Lewis Carroll was not a financial planner. And his famous story, “Alice Through the Looking Glass” is not high on the reading list for those who study the subject. But I’ve found one small exchange between Alice and the cat that is useful in communicating why financial planning is important:
“Said Alice: Would you tell me please which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends, said the cat, on where you want to go.”
Deciding “where you want to go” is the first key to getting to where you want to be, then having an accurate road map with good directions will get you where you want to be! This is the reason why many people rely on professionals for advice and counsel. As these people have found, few things in life are as important as drawing up, and then following, a comprehensive, personal economic game plan.
The wealthy have been using financial professionals for a long time! Many people think that because the wealthy use them, they must be expensive. The reality is quite the opposite – NOT having a plan can be VERY expensive!
How do you choose a financial planner? Well, the first step is to look for the CFP designation. CFP stands for Certified Financial Planner and is the only designation recognized by the Financial Planning Standards Council of Canada.
Why is it important to look for the CFP designation? Most provinces do not regulate the use of the term “financial planner.” CFP certification is your assurance that your planner has completed a rigorous course of study approved by FPSC, passed the only independently developed national comprehensive examination (the CFP® Examination) for financial planning, and is committed to ongoing professional development and adherence to the professional CFP® Code of Ethics and CFP® Financial Planning Practice Standards developed and enforced by FPSC.
Most representatives are compensated directly by the suppliers of the investment products used. Because of this, it’s a good idea to deal with an independent planner so that you can rest assured you’re getting unbiased advice. (If all I have to sell is Chevy, Chevy is what I’ll recommend!)
Get the direction you need! Know where you want to go, put a plan together to get there, and follow it! And don’t be shy about contacting a professional!
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Retirement Income - how much?
I read with interest today "Unveiling The Retirement Myth" by Jim Otar - a fellow Canadian Financial Planner. You can get a downloadable version of the book for $3.99 at http://www.retirementoptimizer.com/
What his book boils down to - using average rates of return to determine how much money you can take out of your investments to fund retirment is a quick way to go broke before you die. I totally agree!
This is the one area where there has always been contention with clients. I'm not going to review the book here - there's plenty of those to go around. What I will say is that this is probably the best single source of getting to the answer I've found.
What his book boils down to - using average rates of return to determine how much money you can take out of your investments to fund retirment is a quick way to go broke before you die. I totally agree!
This is the one area where there has always been contention with clients. I'm not going to review the book here - there's plenty of those to go around. What I will say is that this is probably the best single source of getting to the answer I've found.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
