Are you a young professional just starting out in the adult world of finance?
With all the knowledge and information about money flying around, it’s hard to know where you should start when it comes setting yourself up for financial success.
The place to begin is understanding exactly what holistic financial planning is and how it can help provide guidance throughout your financial journey.
Holistic Financial Planning goes beyond budgeting basics and utilizes more sophisticated strategies such as student loan planning, retirement planning, risk management, taxes, investments, and much more.
Read on to understand why utilizing a holistic approach with your finances has so many powerful benefits over traditional methods alone!
What is Holistic Financial Planning and Why It Matters
In health care if I have pain in my feet and my doctor only exams my foot, they may miss the real reason for my pain which may be coming from my back. Its much better to exam the whole body to find answer.
Holistic financial planning takes the same approach. Its a big-picture way to managing your finances, addressing not only your investment portfolio but also your mortgages, insurance, student loans, etc.
It can be thought of as a top down approach to financial planning.
This comprehensive approach helps to ensure that all areas of your financial life are working together to achieve your short term and long term financial goals.
By creating a detailed financial plan, you can identify potential roadblocks and take steps to overcome them.
Additionally, holistic financial planning can help you feel more confident and in control of your financial future. With a clear understanding of your situation and goals, you can make informed decisions that support your long-term financial success.
Key Considerations to Keep in Mind When Developing a Holistic Financial Plan
Developing a holistic financial plan is a crucial step towards achieving short-term and long-term financial success.
As an expert in the field, I can tell you that there are several key considerations that must be kept in mind during the planning process.
Firstly, it’s important to consider your specific financial goals, objectives, and life events that may be coming up in your life. This will help you to identify the most appropriate strategies and financial products that will help you achieve your goals.
Secondly, you need to assess your current financial situation and budget your money correctly. This will give you a clear picture of your financial health and enable you to make informed decisions about how to allocate your resources.
Lastly, don’t forget to simulate your plan to see what happens over time.
By keeping these key considerations in mind, you will be able to develop a comprehensive financial plan that will guide you towards financial stability and security.
Holistic Planning Can Help Clients Prepare for Unexpected Life Events
One of the most important features of holistic financial plans is giving you the ability to plan for anticipated major life events but also unexpected life events.
A few major life events are:
- Buying a house
- Paying off a debt
- Getting married
- Getting in a car accident and needing a new car
- Children
Having a financial plan that holistically looks at your entire financial life will make these life events easy to plan for and allow you to not stress if they happen unexpectedly.
Mistakes to Avoid When Implementing Your Holistic Financial Plan
When it comes to implementing your holistic financial plan, there are a few key mistakes that you’ll want to avoid.
One of the biggest is failing to take into account your own unique financial situation and goals. While it’s important to follow best practices and advice from experts, ultimately, your financial plan should be tailored specifically to your needs.
Another mistake to avoid is focusing too narrowly on one aspect of your finances, such as investing, while neglecting other crucial areas like budgeting or debt management.
Finally, be wary of falling for financial products or schemes that promise quick, easy gains; oftentimes, these come with hidden costs or risks that can end up doing more harm than good.
By staying vigilant and avoiding these common pitfalls, you’ll be much more likely to successfully implement a holistic financial plan that truly works for you.
A Major Obstacle Holistic Financial Planners Face
One major obstacle holistic financial planners face is an overwhelming amount of information they must work with.
There is no easy way to take a client’s financial plan and easily incorporate everything one a person’s financial life such as income, expenses, assets, debts, insurances, goals, an investment strategy, etc…
This is one reason why its easy for a financial advisor and individuals alike to make mistakes.
Currently, financial professionals will try to simulate some of this but often leave out key components that a holistic plan should have.
Then on top of that, financial advisors will will print out a huge .pdf showing an individual how there going to hit financial goals but its extremely confusing.
Once individuals see the financial plan they may ask the financial advisor to make a change so they can compare options. Then the financial advisor has to print out another long .pdf and you have to try and compare everything.
Its a mess!
This is one reason why we created the FitBUX Score. It combines all your information and combines it into one data point.
Therefore, you can build a holistic plan, simulate it over time, easily compare it to other plans, then implement your plan. The goal of the score is to make holistic planning and personal finance easy.
How Does Holistic Financial Planning Differ from Traditional Financial Planning?
Traditional planning focuses primarily on numbers. For example, target returns, insurance costs, and renovation costs on homes and a net income.
However these numbers can restrict a person from developing his or her financial plan.
Also traditional financial planning and traditional financial planners focus more on retirement planning. This is the case because older individuals have more money, insurance needs, and estate needs such as tax planning. Financial products addressing these needs pay financial planners the most money.
Therefore, this is where most financial planners focus their attention. Thus, most financial advisors can’t help young professionals with holistic planning because they don’t have the expertise.
Yes, financial goals concerning retirement savings, tax efficiency, having a larger tax planning strategy are all important and things financial professionals need to take into account.
However, they are only part of holistic planning and for young professionals a minor part.
Holistic financial planning takes a broader approach to mapping out an individual’s or family’s financial future.
It starts with understanding their goals and dreams, as well as analyzing the current situation. This means taking into account the client’s debt and spending habits, lifestyle preferences, risk tolerance, taxation strategies, asset allocation, savings strategies and liquidity management.
What is the difference between Holistic Financial Planning and Investment Management?
Managing investments is making investments in assets to increase the value of clients’ current capital and increase their wealth at any moment in the future.
Investment management emphasizes investing without looking at any other characteristics of your financial situation such as debt.
In addition, investment management is primarily concerned only with investment strategy, investment allocation, and investment choices such as which mutual funds to use.
In short, it is focused only on your retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, and a client’s portfolio.
A holistic planner may suggest products whose goal should be to satisfy the interests of the individual, according to his or her overall lifestyle. Holistic financial planning involves analyzing and developing the client’s current financial situation and developing a plan which can help him live the lifestyle he wants.
Conclusion
In conclusion, holistic financial planning is the first step to secure one’s financial future. It helps individuals gain clarity on their goals and craft actionable plans to achieve them. Through the use of holistic financial planning, individuals have the chance to maximize their finances and have peace of mind. Most importantly, it provides peace of mind knowing that your finances are in order for years to come.
There are a lot of key considerations one needs to keep in mind when developing and implementing their customized plan for continued success. To get started with creating your very own holistic financial plan, sign up with FitBUX and be on your way towards achieving total financial wellness!
We’ve developed technology utilizing the holistic approach and give you the ability to easily put it into action.
