By John Dietz
Senior Advisor

How much time would you spend to plan a wedding? How much time did you spend planning your last vacation? Probably days or even months, right?

Richard Cushing once wrote: “Always plan ahead. It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.” I think that puts things into perspective. Whether you are in the beginning, middle, or senior stages of your life, planning should be an integral part of your daily life so that your future can have the least amount of problems. The first steps of planning are to make some choices, and then get your things in order. Let me illustrate this point with a story.

I remember looking at a house to buy in Florida. Naturally, I was curious as to why the home owner was selling. The elderly woman said “Well, since my husband has passed, I’m going home to get MY house in order.” After a cup of tea and a nice chat, this wonderful woman sat on her chair and told me her life story.

She explained how her beloved husband always wanted to live under the sun, so when she was 22-years-old, they decided to uproot from her home in Connecticut to sunny Florida based on one condition: she had to have a burial plot next to her mother in Connecticut. Since he had passed on, she decided to move back to Connecticut where her mother was buried and where she could organize the rest of her life.

After 53 years of marriage, two grown children and a successful private business, she had a plan and was certainly sticking to it.

Another point to this story is that we all need to get our houses in order. It doesn’t matter what age you are, or where you are on the economic scale. Organizing your assets forces you to realize what you have to work with, and what you could be leaving behind for someone else to deal with. Planning is planning - like it or not.

So here are my essentials for economic planning:

1. Have enough insurance.
2. Have a will.
3. Set aside money for a rainy day (even Arizona has rain).
4. Set up a structure for your money (you’ve earned it, protect it…this means put an asset protection plan in place).
5. Decide where you want to end up living, now and in the future.
6. Sleep like you don’t have a care in the world!

MY MOTTO: Making it is not enough. You need to protect it.

Until next time.

John

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