Financial Planning: The Roadmap for the Life You Want

• Financial planning can help you achieve your financial goals.
• A financial plan encompasses both of your short-term goals like saving for a car or paying off debt as well as long-term goals like paying for college and saving for retirement.
• Whether you are comfortable developing your own financial plan or you want help from professionals, the most important thing is to create a plan with goals that put you on a path to thrive.

Everyone has financial goals and challenges in life. From budgeting for monthly expenses, to investing for retirement, setting financial goals and creating a plan to meet those goals are key to long-term financial success. Regardless of your age, how comfortable you are with different financial topics or how much money you have, financial planning is available to help you achieve your financial goals.

Financial planning is the process of reviewing your current situation, setting financial goals, and developing a practical roadmap that can help relieve financial stress now and give you peace of mind for the future.

Good Financial Plans are Customized to You

The best financial plans are tailored to your specific needs and desires rather than cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all solutions. This insures your unique financial situation is considered and the recommendations are customized to you, your family and your goals. A good financial plan can help anyone regardless of their age, income, debt, challenges or goals.

When crafting a financial plan, take into consideration these financial components:

• Budgeting – Developing a budget helps you monitor income and expenses to ensure you can pay monthly bills and save/invest for longer-term goals. Closely tracking where your money goes can help boost your confidence in your current financial situation as well as your future.
• Debt Management – Part of the budgeting process includes strategies to pay off debt to avoid ongoing interest expense and free up money for other goals.
• Savings – One of the line items in a budget includes savings for emergencies and short-term goals such as a vacation or a car. “Paying yourself first” is a tried-and-true method to help build the habit of saving regularly.
• Insurance – Health, car, home and disability protects you from loss of significant money in case of unexpected accidents or events in your life. Life insurance gives your family protection if they can no longer rely on your income. Mitigating these risks are a critical part of financial planning.
• Tax Planning – Everyone who makes a minimal income must pay taxes so being intentional about planning for taxes helps to minimize your tax liability and may result in maximizing your refund.
• Investment Planning – Investing is different from savings and generally has a long-term outlook to grow wealth over time using stocks, bonds, mutual funds and more. Investments are intended to produce higher return but also have higher risk.
• Retirement Planning – This is generally the long-term part of a financial plan to help you grow your money for when you no longer want to work. A good financial plan will account for each person’s unique vision for retirement including when they want to retire, how much money they’ll need, and what kind of lifestyle they want. IRAs, 401Ks and other tax-deferred instruments can be part of retirement planning.
• Estate Planning – This part of a financial plan helps to provide your family the guidance and structure they need to make sure your money and assets are distributed in the way you want after death. Trusts, wills, health care directives and powers of attorney are usually part of an estate plan.

Help is Available if You Need

A Wealth Management by CommunityAmerica Wealth Advisor can help take a holistic look at each part of your financial situation to develop a personalized plan that can help you achieve financial peace of mind. Schedule a complimentary consultation with a Wealth Management by CommunityAmerica Wealth Advisor today.