Have you ever built a house? Some of us dream and visualize for months or years before even beginning. We sure did – but even so, we weren’t prepared for all of the minute details and decisions. It was stressful addressing them one by one and it seemed as though the quick decision making would never end. But it did and we are blessed to have a beautiful home, but looking back we would have done things a little differently – and we sure would like to have known some of the unknowns in advance. There are things about our home I look at and think, “I wish I had…” “I wish hadn’t….” or “If only I had thought about…”
When we get our second chance at building a house, we plan to do things differently. Yet even then we won’t be experts, so we will be making a phone call to a good friend of mine who has mastered this field and let her guide us through what we don’t know that we don’t know. The first time around I was a tight wad, a controller and thought I was perfectly capable. Well, this came at a cost and a lot of that cost was emotional. It simply wasn’t worth it.
What I have realized is that building your future is really no different: We may have the big dream in place, but unless we have planned for all of the intricate details and ‘what ifs,’ the quick decisions and stress will never seem to end. Then we will almost certainly be left thinking, “I wish I did…” I wish I didn’t…” or “If only I had thought about…”
There is one primary difference between building a house and building your future, though – you stand a fairly good chance of a second opportunity to build a house. You don’t get a second chance at building your future. Forget the cost, the stress or any other implication of the ‘do it yourself approach.’ You only get one chance. Is it really worth it to go at it alone?
A few weeks ago we wrote an article about Sherlock Holmes and his uncanny ability to detect unique things. This doesn’t happen by chance. It is the result of thousands of hours of practice. The principle is true in detective work as it is in planning your future – yet when pursuing a career, raising families, pursuing dreams, learning the intricacies of financial planning just doesn’t make it onto the everyday schedule. Although we have not lived your life personally, we have lived it through the thousands of hours of experience with other individuals and families we have worked with just like you. So, if not us, consider letting some mastered planner help you so that you may live life on purpose rather than by default.