A Guide to Creating Your Comprehensive Financial Plan

Phil Reynolds, CFP®, Managing Member, Financial Advisor

You’ve heard it time and again – you need a comprehensive financial plan. But where do you start when creating something meant to guide your financial life over decades? At TBH Advisors, we view financial planning as a collaborative journey between the advisor and client. Together, we will create a roadmap designed around your unique goals, priorities, and circumstances.

 

Why do you need a comprehensive financial plan?

A complete financial plan provides an overview of your financial situation and simulates how different choices and market conditions may impact your future. It acts as a personalized guide helping you identify short and long-term goals, and how they can be achieved. Behaviors needed for savings, such as investing and budgeting, are often overlooked, but are as important as market returns are to the success of a financial plan.

Individuals should view their financial plan as a living, breathing plan that requires consistent updating based on life decisions and events. Without a plan, it is difficult to understand how your financial puzzle pieces fit together. You may invest and save diligently for retirement, only to find your assets can’t support the lifestyle you desire. Or you may underspend in early years only to regret missed experiences you thought were unaffordable. A plan helps test your assumptions and illuminate the trade-offs necessary for financial success on your terms.

 

Breaking down the comprehensive financial planning process

We know that the financial planning process can be intimidating. Below is a breakdown of the process into manageable steps – all of which our advisors are here to assist with.

 

• • Informal conversations to understand your financial situation, goals, concerns and more. This helps us gather relevant information to construct an initial plan.

• • With your input, we build scenarios to test your financial strategies over time. This work helps identify potential gaps or risks to address.

• • We will summarize findings and suggest potential changes to your current financial strategies to improve alignment with your goals and priorities.

• • We review your plan with you regularly to see if adjustments are needed based on life changes, market shifts, or goal evolution. It is a living document!

A complete financial plan can come together gradually – do not feel pressured to know everything from the beginning. TBH Advisors will use placeholders to help you visualize different scenarios and outcomes. As you fill in more blanks, your plan will come into sharp focus.

 

 

Understanding smart goals and common mistakes in your complete financial strategy

An integral first step is articulating financial goals that are achievable and relevant to your life. This prevents vague notions like “become wealthy” and helps quantify your vision.

When we collaborate on your objectives and layer in assumptions about income, taxes, inflation, market returns, life expectancy and more, we can model your probability of success.

One of the biggest mistakes is not being realistic about your money patterns. Most people don’t realize they spend more than what they think and may not be willing to put it on paper. To ensure an effective financial plan, stress-testing it is essential. Ensuring the estimates are conservative helps keep your expectations in line with reality.

 

 

The advisor’s role in your comprehensive financial plan

While you know your aspirations best, our advisors contribute expertise to estimate feasibility. Years of financial planning experience allows us to raise considerations you may not have considered. For example, have you budgeted sufficiently for healthcare costs in retirement? How will childcare costs impact the ability to save for college? What sources of fixed income can provide stability once earned income ends? This holistic view of short and long-term goals allows your plan to address real-life complexities.

With a detailed financial plan in place, you’ll feel confident in each milestone reached along the journey. Fill out the form below to schedule a free consultation and start your financial planning journey today.