The next time you’re given a proposed financial plan from a financial advisor or you look at your current financial plan that’s already in place, ask yourself "What could be the one thing, the single thing that could blow this whole thing up?"
This question is often overlooked due to the major hype of the nice charts and graphs that are computer generated that show a nice growth path of your future or current financial plan.
What happens if something unexpected explodes?
What happens if you become disabled?
Or you’re sued.
Or there’s a market correction?
Or taxes go up?
Or the tax code changes in ways you never envisioned it changing?
Or you die, before you thought your time was up?
Most risks within a financial plan can be mitigated at some level.
It's your job to pull those risks out and become aware of them. Sometimes, you need the advice of a confidant by simply asking, “what might go wrong with this plan”?
Plans don't always go as planned. Remember the words of Tom Hanks in the movie Apollo thirteen?
“Houston, we have a problem”.
Apollo thirteen had a small army of engineers to help that three-man crew of astronauts make it safely home to earth, after an unexpected explosion on their planned trip to the moon. Are you still winging it yourself on a hope and a prayer?
Make sure you've got redundancies in place, so you make safely it back to earth, in advance of any possible problems that could blow-up, what you thought was a nearly perfect plan.
