The Plan I Wrote Fifteen Years Ago
What if the long-term financial plan I built five years ago is now describing a family I no longer have?
That is the question I have been sitting with. December 9, 2010, is the day my triplets were born, and the day I founded TAMMA. Fifteen years in, I can tell you neither plan I wrote that day survived. And that was never the goal.
In this episode, I share the number of short runs I did not account for in my own life, walk through a family that has been through five major transitions in five years, and unpack why senior professionals can be sophisticated about iterative planning at work and unsophisticated about it at home. The conflict is not capability; it’s flexibility that is a maintenance burden, and most plans have nobody carrying it.
The action step this week takes fifteen minutes. Name the last three transitions your family went through in the past five years. Then ask, for each one, what financial decisions in your current plan still assume you are the person you were before. That is the work.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES YOU MAY LIKE
1 Big Idea to Think About
Long-term plans are not failures when they need to be revised. They are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. The question is not whether your plan will need to change, but whether anyone is on flexibility duty when it does.
1 Way You Can Apply This
Take fifteen minutes this week. Write down the last three life transitions your family went through in the past five years. For each one, identify the financial decisions in your current plan that still assume you are the person you were before that transition.
1 Question to Ask
If my financial life today is being run by a plan I built before three of the most significant transitions of the past five years, who is responsible for resetting it? And if the honest answer is no one, what does that cost me?
Resources Featured in This Episode:
Preparing for the Next Life Chapter