What is it?

Okay, so in the first message I said I'd begin to cover just what financial planning is...

I'm thinking, though, that any reader might be more interested in knowing what the benefits of financial planning are, rather than what ingredients go into the cake.

One of the most important benefits of financial planning is ORGANIZATION. Statistics tell us that fewer than 25% of Americans know their financial net worth. In addition, (prepare to be astounded) the average individual's credit card debt is over $8,000. Think about that for a moment...

This figure includes all of those people who pay off their cards each month. How does this happen?? Folks don't have a handle on the big picture of their personal financial world. If they did, they wouldn't likely allow themselves to get this far into debt, as they would understand the impact that credit card debt has on everything else in their financial lives.

ORGANIZATION - is the foundation of financial planning. By organizing your finances and gaining an understanding of money flows (inflow is your paycheck, outflow is your electric bill), you have made the first step toward reaching your financial goals in life.

That's all for now... more to come.