Hobart Wealth's Five Steps to Financial Planning

Hobart Wealth's experts customize every financial plan to target a client's exact goals. For 18 years, everyone is offered honesty, integrity, and transparency. Those are the three principles we aim for. To do that, we follow five steps to ensure that we understand your aspirations, needs, and values.

Every person has different financial needs and desires. It's impossible to predict exactly how your future will play out, but Hobart Wealth's experts can help you better plan for the expected and unexpected.

This five-step plan may follow the same steps no matter who we're working for, but the outcome is personalized to your needs. Take a closer look at how we engage with you and come up with the best financial plan for you.

1. Identify Your Financial Goals and Aspirations

Consider what you most want from your retirement. Will you have a spouse or significant other with you, or is the single life your preference? Do you have children and grandchildren or not? What about a family history that could impact your future? No one wants to think of health issues, but a long family history of chronic health conditions could mean you face more medical bills than someone else. It's best to plan for that.

To better understand your financial goals and aspirations during retirement, we need to get to know you. As we work with you to identify your financial goals, it helps to break them down into immediate goals, mid-range goals, and long-term goals. By doing this, we can help you create strategies that ensure you meet goals that are realistic and can also be easily adapted as your needs change.

2. Take a Closer Look at Your Situation

Once our financial experts know a little more about you, we'll take a closer look at your situation. This means diving deeper into your financial situation as it sits right now. We need to know how much you've saved, what you have for debt, and what types of accounts you hold. You might have some money in a 401k, some in savings, some in check, and some tucked away in IRAs.

We need to know if you have any crypto investments, if you own vacation properties, etc. Once we know that, we will go over how much risk you can take on without becoming too much. It's also important to go over how much time you have before you reach retirement age. Shorter time spans can mean a lot more work to get you to the right point for a comfortable retirement.

What if there are health issues that apply to your situation? You're not alone, and it's important to consider these situations. Going back to the chronic health condition situation. Did you know that the average adult child spends an average of $4,800 per year covering expenses like groceries, medical supplies, and medications for a family member who has Alzheimer's? In addition, unpaid care provided to that parent can impact the number of hours you're able to work. It's estimated that a family caregiver provides about 22 hours a week to a family member with Alzheimer's. If there is a strong family history if this disease or a diagnosis is already in place, you'll be glad you've considered this when you're building your financial plan.

3. Create a Financial Plan That Matches Your Needs

We've gone over who you are and what your financial goals are. Now it's time to build the plan for you to follow. None of our financial plans are built with a one-size-fits-all template. We build your financial plan from the ground up to ensure it's customized to match your exact needs. We thoroughly believe that a plan that's created for the average person is never good enough.

We'll go over our plan with you so that you understand why we built the plan we did and what you need to do to reach your goals. We also know that things happen and life isn't predictable. Our plans are flexible and adapt to your changes. You may not have any plans to get married, but years from now, that may change and you meet the right person. Our plan adapts to meet your life as it changes.

What is certain is that you have a financial plan that lowers risk and maximizes growth. We'll provide you with the optimal investments and financial managers for your needs.

4. Put That Plan to Work

It's time to implement the plan. We've come up with a plan that is realistic for your needs and matches your goals. It's time to put that plan to work. This isn't the point where we part ways and let you go off on your way. We're still by your side and can support you as the plan goes into motion.

Our experts can help you set up the proper accounts and transfer funds. We'll make sure everything is transferred properly and that nothing is forgotten or overlooked as that plan goes into effect. If anything goes awry, we'll help you get it corrected.

5. Regularly Review and Update Your Plan

The final step in your financial planning process is to come back regularly to go over the reports and make updates to your plan if they're necessary. You gain regular performance reviews and information to help you understand where your money is invested and how it's doing. If you're not meeting the goals as expected, adjustments are made. If something in your life changes, such as an unexpected layoff, we can help you with those transitions, too.

What if you simply have a change in your overall goals? You've been saving up for years and now you have the chance to buy an investment home in another country. You need to know if this shift in your goals is even feasible. Our experts can go over it with you and update your plan to include sudden, unexpected expenditures. Maybe you receive an inheritance that you didn't expect and need to add that money to your plan. We can help with changes like that, too. You might decide one family member shouldn't be on your list of beneficiaries and need to make adjustments to existing plans.

Even if you're not sure of your life goals, Hobart Wealth encourages you to reach out and talk to our financial experts. Sometimes, not knowing where to start is the best way to talk about your goals in life and retirement.

Let Hobart Wealth walk you through the best solutions for your needs and come up with a fool-proof plan for building wealth with customized strategies. Call or email us today.