Vision of An Ideal Future

Welcome to the new year! Hopefully the first week has been kind to you. Instead of beginning the year talking about things like stock market performance or taxes, I figured I would go in a bit of a different direction. Today I am talking about the vision of your ideal future. 

I have yet to come across a client who wants to be attached to his or her stethoscope forever. Because of this, something I do with all my clients is help them develop their vision of their ideal future. It is not a simple process, we typically spend four meetings going through a variety of exercises to flesh out this vision. I guess you could say I spend a lot of time properly diagnosing as part of my practice. 

Developing this concept of an ideal future is not an effortless process. I went through quite a bit of training to do what I can only describe as “Advanced Financial Planning.” We have a series of meetings over a 2–3-month period, with multiple topics of discovery we are going through at each meeting, with the end result being creating this vision. Side note – The vision has always been there. It is my job to ask the right questions to pull it out of the client. Questions touch on things like:

• What do you value?
• What responsibilities would you like to give up?
• What would you do with more time?
• What brings you the most joy?

Once we have the vision honed, we start adjusting the various components of the client’s wealth management picture to implement and support the vision. This may mean changing investments or updating estate planning documents. Ultimately everything is directed toward achieving this vision. 

Let me share one quick success story. A client realized she wanted to spend more time within their practice on “more interesting” cases and also a bit more time away from the stethoscope. The expectation was there would be a reduction of income with implementing this vision, so we started restructuring investments to reflect that. Low and behold, they had the opportunity to update their employment agreement, and this vision was put into the contract. Now their biggest worry is to find things to do with their additional time off. We call that a First World Problem around my house😉

Now, within my practice I cater to physicians, most of whom fall into the GenX generation. Because of this, they are often at a crossroads where the kids are just now out of the house and maybe their parents are still alive. Student loans are paid off and investments are really accumulating during these peak earning years. However, there is the realization they want to maximize their wealth and health and time while they are all at their peaks. This is achieved through this Advanced Financial Planning. 

The final thought I will leave you with is this. Developing a Vision of an Ideal Future takes time, asking the right questions, and spending time really thinking about those questions. It is much more involved than basic stuff like “what are your goals” and “what is important about money to you.” All of my clients thoroughly enjoy going through the process, creating their Vision of an Ideal Future, and then starting the process of finally living it.