(Archive from 2014)
Zig Ziglar famously quoted, “Money isn’t everything, but it’s reasonably close to oxygen on the ‘gotta have it’ scale.” Maybe this fine line is why we often find ourselves - or someone we know - serving their money. As advisors, we are in the business of helping our clients manage their money, not the other way around.
Several years ago we added “A Life Planning Firm” to our company name (Kennedy Financial Services) as we came to realize that our primary responsibility to the individuals and families we work with truly is to help them live Life on purpose! This is not to say that managing money and making money isn’t important. It is! However, our mission is to help our clients look at money unemotionally. Money is nothing more than a tool for accomplishing your Life goals.
Think about this… If you could wave a magic wand and have all the money you needed to achieve your dreams, how would you choose to lead your life?
Most of us can’t help but make decisions about money with our emotions. And why not? We worked all of our life to obtain it and we don’t want to lose it or run out of it. On the flip side, most of us can’t make decisions about our life or future without thinking about our money. So are you serving your money, or is your money serving you? Not sure? Well let’s find out. Draw this little chart for yourself:
Starting from the bottom: For each set of questions, place a dot on the line connecting the left column from the right column in relationship to where you would rate yourself (i.e. more peace of mind than worry? go towards the right).
- Are you currently worried about money, your business, your career? Is something keeping you awake at night? Or do you have peace mind?
- Are you fearful of what might happen with your money or your future? Or do you have a sense of financial freedom about your future?
- Does the relationship between your life goals and financial picture feel chaotic? Or do you know you have the financial ability to make the impact now or leave the legacy you have always dreamed about?
If you found your dots placed more toward the right, your money is on its way to - or already is! - serving you. If your dots were positioned more on the left side, you might be in danger of serving your money.
When you think of a Norman Rockwell painting, doesn’t life seem to be ideal?
Think of your ideal future as if Norman Rockwell were to paint it. What does that mean? If the point of Life is to live Life on purpose, what is your purpose?
If this was your last week on earth, where would you want to be? Who would you want to be with? What would you be doing?
Honestly, I doubt any of these answers involve dollar signs or money bags. We have found the families we work with who go through the Life Planning Process are painting their Rockwell without them. Are you?