Written by Kristin Brandli Printon, Partner & Financial Consultant at Moxie Wealth Management

A few weeks ago, I met with a new planning client for their “draft” meeting. At this point, their financial plan is essentially complete, however, I run through this draft to make sure their questions and concerns have all been addressed and to ensure the information I analyzed is as accurate as possible.

Before we jumped into the retirement portion of their plan, the wife mentioned how she had run some high-level numbers on her own. She “knew” they needed to save a certain amount to be on track for retirement. This number was a big concern and not realistic for their cash flow, so she was stressed about how they would come up with this additional savings. I asked what numbers she used because having already run their plan, I knew they needed to save less than half of that to get on track for both retirement AND college so there was obviously a big discrepancy between our projected scenarios. Digging in, we determined there were multiple differences around inflation, taxes, and a gross versus net retirement income.

By not fully understanding how each of those pieces affected their situation, she came in with a false impression and was distraught and feeling as though she would never be able to retire, let alone help pay for her daughter’s college. With access to so much information, how you weed out what is applicable to your situation can mean all the difference between feeling confident and overwhelming stress.

Finances, although almost a daily part of our lives, are not something in which most people are educated, so if they do not seek out professional advice, they are forced to learn through trial and error. Once I explained my analysis and the corresponding projections, she felt so much better! We were also able to discuss other short-term goals that she did not think were previously possible.

Examples like this are quite common and show how important it is to understand which financial concepts are applicable to your situation and how a trusted professional opinion can help. There’s no “one-size-fits-all” in financial planning and if you are following a plan that is not tailored to your unique situation, you could be doing more harm than good!

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