Winter of 2022…it was a regular working day, where in the evening I was to meet a friend for dinner. As I was leaving for dinner, my cellphone stopped working and said SOS—little did I know it wasn’t because I didn’t have a signal!
I was blessed to have been raised by a mother who believed in spending less than you make. Thankfully, that belief is ingrained in me and particularly came into play when my older child went off to a private college four years ago! I reexamined our monthly expenses and was determined to find ways to save money.
As we started the year 2022—beginning to look at the pandemic restrictions in the rear view mirror—most of us were looking forward to enjoy what our ‘new normal’ may look like. Fast forward to today, and the world is presenting us with a very challenging year on so many fronts.
Part of our role as Financial Planners is to ask questions that go beyond the numbers. Most of our clients have a goal of accumulating assets and making sure that they spend their money wisely. These are very important goals, but it's important to make sure that we think about other risks that we all face as we age:
After a recent client meeting about estate planning (when we were asked if it was required that your body be processed with formaldehyde whe you die), I told them that I would look into the matter about alternative options for burial.
Since I can remember, I have always tried to practice making the most of any situation in life. One of my favorite things to do outside of work is to travel.
Frequently, we find that a client’s estate plan does not address the placement of pets or provide for their financial support after their owner’s incompetence or death.
A few weeks ago, our team enjoyed an offsite meeting at a resort in Key Largo that included some fun activities to disconnect and also some focused work as a team. One of the particularities of the resort is their restrictive policy around cell phone usage in certain areas. On the way back, my wife and I started a dialogue about the impact the 24/7 connectivity that our smartphones and the internet are having in our lives. It was just a few decades ago that we were still consuming information at a slower pace, outside of the digital world. Are we better off as a society, as a result? Certainly, the ability to provide access to information and knowledge to a wider audience will generally lead to progress. At the same time, are we happier than older generations in this hyper-connected world? I will let you answer that question for yourself.
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