Since I hope this free course will help you achieve your personal financial goals, we first have to determine what those goals are. I don’t believe in long laundry lists of specific goals: your list should be very short and each goal very important.
In fact, you can do just fine with one goal: financial peace of mind. When I selected the name SimplyRich it wasn’t because I thought getting rich was simple (although it actually is). My idea was that people seemed happiest, with respect to their financial lives, when they spent as little time as possible thinking about money. Clients chose me, in fact, so that they could spend their time focused on their family, friends, and careers.
Of course, there are some whopper expenditures for which advance planning may be useful, such as retirement, home purchases, and college costs. We will discuss each of these in upcoming lessons. Many clients, however, have simply focused on steady accumulation of wealth and paid these major costs when they arose. When they didn’t have the funds, they waited until they did. Still, in cases such as college, you might not want to tell your daughter she needs to wait five years more. So we will plan, a little.
Another reason I chose SimplyRich is because I believe in selecting the most straightforward and easiest-to-implement strategy for achieving those goals. Especially if you are going to be a do-it-yourself planner, you need to take approaches that will require the minimum in attention and upkeep. Many, if not most, people create plans during moments of enthusiasm, then fail to pay attention or lose interest during the long implementation process. Indeed, the primary reason clients come to me is to delegate those essential details. But you’re a cheapskate, so we’ll discuss ways to put your plans on autopilot and save my fee.
OK, that’s it for Lesson 1.