{"id":116891,"date":"2023-09-18t11:58:03","date_gmt":"2023-09-18t15:58:03","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/?p=116891"},"modified":"2024-12-06t12:20:01","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06t17:20:01","slug":"financial-planning-beyond-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2023\/09\/18\/financial-planning-beyond-the-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"financial planning: beyond the numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/strong><\/p>\n strive for harmony between your present and future selves.<\/strong><\/p>\n by rory henry, cfp, bfa when helping clients plan for retirement, exit their business or reach other major financial goals, we tend to default to the numbers. financial projections, spending needs, drawdown rates and risk tolerance are great navigational aids, but as lewis carroll wrote in alice in wonderland, \u201cif you don\u2019t know where you\u2019re going any road will take you there.\u201d<\/p>\n more rory henry:<\/strong>\u00a0be the flywheel to increase revenue<\/a> in the fast-evolving field of behavioral finance, research shows that understanding clients\u2019 emotional relationship with money is just as important as the numbers. and a new approach is showing that getting in tune with our future selves is one of the best ways for clients and their advisors to plan for retirement.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n it\u2019s not easy imagining what life will be like for us 10, 20 or even 30 years from now. and it\u2019s even harder to imagine when you consider that we change more than we\u2019d think later in life. harvard psychology professor dan gilbert has done extensive research in this area in what is called \u201cthe end of history\u201d illusion, in which people tend to \u201cunderestimate how much they will change in the future.\u201d according to his research, which involved thousands of people aged 18 to 68, the illusion persists from teenage years into retirement.<\/p>\n as expected, younger people reported more change in the previous decade than did the older respondents. but when asked to predict what their personalities and tastes would be like in 10 years, people of all ages consistently played down the potential changes ahead.<\/p>\n as a result, we have to keep adjusting our goals, including retirement planning, and that comes by getting well acquainted with our future selves, according to hal hershfield, professor of marketing, behavioral decision-making and psychology at ucla anderson school of management. hershfield has spent most of his career straddling psychology and financial decision-making. he said it\u2019s important to consider the goals for yourself when it comes to money and saving, but also the goals you have for your future self after you have stopped earning an income.<\/p>\n hershfield told me on my podcast recently that neuroscience and neuroimaging research shows people exhibit different brain activity when thinking about themselves today and thinking about their future selves. in fact, when thinking about their future selves, neuroimaging shows brain activity is closer to what it shows when thinking about other people they view favorably (such as popular celebrities) than it is when thinking about their current selves.<\/p>\n not everyone is wired the same way, of course. researchers found that people whose temporal parietal junction of their brain is turned off or repressed relative to other parts of the brain tend to score lower on numerous aspects of social cognition, such as cognitive empathy and perspective-taking, including diminished ability to empathize with their future selves. further, they are more likely to exhibit impatience and are more likely to choose an immediate reward than wait for a greater reward down the road.<\/p>\n i\u2019m not suggesting financial advisors have neuroimaging equipment installed at their offices, but they need to do a better job of understanding the emotional and psychological aspects of a client\u2019s financial behavior in ways that a compound interest chart can\u2019t. hershfield, the author of \u201cyour future self, how to make tomorrow better today,\u201d said one simple technique \u2013 that doesn\u2019t require expensive imaging equipment \u2013 is the send-and-reply technique in which you write a letter to your future self, then write a letter back from your future self and try to imagine what that person is saying back to you. imagine you\u2019re talking to your future self and trying to figure out what he will feel. what will the world look like to him? how will he spend his time when he is no longer working?<\/p>\n hershfield said another principle of behavioral finance is that it\u2019s totally rational to discount future rewards for immediate gratification. for example, if i\u2019m offering you $100 now or $100 in two weeks, you\u2019re going to take the 100 bucks right now. but if i offered you $100 now or $125 in two weeks, most rational people would wait for two weeks. but some people would still take the $100 now even though they know that waiting until later offers a much better return.<\/p>\n regardless of financial circumstances, folks who can\u2019t delay gratification may have issues with impulse control or feel there\u2019s so much uncertainty in life, that they don\u2019t want to risk losing the sure $100 by waiting for more money down the road. that can unlock lots of clues to a client\u2019s relationship with money and how to plan around that. hershfield said it goes back to basic evolution and our innate survival instincts.<\/p>\n hershfield also told me about a phenomenon called \u201cpreference reversal,\u201d in which people are fairly patient when it comes to financial goals that are, say, three months down the road, but then become extremely impatient and irrational as they get very close to the realization date. that seemingly irrational behavior helps explain why many people are tempted to derail their retirement plans when the markets are going crazy shortly before their retirement date.<\/p>\n from where i sit, behavioral finance is evolving to show the wisdom of having some flexibility as you plan for the future. you must revisit your plans and update them as your values, goals and circumstances change.<\/p>\n according to hershfield, negotiating with yourself is tough because our future selves have no voice at the table. it turns out we can be very unfair to our future selves. \u201cif i think that i won\u2019t change in some way, i may make plans now that i\u2019ll later regret because i didn\u2019t offer up enough flexibility,\u201d said hershfield, \u201cand that\u2019s also problematic.\u201d<\/p>\n not only do we not know our future selves well, but algorithms and the law of averages can often be better predictors of our future selves than our own minds. hershfield said that important existential questions such as: \u201cat what age should i retire?\u201d or, \u201cwhat should my retirement life look like?\u201d can often be answered better by looking at thousands of other people who have gone through these decisions before, than by contemplating them yourself. that\u2019s where a skilled advisor who has behavioral financial training can be a huge ally.<\/p>\n of course, constantly deferring to your future self and delaying gratification can go too far. hershfield said it\u2019s like having a gift card to a restaurant that you keep holding on to, waiting for the perfect occasion and then the restaurant closes before you can use it. when you\u2019re thinking too much about the future and not living in the present, you can end up \u201cscrewing your future self over\u201d because you do not have any experiences and memories, or you\u2019re having only impoverished ones to look back upon. according to financial advisor paul fenner, it\u2019s not just about balance, but about harmony between present and future selves. it\u2019s about making sure that both your current self and your future self have a voice at the negotiation table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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