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Strategy is a Key Component of Future Financial Success
When planning a vacation, you try to make sure that all the necessary arrangements have been made and the itinerary is set long before you leave for your dream destination. To help ensure that you thoroughly enjoy your hard earned vacation, you’ve probably worked with a travel professional or service to design a trip that is geared toward your specific tastes and travel desires. Once you’ve taken off and your trip has begun, you don’t want to worry about anything except enjoying yourself and the beautiful surroundings. Very often, it’s the planning and preparation that determines the success or failure of a great vacation.
In many ways, devising a strategy for a secure financial future is similar to planning for a great vacation. Having a prudent, well-thought-out approach will be a key contributor to the success of the journey. However, the choices for a long-term financial strategy are far more complex and consequential than those faced when planning a dream vacation. To construct a successful strategy, most likely you’ll need the assistance of a qualified financial professional—someone who has the knowledge and experience to help guide key decisions you’ll be making as you map out your financial future.
Most strategy development processes share certain key components or phases which, when joined together, help create an overall financial strategy. First, there is the initiation or discovery stage. Here the focus is on creating a list of primary financial concerns and priorities. The financial professional’s role at this stage will be to ask the right questions and to keep the process focused on long-term goals.
Second is the financial inventory or profile phase. At this time, you’ll examine current assets, debts and income to help formulate a complete picture of your current financial situation. During this process, you’ll also need to determine future investment objectives and goals and try to anticipate future events and contingencies so they can be incorporated into your overall financial blueprint.
Third, everything you learned in steps one and two are combined to create a comprehensive strategy. It is at this point in the process that the guidance of a financial professional is most important. Their knowledge and aptitude can help you understand and incorporate the financial products which are most appropriate for your specific set of goals and objectives.
The fourth phase in the process usually includes reviewing and confirming your choices. You’ll analyze the entire program one last time to fine tune each of the key elements. This will help ensure that they all fit into your overall strategy. At this stage, you’ll also begin to implement the specific components of your strategy, for example, by purchasing a particular investment product or insurance coverage.
Finally, and often most importantly, you’ll need to continuously monitor and review your progress to ensure that you’re staying on financial track. Over the long-term and as your circumstances change, you’ll need to adjust and refine your strategy to reflect shifts in your objectives and needs.
Like the gratifying feeling you get at the end of a well-planned vacation, a comprehensive financial strategy can help you achieve a more secure financial future.
-Lee Cravatta, financial consultant
For a free consultation, call Lee at
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