By Clay Elliott, CFP®, AWMA®
Some may struggle to understand how financial planning essentials work together to form a solid strategy. Consider making a successful financial plan to be like cooking up a batch of Louisiana gumbo. Just as every ingredient and step plays a vital part in making our state’s dish, financial planning essentials combine to build a strong outcome.
Building Your Financial Pantry
Think of your financial goals as the spices that highlight and bring out your overall strategy—your personal flavor. Your pantry should have all the financial planning essentials at hand.
Some gumbo makers like their spice profiles hot, while others prefer milder spice mixes. Think of risk tolerance in those terms: How much financial volatility can you handle? Can you stomach more risk in hopes of bigger rewards? Or do you prefer more conservative risk exposure, a profile that produces dependable, gradual profits?
Essential Ingredients for Your Financial Gumbo
Every ingredient in gumbo influences its complex flavor. Similarly, basic financial steps work together to make a robust, sturdy plan.
Budgeting
The first step in making gumbo is to make the roux, the combination of flour and fat that holds all incoming ingredients together. Making a budget works much the same—it forms the backbone of your financial strategy.
Savings
Onions, bell peppers, and celery form the “holy trinity” of Louisiana culinary traditions, including gumbo. It’s the underlying, stabilizing base that local chefs depend on. It’s like building healthy savings, the underlying resources that bring balance to your financial profile.
Investments
What are the “stars” of a pot of gumbo? Usually, they’re the tasty proteins that bring the most flavor to the party. Like Andouille sausage, chicken, shrimp, or crabmeat, your investments generate richness and growth and construct a tasty flavor profile.
Insurance
Filé powder enhances the flavor of gumbo, but more importantly, it thickens the stock and keeps all the other ingredients from falling apart. Insurance works the same way, holding your many financial assets together.
Debt Management
Chefs skim fat when cooking gumbo to keep it balanced and healthy (and to prevent heartburn). Controlling and paying down debt serves to manage and repair your liabilities and credit record so they don’t come back to bite you in the end.
Cooking and Adjusting Your Gumbo
Once your pot of gumbo is simmering, generally, you’ll leave it alone to let the flavor develop. But you occasionally have to taste it to determine whether you need to add salt, spices, or other ingredients.
Similarly, life events like marriage, having children, job changes, and retirement may require you to adjust your financial strategy. When they happen, you revisit your monetary goals to bring them in line with your new reality.
Getting a Professional Chef’s Guidance
Most pro chefs were protégés at the start of their careers. They worked for mentors who showed them the techniques and processes to become great, teaching them how different flavors work in harmony.
Working with an advisor on financial planning essentials is like having Emeril Lagasse by your side when making gumbo. They have detailed knowledge and experience in helping everyday people attain their financial goals and know the secret steps that can turn a bland, uninspiring investment portfolio into a robust, effective instrument.
Look for a financial advisor with the right credentials and resources, along with experience with investors like you.
Putting it All Together: The Financial Planning Essentials
Just as with real gumbo, you can’t rush your financial plan. Start with small, deliberate steps to get your foundation started—like making the roux. Add the other financial planning essentials bit by bit, and keep an eye on your plan.
With patience and guidance, you’ll come up with a rich and rewarding pot of financial stability and success.
Oak Capital Private Wealth can guide you on your path to financial health. To schedule a meeting, contact us online, call 225-416-7373 or email [email protected].
About Clay
Clay Elliott is Owner, Principal, and Financial Advisor at Oak Capital Private Wealth, a financial services firm based in Port Allen, LA, dedicated to providing local financial advice held to the highest standards. Since becoming a financial advisor in 2016, Clay prides himself on working toward his clients’ best interests. He provides comprehensive financial planning and educates his clients to develop robust wealth management strategies to help them pursue their financial goals. He loves helping people pursue financial independence and strives to help them live out their financial plan successfully.
Clay holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Louisiana State University as well as the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® designation. He is also an Accredited Asset Management Specialist, Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor, and Accredited Wealth Management Advisor.
Outside of work, Clay enjoys spending time with his wife, Claire, and daughter, Camille, playing tennis, fishing, and attending LSU sporting events. An active participant in his community, Clay is involved with The Emerge Foundation Center for Autism, is a board member of the West Baton Rouge Chamber and Port Allen Rotary Club, and is the president-elect for the Louisiana Chapter of the Financial Planning Association. He was also named Young Professional of the Year by the West Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce. To learn more about Clay, connect with him on LinkedIn.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
This material is intended to assist in educating you about insurance generally and not to provide personal service. Guarantees are based on the claims paying ability of the issuing company. All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss. Securities offered through LPL Financial. Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through NewEdge Advisors, LLC, a registered investment adviser. NewEdge Advisors, LLC and Oak Capital Private Wealth are separate entities from LPL Financial.