manage your finances by helping you formulate a financial plan that addresses your specific needs.
- We help to make sure that any unexpected financial windfall is invested wisely
- If you have developed a plan on your own, we can give an unbiased and professional opinion on how sound of a financial blueprint it is.
- We are experts in investments, diversification, insurance, taxes and retirement planning. Hence, we are in a knowledgeable position to help direct your actions regarding these matters
- We can give you assistance should you have an immediate need or unexpected life event (planning for a birth or adoption of a child, marriage or divorce, death of a spouse, caring for aging parents or a disabled child, serious illness, a layoff, natural disaster and other events of similar nature)
Financial planning is the foundation for our recommendations to our clients.
Sometimes the planning is done informally and sometimes it is important to do a formal plan.
How do you know which one is for you?
Informal Financial Planning
With informal planning, our goal is to get to know what you have done in the past, what you are currently doing, and what your goals are. We look at your overall financial picture inclusive of estate docs, liquid savings, insurance, investments and retirement.
Upon understanding your overall financial picture we build recommendations for you to move forward towards your goals. This type of planning is usually done for younger people who are just starting out, or people with long-term goals.
Once Upon a Goal
