Do you treat your family's finances like you would a business?

WRITTEN BY: Gideon Drucker, CFP® AIF® ECA

I ask a form of this question to EVERY new prospect I meet with:

Do you treat your family's finances like a business?

Treating something like a business means,

having a mission & taking it seriously,
having processes & procedures in place to get results,
having clear and defined definitions of success,
...and being able to separate out the “personal” from the “professional.”

Anything that is treated with such purpose & intentionality is going to have a much higher chance of success than something that doesn’t. And I mean…doesn’t your family’s financial future DESERVE this type of thinking and coordination?

If you can answer 4/5 of the following questions with a “yes” I would say you’re being appropriately intentional and objective with how your family runs your financial household:

Do you have regular scheduled meetings with your spouse to discuss recent financial happenings in your family’s situation?
Do you go through your family’s numbers each year to make sure the business (your family’s future) is assured? (Examples may include: Income expectations, savings rate, net worth growth, insurance protection, education tracking)
Do you build out 1 year, 5 year, and 20 year goals for what you’re looking to achieve as a family?
Do you have open & honest conversations around your financial decision making and how it’s changed over time?
Do you have policies & procedures to make you and your spouse are addressing different aspects of your financial foundation on a regular basis?

These questions might seem “funny” or “ridiculous. C’mon, you’re asking yourself, “do you really expect my husband and I to sit down at the kitchen able and talk to each other like business partners?” “Do you expect my wife and I to hand each other a financial report card when we get into bed to watch Netflix?”

No…I don’t!!! I think you attempting to do this on your own is almost impossible.

And that’s exactly the point.

One of the most important reasons that families hire us is so that they have SOMEONE forcing them to have detailed, specific, and sensitive conversations around money on a regular basis.

Without a financial planner organizing them & taking the initiative….these conversations & action steps would simply never happen.

Maybe that’s not true across the board (retired people may have all the time in the world to focus on their finances) but it absolutely true of the clients that I work with.

Most of my clients have the following profiles:

Two working parents in the “middle” of their careers
2+ kids under college age
Variable Income (whether in the form of RSU’s, large bonuses, performance commission, or small businesses)
Hectic schedules & very little free time

Do these people really have the time and the energy to sit down and figure out an automated investment program? Or their disability insurance needs? Or rebalance their 401k portfolio?

Of course not! They are too busy going to soccer practice and then rushing to a dance recital before they put the kids to sleep so they can work on the big presentation on Friday.

The idea that they are going to fit a disciplined & comprehensive financial planning process into that chaos….is just not realistic. Fortunately, it’s also not necessary.

I LOVE getting to help busy families that operate at a breakneck speed!

Getting to see that visual sigh of relief from people once they realize they don’t have to go at it alone and don’t have to keep pushing this “off” is truly the highlight of my week.

And the once we put that plan in place and people realize that they have a partner that will keep their eyes on the prize so they can go out and live their life….there is nothing better!

Are you ready to turn this into your reality? Book a Right Fit call with me here!