The goal of any good financial plan is to prepare for the unexpected. You want to know that no matter what life brings your way, your financial future will remain intact.

No matter how well-prepared you are, there will be events that require your immediate attention. On this episode of the Money Wisdom podcast, Joel will take you through five examples of times when your financial plan calls for urgency and what you’ll need to consider for each scenario.

When building a plan, you always want to make sure it’s asking the question, ‘What’s the worst that can happen?’ The loss of a job is certainly a worst-case scenario for many people, and we see people not know what to do in this situation. The longer you wait, the more trouble you get into. Your options will never be greater than the day you became unemployed.

Oftentimes, especially for people later in their working career, companies will offer employees an early retirement buyout offer. This is the next event on the list and usually, it comes with a deadline, which can cause stress and force you to get your finances in order. What we work with clients to determine is what would life look like if that happens and what can we do to get out in front of it? Once you get answers, you can then begin to decide whether the buyout makes sense.

Another time that forces you to act with urgency is when retirement begins to close in on you. Too often we see people that are caught off-guard by a rapidly approaching retirement. In this case, there are a few things you need to do right away. Your investment philosophy should have changed a few years before this point, so if that hasn’t happened yet, it should be the priority. You want to be investing for preservation and a reasonable rate of return rather than big gains. Once you get within a year of retirement, assess your portfolio and figure out how much risk you’re taking. But there are so many more items after that including healthcare, wills, and trusts.

Speaking of healthcare, that continues to be a problem area for many retirees. If you aren’t prepared, a major medical expense can lead to a complete re-evaluation of your financial plan. Think about a flight across the country from New York to LA. If you got off-track early, only small adjustments are required to get back on the right route quickly. The longer you wait, the more severe the problem will be. Treat your healthcare and long-term care needs the same. Begin working on those plans sooner than later.

And the last thing we want to address is the death of a spouse. This is the most difficult of any of these life events and so many things come into play with the death of a spouse, many of which aren’t event financial decisions. The last thing you want to worry about is your money, but there are some significant changes that will take place in this scenario and it requires attention. We’ll run through a few of those on the show as well.

As you can see, life will present you with challenges, and how you prepare for those will determine how much they will impact your financial future. If you have any questions or concerns, set up your complimentary Money Map Review and begin getting your finances prepared for the road ahead.

Let’s get started with the show. You can listen to it by using the audio player above and click on the timestamps to skip to a specific topic of conversation.

[1:10] – Signs of an economic boom?

[2:40] – Urgency due to loss of a job

[4:43] – Early retirement buyout offer  

[6:10] – Retirement is rapidly approaching

[9:02] – Major medical expenses

[10:51] – Death of a spouse

Thanks for listening to this episode. We’ll be back again next week for another show.