Financial accomplishments and difficulties alike affect the quality of the journey along the way. Do the every day stresses of life and business command so much of your attention, you don’t have time to design and follow a successful financial plan.
What keeps you awake at night? Do you try to push it to the back of your mind, hoping if you just don’t think about it, it will all work itself out somehow? Are you in control, or have circumstances taken control of you? How does that affect your potential for happiness?
In the CPA division of our business, we find clients often avoid having deep, personal discussions about their personal or business finances with a professional. Yet, that is exactly what they need to do. It doesn’t make any sense; it is a fear driven phenomenon. Deal with finances once a year when you get your taxes done and then run back over to the sand box and bury your head until you have to do it again a year later. Doing your taxes can be painful; it isn’t fun so of course you don’t look forward to it and try to put it off as long as you can.
But taxes and your particular tax situation is a very limited view of your financial situation. The negative feelings associated with confronting this very upsetting subject can block people from being creative and causative over their fnances.
You’ve got a road stretching out in front of you and it has some markers on it like owning your own home, having your own business, getting your kids into and through college, some number of vacations, and somewhere down that road there is a marker that reads “retirement”.
What is your strategy for making it to those markers, what is your plan for success and happiness. Do you have it all under control, and you’re confident having just yourself as an adviser? Or, worse yet, do you need someone’s advice but you never confront actually reaching out and asking for it? Is your head in the sand?
If it is, I can tell you right now that time is running through your symbolic hour glass and that is probably the sand your head is buried under. Someday there won’t be any sand left, your time will run out and where are you gonna be when you lift your head up and look around?
The smart thing to do is, outside of tax season go to your financial adviser – I’m not talking about a stock broker, I mean a real financial adviser. Someone who knows finances across the boards. Personal and business finances, strategies, resources. And, someone who has clever ideas about how to manage your resources to the greatest advantage.
My best advice to you is get yourself a financial adviser. Find someone who knows their stuff, who has a track record for success … someone you can trust. And open up to that guy. Tell him what is really going on, what you’re afraid of, what you hope for, what your needs are.
The bottom line is that successful person knows they don’t know everything and that they can’t do everything themselves. Find someone who has already done it, and get them to show you the ropes. You’ll save yourself a lot of time, trouble, and heartache along the way.
That’s it.
Antonini
Posted by jrantonini 