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Accepting one’s own mortality is a tough pill to swallow. As such, estate planning can be a morbid topic that lingers in the background of our lives ominously. Nobody wants to plan for their own death! However, the repercussions your family will face are dire if you delay preparing for the unforeseen curveballs that life throws our way.
In order to ensure that our families are secure with a strong foundation no matter what occurs in the future, Americans must be proactive. With that being said, we will look at the most important elements of estate planning that must be addressed.

If you’ve ever played the Game of Life board game, it becomes clear that compressed into the colorful path there are various stages of life. Each stage holds its own major financial challenges as well as prospective profits in addition to surprises (new baby!) and forks in the road. In the real world game of life, much is the same, but with sound financial planning throughout the different stages of life, you can have much more control over how much you retire with (as opposed to those random tiles you collect throughout the board game).

If you’re just starting to take charge of your financial future, it can be stressful approaching financial planning with confidence. Do you ever talk to your bank or financial manager and think that they’re speaking a foreign language? Between acronyms, money talk, and words longer than my arm, it’s no wonder that sometimes going to the bank is similar to going to the dentist - but hopefully not as painful. We wanted to help with that. Here are a few financial terms you should know by heart before consulting a financial professional.

We’re all familiar with fitness fanatics, raving about life changing workouts guaranteed to get you into tip top shape. While there is a new fitness craze in the air, it’s time to exercise your wallet. Financial Fitness is a set of goals or programs to help you identify your financial goals, and how to get in the best financial shape of your life.

Start with the Assessment

If you own a traditional IRA, perhaps you have thought about converting it to a Roth IRA. Going Roth makes sense for some traditional IRA owners, but not all.  
  

If you are an experienced investor, you have probably fine-tuned your portfolio through the years in response to market cycles or in pursuit of a better return. As you approach or enter retirement, is another adjustment necessary?
  
Some investors may think they can approach retirement without looking at their portfolios. Their investment allocations may be little changed from what they were 10 or 15 years ago. Because of that inattention (and this long bull market), their invested assets may be exposed to more risk than they would like. 
  

Goals give you focus. To find and establish your investing and saving goals, first ask yourself what you want to accomplish. Do you want to build an emergency fund? Build college savings for your child? Have a large retirement fund by age 60? Once you have a defined motivation, a monetary goal can arise. 

Many people save and invest vaguely for the future. They know they need to accumulate money for retirement, but when it comes to how much they will need or how they will do it, they are not quite sure. They will “wing it,” hope for the best, and see how it goes. How do they know they are really contributing enough to their retirement accounts? Would they feel less anxious about the future if they had a written plan?