Why financial planning is like trail-running

If I turn this ankle one more time on this run, I’ll scream. Hah – just a preview of the text to come.

This past weekend, most of my family and I ran a half-marathon trail run in NH – the Black Bear Half Marathon in Waterville Valley, NH. We have done it before, so it was not new, but they changed the course this year, so I didn’t know what to expect.

The start was masked 😷 and socially distanced – we all had chips – so we went through the starting line one at a time, more or less in the order which we were expected to finish. The beginning of the race had us running in high grass. Man, this was hard. I equate that first part of the course to the very beginning of adulthood – you know you should be running and crushing life, but things feel much slower than they need to be. Why isn’t the grass cut? Why does paying both bills and student loans on my first job’s income feel so hard?

Most young adults are ill-equipped to the financial challenges of life. Why is this? Unfortunately, the US educational system does not do a very good job of teaching our kids about real-world economics and check-balancing🏦. If you have young kids, try to get them exposed to Junior Achievement – when my girls were young, I was able to teach a few semesters of these classes in their schools. It is such a great program introducing financial concepts in a fun, easy to understand way, starting at young ages and going all the way through high school. In elementary school, kids may learn about the differences between ‘needs and wants’ while constructing a piggy bank. In high school, they may ‘start their own business’ and get creative with supply chain management and other important, and more sophisticated, concepts. If you can’t expose your kids early on to financial education, I encourage my clients to let me work with their children – as early as teens and college-age. You could also encourage your kids to take classes at your local community college, or encourage your schools to institute a financial literacy curriculum.

But now, back to the race. Once we passed the high grass, we started on the trail system – where the trails were single lanes, full of hills, and rocks. (This is where I was turning my ankle every few minutes). This felt like the second phase of adulthood. You’ve had a few jobs, and are now trying hard to grow your net worth. You may be having kids, buying homes, and starting businesses. You are making slow upward progress, but not without many twists, setbacks (ankle turns!), and spots where you just want to walk, and not move so quickly. Keep working with advisors, who can help you prioritize your goals and tools for achieving them.

The next part of the course was basically 1500’ of pure elevation gain🏔. This was a slog of a trail. No running (for me, and for most of those around me) – just a slow, slippery walk up a steep trail 👣. In financial planning phases, I equate this part of the race with the later years of your career. This includes really hard work of growing and protecting your nest egg, so that it will provide you what you need for retirement. By now, hopefully you’ve had enough guidance to know how to maximize your earning and savings potential – and you are doing both of those like a champ.

I finally summited the mountain 🏔 (Snow’s Mountain, in this case). That felt great – like, “WOW – I’m so happy to have arrived.” This is like first phase of retirement or next chapter – maybe you’re working fewer hours, or part-time, or spending more time engaged with your family, community and philanthropies of choice. You feel eager, young, healthy, and can appreciate your hard work to get there, and feel just as excited about running down the easy path ahead. I work hard with my clients throughout their lifetimes, so that they can appreciate the fun part after the summit. For me, the trail was wide and flat and was able to let it rip. (I logged my fastest miles here 😊 – and I must admit, I was helped by my daughter’s killer music play list here – super upbeat and joyful. Just wondering - what would YOUR playlist for life sound like?).

After a few nice miles, I was going into the homestretch – or so I thought. One of the course volunteers showed the path going into the woods🌲🌲. It is a path I’ve run many times. He said, “One last hill!” – I knew he was simply trying to encourage me, but I also knew there was more than one hill on that path. They were little hills – but feeling so tired, they felt larger than they really were. In terms of financial planning, I think of this phase as the ‘let’s make sure our family is all taken care of’ phase. Let’s coordinate with our financial planner, accountant, and attorney, to be sure our estate is properly positioned to minimize taxes and achieve our longer-term goals of family gifting, charitable gifting, or both. If one obstacle is encountered, let’s dig deep and find the energy and solution to surmount it.

And right when I was close to the finish line, and my family had seen me make the turn, I kid you not, I followed the wrong orange flag and wound up in the parking lot😫. Luckily, I saw a friend who had already finished and I was able to holler, “Where is the course?” – he graciously sent me back in the right direction. Financial planning has the same types of twists and turns. Creating a financial plan is like turning on the GPS and moving in the direction you’d like to go. But sometimes things change, the markets may throw us some curveballs, or legislation changes and throws our plans into disarray. But with the help of your team and those rooting you on, you correct your plan, and get back on the course of life to achieve the finish you’re hoping for. (In my case, while my wrong turn added a few minutes, I was still able to not only finish, but finish 3rd in my age group. I’ll take it. And in case you’re a runner and you’re wondering – my time was 2:17).

So there you have it. I’m big believer in staying fit throughout your life – we only get one machine – so let’s take care of it – whichever way you find that works for you. I happen to like some fun bouts of competition now and then – especially when my family joins in as well (and there is good merch for participation! 😊). But I’m also a believer in financial planning. Let’s plan for the long-haul, and adjust our approach and our route when necessary to stay on course.

Contact me today to talk about mapping out your own metaphorical race of life. I’ll be your partner throughout your race – you’ll see me at all the water breaks cheering you on and encouraging you to lead the life you’d like to live.