Five Ways in which you can Benefit from the Services of a Financial Planner
There are at least five ways in which you can benefit from the services of a financial planner. As the name suggests, the financial planner is a professional who helps people identify/formulate their financial goals, and then make plans towards the attainment of those goals. Consequently, the five ways in which you can benefit from the services of a financial planner include where:
1. The planner helps you in making an accurate assessment of your current financial position: the truth of the matter is that many of us have no idea where we actually are, in our financial lives. We don’t have a clear picture with respect to what we own, in terms of assets, and what we owe in terms of liabilities. You will be surprised to learn that there are many people who don’t even have a clear picture on what they earn (from their various channels). The end result of all that is the situation where a person’s financial life runs on ‘autopilot.’ And that tends to lead to a situation where a person earns money, and somehow it ‘disappears,’ and somehow he or she doesn’t have an idea on where exactly the money went to. The financial planner helps you bring the whole situation under control, by helping you make an accurate assessment of your current financial situation. At this point, the planner may also help you identify the opportunities before you, as well as the threats staring at you, with respect to your financial life.
2. The financial planner helps you in financial goal formulation: having helped you make an accurate assessment of ‘where you are’ with respect to your financial life, they also help you work out where you want to go, again with respect to your financial life. That they do through the process of financial goal formulation. The planner won’t, of course, create the goals for you. You have to own the goals. What they do is help you in the process of goal formulation.
3. The financial planner helps you in the creation of financial plans: the formulation of financial goals is akin to the definition of ‘where you want to go’ financially. Just knowing where you want to go is typically not enough to get you there. You also need to know how exactly you are going to get there. This is through the creation of plan(s) toward the attainment of your financial goals. This is also where the bulk of the planner’s work comes from, hence the name of the profession.
4. The financial planner helps you by building ‘accountability’ into your financial life: whilst many of us may already have clearly defined financial goals and plans for their attainment, what keeps us from actually attaining them is our lack of accountability. In these types of matters, it helps to have someone (especially a non judgmental professional) you can be accountable to, and that is a way in which the financial planner can help you.
5. The planner helps you in the elimination of finance-related stress: the reason as to why people experience finance-related stress tends to be where they feel that their financial lives are ‘out of control.’ The financial planner, by helping you identify your current financial situation, create financial goals and come up with plans for their attainment can ultimately help you stop feeling as if your financial life is out of control. That way, they would also have helped you in the elimination of finance-related stress.
The Personal Income Statement
A personal income statement is a document which details revenues, expenses and profit or loss that a person has obtained a period of time.
Having a personal income statement allows a person to understand and analyze the income, expenditure and profit or loss (difference between revenue and expenditure) has been obtained for a period of time, and based on that analysis, to make decisions (for example, to reduce expenditure in particular item) or financial planning.
Also, a personal income statement allows a person to compare the results achieved in a period, with the results obtained in previous periods, and thus, for example, whether it is meeting its financial goals.
To better understand the concept and the usefulness of a personal income statement, see below how to develop and take advantage of one in three steps:
1. Income Detail
We must first make a list of all revenue that we earned over a period of time (for example, for a month, six months a year, etc..) Regardless of the time they become effective charges, For example, if we sold some assets, we record the sale, even though half of it just go to collect the following month.
Between incomes include: wages, business, investment, etc.
2. Detail costs
After detailed our revenues, we began to detail all expenses we made during the same period equally, regardless of when they are made the payments, for example, if we bought an asset, we record the purchase even though half of it just go to pay the next month.
Among the expenses include: food, education, health, transportation, clothing, recreation, services, interest, etc…
3. Develop personal income statement
Once we have the necessary information, we began to develop our personal income statement (preferably in an Excel spreadsheet).
Gross profit is for the sum of the income, while net profit is the difference between revenues and expenditures, there is no profit when revenues are greater than expenses, and no loss when expenses exceed income.
