I asked an artificial intelligence engine to describe the average American. Here’s what it said:
The average American is a white female with a median age of around 38. She’s married, lives in a suburban area, and has a 30-minute commute. Her household income is about $70,000, with total debt of about $131,000. She works in education or healthcare and spends a significant amount of time on social media and using her cell phone.
Think about every mass-marketed television commercial and now you’ll understand why they all seem to target the average American.
But does that sound like you? I didn’t think so.
You Are Not Average
You aren’t average and you can’t be defined or described by averages. And you certainly can’t be helped well by generic advice that relies on standardized models and general principles.
A personalized financial plan starts with your goals, your concerns, and your current situation. It accounts for your income, expenses, assets, debts, and risk tolerance. It accounts for your life stage and even factors like what you want to happen later in life, many years from now.
Attributes of a Personalized Financial Plan
Your personalized financial plan should be adaptable and flexible. A plan is just that: a plan based on what we know to be true now and what we think will be true in the future. But now changes and so does the future. Your plan is a framework to be revisited and adjusted as your life evolves. That’s why Sustaining Financial Planning is important.
So many people think that financial planning is just about investments, but that is far from the truth. Your personalized financial plan must be holistic and comprehensive. It should contemplate all aspects of your financial life, including income and expense management, debt management, investment strategies, insurance planning, retirement planning, tax planning, and even estate planning. And it must account for the interactions among all of these facets. This is true even if you’re doing a Foundational Financial Plan.
A personalized financial plan is unique to you. It is a customized guide that helps you identify and tackle the complexities of your finances and helps you to make strategic decisions to achieve your unique life goals.
At Dominion Financial Advisors, we help you replace deferred, delayed, and avoided decisions with informed and guided actions. Schedule a complimentary consultation with us to see how we can work together to plan your financial future.