Business Innovators Radio - Episode #71 – Financial Planning Month 2024 – The 15 Minute Financial Feast Podcast – With Mark Triplett & Troy Westendorf

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

We believe that every dollar has a purpose and a timeline. When and how your retirement assets will be used should be understood before making important financial decisions.The Triplett-Westendorf Purpose and Timeline 5 Step Planning Process (PT5) begins with Discovery.Understanding where you are now, and then defining where you want to go (Your Purpose) and when you want to get there (Your Timeline), programs your financial GPS. Our Purpose and Timeline 5-step process (PT5) programs your financial GPS.Learn more: http://triplett-westendorf.com/ | https://mypt5.com/The 15 Minute Financial Feast Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-15-minute-financial-feast-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/episode-71-financial-planning-month-2024-the-15-minute-financial-feast-podcast-with-mark-triplett-troy-westendorf

Welcome to the 15-minute financial feast podcast, bringing you 15-minute segments to help you retire with purpose on time. We're serving up food for thought and bread for the head. Are you hungry to learn? Here are your hosts, Mark Triplett and Troy Westendorf. Welcome to another episode of the 15-minute financial feast. Today, you are listening to the audio from a live television interview where one of our favorite local news station anchors asked us questions about a financial feast. topic on the minds of many hardworking folks in our community who are trying to make good decisions and get ahead. If you're anything like most Americans, you've been feeling a little stressed about your financial

situation. Well, this month is certainly a great time to create a plan to get your finances back on track. We've got our financial pro, Mark Triplett, joining us this morning with more steps about how you can get started on creating this financial plan. Mark, so glad you're with us. So tell us, first of all, what is it? that first step to creating a financial plan? Thanks for having me, Joseph, and I'm really thrilled to be talking about this topic, because

this is really what we do here at our firm. Most folks think that having a financial plan equates to having a budget or an investment portfolio, but really a financial plan is a guide to get you from how it is today to how you would like it to be in the future, and laying out steps, actions that you can take to get from where we are today to where we want to go. And the first step really is to have a vision for what that future looks like. Our process, we call it the purpose and timeline or PT5 retirement plan process, is a discovery visit to get a good understanding of where somebody is today,

what's their circumstances, and what are their long-term objectives. We may call them goals, but where do we want to go and laying that out in detail so we can start to work backwards and understand what steps or actions we need to take to get there. And so after you've made that step, what do you do next? Because obviously the most important step is just taking that first one, but where are we going from there? Once we have a good vision for the future, then we can start right in on the data, which is really about tracking money habits.

Tracking what's coming into the household, what's going out of the household. Some folks might use the B word budget. We use spending plan in our firm because we like the sound of that a little bit better. But what's the spending plan? What does it cost to maintain your lifestyle today? adjusted for taxes, inflation, and health care. And do you have the resources now, or can you accumulate them between now and the time you want to transition into retirement to get you there?

So it's really about tracking and inventorying all of your retirement resources, both income and assets, and creating that spending plan that gives you a really good guide of how do you maintain your lifestyle, not just today, but well into the future. Now, for some of us, they look at that budget, that spending plan. and it's a little bit intimidating. You don't even know where to start. What are like those first little bitty steps you can take? Well, actually, we have a spending plan worksheet.

You can download at no cost to you from our website at triplet-westendorf.com. Just fill it out. You'll notice that spending plan is pretty detailed. We break down monthly expenses, even dissecting your mortgage, principal and interest and stripping out taxes and insurance. Things like principal and interest on a mortgage, well eventually those go away and they don't inflate over time. But your taxes and your real estate insurance,

those are, as long as you're going to be a homeowner, will be continual costs and will continue to go up with inflation. So getting very detailed on where that money is going so that you can track it. If you don't control your money, your money controls you. Very good advice. And real quick, Mark, you said that you guys have that spending sheet. Where again, can you find that? If you go to our website at Triplett-Wess

and Dorf.com and then up underneath the planning tools, you'll find that worksheet listed under that section. Perfect. All right. Mark, thank you so much for joining us. Always appreciate you join us here on midday. You've been listening to the 15-minute financial feast podcast. Remember, every dollar has a purpose and every dollar has a timeline. If you have questions about today's topic, schedule a call with a team member. Visit www.com.com. Until next time, be sure you're taking steps to retire with purpose on time. Mark Triplett is an investment advisor representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. Nothing contained in this program should be considered an offer to buy or sell securities.

Different investments have different risks associated with them, and not all investments are appropriate for all investors.