“You’re invested in the family enterprise. Invest in your personal purpose, too.” ~ Aggie Johnson, WillKate Founder
When you look ahead and imagine your own retirement, the first place your mind likely goes is to the family enterprise. What will my succession plan look like? Will that change as I approach my retirement date? How will it feel to sell my company? What will my Life 2.0 look like?
These are all valid questions that multi-generational business owners have as they look ahead to life “after.” But, in many ways, the perspective here may be skewed too far toward the business and not enough on your personal future.
As you look forward, you want to make sure you aren’t planning your retirement based on the business—financially or personally. You need to have your own personal financial plan, independent of the future of the family enterprise.
What Does Your Personal Financial Picture Look Like?
Even though the income from your business supports your personal financial life, it’s important to understand how your personal financial situation stands on its own outside the business—especially when it comes to income generation for retirement. How much have you taken out of the business so you can fund your retirement separate from any continuing business involvement? If life quickly changed course and your business were exposed to some dangerous risks, would you still be able to retire when and how you’d like?
Your family may decide it’s time to transition the family enterprise to the next generation, sell to another company, or choose one option and then pivot to the other based on changes in either the economy, your family dynamic, or your own personal intuition. So many owners simply assume they will rely on residual income or the sale of their business to live on in retirement, but fail to account for business risks that could threaten this personal plan. You don’t want any unforeseen changes to jeopardize your chance at a rewarding and purposeful retirement. You need to plan ahead of time.
Align Your Personal Finances with Your Purpose
Making choices about how you will spend your future can feel overwhelming at first, especially when you’ve spent so many years focused on building, growing, and creating a sustainable family enterprise. Now that it’s time to plan your exit, it’s important to remember that nothing is etched in stone. Remaining flexible can put your mind at ease.
Planning out your vision for a fulfilling retirement dramatically increases your odds of success in both the transition and later into your retirement years. So where do you begin?
You want to begin by identifying and working to align your wealth with what matters most to your family. Of course, your next question is, how do we accomplish this? It’s really an exploratory (and oftentimes very fun) process that we have put together in our “How to Create Your Family Purpose Statement” guide.
Ultimately, the purpose of the guide is to help you answer the question, “How do you want to use your resources to fulfill your personal purpose?” Everyone has their own story, and your family’s financial plan should reflect that. When you create your family purpose statement, you can use it as a guide to steward your resources to fulfill your mission.
Within the guide, you’ll be prompted to answer 19 questions like those listed below, which can help walk you toward identifying your higher purpose(s):
- Collectively, we are at our best when we are…
Sample Answer: Communicating openly and no one is left in the dark on family decisions
- Collectively, we are at our worst when we are…
Sample Answer: Acting from a place of personal gain and not collectively considering the family unit as a whole
- What would people say today about our family as a whole?
Sample Answer: We are lucky to have one another and be able to work so closely each day. We can spend time together working toward a common mission that could bring us closer together and help our business grow.
- What would we like people to say about our family as a whole in 30 years?
Sample Answer: That they admire our ability to take care of one another and serve the greater community that helped support us all along.
The great thing about the way these questions are designed, is that they encourage you to take an outsider’s as well as an insider’s perspective. Seeing the current situation and ideal future of your mission from all viewpoints helps you identify the steps needed to get from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow.
Get Started Today
The number one step in crafting your personal financial plan is understanding your purpose. Begin connecting your life with your purpose by downloading our free template to craft a Family Purpose Statement here.
Whether or not you have a Family Purpose Statement ready to go, we can help you align your wealth with what matters most for your family. At WillKate Wealth Management, we understand that wealth is more than just dollars. The comprehensive nature of our financial planning process connects all areas of your life with a broader view of wealth. As a fee only, fiduciary financial advisor, we work with motivated families and individuals to craft a custom roadmap that clearly defines the best way to use all elements of your wealth to live in alignment with your values. This way, you can fuel your purpose for generations to come.
Schedule a complimentary conversation today. Email Somer Schimke at somers@will-kate.com or call 605-262-0308.