This is a loaded question, and one that many of us don’t have the answer to!
I was recently talking with a CPA friend of mine who wanted to refer us a client. However, he was nervous about making the referral because he knew the potential client had no clue what his goals were or what they should be. This person didn’t even know where to start, so he didn’t start at all!
Discovering your financial goals do not come about by filling out a questionnaire or looking at your net worth statement. They come from having meaningful conversations about the role of money in your life.
This potential client was probably imagining us putting a list of 15 goals in front of him and asking him to pick five that were most relevant to him, but he knew he’d have no idea how to make the right choices in that scenario! Or even worse, he could have imagined us asking for his list of goals the second he walked in the door.
We believe that asking the right questions and focusing on the meaning of money in your life is the right place to start when discovering goals. A “picklist” of goals will most likely will miss the mark somewhere if we don’t first have a clear foundation of your personal values and how they intersect with money.
What questions can we ask to help you uncover goals that align with your values?
