03 Dec Lift Off!

In all the years I’ve been helping folks design plans to protect their wealth, the greatest impediments with which my clients and I have had to struggle are the twin challenges of gravity and inertia. Inertia is the propensity for a body at rest to remain at rest – or a body in motion to keep moving. Getting a financial planning project off the ground is like launching the space shuttle. It requires a lot of energy. It all starts with digging through the desk drawer and prowling through that stack of bank and brokerage statements you are planning to review… someday. Then there is last year’s tax return to locate and of all things life insurance and annuity contracts purchased and forgotten years or decades ago. Wills and trust documents, the list just goes on and on. When the space shuttle is launched, its two Solid Rocket Boosters each consume 1.1 million pounds of fuel, and the main engines burn a little less than 1.2 million pounds. I have read that it burns liquid fuel at a rate that would drain the average family swimming pool in just 25 seconds. That sounds like a lot of fuel and a lot of energy. But, once the shuttle has escaped Earth’s gravity, the other aspect to inertia takes over and it sails along on virtually no energy at all – just a little bit for maneuvering in space. Developing a plan to protect our wealth works much the same way: We need to put a good deal of effort into the process up front; but, once we have a plan in place it is relatively smooth and effortless sailing from there on – with only occasional energy required to maneuver the changes that take place in all our lives from time to time. If you don’t already have a plan in place for protecting your wealth – from taxes, from creditors and litigants, or from mistakes, oversights, and bad investments, you’re probably not – or at least you shouldn’t be — sleeping as well nights as you could be. Why not bite the bullet now? Expend the extra energy it takes in the short run to escape the grip of gravity, so that you can begin enjoying peace of mind for all the years to come. Take one long deep breath, and prepare for lift-off!