Financial Planning for Geeks

Just Get It Done!

- Financial Planning

How can we get around annualized thinking? Thanks to Nicole Spinelli, the wonderful Director of the women’s group at my broker/dealer, I have a new way to think about my goals. She was kind enough to send me “The 12-Week Year,” a book by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington.

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Getting it done

Hello, everyone,

Like lots of folks, around the New Year I find myself thinking about how last year went and how I want this year to go. I’m making plans, setting goals, and figuring out how I want to track how I’m doing. 

Thanks to Nicole Spinelli, the wonderful Director of the women’s group at my broker/dealer, I have a new way to think about my goals. She was kind enough to send me “The 12-Week Year,” a book by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. In the interest of full disclosure, I haven’t even made it through the whole book yet… but I’m already excited.

The idea is that most of us set goals on an annualized basis, so we feel like we have plenty of time to get things done during the year. This leads to a lack of urgency. So if I have a revenue goal of $4M (hey, you gotta dream big!) I can get away with thinking that I have 12 months to achieve that goal. This week, today, and this moment don’t seem all that important to me. Annualized thinking also leads me to focus only once, at the end of the year, as I try to squeeze in that last $200k the day before Christmas. 

How can we get around annualized thinking? This is where the 12-week year comes in. Moran and Lennington encourage us to set goals four times a year. It’s just long enough to give us a chance to achieve something, but not long enough to dilly dally. We also get the rush of excitement and focus which comes from having a deadline...four times a year instead of just once. If we’re not meeting our goals, we know right away and can do something about it. If we ARE meeting our goals, we get to celebrate four times a year instead of just once! I like the sound of that.

But you didn’t think you were going to get away without a tie-in to financial life planning, did you? No way. This is my plea to you: if you’ve been wanting to give more attention to your financial life and just haven’t gotten to it yet, now is the time. Make your financial life plan a goal for Q1 of 2018. Take one step right now: just contact me (or someone) to set up that initial appointment. The appointment can be next week or next month, but get it on your calendar today! Then check in with yourself the first week of April to see where you are in your financial life planning process.

It’s not that hard to envision what we want: lose 10 pounds, work out five times a week, spend more time with family, get a financial strategy, and so on. We know what we want, but we’re just not executing. Maybe a 12-week year will help you add that sense of urgency; if you’d like more information and resources, just visit www.12weekyear.com.  

Let me know how it goes.

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Penny Farthing

I, Penny Farthing (non-wizarding name Kerry Read ), actually have a day job in the world of finance. This blog came into being because of my deep and abiding love for geeks and Personal Finance.