Steps to financial planning and analysis

At times, what bothers you more than earning money is how to save your money? Saving is even more crucial than putting all your efforts to earn those extra bucks!

Financial planning isn’t only for the ones with an average income or those who’re struggling to make ends meet only. It’s equally important for every income stratum. The rich need to stay put on the living standards that they had set during their earlier lives.

Both the low and middle-income groups need to survive too, especially during their retirement years. Indeed, financial planning is all about making the resting and relaxing years of your life more precious!

Saving keeps you stress-free. Be it your working years or the retired time span – insufficient saving keeps the stress button on. So, if you haven’t started giving it a thought, you’re already late!

Start planning today.

Personal financial planning – an insight into the plans for your retired life

Starting with a new thing often feels overwhelming. Be it a new job, a new task, a new place to reside, or even a new team member to deal with at your workplace!

One pro tip would be: start early. In fact, it will probably not be an exaggeration to say that financial planning should start as early as you start earning money.

It could be a personal financial planning attempt – your self-driven approach or even a professional initiative. Personal financial planning involves certain meticulous and well-thought-out plans.

However, as days pass by, your income volume goes up and so does the accumulation of wealth. You might then venture out in search of the best financial advisors in Los Angeles. Opting for a professional financial advisor certainly yields the best results!

The first step in your financial planning process

Let us put it the other way round – the important steps in your financial planning process. Effective financial planning starts with the endpoint in mind.

Understand your expenses. Evaluate your living standards. Try to keep a tab on the inflation rates and the depreciating value of the money that you earn too! They all help you to plan. And planning, as we all know, is the key to execution.

So, let us get into the steps of chalking out your retirement plans – walk through the steps mentioned below:

Calculate your net income

When you are dealing in numbers, a clear picture of the concepts of ‘gross’ and ‘net’ could work wonders!

Net income is the amount left after you are done with all your expenses. Keep a track of the proportions of your take-home paycheck that are spent on different heads – food, travel, housing and other utilities, medical expenses (if any), clothing, entertainment, and even taxes.

When you spend wisely, no matter how little your income is, you are miraculously left-back with some amount. Invest the left amount wisely as well; you’re almost halfway towards a good investment plan!

Use less cash and more paperless money!

I will tell you how it helps. If you have a good cash flow in your pocket, you might end up spending it in an unplanned way. You might not remember to, or let’s put it this way – it is not practically feasible to document all your expenditures.

With more and more use of credit and debit cards, you can track every spending. It creates a strong foundation for healthy financial planning for your retired years.

Which retirement plan would you be heading for?

Your retirement plan could be a permanent, temporary, or semi-retirement plan. Of course, life might not move on your planned track. Financial planning is nevertheless a necessity – it will certainly pay off at some point in time! Talking about the permanent plan – it's the traditional one – retire and don't tap on the work button anymore.

The semi-retirement or temporary plan is the one that most individuals are opting for these days. It involves intermediate periods of rest mostly between two different sorts of career options and not merely between job switches!

Intermediate leisure periods, however, don’t allow your retirement fund to swell up as much as the permanent (or traditional) plans. Temporary retirements are mostly aimed at travel – say, a full year of travel! You would then need to hunt for the best financial advisors in Los Angeles to help you out with complex financial planning. Work and savings are no longer continuous!