One of the basic tenets of preserving and increasing your
assets is by identifying your needs from your wants. This is a financial advice that you will always encounter. Once you get the list of your needs and wants, it will be
easy. But what people find difficult is identifying what they truly need. This is true since we also at
times create our own reasons to justify the unimportant a necessity.
Most of us think that needs are tailor made for each person.
But basically, we are all the same species that supposed to have the same needs
but society affects our perception of it which results in the differences.
As we go along, there will be additional needs that come up in every stages of
our life that we have to cover. But the sad part here is we keep on chasing these
new necessities while ignoring the basic ones until we need them. And usually
it’s too late. So how do we know which basic needs that we need to address as
early as possible?
 |
| You still have time |
I use this simple formula that helped me recognizing my own
basic needs which you can also try for yourself. To know what these basic needs
are, I just ask myself the “what if <bad thing happens>?” series of questions.
And these bad things are the inevitable ones.
A lot of these scenarios have high chances if not 100% of happening
within just a matter of time. These questions get me into thinking of the
post-scenarios. It also helps me prepare and create
solutions to lessen the after-effect of these scary situations. So what do
these questions look like? Here are some examples.
- What if I lose my job tomorrow? Or my wife's? Or both of us?
- What if I get into an accident that disables me?
- What if I or a family member gets a major illness?
- What if I die early?
- What if any of the above happens, what will happen to our mortgages, loans, etc? my children’s education? my family’s future?
- What if I grow too old, will I have enough money to enjoy my long years of retirement? Or pay for my medical bills that come with age?
It’s just right when we say that we need this new smartphone
that can make our work easier, or a new car for a more comfortable and safe
travel to your office, or a new dress or bag as additional investment needed
for your career. We do need these things and we rightfully deserve to have
these things for our hard work. So you buy these things. But what if some of these
bad scenarios mentioned above happen? Are you prepared?
Do you have
enough savings to cover the after effects of let’s say a lost job or an injury
or an illness? How long can your family survive with that savings amount you
have before you can get a new job or recover from your ailment? Or what if the
worse happen? You die. Do you even have prepared for the high expense of death
services? And what will happen to your family if you’re gone soon especially if
you still have very young kids? What more if the properties you purchased like
your car and your house are mortgaged, how would you leave your spouse with
that burden? Did you prepared for it as well? These things are what we really
need which we realize only when bad things happen.
 |
| What's your dream retirement? |
Don’t worry as these are just example and are not yet
happening on you. But who knows. It might be soon. But I hope it won’t, not on
me and not on you. It’s not that I’m wishing everyone bad things to happen. But
let’s be optimistic. Yes, optimistic. These things might happen but you read it
here and you got reminded. So you haven’t prepared for these things yet? Good.
I really mean good for you because for everything mentioned above, there are
different types of investments you can get into so you will be able to shield
your family from worst things after any of the scenarios above happen.
It’s good that you realize your basic needs now and you
still have time to prepare. I can share to you on what I exactly did to become
ready for these things that helped me sleep well at night. We’ll discuss these
things on the next posts. But if you are raring to start as soon as possible,
you can contact me directly right now. Email me at laymaninvestment@gmail.com or at rogie_ylagan@yahoo.com .
The clock is ticking. When will you begin? Please share this post to
others if it helps you as it might also help them. Thanks!
No comments:
Post a Comment