Financial Consequences

Many people have commented to me recently that one of the powerful messages I deliver is the reality that every financial decision is driven by a life issue and every life decision has a financial consequence. In essence, life and financial decisions are totally integrated.

Therefore, when doing financial planning it is absolutely vital that you understand what drives your financial decisions. To me, the primary driver is your financial personality, or what we call your Financial DNA. Your financial personality is in essence your natural born behavior shaped by your environment, experiences and education. Or we can break it down into behaviors, passions, values, beliefs, purpose and knowledge. All of these factors make up who you are and in their own way fundamentally drive your life decisions and consequently your financial decisions.

Where in all of this is money? In reality money does not have a personality, you do, So the real point is that money of itself is not the true driver of your financial decisions. Although, it does trigger many positive and negative emotions which can have a tremendous impact on you.

So, in essence to really get to the heart of your financial plan you need to know what drives you. Many people fail to appreciate this and consequently make decisions which are not aligned with who they are.

Our approach is to use very powerful profiles to help you see all dimensions of who you are and the financial decisions that you are are wired to make. This will get you in touch with your strengths and also your struggles, some of which you may not always be seeing with clarity. Once you get this clarity, it is amazing how you make much more committed decisions. This is what will lead to the results and also a quality life.

Your Planned Giving: Philanthropic or Charitable Approach

There is no doubt devising an appropriate planned giving strategy has become a very big focus in the United States and other countries where the level of wealth is growing.

Advisors are being asked what do we do? People are questioning their legacy and how much is enough? Some are suspicious of the process and others say, well I don't need the money nor do my children. Further, planned giving officers at not for profit organizations are looking for ways to better communicate with their donors, discover their values and make them feel appreciated.

None of these are easy questions, and addressing this could take a whole book in its own right.

Consistent with our whole message at Financial DNA^®, the starting point is who are you? how are you wired? Your planned giving decisions are very much related to who you are and how you see the world. In essence you have a "Philanthropy DNA" which is wrapped up with how you make life and financial decisions.

What we have seen from working with the Financial DNA^® profiles extensively in this area is that some people will naturally be more philanthropic in nature and others are charitable. Neither is right or wrong, it is just about behavior!!

Those who are philanthropic will tend to be more visionary and give based on an agenda. Often they may even set up their own foundation, will be quite personally involved and will be trying to contribute to significant change.

Whereas those who are more charitable in nature are motivated by specific immediate needs. Very often the giving is to a number of local organizations and is more compassionate giving rather than big impact.

I have really seen this come out in some families I have worked with recently where the patriarch who has made the money and is now ready to give away a lot of it is interested in focusing on major projects that could have long-term societal change. If the project does not succeed, so be it. However, some of the children who are more compassionate in nature, are interested in giving to a range of local community organizations. These divergent views can cause some heated family dynamics. Where does it all come from? A fundamentally different behavioral style. So understanding this can really help the family and their advisors better communicate and hence make more functional decisions with greater harmony.

Perhaps you should consider how you want to give your money based on your own wiring - do not worry so much what others say you should do. You will be much happier leaving your legacy based on who you are. Isn't that how you want to be remembered?

Financial DNA - Understanding People Before Numbers

What is Financial DNA^® about? And how can we help you? We believe you have a unique financial personality which drives how you make financial decisions. Before you make any of these decisions, you need to understand your "Financial DNA" which will help you build a quality life by improving the integration of your unique financial personality, life, relationships and finances. This is financial planning from the inside out!

To find out more, please watch this video, or visit our site at www.financialdna.com

Connecting Your Wealth Creation and Behavior

At the start of a radio interview last Friday, I was asked a fundamental question: What is the relevance of behavior to your wealth creation?

In my view, your behavioral style is foundational to your wealth creation. When I use the term "wealth creation" I do not just mean money or financial wealth, it also includes your whole of life wealth.

I adopt the approach that the correct place to start building true wealth in your life is from the inside. In essence, I have an "inside-out" approach to wealth creation.

Your relationship with yourself and how well you understand yourself will have a signifcant impact on your wealth creation. I truly believe your money clarity comes from your self-understanding. The key here is that your behavioral style has a strong influence on how you see the world, how you process life and how you react to the messages that you hear from your family or in society. Hence, how you address financial and wealth creation issues is clearly linked to who you are. So, the more you understand your behavioral style and how it drives you, the better off you will be for making discerning decisions.

The other aspect of behavior and wealth creation is related to the use of your talents, and what we often refer to as your human capital. There is no doubt that building wealth in your life is a lot about using your talents to the maximum potential. Many of us do not do this because we do not truly know what our talents are, or have the courage to fully use them. Look at how most people have built their wealth and it has come from how they have applied themselves, not because they are great investors. Very few are great investors and those who are, have natural talents and a passion for it. But that is not the majority.

Interestingly, when you achieve a high level of understanding of your behavioral style and can connect it to all areas of your life, including your relationships, there is a much better "flow". This flow will lead to greater wealth creation overall.

Integrating Multiple Passions Into Your Life

A great question came up during last week's Wealth Mentor training: What do you do when you have multiple passions?

This is a great position to be in, particularly as many people do not lay claim to having one passion. If you do have multiple passions then in my view you are very wealthy in terms of having a quality life. Some may be surprised to know that Financial DNA^® is not my only passion. I add in the development of youths as another, then watching cricket (sorry not baseball!!) and other sporting activities, and wine tasting.

The key is to work out how all of your passions can get squeezed into your busy life. So what I have done is to work on a "Quality Life Plan" where all of my passions can be pursued in some way. For instance, early next year I am putting on a training program that will have wine tasting integrated into it. Another way I feed my passions is to play sports with clients and friends.

Somehow you need to work out how to "live on the margin" better. What I am talking about here is taking steps to building an integrated life. Admittedly, there is much more for me to learn in doing this, but I am finding myself feeding multiple passions at once a lot more often.

Since going to work is an important part of life and consumes a good number of waking hours there should be some aspect of your work that you are passionate about. That may mean that you need to look outside the square. Perhaps your skills could be deployed into another area you are passionate about? This may still be with the same employer or another one. Start thinking outside the box. Taking action will require courage, but it is worth it. You will never look back.

Recently, I took a client through discovering her passion as part of our Life Purpose program. The client was also in the business of training people in software programs and doing retreats, which pays the bills (plus more) but her heart is in playing a musical instrument. What is the connection between these? The reality is she cannot play the musical instrument 100% of the time for financial reasons, although she is brilliant at it. What she needed to do was to look at these passions in an integrated way. Why not introduce a music segment to most training programs - certainly the retreats. This would be a great branding exercise and differentiator. The two do not have to be mutually exclusive or pursued in different phases of life.

So there is no excuse for not pursuing a passion. There is always a way to work it in.