I just got another referral

September 20, 2008 | By Mark Huber | In blog 

This past week I again got another referral who was looking for financial advice…

It was a referral from another existing and happy client – for which I am always pleased and grateful.

(Both for the happy client and also for their trust and confidence in putting my name out there.)

As you know, I use “data gathering” worksheets to be completed before an appointment…it really hasn’t changed much over the years except now it’s “electronic” vs. “paper”.

You can get a copy for yourself here:
http://howtobesetforlife.com/Reports/SetForLifeStarterKit.xls

The point is that on tab 3 – Your Financial Objectives, this family had listed their objectives as:

Short term goals:
Take a vacation if possible
Paint inside and outside of house
Do home renos

In the next 3 years:
Buy a new van
Buy a new TV

Long term:
Be able to afford to send the kids to University
Have the house paid off
Retire early – if possible and have significant savings to
sustain out standard of living…

The reason to save/invest more money:
To live comfortably and have more cash flow!

I dare say that these financial goals are similar for everyone and are in fact “universal”.

We all want to create safe and secure, rich and rewarding lives for ourselves and our family!

These are the fundamental reasons that we all buy homes, save and invest…

To provide security now and to build for the future!

Right?

However, the distractions to these noble goals come by listening to the financial media depicting what “the markets” are doing. Because of this many individuals fall prey to the headlines and “sound bites” and over come with emotion change their “game plan”…often to their financial detriment.

See The Market Cycle Of Emotions - Chart
http://HowToBeSetForLife.com/images/MarketCycleOfEmotions.jpg

The engines of wealth creation (real estate, stock and bond markets) do not always purr along like a well tuned sports car.

Unfortunately, there are times when they sometimes behave quite erratically – to the point that you may feel that you are strapped into a 1970’s Gremlin – running on 3 cylinders, with black smoke spewing out of the back. Remember those cars?

Now, please don’t get me wrong: I’m not trying to talk the market up, any more than I’d try to talk a forest fire down. It will burn until it’s finished burning.

If it bothers you, stop watching it!

If it bothers you, stop listening to it!

Do what really matters!

Concentrate on your financial goals – they haven’t changed have they?

Well, if that’s the case don’t “second guess” your saving and investing strategy – stay the course…

It’s not like you need the money today – right?

To realize (and pay for) your medium and longer term goals you probably still have 5, 10, 20 and often 30 years or more ahead of you!

Right?

Remember, you will be spending the rest of your life in the future – your future!

What will it look like? Everything you wanted it to be and more?

Or not.

It’s your choice!

What you do about it now will have serious and long lasting implications as to how your future and your future lifestyle will look like.

Remember, we only get once chance at living our life – this is not a “dress rehearsal”!

So, let’s get back to the matters at hand…what really matters…

More fully engage with your family, friends and co workers…get out and enjoy a fine restaurant meal, watch the kids play a game of baseball, appreciate a superb sunset…

Reconnect with your life!

Find joy in it and in living it!

And remember to laugh along the way.

Let others do the worrying – it’s not a productive thing to do.

I was a few months shy of age 50 when the markets topped out last October, and now I’m 6 months older .

But my goals are exactly the same:

I still need to secure a retirement income which will rise at a pace that is greater than the cost of living for at least 30 years - maybe closer to 40, if you look closely at my wife…

I still have to be ready to backstop my aging parents - even if I’m convinced they’ll never need it…in the funding of my “adopted kids” educations. And I’m still determined to leave legacies to my favorite charities such that they won’t soon forget that I was here on planet earth.

And again, in this time of uncertainty, I can be absolutely sure of one thing - exactly as I was in 1987 and 2002: whenever and however this thing burns out - I’ll be investing at prices neither you, nor I, nor anyone else will ever see again.

Remember, markets don’t lose us money – it’s our reaction to the markets that lose us money - or make us money - it just depends what we do!

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