Is it time to shift your focus from financial planning to financial life planning?
Financial planning is not a new term for people; however, most of them would not have given it a thought as yet. Nonetheless, we have another concept on the top of it, that is, financial life planning. Looking at life's uncertainty, it is important to know and understand this concept for everyone. So, what is this financial life planning and how is it different from financial planning? Let us find out.
What is financial life planning?
As we know that, with financial planning, we set up financial goals and make action plans to achieve those and, also, touch upon risk protection via insurance and succession planning. However, in financial life planning, the focus is shifted towards life goals first. Here, one needs to be clear enough about one's life goals and achieving those goals that hold more meaning. Also, it is about having a financial plan, where one's financial resources support those meaningful life goals.
All of us have financial goals, such as buying a home, international vacation, upgrading cars, and many more. When it comes to financial planning, we focus on these financial goals and plan to achieve them over a while. However, if we ask ourselves, "do these goals bring true satisfaction and a sense of achievement to us?" Infelicitously, in most cases the answer might be a 'no'.
It is not like that these financial goals are not important. While we do need them for the comfort they bring, we should not be desperate to have it by hook or crook.
When we try to achieve those financial goals that do not matter and take every possible effort to achieve it, we might feel exhausted. However, after achieving these goals, if we do not feel satisfied or delighted, they become meaningless, which even takes us away from the real goals that would have given a sense of satisfaction and peace. This is what financial life planning is all about. Here, more importance is given to those things that matter more in life and bring joy and satisfaction rather than those, which are materially good to have but are not the ones that bring a sense of achievement. Hence, it is imperative that the focus, now, shifts from financial planning to financial life planning for all of us.