Be Proactive and Less Reactive
As we navigate the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation together, priorities come clearly into focus. First priority is the well-being for you, your family, loved-ones and taking necessary actions for the greater good of our community.
In being proactive, you’ve likely encountered and/or thought of areas you could improve. You can view these as weaknesses and continue to procrastinate or seek out as an opportunity to take action.
After appropriate measures for health, your attention may turn to financial planning and investing for you, your family and loved ones given the volatile times.
No matter how well-intended or detailed, your plan should be able to evolve as challenges and opportunities arise. For example, before investing it is important to plan financially for the unexpected (i.e. job loss) by having ample access to credit and cash to cover short and near-term expenses. This is to allow money invested for work towards personal goals with distant timelines.
In seeking action steps, let’s look at the big picture and the potential opportunities for 3 RE’s: Refinance, Rebalance and Reset.
Refinance: The Fed has taken numerous steps to lower interest rates and provide liquidity. Even if you’ve refinanced certain loans recently (ie: Mortgage, Auto, Student), in the coming weeks there should be opportunities to lower your rate but also determine if shortening duration of the loan makes sense.
Rebalance: If you’ve been holding certain investments begrudgingly due to large capital gains liability, now is an opportunity to diversify with a lower tax liability and reallocate across quality investments that are also lower.
Reset: It is during moments like this you get the opportunity to evaluate how you feel about your planning. It can be a great time to confirm you’re in a good position or bring to the forefront areas to address for change and/or improvement.
Everyone’s situation is unique and if this has changed or you now feel uncomfortable, that’s ok.
Access to discuss and review is critical in being proactive with your financial planning.
Many advisors have utilized virtual meeting technologies for years as a way to connect and communicate along with more traditional phone, e-mail and in-person meetings. Furthermore, there are hundreds of CFPs and financial planners who can work with clients 100% electronically to enter an engagement, learn about your situation, deliver a plan and help with execution.
Lastly, I want to thank all those who are supporting our essential needs and bringing both rationale and comfort in our collective time of need.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
Glenn Brown is a Holliston resident and owner of PlanDynamic, LLC, www.PlanDynamic.com. Glenn is a Certified Financial Planner™, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor and fee-only fiduciary helping savers, business owners and Sandwichers evolve their financial independence.
This article appeared in the April editions of Holliston Local Town Pages, Ashland Local Town Pages and Natick Local Town Pages.
Please call me at (508) 834-7733 or directly schedule a meeting to learn more about considerations for planning and investing so you can balance kids, aging parents and your financial independence.
PlanDynamic, LLC is a registered investment advisor. This article is intended to provide general information. It is not intended to offer or deliver investment advice in any way. Information regarding investment services are provided solely to gain a better understanding of the subject or the article. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk. Therefore, it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy will be profitable.
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