Planning Requires Assumptions—But Wisdom Sets the Priorities
Let’s get this out of the way: every retirement plan is built on assumptions. How long you’ll live. How much things will cost. Whether your kids will be financially independent—or if your parents will need more help than you expected.
We don’t get to plan in a vacuum. We plan in real life. And real life is messy.
Most financial plans are designed like a spreadsheet: linear, tidy, and blissfully unaware of the moments that actually shape our lives. Moments like a sudden health diagnosis. A call from the school principal. A daughter asking, “Can I move home for a while?”
Here’s the hard truth: planning requires assumptions. But wisdom sets the priorities.
Spreadsheets are helpful, but they’re not in charge. Actual Intelligence is what tells you when to pivot, when to pause, and when to pull back.
Planning Is Not Just Math. It’s Ministry.
There is no formula for caregiving stress. There’s no tidy cell in Excel for your fear of becoming a burden.
So let’s stop pretending this is 5th-grade math.
When you’re saying yes to your mom’s memory care needs and still trying to save for your own future, that’s not a math problem. That’s a wisdom decision.
This is why your life experience matters so much. You’ve carried more than your fair share. You know what real life costs—and not just in dollars.
What Planning with Wisdom Looks Like:
It says no to financial fads.
It says yes to honoring your energy and your values.
It re-evaluates the plan when caregiving, inflation, or real life throws you a curveball.
So let me ask: 👉 What’s one assumption in your retirement plan that might not reflect real life anymore?
Share it and email me directly HERE. You might give someone else the clarity they’ve been looking for.
But don’t stop there.
If your gut says your plan may be outdated, unbalanced, or based on “guru” thinking that doesn’t fit your real life anymore…
Then now’s the time to exercise your power while you have it.
Schedule a quick, judgment-free phone call with me.
We’ll talk through your assumptions, your values, and what planning with wisdom really looks like for you—and your Loved Ones.
It’s free. It’s personal. And it might just be the wisest move you make this year.
Let’s make sure your plan reflects your life—not just a spreadsheet.
HOMESCHOOLING: Haven or Havoc?
Your child's school years are precious and fleeting.
Now could be your best time to step up where your school is letting your child down. Let this series of myth-busting short chapters encourage you.
2 Major Mistakes
Which one will you make?
Which of these 2 retirement mistakes are you making right now? It's impossible to entirely avoid both mistakes.
You won't know for sure which mistake will work out better for you until it's too late.
How to choose?
Finding the Will
(Part 1)
Part 1: Have the will to arrange for a smooth transition when you’re no longer around to answer questions
Have the will to arrange for a smooth transition when you’re no longer around to answer questions (Part 1)
Ensuring your children or other Loved Ones can readily access your important papers when you die entails a sound process versus one or two conversations. You must overcome aversion to the subject of death, procrastination of anything that is long-term, and the tendency to assume things will be fine. Family dynamics can be sweet, spicy, or dicey.
Finding the Will
(Part 2)
Part 2: Getting Organized
While the internet permits convenient access to accounts, policies, and stored documents, it presents a plethora of password management problems. which too many people avoid by succumbing to password laziness, such as:
- re-using passwords for multiple logins, or
- use simple, easy to remember passwords, or
- writing them on sticky notes placed on their monitor or under their keyboard, or
- keeping them in a spreadsheet on their computer, or
- letting their browser remember passwords for them
Embrace Your Clarence
Is Clarence your future?
Golden insight from a golden retriever.
Post-Pandemic W.E.L.L.ness
Working, Earning, Learning, and Launching to Thrive
Where life drastically changed forever two years ago, everyone adjusted to the best of their abilities.
Here are a few of the key adjustments--"pandemic pivots"--that sustained some and prospered others.
Prenuptial Adulting
Equip Them for Happily Ever After
“Mom, Dad, we’re getting married!"
“Wonderful, congratulations! Here’s what you both need to do first.”
Equipping newlyweds with essentials of responsibility leaves plenty of life yet to be discovered on their own. Adults understand that love isn’t oogly feelings; it’s a hard choice. It’s putting your commitments and your money where your mouth is.
Many of the following steps also apply to one’s turning 18 years old. Becoming engaged adds urgency and a deadline.
Rethinking Competing Funds for College and Retirement
We live in a time of skyrocketing inflation topping decades of unbridled higher education costs.
Is the tension between funding your retirement and funding (at least partially) your children’s college education keeping you up at night?
You’re not alone.
Married? Is Your Endgame 100% or Just 50%?
Are you single? That other 50% could be whoever is most important to you.
Multiple unforgiving players factor into your retirement and estate plans (collectively your “endgame”). Household names include the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Key decisions with these players are nearly impossible to reverse. Plus, if you qualify for a pension, how you activate it is another irreversible decision.
Are you more of a planner than your spouse? It’s all too common for one spouse to blindly trust the planning spouse. Countless endgame “plans” were created by 50% of a couple:
