Practice Management Toolkit

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Give Direction to Your Finacial Future

Q – I like the idea of setting financial goals, but how do I get started?

A – It is not as difficult a process as you might imagine if you follow the steps outlined in the article. Set aside an evening or weekend afternoon for yourself or you and your partner, if you are part of a couple. Put three columns on a piece of paper labeled short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term goals. Then write down what ever comes to mind as objectives you would like to achieve at this point in time. Don’t worry about the order in which the items appear. After you’ve racked your brain, go back over your list, and rank them. That’s it you’re done. Now compare your list to that of your partner. Combine common goals but retain your individual goals, if they do not take away from your joint objective.

Q – How often do you have to monitor your progress toward your goals?

A – That is very much an individual decision. If you are young and your lists of goals are pretty short, and not much is changing in your life, then perhaps once a year would be sufficient at a minimum. At the other extreme, if you are hoping to retire in a couple of years, you may want to examine your financial goals at least once a quarter to make certain you are doing all the right things so you can retire as planned. The key is to individualize the monitoring, so you have adequate time to make adjustments in your financial management should events unexpectedly alter your plans.

Q – What if you realize you cannot achieve all the goals you have set for yourself?

A – That is one of the realities of life. We don’t always get everything we want. The best way to address this is to go back to item 5 on the list and “prioritize” those goals. You’ll have to make some difficult choices, and in all likelihood that will mean you must give up one thing to get another. In fact, people struggle with conflicting goals every day.

How do you manage your money so you can have a comfortable lifestyle now, save for your children’s (or future children’s) college education, AND put money away for your retirement? Conflicts such as these illustrate the conflict between your short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term goals.

Planning-The Key to Saving and Investing

Q – What if I can only save $100 per month. Should I still try to invest?

A – Yes, by all means. Even if you are unable to make the maximum contribution to your employer’s retirement plan, an individual retirement account (IRA), or other savings vehicle, $100 saved is better than nothing.

Q - What if I only have enough money to contribute to one account, where should I invest?

A - Most financial professionals will tell you that if you have to choose, it may be more beneficial to put that money in a tax-deferred (retirement) account. But in doing so it is assumed that you are able to lock that money away for the long term. Once retired, you’ll be glad you started investing at a young age.

Q - I don’t know much about saving and investing, so can I become better informed on these subjects?

A - Visiting the Crest Learning Center on a regular basis is a start. After all, the intent of this website is to provide you with information you can use to enrich your personal and professional life. Get your personal finances in order and a lot of other things fall into place.

Another good and inexpensive resource is your local public library. You can find reference material, books, and countless personal finance and business magazines sitting there waiting for you. Take a Saturday afternoon or evening to visit your library and see what you can discover.

Do you have questions?

We’d love to hear from you. So if you have any questions about this topic or some other subject, please click here.

And don’t forget to visit the Crest Learning Center website often to look for updates.

Note: Practitioners who offer a retirement plan through their practice have a fiduciary responsibility to educate their employees about their plan and investment principles. By encouraging your employees to avail themselves of the free information on this website, you will take another step in demonstrating your compliance with Regulation 404(c). This subject of ERISA 404(c) compliance is explained in Series 4 of the Personal Finance CD-ROM and will be covered here at a later date.