Weekend Reading: The Problem with Precision in Financial Planning

This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.
Weekend reading precision in financial planning Weekend reading precision in financial planning
Weekend Reading

Benjamin Franklin was once quoted saying, “…In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes”, and the same belief can certainly be applied to the world of financial planning.

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Expect the unexpected: You can take as many scientific approaches to portfolio management as possible, but as the article states, it all boils down to relying on “imperfect knowledge.” Life changes, economic climate adapts and above all, YOU evolve, so modernizing the way you plan for your financial future and retirement must follow suit.

This is why we at Howard Bailey prioritize preparing your L.I.F.E. Plan, and also why we believe leaving room for flexibility and those unexpected occurrences is key. You plan as best you can with the resources you have available to you now, but as mentioned here, also recognize that there are only three guarantees when it comes to financial planning:

📌Surprises are accommodated with margin

📌Change is navigated elegantly with flexibility

📌Failure is transformed by grace

Glass half-full mentality: You might struggle with the “guarantee of failure” in retirement, but I would encourage you to look at one of its core definitions from the dictionary: “A situation or occurrence in which something does not work as it should”. Life will happen and it doesn’t mean total retirement failure. We can always guarantee that something – anything – might not go the way we planned.