Have you ever met with a financial planner? If you haven't, you can expect to go through a certain process. You will be asked about your financial goals. One of your goals will likely be that you want to plan for retirement.

You will be asked about your present income. You know the answer to that one. You will be asked about your expenses. That one will be tough. Everyone underestimates their expenses because most of us have no idea what we're really spending and what we're spending it on.

You will be asked about your assets -- what you own. You know what you own, but it will be tough to put a market value on some of it. You will be asked about your liabilities -- what you owe. For most people, facing the reality of their debts is rather daunting.

You will be asked when you want to retire. I would say the average age most people give is 55 years old. I don't know why that is, but 55 seems to be a popular number. Then the financial planner will tell you that you will need to accumulate enough money to live another 40 or 45 years after retirement. After all, if you live to 90 or 95 you don't want to run out of money, do you?

You will also be asked about your risk tolerance so that the planner can determine what kind of annual rate of return to factor in for your investments. If you say you have a low risk tolerance, the planner will consider low-risk investments that will give you a lower rate of return. If you say you have a high risk tolerance, investments that could provide a higher rate of return will be considered. You can't have it both ways. If you don't take risks, you can't get a very high rate of return on your investments.

Then all that information will be dumped into a financial planning software program. The software will print out a plan that will say you need to accumulate several million dollars by the time you're 55 years old. Oh, and it will be exact to the penny. For example, $5,387,234.23.

You will look at the plan and you will think, "My gosh, there is no way I can do this!" You may get started doing a few things that the planner recommends. But it won't last very long and you'll go right back to doing things the way you've always done them.

So what's wrong with the traditional financial planning process? Plenty! First of all, it's ridiculous to try to look decades in the future to predict what's going to be happening in your life. I don't know about you, but I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, much less decades from now. Also, traditional financial planning doesn't take into account what financial freedom actually is. You're financially free when your passive income (money you don't have to work for) equals your expenses.

So if you have no passive income right now and your expenses are $50,000 a year, and you can get a 10% return on your investments, you need to accumulate $500,000 to become financially free. If you can get a higher return on your money, you can reduce the amount that must be accumulated. If you settle for a lesser return because you're risk averse, you will need to accumulate more. You should also consider inflation. Of course, if you invest for inflation, it will already be factored into your investments.

Understanding financial freedom as the point where your passive income equals your expenses is a much more realistic way to look at it. Most people who are committed to being financially free can achieve their goal in a matter of a few years, not decades.

Copyright 2005