“Your Future Deserves the Best of your Present Self”

Your future (and the future of your loved ones around you) deserves the absolute best of your “present self”.  This video clip (click on the title of the blog post above!), while nothing to do with finances, is a great illustration of what the daily financial grind can feel like.  Maybe you feel like you have a blindfold on, and you don’t know where you stand or where you’re going (financially speaking).  An encouraging takeaway is that you are more capable than you give yourself credit for!  However, so many times we get bogged down with the daily grind of our financial lives that it’s easy to sacrifice on doing the hard things that will pay dividends for our future selves.  it’s those three or four months out of the year where you simply decide to spend a little more and not put money away into savings.  Maybe it’s feeling a sense of obligation to pay for your entire child’s college by taking out loans of your own.  Maybe it’s only paying the minimum on the credit card bill this month, because paying it off entirely seems too scary or insurmountable.  Whatever your situation, and however noble the decisions you make today might feel, it’s always important to reflect on what you want for your future self.

Take the Time to think what you want for your future

For many people, they might have a vague idea of what they want for their financial futures, but they haven’t taken the time to crystalize these dreams or visions.  As Chris Hogan likes to say, “dream in HD”.  In other words, sit down (if you’re married, do this with your spouse) and actually talk about what goals, dreams, and desires you have for your futures.  It’s easy to skimp and sacrifice on things today if you don’t actually know what you are taking away from in the future.  If your goals are crystal clear, it can make the day to day decisions seem more palatable today. 

“Future Self” Isn’t always selfish

Your “future self” isn’t only about you.  Your future self could be how you want to provide for loved ones around you, how you want to give back to charities, or how you want the freedom to simply decide on random acts of financial kindness later in life.  Whatever goals you have for your future self, I would encourage you to define at least one that isn’t about you!  For many people, it’s more motivating to think about doing something for others than for only defining goals for themselves.

Set a Plan, Move Forward, then Adapt

Once you’ve had a chance to get a clearer picture of your future, the key is to develop a roadmap or plan to achieve those goals.  This roadmap should be the BEST course of action based on the facts and figures of today.  If only the facts and figures of today never changed!  Your plan then needs to have the ability to adapt and improve based on circumstances that are almost guaranteed to change throughout!

If you or someone you know is ready to get crystal clear on their future, set a plan in place to achieve their goals, and commit to being the best version of their “present self” to honor their future then have them reach out to one of our advisors to speak further!

June 7th, 2019