My 8 year-old daughter Abbie once asked me what a financial planner did.
I told her, “Daddy helps people.“
“Like a doctor?“ she asked.
“That´s a good way to look at it,“ I said.
Financial planning does help people both in the short-term and in the long-term and is NOT dissimilar from a general practitioner in the field of medicine.
Both financial planners and doctors deal with short-term problems but tend to be just as concerned with long-term issues. For example, I admit I am not very good at taking care of myself. I don´t eat well all the time and certainly do not exercise enough. .
Recently, my doctor sat me down and asked me if I wanted to be alive when I was 70. She went on to explain the even though I was 42, and seemingly in good health, all the things that I was doing now would affect my long-term well-being. Keeping extra pounds for the long haul would impact my knees and hips and could cause other problems such as heart disease and diabetes. (Yes, it was a sobering visit.)
If I wanted to be around to spend time with my grandchildren and be physically fit, she said, it would be all the little steps that I take over the next 30 years – like eating well and exercising regularly - that would help me accomplish that goal. The good news was I still had time to change my ways, BUT it was up to me to make the changes – no one else.
Combining my daughter´s observation and my doctor´s assessment of my health, I got to thinking – isn´t that what we do as financial planners? We talk about living within a budget and trying to save money each year for long-term goals like college, retirement or a second home. But, we sometimes spend more money than we should. Just Like we eat the extra piece of cheesecake or take off exercising for a week.
