Mission Statements & Financial Planning

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a month since I last posted! Time flies!

The end of 2004 is near, making December a perfect time to reflect on the happenings of this year and begin planning for 2005. I was reviewing my personal mission statement when I started thinking about how a personal mission statement can and should be part of a financial plan. If a personal mission statement is a summary of one's life purpose, shouldn't it be reflected in their financial plan? I think so!

That said, the first step is to develop a personal mission statement. Questions one might ask may include the following:

Why am I here?

What do I want to accomplish in life?

What or who is important to me (also known as "values")?

What are my priorities?

Before I wrote my mission statement I read Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Although I don't agree with everything Mr. Covey writes, I do agree with most of this book. I highly recommend it for everyone to read! In order to effectively write a personal mission statement, one must know what is important to them. What's important to me is:

My relationship with God

My wife

My kids

My job

Charity

Myself

Once a person knows what is important to them, they then need to know what their different roles are in life. My roles are:

Follower of Christ

Husband

Father

Financial Planner

Den Leader

Of course these aren't all the roles I play in life. I listed just those that are most common to me. Once a person knows what's important to them and their roles, they can begin composing their mission statement. Here's my mission statement (altered a bit for privacy purposes):

My mission in life is to first and foremost live for Christ. A man must decide whom he is going to follow. I will follow Christ and seek God's will in all that I do. I will do this by studying the Bible and by praying on a daily basis and by walking in His ways.

Secondly, I will be a loving husband to my wife. I will strive to love her like Christ loved the church. I will practice selfless love, striving to put her needs before my own.

As a father, I will strive to be loving and accepting. I realize that my kids are different, each possessing different talents and abilities given to them by God, and I will strive to treat them accordingly. I will discipline them with love. I will strive to be a good role model for them.

As a financial planner, I will always strive to do what's best for my clients, even it if might not be what's best for me. I will study and keep up on what is happening within the financial planning field. My goal is to develop my firm into a top-notch planning firm with over $50,000,000 in assets by the year 2010! With God's blessing, it can be done.

As a successful financial planner, I will give back to my community. I will teach classes on financial planning and will dedicate myself to worthy causes. I will also strive to be the best Cub Scouts Den Leader that I can be.

Finally, in order to live out this mission, I must be healthy. Therefore, I will eat a proper diet and exercise daily.

I will read this every day!

That's my mission. That's what I'm about. Now, that's not saying that I ALWAYS act in a way that is congruent with my mission. After all, I am human. But, by having my personal mission statement, I can refer back to it daily and it brings me back to where I need to be.

So, what does all this have to do with financial planning? In my next post I'll attempt to explain it.

Until next time...