This was the message from Coach Veurink after a heart-breaking loss. As we were complaining about a ‘horrible’ call made by an underpaid and over criticized high school basketball referee, he was objectively evaluating our failure. “You lost because you didn’t execute the game plan!” He then pointed out several of the many times we failed to exercise discipline in our game. He was a wise man.
As a citizen of a state whose home team just lost in the first round of the playoffs, this may be too soon. But your team didn’t lose because of a missed field goal. They lost because they didn’t deliver a disciplined game plan for four full quarters. Yes, a successful field goal would have won the game, but that is not why they lost.
What about your financial plan. I speak regularly with people who point to a single event in their lives that torpedoed their financial plan. Sometimes the reason their financial plan failed was a single event, but more commonly, it is because a financial plan was not executed in a disciplined manner.
Exhibit A – “I was doing great until I lost my job and I had to burn through my 401(k) to make ends meet until I got a new job.” I get it, losing a job can be devastating. However, in many cases, those same folks failed to build an emergency fund that could have carried them through several months until they got the next job.
Exhibit B – “I was doing great until the big downturn of 2007 and I never recovered.” Yes, a market downturn is a gut punch. However, any investor who simply held on to their well-diversified portfolio and let the market rebound would have been made whole within 5 years or so. In many cases, the problem is not the market, but rather the investor was in a mix that was too aggressive for them. When they lost money, they got out of the market for fear of losing all their balance, locking in those losses. If they had remained disciplined, the great recession would be a distant memory.
The point of this money message is not to rub salt in a wound. There are many reasons a financial plan may fail, some of them may not be of your making. If you are in financial straits, give us a call and we will try to help you out of it. Instead, my goal is to refocus our attention on executing a disciplined financial plan.
Are you tracking your spending and using a budget to control your expenses? Are you contributing to your 401(k), preparing for retirement? Are you putting a little bit of money away in an emergency fund each month? Have you evaluated your life insurance needs to protect those who depend on your income in the event you pass away? Are you paying ahead on your most costly debt?
If the answer to any of those questions is “no”, you may be depending on a last-minute windfall to bail out your plan. You may find yourself depending on a portfolio that is too risky in order to “catch up”. You may be setting your family up for financial hardship if you pass away. If this is you, talk with us, we will coach you through a disciplined financial plan.
Yes, if the Huson Huskies center didn’t foul our guard in the closing minutes, or if it was called and we had an opportunity at two free throws, we could have won. But had we been disciplined the whole game, we wouldn’t have had to depend on a last-minute miracle.
No, that was not why we lost.
Did You Know?
Your employer sponsors this financial wellness benefit from Francis. The benefit connects you with down-to-earth financial planners who educate and advise on any money matters…without the sales pitch. We are exclusively engaged by employers like yours and have no investment products to sell, so you can feel confident that you will always receive objective advice.
Your financial planner will help you set priorities and achieve your money goals, without judgment or financial jargon. Know that all discussions are kept strictly confidential. This service is offered as an employee benefit with no per-session co-pays, so you can meet with a financial planner as often as you wish. Services are paid by your retirement plan or your employer.
Connecting with a financial planner is easy! Here’s how:
- Visit FrancisWay.com > Services > Participant Portal
- Call (866) 232-6457
Download the free mobile app (Search for Francis LLC)
