Financial Planning

Central to the concept of financial planning is plan completion. This means making sure all your bases are covered. When it comes to financial planning for business owners, it’s business and it’s personal. 

When you own a business, your ROI is in the future. I spoke with a business owner the other day, and she shared, “For as much as I work, you’d think I’d make more.” I think this statement is true for most business owners. It’s hard to look to future ROI when you have to work so hard at the day to day operations. Plus, business owners often have to look out for their spouse and families as well as themselves. 

You need to look at things differently as a business owner, though. Business owners need to think of retirement savings or saving for the future in two ways. Saving each year and also building future equity in the business. However, the business equity will always remain an unknown variable until you find a buyer willing to pay your price and the check clears. I often liken financial planning to a pyramid; in that you have to lay a solid foundation before you can go on to build the next layers. Additionally, if you don’t have a solid foundation laid, you run the risk of not only being unable to move up the pyramid, but even falling back down levels! 

A solid foundation consists of things like a large short term savings account, protecting your assets, long-term care insurance, medical insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, and an estate plan to mention a few categories. All of these things help to lay the foundation for the accumulation phase of your life. With a solid foundation, you are able to move forward and upward as you create and accumulate wealth. 

All of this is in anticipation of reaching the tip of the pyramid with all of your layers intact, the distribution phase. You will not be ready for this apex unless, brick by brick, all of the other pieces are in place. Additionally, (and worse still), I’ve seen many people fall from distribution to accumulation due to poor planning. You do not want to leave retirement to go back to accumulating wealth (i.e. working), nor do you want to put off accumulating wealth because a solid foundation was never there.

To read a real-life example of the pyramid, please read on for a Case Study on "Maxwell". 

Maxwell: Case Study

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Contact St. Croix Advisors today to learn more. We are located in Hudson, Wisconsin, and serve a number of areas in Wisconsin including Hudson, Eau Claire,New Richmond, and River Falls, as well as the St. Paul/Woodbury area in Minnesota. Our services include wealth management, retirement planning, financial planning, estate planning, asset protection, life insurance, long-term care insurance and expenses, to mention a few areas. Our President, Brett Anderson, can assist you with any questions you may have prior to scheduling your first appointment. Brett can be reached at 651-337-1919 or   .