“Failing to Plan is as good as Planning to Fail” so goes the cliché! As much as we hate to admit it, planning is an integral part of our lives, not just in our finances but in every aspect of our lives. Therefore, it’s better that we start planning early rather than regret later.
What is Financial Planning?To quote from Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia: “In general usage, a Financial Plan can be a budget, a plan for spending and saving future income. This plan allocates future income to various types of expenses, such as rent or utilities, and also reserves some income for short-term and long-term savings. A financial plan can also be an investment plan, which allocates savings to various assets or projects expected to produce future income, such as a new business or product line, shares in an existing business, or real estate.”
Wow, a mouthful of words indeed! In very simple terms, Financial Planning is really about: 1) Knowing where you are now, 2) Where do you want to go and 3) How to get there. It’s almost like planning for a holiday with your family. Take for example that you are currently residing in Kuala Lumpur and planning to take your family for a Cuti-Cuti Malaysia holiday. You would first have to decide where to go. Let’s say are planning to visit Langkawi during the next school holiday. Then, you have to decide on how to get there. You may drive and then take a ferry, go by bus or train, fly or even take a cruise! There are various means of getting to your destination and the choice will depend on a few factors – budget, time, convenience and practicality. However, you may need to think of a contingency plan, just in case something happens along the way, like your car or the bus breaks down, the flight’s delayed or even a road detour!
Similarly, in Financial Planning, we need to know what are our current resources, our financial goals and how to achieve them in the most effective and efficient manner. Let’s take a look at some reasons why Financial Planning is important to everyone, not only to the rich but the not-so-rich alike.
Why is it Important?Money may not be the most important thing in life. Nevertheless, it is still important! Every single thing revolves around money, from the time we open our eyes till the time we go to bed (and even while we are asleep!) If only money grows on trees, then financial planning would not be such a headache, would it?
Financial Planning is a systematic way of organizing our financial affairs in the most effective and efficient manner in order to achieve our Life Goals. And Success is defined as the attainment of one’s goals. In short, it is truly A Key to S.U.C.C.E.S.S.!
Sense of Direction in LifeDr. Stephen R. Covey gave an analogy in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People that a lot of us get caught up in our “busyness” of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover, upon reaching the top rung that the ladder is leaning against the wrong wall! Through proper Financial Planning, we can then look at what is more important and meaningful to us. Then we can organize our finances and our lives around those things so that we do not end up on the wrong wall.
Understanding Trade-Offs/ SacrificesThough our Wants are infinite, unfortunately, our resources are finite! Financial Planning would help us realize and understand that in life, there is always Trade-Offs or Sacrifices to be made. By changing our good old car for the newest model or our “not-so-trendy” hand phones to the coolest model in town, we would have affected our retirement nest egg without realizing it. If we really want to achieve our important goals, we need to exercise Delayed Gratification and able to distinguish between Needs and Wants.
Coping Easier with Changes in LifeThe only constant in life is Change and learning to cope with changes early in life would be a plus point. When we are still single and carefree, the world is for our taking and we could practically live like there’s no tomorrow. However, when we settle down and start to build our family, our world begins to change dramatically. It could also be the case of a person losing his job, going through a divorce, losing the breadwinner of the family or being diagnosed with critical illness. We are better prepared to face these challenges in life if we have done proper Financial Planning.
Creating Wealth
Ah, don’t we just love this! Almost everybody wants to be wealthy but few have a game plan towards achieving it. Wealth creation is not a sprint but a marathon for it takes time, discipline and a lot of financial stamina. With the help of a qualified investment advisor, we can select the most appropriate investments that suit our risk appetite to achieve our desired goals. By adopting various investment strategies and proper Asset Allocation, slowly but surely, we will cross the finishing line lifting our pot of gold!
Enriching our Lives
Financial Planning does not merely enrich us financially but also physically, emotionally and mentally. Without the financial stress, we will be able to focus on other important aspects of our lives like our health, our relationship with our family and friends and devoting our time to other charitable causes. We will be able to live a fuller life and in turn, enrich other people’s lives.
SecurityOne of the important goals in Financial Planning is to get a deep Sense of Security in our lives. We want to feel assured that no matter what happens, our goals can be realized, either for ourselves or our loved ones. Through proper Risk Management and Insurance Planning, we will be able to provide our loved ones and ourselves with total peace of mind while we go about living our lives and building our wealth.
SuccessYeah! Isn’t this what most of us aspire – to be Successful in life? The Oxford dictionary defines Success as “the attainment of one’s goal”. That’s exactly what Financial Planning aims to achieve – helping us realize our Life Goals. Our goal should not be just having a lot of money in our bank accounts but rather what can money do for us. Money can take care of our health through better quality food and health supplements. It could provide our children with quality education. It enables us to spend more quality time with our family and friends. It also helps expand our horizons by allowing us to explore and learn new things through our travels. Last but not least, it allows us to contribute back to the society through sharing of our knowledge, resources and time with the less fortunate. Therefore, True Success is not merely about how much we have (quantity) but the Quality of Life that we live!
In the final analysis, Financial Planning is really a means to an end. You have to ask yourself whether this is the kind of S.U.C.C.E.S.S. that you want. If you do, the first thing that you should do is to learn how to Manage Your Cashflow Effectively, which we’d be discussing in our next article. So, watch out for it and in the mean time, try to “Make Prudent Financial Management A Way of Life!”
Source:
http://www.akpk.org.my/Articles/YOUNGADULTS/THEIMPORTANCEOFFINANCIALPLANNINGAKEYTOSU/tabid/168/Default.aspx
