Financial Planning Fable
I feel that there is a childrens fable that truly encompasses my mentality about financial planning. Please enjoy this story, you may have heard it before:
THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE
A hare one day made himself very merry over the slow pace of the tortoise, vainly boasting of his own great speed in running. The tortoise smiled at the hare and replied:
Let us try a race. We shall run from here to the pond and the fox out yonder shall be the judge.
The hare agreed and away they started together. True to his boasting, the hare was out of sight in a moment.
The tortoise jogged along with a slow, steady pace, straight towards the end of the course. Full of sport, the hare first outran the tortoise and, at times, intentionally falling behind, chuckling at the tortoise all the while.
Having come nearly to the goal, the hare began to nibble at the young plants. After a while, the day being warm, he lay down for a nap, saying:
The tortoise is behind me now. If he should go by, I can easily enough catch up.
When the hare awoke, the tortoise was not in sight. Running as fast as he could, the hare found the fox congratulating the tortoise at the finish line.
What does this have to do the financial planning process?
As in life, through financial planning we:
- Set Goals;
- Focus
- Ignore what others say or do
- Work to succeed; and
- Repeat
Today's culture has produced a hare-like mentality, where immediate gratification is the accepted norm. It's a culture in which people frantically run in different directions with no clear path. They may do whatever feels appropriate in the moment, consistently losing focus of the end goal or goals. The tortoise is ridiculed, mocked and tormented due to the planned, focused and relentless path he continues to follow. To the tortoise, the satisfaction of reaching the end goal is the driving force, not how the hare views him for his approach.
How we proceed with our personal financial lives on a daily basis has no bearing on anyone else. While no one can guarantee the same results for your financial planning as the tortoise, those who adopt this mentality with me, understand that our results will come not now, but in the future.
Contact me if you are ready to take this type of a planned approach to your financial life.
Investing involves risk, including the potential for loss of principal. There is no guarantee that any investment strategy will be successful over the long term.
06/18