Many times when someone is in distress, they are able to vocalize it or act to get someone’s attention. For instance, if someone were to catch on fire, that person would have an immediate response, most probably jumping up and down and screaming in pain, all of which would get someone’s attention. However, when a financial professional, like myself, sees you making poor financial choices, it is like seeing you on fire, except you’re not giving any cues that you’re in distress. There’s no jumping up and down or screaming, instead you’re just sitting there, burning, maybe even pouring on more gas by continuing to make poor financial choices. Unfortunately, when it’s a “financial fire,” people don’t feel the burn, so they just keep on going as they have been. You have to have a good financial “physician” around to help guide you. Just how a good physician will be able to spot when something is ailing you — and diagnose and prescribe a solution — so will a financial planner.

One thing I’ve found in helping my clients is that you provide them with options. No one wants to feel boxed in with no alternate routes; options equal freedom. So often people head off to work every day as though on a treadmill. And sadly statistics tell us that a lot of people don’t really enjoy the work they do, but they do it because they have to survive, because they have to feed the family, or because they feel caught. A lot of people do their job because that’s what their mother or father did or what they were told to do in pursuit of success. However, regardless of that love for their jobs, people will want to know about their options for their futures. They want a reason to continue working at said job. And they want more than one, which is where financial planners come in. We can decode and decipher what it is that people want their lives to look like and how to get them to that endpoint.

But sometimes the fear of one’s financial situation holds them back from seeking out advice. However, if you let people know how making better financial decisions will eventually give them more options in life, that turns them on. It gives them a reason to look at their spending and their dreams — both for their present life and their future one. It can transform their lives. They can see that they can eventually do things that they want to do—to go out and contribute to society or to live in a way they’d never thought they could.  And it’s something I know from first hand experience. Once I realized that I could have these options, I saw that it was in my power to make choices that would ensure, by age fifty or sooner, that when I went into work, I would be there because I wanted to be, not because I had to be. Suddenly there was no stress nor anxiety about my current job or my future life. And it’s something that many people are looking for: they want to know that there are options in their lives, that they can continue to work, if that’s their preference, or do something else.

For more information about making wise financial decisions, visit tswealth.com.