Some of you may recognize the above question as a play on an old 1950”s summer-10:00-PM-news leadoff line asking if you knew where your children were at 10:00 o’clock on a summer’s night. My question for you is similar. At this stage in you and your family’s life, do you know financially where you are tonight?

Despite our successes and challenges, many of us never really seem to have the time or, likely as not, the training, to actually organize and lay out a road map of our financial affairs.

What’s happening to your income now? That is besides the obvious answer that you are spending it. What are you spending it on and are you really spending on your top priorities? A new house? Children’s education? Retirement? That trip to Europe? Going back to school? In fact, have you really decided on your top priorities, and then spending accordingly?

Do you have a sound investment plan? How does it fit together with life insurance, annuities, home ownership, and company retirement plans? Do you have anybody independently looking at how what you are doing fits together as well as what your insurance agents, employers, attorneys, brokers, etc. are doing?

When are you planning on retiring? What kind of retirement plans do you have? Have you calculated how much you will need to live each year? Or, to ask the question the other way around, given your current savings rate, have you calculated how much you will have to live on when you retire?

What have you provided for your spouse or children or even your parents if you should die in an accident or from an incurable illness? Guardians? How will your estate be allocated and managed? Do you have financial and health powers-of-attorney in place so that someone has the power to make decisions for you should you become incapacitated? Living wills?

Are your financial affairs arranged to minimize your taxes both now and in the future? How do 401(k)’s, IRA’s, and 529 college savings plans fit in. How should you take your pension and what should you do with profit sharing, cash balance, and other company retirement plans after you leave? Do you have gift and estate tax issues to think about?

You know, many of us take our group life insurance at work, and maybe buy a whole life policy from a friend or a friend of a friend when our first child is born. But, have you ever calculated how much life insurance you actually need? Is whole life a better investment than a mutual fund? Do you have disability insurance? Should you have a long term care policy? Is that maybe a bigger priority than life insurance? What about other insurable risks to protect your hard earned savings and investments?

Automobile liability? Excess liability? What about the insurance on your house?

Well, that’s what Personal Financial Planning is all about. It’s about having a comprehensive financial plan based on your goals and priorities and helping you allocate your financial resources accordingly. It’s about how the inter-relationship of each of these financial areas, income & expenses, investments, retirement, estate planning, taxes, and insurance, need to be taken into account. It means having a plan so you know where you are going and how to change that plan as “things” change over time. So you know where your money is tonight.

Please take a look at the rest of my website. Other pages will tell you about my qualifications & fees, tell you some more about what personal financial planning can do for you, and give you some links to other sources of information. If I can be of help, please give me a call at 719-395-3882 or send me an email at pcarnoldjr@amigo.net.

Charlie