THIS PIECE from Morgan Housel got me thinking…
What is the essence of financial planning?
To pay less tax? To achieve market beating returns? To change the world?
It can be parts of all of those things. But only a minor part.
Financial planning is really about life. The life you want to live, a life if purpose, a fulfilling life.
Apparently David Cassidy’s last words were “So much wasted time.”
I find that quite sad and it leads me to my favourite one liner about the purpose of financial planning:
“To Minimise Future Regret”
Isn’t that what we want from life? To be able to look back and feel that was a life well lived?
“What you want” is an important element of a good financial plan, but I’d argue that “what you don’t want” is more important.
Not only is that likely to lead to minimising future regret it’s also like to motivate better behaviour today.