Building Your Financial Foundation

Have you ever taken the time to visualize your future and what you want it to look and feel like?

What would you like to be doing every day and who do you want to spend time with?

If you don’t take the time to think about the most important things in your life, you’ll likely defer your dreams and passions, start heading down the road of regret, and not make the impact you truly desire.

There’s a great book called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departed. According to author Bronnie Ware, the five most common regrets expressed by people in their final days are below:

I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.

I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.

I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.

I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.

I wish that I had let myself be happier.

Are you seeing a pattern?

Fortunately, you have time to address these and other things that may be preventing you from living a more fulfilling life. Wouldn’t it be great to have no regrets when you sit down to write your memoirs, or just take stock of your life in your golden years?

Having a life of purpose—free of regret– pertains to our finances as well. I know what you’re thinking: “more easily said than done.” But, having a clear picture of where you are now with your finances and where you want to go, will enable you to live the life you’ve always dreamed of.

Many people come to see me when they’re at a financial crossroads in life. Usually they start asking me what they should be investing in or how much to put into stocks. Before we go down that path, however, I urge them to get their ready-cash situation squared away.

I recommend having a good chunk of your money in safe, liquid areas that you can tap at a moment’s notice. I know many successful people who have significant net worth, but they’re actually “cash poor.” That’s because all their money is tied up in investments that aren’t very liquid—i.e. they can’t get their money out quickly.

Why you need two kinds of ready cash

You really want two types of ready cash available: One type is for emergencies and one is for opportunities. The emergency fund should have 6 months of living expenses available at all times. It can be used for unexpected medical expenses, car repairs and major household repairs, etc. The opportunity fund can be used to take advantage of opportunities that land in your lap unexpectedly—say a limited partnership, a privately held business or a classic car comes up for sale. But if you don’t have liquid cash at the ready, you can’t take advantage of those opportunities.

The best place I’ve found to store cash is in a participating cash value whole life insurance policy. Imagine earning three to four times what banks typically pay, plus it’s tax-deferred (tax-free if accessed properly), with guaranteed cash value build-up, a tax-free death benefit, and access to the funds with no questions asked? Cash value whole life is the optimal place to store safe money for both emergencies and opportunities until needed. In times like today with a lot of uncertainty, there are bound to be opportunities for those who are prepared.

Guaranteed Financing and Protection

In addition, the cash value built up creates a guaranteed financing arm so that you can borrow from the life insurance company whenever you want for whatever you want. There are no applications, credit checks and outside of the interest rate, you control all the terms of the payback. Therefore, you can borrow someone else’s money while yours continues to compound with interest inside the policy.

Of course since it’s life insurance, you still get the protections for your family in the case of an untimely death and the proceeds are delivered tax-free to your beneficiaries.

Conclusion

You mom probably told you never to put all your eggs in one basket. Even if she didn’t know that much about investing, she cared deeply about you. To discuss how diversification can best be utilized for your financial and retirement plan, schedule an appointment today Book an appointment.