My wife Keri and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary on June 10th.
For many years we had talked about how we would celebrate that milestone, and our dream was to go back to France, where we lived for a year earlier in our marriage.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed all that.
Our fully planned and organized trip had to be shelved.
What did we do instead? We enjoyed a staycation in Saskatoon.
We spent the night at The James hotel on the riverfront, ate out a couple of times and enjoyed the beauty of our city.
We hope to take that trip to Europe next summer, but there are a lot of questions to be answered before that plan can come to fruition.
In 2009, BBC Magazine produced an article answering what they considered to be the Greatest 101 Questions of all time.
A few of the questions included were:
- What is “OK” short for? The most popular theory is that OK comes from “oll korrect,” a deliberately misspelled writing of ‘all correct.’
- Can you have a fish out of water? Yes! Some fish actually breathe air and can crawl on land.
- Does chewing gum really stay inside you for years? Nope. Your body doesn’t digest it, but it goes through the digestive system just like anything else you swallow.
- Why do I get more carsick in the back seat? Your view of the horizon is obstructed.
Interesting trivia, yet not the most important questions. The most important questions deal with you, your family, and your future.
Did you ever notice questions are more important than answers… initially?
Yet, the typical advisor begins with answers. Stock, off-the-shelf solutions.
Here’s a really important question to begin with, “If you could wave a magic wand in terms of your money, lifestyle, and financial future, what would it look like?”
Have you been asked that question before? How can anyone recommend solutions without asking that question?
Your answers will fall into two categories: your lifestyle and your legacy. Answer the question first, THEN blueprint, THEN build your lifestyle and legacy plan.
That was the approach Keri and I took with our 25th anniversary. Our “magic wand” was the trip to Europe, then we went about planning it. Our plan has been delayed, but we still plan to make it a reality, when we can.
Imagine building a house without starting with a blueprint.
Is your plan building the right financial house?
“Many people take no care of their money till they come nearly to the end of it, and others do just the same with their time.”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
