Understanding Your Needs

All too often, we’ve observed that the process of financial planning began with “numbers” such as “how much do you want to spend in retirement?” or “how much money do you want in retirement?” We never understood this and therefore start our conversations around understanding our client’s qualitative goals. 

We understand that there is no magic arrow with respect to the process of goal planning. If we’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that sometimes the process for our client partners’ qualitative goals to permeate through the cracks of life can take a little while. No single meeting, or massive questionnaire is going to get the job done. It often takes time, several conversations, some inquisition, refereeing, and some personal reflection. What we are looking for are the real plans so that we can measure them. 

For example, let’s say you wanted to go on a road trip. To start, you would generally have a destination in mind (or sometimes not … we get it), and almost always have an experiential goal in mind. So, to get to the travel plan you would likely ask yourself the following questions:

Q: “What do we want to get out of this experience?”
A: “A mental break”; “to not have to clean the house or worry about all the “stuff” we need to work on”; “to see the fall foliage”; “to drink craft brews and hike epic trails” (maybe go hiking first.)

Once you have the desired experiences down, you can then focus on the destination. 
“We’ve got it! A place with good trails with lots of trees, good craft beer, a yoga studio and a massage parlor.” (kind of sounds like Eagle, Colorado to us … but hey this is your plan.)
As simple as it may sound, our approach is similar. We identify the goals, focus in on the destination, and do what it takes to get you there. Let’s get started!