The Who, What, When Where and How of Financial Planning

Financial planning affects everyone except those who are not interested in money and financial success.   If you care about improving your finances, then financial planning is for you.

In the context of planning per se, building a short term and long term financial plans are vital to every entity whether it’s for your personal or business or other financial needs and wants.  So it is better to start this blog by exploring the components of financial planning by asking the usual 4Ws and an H.

If money just grows on trees, you don't need financial planning...

Who needs financial planning?

Again, all of us needs financial plans.  Like everything else in life, financial plans are the road map of where you want to be in a certain period of time in your life or in business.  It’s the compass of finance that can lead you to the right direction.  It’s about seeing your future and mapping out a solid plan to get there changing and adjusting it as needed along the way.  It’s not about whether you are trained or not trained to plan your finances.  It’s about realizing that you need to plan financially in order for you or your business money to grow to the amount you desire.  Therefore, you and I need financial planning unless you are born with the financial wizardry like no one else.

What is financial planning?

It is the process by which your financial goals are set and laid out in a written form together with a set of short term and long term action plans and milestones designed to guide you in the process of building wealth both in personal finance and in business finance. It is your map to financial success or the simple life if you chose to live it.  It’s all about having a financial map of where you want to be at certain dates in your life or your business so much so that you look forward to it and work your plan accordingly.  It is the ripe fruit that excites you to pick it up and eat it at the right time.  It is the very essence of why most people are wealthy and rich while others chose to gamble in their old ways and became poor in the process.

When do you need financial planning?

It all starts with the desire to have the money you deserve.  When you have that burning desire to change your life or other people’s lives through financial means (perhaps to be able to give to your kids what you did not have or maybe to contribute to the community where you belong), then you are ready to start.  It’s when the passion to make more money than what you have or save those wealth that you already had in years of hardwork or minutes of windfall, you need to plan already.  When you embark in the journey of life that realizes money is not the root of all evil but the lack of it, then you can already take that step in making sure that your goals can be reached through a well-thought strategy-oriented and results-based science of financial planning.

Where can you get information about financial planning?

The internet.  It has a wealth of information about how you can plan for your finances and how you can be successful financially.   You can also buy books, audio books and ebooks to help you propel your passion inside and have that burning desire to continue and focus on your financial plans.  I suggested the internet because there’s lots of first hand experiences on finance that people share in many places like blogs (such as this) or community sites (such as forums) as well as social media (like facebook) where these posters normally give tips and tricks you would not normally find in books from best selling authors.  The wealth from classic books such as The Science of Getting Rich (by Wallace Wattles) and Think and Grow Rich (by Napoleon Hill) can spice up your emotions and guide you towards the accomplishment of your plan.  The key here is to become a sponge that can be squeezed wherein you have to absorb as much info as you can from thousands of literary works about saving, making and growing your money and to squeeze out those trash and “not applicables” to your end.

How can you succeed in financial planning?

Focus and determination is key.  You also have to practically rewire your thought processes and change your behaviours and old ways to be able to achieve your goals.  With focus, determination and openness to change, you can easily embark on a journey to financial success like you wouldn’t imagine possible.  Life is a journey and money is something that goes well with it.  Without money that you can get from a well-planned financial strategy of growing it, then you may not be able to achieve your fullest potential in enjoying life, sharing wealth with the needy and caring for others.

And lastly, although there are certain scriptures in the Bible that says so many odd things about a man who’s got wealth, there are also certain things there that says we should not be poor.  With proper financial planning, you can be wealthy just about right to the accepted norms of your spiritual needs and at the same time not poor enough to beg from other people.

The goal of this blog is teach people what I learned from experience and from countless authors and minds out there that money, if not well planned, is hard to manage let alone grow to the size we want.  After many years of struggling on how to make money work for me, I have not come to a point in my life wherein I am finally enjoying the benefits of having a financial plan with certain goals and strategies that fits my unique situation that will benefit me, my family and other people in my community and later on the whole world if all my plans come in to play.

This is the journey of my financial life that I wanted to share with the world from every tidbits of financial wits to the hardcore study of money the moment it happens and how it affects me.  Join me as we unravel the truth and benefits of financial planning and how you and I can be better financially in many aspects of our lives later on.

Comments are certainly welcome.  Thank you in advance for participating.

Have a nice day!