Planning For Your Future

The other day I was networking with some professionals and we talked about the stages of planning. We had a discussion about the stages of planning which was described like a traffic light. Red Light, Yellow light, then green light. The stages were then explained to the group.

There were 3 stages The red light stage which can best be described as brainstorming. Where everyone has ideas and there is a lot of cooperation because everyone is just shouting out ideas. Then comes the yellow light stage where you start “circling” everyone’s ideas the best of the best ideas if you will. Finally when the best ideas have been selected it is time to make a plan. This is where people get stuck most of the time. It could be because everyone wants their idea to be followed first or it could be that no one knows how to get to the green light stage of execution because they are scared to start.

As we finished the exercise I began to think about how this applies to people planning their finances. People end up getting stuck in one of the three stages if not doing them in an incorrect order. The order they do their financial planning really depends on their strengths in the 3 stages of the Light game. If they are good at brainstorming and not very well about picking out the best things to focus on in planning they may begin the greenlight stage in the incorrect order. This can lead to and endless cycle of repeating the same mistakes over and over again just to finally throw up their hands and go from green to a permanent red light stage.

This is why it is important to have someone else other than yourself helping with big plans like this. Planning a wedding get a wedding planner. Planning a trip pick a good travel agent. And especially when it come to retirement you better make sure you a good financial coach. Having this second pair of eyes, to help you through the stop light stages, is more important than any other life planning; except maybe your health. If you plan on retiring someday, you need that person to help you form a good game plan for your family’s financial future.

Remember you can do this you just need some help. If there is anything I can do to help please reach out. If not me, make sure you have someone to help you go from red … to yellow to GO! your future self will thank you.