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Even if you have a solid financial plan in place, things can quickly get out of tune if you don’t make adjustments from time to time. Let’s talk about some of the areas where we often see people get out of tune with their financial plans.

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Show Notes

Today we’re sharing some of the ways you may be out of tune with your financial plan and how you can make adjustments along the way.

Future tax considerations 

Many times we see people out of balance as it relates to future tax considerations. Taxes are going to change, and you’re going to have to make those adjustments. You need to be proactive in your retirement plan to make sure you’re having that same efficiency year in and year out.

In some scenarios, people can put so much money into their 401(k)s that the next thing you know, your tax bill is high and you have forced required minimum distributions in retirement. That percentage grows over time.

We can look at legislative measures, lifestyle changes, income, and investment needs, etc. The more often you look at changes that are on the horizon or you look at current changes in the markets, those are opportunities to make sure that all future or current tax situations are taken into consideration.

You should always run a future tax projection, and we can help you with that each year.

Having the right amount of life insurance 

Of all the financial tools we have, life insurance is notorious for being a “set it and forget it” tool, but that’s the wrong approach. Your life is changing all the time, and you have to assess your needs, not just what you can afford.

Life insurance is to help provide for those people who depend on you. If you’re underinsured, you could be leaving your family to struggle for the rest of their lives.

Having the Right Amount of Cash

How much cash do you have in the bank? This is pretty needs-based. But with current inflation rates, how much is too much? There are some good rules of thumb. Some say 3 to 6 months of living expenses.

It may be a good time to fine-tune this if you think you’ll leave your job soon. You’ll probably want to lean towards 6 months of savings. If you feel comfortable at your current workplace then you can adjust this number.

Risk

Do you have the right amount of risk in your portfolio? We want to analyze this on an annual basis. Watching the market can be emotional, but we want to stay as logical as we can. You need to think about how much you want your portfolio to grow and how much you want to keep safe.

Listen to the full podcast or use the timestamps below to jump to a specific section.

[6:57] – Taxes

[12:19] – Life insurance

[17:40] – Cash

[22:19] – Risk

[25:55] – Question about inheritance

Thanks for checking out this episode. We’ll talk to you again soon.

“People with emergency funds tend to not have emergencies.”

-Scott Sierens