Getting started implementing a financial plan (or making updates to an existing plan) can be, well, something you want to delay. Am I right? It's not unheard of to hear from clients that they'll do Task A after their vacation. Or they move to a new home. Or they start a new job. Or their next free weekend. Or... the list can go on and on. Believe me, I've heard just about all of them. Writing meeting agendas, I often find myself asking the same questions as six months ago: "Did you work on your estate plan? Are you working on the purchase of that life insurance we discussed? Did you close out that account that has a zero balance now?"
So often we want to wait for what we feel is the perfect time to get started on a financial task/goal. When it comes to taking control of your finances, it's easy to tell yourself the time is not right. Today I'm going to share a secret with you. There is no perfect time. And if there is one, we'd probably quickly schedule something else we'd rather do instead. Business trips will keep coming, kid's schedules will keep us chauffering, and your cousins will keep getting married three states away. I can sympathize with all of this. But I do consider it part of my job to convince you that implementing financial planning recommendations is important, too.
So, if there is a financial related task you've been waiting for the perfect time to tackle, my advice is to start now. Even if you only dedicate five minutes to it today, do it! Go ahead and set a timer. Then work on it again tomorrow for five minutes. Get a little momentum going and I have a good feeling you'll be done with it sooner than you'd expect and feeling much better about yourself.