The 15 Minutes Most Families Skip
By: HORAN Wealth
According to the 2024 Schwab Modern Wealth Survey, only 36% of Americans have a written financial plan, yet those who do report nearly universal confidence (96%) that they will reach their financial goals. Clarity makes the difference. Here are five moves that build it.
Move 1: Define What Matters Most to You
Before any financial strategy can serve you, you have to know what you are working toward. Not a number. A life. What does abundance look like for you? What kind of legacy do you want to leave?
When you define what matters first, everything that follows, from your investments to your estate plan to your retirement, becomes intentional rather than reactive.
Start here: set aside thirty quiet minutes and write your answers to three questions. What does my ideal life look like in ten years? What matters most to my family? What do I want to be true about the legacy I leave?
Move 2: Review and Update Your Beneficiaries
Your beneficiary designations tell financial institutions who receives your retirement accounts, life insurance policies, and other assets when you pass. They are completely separate from your will, and they override it.
Life moves fast. A marriage, a divorce, a birth, a death, and suddenly the person named on a form from fifteen years ago is someone other than who you would choose today. A fifteen-minute review now can prevent years of family confusion later.
Start here: list every account with a beneficiary designation and pull the current names on file.
Move 3: Check Your Insurance Coverage
Insurance is how you protect everything you have built. This move is a straightforward review of your current coverage, including life, disability, long-term care, umbrella, and property, to confirm it still matches your life today.
Most people set up their coverage years ago and leave it there. A new home, a growing business, increased assets, or a child entering college can each create gaps in protection you discover only when you need them.
Start here: gather your current policies in one place and note when each was last reviewed.
Move 4: Plan for Your Next Major Milestone
Every financial life has defining moments on the horizon: funding education, buying or transitioning a home, launching or exiting a business, caring for aging parents, moving into retirement.
Major transitions rarely announce themselves with enough time to prepare. When you plan ahead, you give yourself options. You reduce stress. You make better decisions. And your resources are positioned to support what is next.
Start here: name the most important transition on your horizon in the next three to seven years.
Move 5: Schedule Your Annual Financial Review
An annual financial review is a dedicated, recurring time each year to step back and look at your full financial picture with fresh eyes. It is a discipline, and its power comes from doing it consistently.
Markets shift. Tax laws change. Families grow. Careers evolve. A regular review catches small issues before they become expensive ones, and keeps you moving toward the future you defined in Move 1.
Start here: choose a date, the same time each year, and block it on your calendar now.
Small Moves. Lasting Impact.
Each of these moves comes with simple, step-by-step guidance in our complimentary workbook, Five Moves Today That Can Change Your Future. Download it right from our homepage, at www.horanwealth.com, and begin with whichever move matters most to you.
And when you are ready for a guide alongside you, we begin with a conversation, because this is the start of one of the most important relationships in your financial life. Schedule your complimentary, no-obligation consultation at www.horanwealth.com or 513-745-0707.
