Plan Your Financial Future

Plan Your Financial Future: A Comprehensive Guidebook to Growing Your Net Worth

Implementing a financial plan to manage the future is very important. If you have not assembled such a plan, or even if you have not thought about how best to manage your financial future, the time to do so is now, and the resource you need to walk you through every step of the personal financial planning process is Plan Your Financial Future. Regardless of whether you are a recent college graduate or have spent the past several decades in the working world, Plan Your Financial Future will give you the smart, commonsense advice you need to get your financial life in order.

Written by an expert and long-standing educator in the field of personal financial planning, Plan Your Financial Future is a comprehensive, objective, and pertinent guidebook for readers of all income levels who want to grow their net worth on a steady and increasing basis. Covering all the financial bases you can reasonably expect to confront in your lifetime, like insurance, investing, income tax planning, Social Security, Medicare, and more, this vital resource begins with techniques to protect a consumer’s personal and business assets. It then transitions into the wealth accumulation process and outlines tax management measures, as well as the distribution of wealth for higher education, retirement, and estate planning purposes.

Filled with in-depth insight and invaluable financial planning advice, this unique guide explains how to:

• Insure yourself, your family, and your property against the possibility of significant loss;
• Invest in financial or real assets—or both;
• Practice effective tax planning and management techniques;
• Distribute your estate at death to your intended beneficiaries in a tax-efficient manner;
• And much more.

With its no-nonsense, straightforward style and holistic view of the financial planning process, Plan Your Financial Future is the one resource you need to become a more knowledgeable saver and translate those savings into the accumulation of future wealth.

What you’ll learn

Readers of Plan Your Financial Future will learn:

• How to take advantage of benefits that are offered to them by their employer
• The importance of minimizing the effects of inflation on their portfolios as much as possible
• Financial strategies for preparing for their children’s higher education
• Rock-solid advice for planning for the financial aspects of their retirement years
• Whether or not they would benefit from the hiring of a professional financial planner
• How to create and maintain a personal financial plan that protects them and their families into the future

Who this book is for

Plan Your Financial Future is designed for readers of all income levels who would like grow their net worth on a steady and increasing basis by implementing and sticking to a personal financial plan. Everyone from recent college graduates to those who have been in the working world for many years will benefit from the insightful, actionable advice offered up in Plan Your Financial Future.

Table of Contents

Part I: The Financial Planning Process
Chapter 1. Understanding the Challenge. The Need to Begin
Chapter 2. Do You Need a Financial Planner?
Chapter 3. Elements of Personal Financial Planning and the Wealth Management Process

Part II: Protecting Yourself, Your Family, and Your Property
Chapter 4. Insuring Yourself and Your Family
Chapter 5. Insuring Your Health and Long-term Care
Chapter 6. Insuring Your Earning Power
Chapter 7. Insuring Your Property
Chapter 8. Optimizing Your Employment Benefits

Part III: Accumulating Wealth
Chapter 9. Investing in Financial Assets
Chapter 10. Investing in Real Assets
Chapter 11. Investing in Use Assets

Part IV: Defending Wealth
Chapter 12. Income Tax Planning and Management
Chapter 13. Transfer Tax Planning and Management
Chapter 14. Life Events that Endanger Wealth

Part V: Distributing Wealth During Your Lifetime
Chapter 15. Planning for Your Child’s Higher Education
Chapter 16. Planning for the Financial Aspects of Retirement
Chapter 17. Planning for the Lifestyle Needs of Retirement
Chapter 18. Planning for Other Lifetime Financial Goals

Part VI: Distributing Wealth at Death
Chapter 19. Estate Planning
Chapter 20. Philanthropy

Part VII: Summarizing the Personal Financial Planning Process
Chapter 21. Reaping the Rewards

Appendix A. Sample Data-Gathering Form
Appendix B. Sample Budget
Appendix C. Power of Attorney
Appendix D. Declaration as to Medical or Surgical Treatment and Medical Durable Power of Attorney
Appendix E. Sample Personal Letter of Instruction