The Mindful Investor: How a Calm Mind Can Bring You Inner Peace and Financial Security

Chapter 6. The Financial Plan

In chapter 5 you began to give some thought to what your goals are, and to what you'd like to achieve with your life by creating your personal mission statement. This chapter will show you how a computer-generated forecast—your financial plan—can tell you if you have the resources to live out your dreams exactly as you envision or if you need to make changes, either to your financial situation or to your goals.

A financial plan is simply an illustrative tool. In the old days before computerization it was an expensive and time-consuming process to have one prepared, and extremely awkward to make even the simplest change. Annual surpluses and deficits needed to be calculated and entered by hand. Now financial planning tools are commonplace and quite accessible. In fact, most financial institutions offer free financial plans as part of their service. The illustrations and outcomes are presented in a graphic form that's easy to interpret and useful for reviewing various scenarios. This is an ideal development for mindful clients and advisors, offering an easy way to work with data so clients can feel empowered to explore multiple scenarios and ask seemingly outlandish questions of themselves and their planner. Don't feel restricted to the questions of what might happen if you save $300 a month or if you receive dividends instead of interest from your investments; use the programs to their capacity and incorporate your mission statement and goals into the ...