Good financial planning helps people focus on things they truly value. Is that what your advisor is helping you to do?
When I put my tie on each day, I’m motivated by an important reality: my job will matter a lot to someone, today. I love my job. Now let me tell you why.
A strange thing happens when you master the basics of personal finance – money starts to matter less, not more! Sounds crazy doesn’t it? Just ask yourself this: “What do I value the very most?”
Successful business owners face a great deal of social pressure. How much do you make? How big is your business? How many people do you employ? Where do you live? How much time do you take off? How big is your house? What kind of car do you drive?
These social pressures can really pin down business owners by drawing their attention away from what they really value, and it can lead to overemphasizing the accumulation of more money and more things. Good financial planning reduces these pressures, increases your personal satisfaction and promotes a more balanced life.
While it’s true that earning a great income means you get to enjoy life’s bells and whistles, having a secure financial plan brings something much more significant – mental peace. It allows you to focus more attention on life’s priceless perks – spending time with people you love, experiencing new things and creating memories that last a lifetime.
A Good Financial Advisor Can Change Your Life
I get a lot of fulfillment knowing that my job makes a big difference to individual people every day. To illustrate why, let me relate an experience I had with a client. We’ll call him John.
I sat down with John to discuss something that had been on his mind for quite some time. John was a successful general dentist struggling with a huge decision. He asked, “Reese, I’m thinking about moving my practice to a different location where I can make more money. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, and I think it might be in the best interest of my family, my career, and my retirement.”
Okay. Pause. This moment is what we call an inflection point for John. In differential calculus, an inflection point is a point on a curve where the curvature begins to go in the opposite direction. The curve changes from being concave downward to concave upwards. Like this:
Financial inflection points occur many times throughout your career. They are the beginning points of a new trajectories that move you in one direction or the other. Many of these inflection points are caused by the social pressures that I discussed earlier.
Back to the story. John was at a major crossroads. Some of his concerns were financial such as, “When will I be able to retire if I just keep doing what I’m doing?” Other questions involved his family and personal fulfillment. I couldn’t anticipate what the right decision would be for him, but I did provide him with insight (i.e. context, answers and data) that would help him make the best decision for his family and his career.
Why You Need A Financial Plan
Here’s where financial planning becomes valuable. Since John was already doing the right things, and because we were tracking his finances in a very detailed way, we were able to address this life-changing decision with facts, context and real objective measurements.
We had been working with John for several years. This enabled us to help him find clear answers to deeper questions in his life beyond money.
John discovered that he would be in good shape financially, even if he continued on his current path. Through our experience, tools and insight, John got the help he needed to clearly analyze the situation. So, instead of moving his practice and his family, John realized he could spend more time living the kind of life he wanted to live at that very moment.
I have a ton of respect for John. He approached this situation very cautiously, and he was rewarded for it.
Good planning affords business owners the pleasure of being able to focus on what they value most. We work closely with you to make sure your financial decisions result in a healthy balance between income maximization and what you care about most. We here at Dentist Advisors have helped dentists, and other business owners throughout the Western US, find this balance. It’s extremely satisfying.