Yogi Berra, and knowing where you’re going
Financial planning is a relatively new field, having gained recognition and adoption over the last couple decades. It is a gathering point for personal economic activities that in the past may have been viewed and pursued in isolation from one another.
Still, you may ask why it is needed. While you can appreciate that planning is generally better than not planning, there has to be a payback. To the point, what is the value of financial planning?
In response, we’ll channel the insights of Yogi Berra, the all-star catcher with the New York Yankees who was equally well known for his verbal exploits off the field. He was the king of malapropisms, summed up in his own words(?) in the 1998 biography, “I really didn’t say everything I said!”
What’s your vision?
The best of the Yogi-isms combine a dash of humour with a dose of common sense, though usually expressed in uncommon ways. One of the classics is his advice on being prepared: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.”
Of necessity, everyone has to first make ends meet, particularly young people early in their careers. As you get more established, the financial stakes rise, as does the complexity of life. This can be challenging and stressful to keep on top of, and could have you scattered in all directions.
By asking and requiring you to consider why you are doing things, financial planning leads you to form a vision of where you are going. This allows you to be more efficient with your limited time and energy, revealing gaps and opportunities that might otherwise be missed, while keeping focus on a tangible target.
Be coordinated
While running spring training camp in his later career as a Yankees coach, Berra is reputed to have directed his players to “pair up in threes.” While there is some debate whether this was simply attributed to him, it does emphasize how failed coordination can lead to confusion.
Properly undertaken, financial planning dispels confusion. It helps identify, organize and unify the components of your economic life, spanning budgeting, saving, investing, and tax management. What’s more, it informs those kinds of technical skills with the needs they serve, from education to career choices, on into retirement and through to estate planning.
It provides coordinated purpose so you can achieve the vision you have for yourself.
Make adjustments
Quite apart from his mirthful messages, Yogi truly was a great athlete, having won a record 10 World Series rings as a player, and 3 more as a manager.
As a catcher, he had that unique behind-the-plate vantage point to survey the entire field of play. Yogi was a master at sizing up the next batter coming up to the plate, and directing his teammates into the best position to respond to that next challenge.
In similar fashion, financial planning puts you in better position to recognize when things have changed, and to make adjustments to bring you ever closer to realizing your vision.
Get started
Perhaps most famously, Yogi quipped, “it ain’t over until it’s over.”
With a little poetic license, you could also say, “you ain’t started until you’ve begun.” More simply put, financial planning has value at all stages of your life, so it is never too early or too late to begin the journey.