I love to read, especially about American History.
Earlier this week, I was reading about WWII and General Patton. Before battle, General Patton would think through – and plan – for any and everything that could go wrong in battle. What if the enemy attacked us here, what if they had more soldiers than we were anticipating, what if they used this strategy, what if, what if, what if…
This was so important to General Patton because he felt that the best way to win was to prepare for every single thing that could go wrong. He prepared for the worst, and devised an action plan of what to do if it happened.
It was a genius strategy, and played a significant role in his success.
While I am no military general, I actually do the same thing with my clients, especially when it comes to their retirement plan.
When I create retirement plans with my clients, we have the ability to test bad financial scenarios that might affect their retirement. For instance, what would happen if:
-The markets crash by 20%
-Social Security is reduced by 20%
-Inflation is higher than expected
-We live 5 years longer than expected
Now some of these scenarios may never happen, and some of them will happen. But what’s important is that we’ve planned for and prepared for these negative scenarios, so that if they do occur, we have a plan of attack to overcome these obstacles.
If you’d like to use the same preparation strategy as General Patton, without having to go into battle all by yourself, click this link so we can have a free, no obligation call to talk about your retirement.
Have a great weekend,
Scott “Too Many Books On My Bookshelf” Newhouse