FINANCIAL PLANNING PROCESS

What is your financial planning process?

This is one of the questions that was posed to me at one point in my life. And honestly, at that specific moment in time, I didn't have an answer for that question. I mean sure, maybe I mumbled some standard canned response, but I had no idea what I was really talking about. Heck, I didn't even know what a financial planning process was, let alone how to suggest someone ACTUALLY implement one.

I guess I'm just a pretty simple person. I believe in keeping things as simple as possible, so that your life doesn't become a complicated mess of ineffectiveness. I honestly believe a lot of the financial problems we have in the United States stem from the fact that people are so incredibly busy doing other things that thay can not focus on their day-to-day finances.

So anyway, back to the question on hand, what is my financial planning process? In order to answer that question, I had to go home and do a little research. According to the FPSB, or Financial Planning Standards Board, the financial planning process is a six step process. The six steps are:

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• Establish and define the relationship with the client
• Collect the client's information
• Analyze and assess the client's financial status
• Develop the financial planning recommendations and present them to the client
• Implement the financial planning recommendations
• Review the client's situation

I still had no idea what all this stuff had to do with me though. I mean here I am just a simple guy trying to offer people a road map towards a better financial future. Why did I need to get into a debate that involved all this complicated financial jargon?

You see, the FPSB put together these standards in an effort to make it easier for financial planners to work with their clients. They wanted to give financial planners a step-by-step process that they could follow, in order to better assist their customers. The funny part about this however, is that you and I are doing this with our own personal finances every day.

So, what is your financial planning process?

Originally, when the question was asked of me, I didn't know how to answer. I certainly know how to answer that question today. I now practice and teach a 10 step financial planning process that will help you get out of debt, and build a real financial future. My 10 step process also includes opening your own small business, setting up an emergency fund, and utilizing your retirement plan. When you take the time to utilize all of your own financial abilities, you are actually implementing your own financial planning process at home. I didn't understand that at the time, but I certainly do now.

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