What is Financial Planning?
At its most basic level, financial planning is the process of meeting your life goals through the proper management of your finances.
You can accomplish financial planning on your own or by working with a financial planning professional or a little bit of both. The best way for you to create a financial plan will vary based on the complexity of your situation, your comfort with financial issues, the time you have to devote to planning, and your stage in life. Regardless of whether you develop the plan on your own or with a professional, everyone benefits from having a written financial plan.
Financial planning provides a big-picture perspective for your financial decisions. It allows you to understand how each financial decision you make affects other parts of your life and options you may have in the future. For example, even though you can afford the mortgage and utilities of a larger home, purchasing it may cause you to delay your retirement or take fewer vacations. By viewing each financial decision as an element in your overall life plan, you can consider its short and long-term effects on your goals. You can also adapt more easily to life changes and feel more confident that you’re on track.
Financial planning can also bring clarity to how you express your values daily. Taking an honest look at how you spend your money can sometimes reveal that your dollars are not in sync with what you consider to be important. That can lead to a powerful realization and, for some, important changes that lead to a happier, more fulfilled life.
Having money and being in control of your financial life creates options. At Keener Financial Planning, we don’t believe that acquiring the most wealth is necessarily the ultimate goal. We believe that figuring out what Living Well uniquely means to you is the most important. And our goal is to provide the tools that support you in defining an attainable version of your best life and utilizing all the financial tools available to you to achieve living well now and in the future.