Use Financial Literacy Month to build intentional wealth

April is Financial Literacy Month, which is all about focusing on a secure financial future for you and your family. Some of you reading this, myself included, may have recently sold and bought a new home, or built a new home. Many of you have reviewed and collected your financial information over the past few months in order to file your tax returns. Why not take this opportunity, this financial literacy month, to leverage the work and effort you put into collecting all of your data to catapult that into a financial plan?  

 

Intentional wealth building is the goal. First, we call the process you went through financial discovery, which gives you clarity over your financial resources, which is just the first step in building a sound financial plan. 

 

The next step, and just as important, is your personal discovery. Your personal discovery helps to identify your goals and needs, your why. The result of this two-part discovery leads to a wealth management strategy.  

 

A wealth management strategy also consists of multiple parts. An accumulation, withdrawal, asset location and investment strategy. Each of these strategies are directly connected to your personal discovery and define the how or the steps you need to take in order to achieve your goals. When you connect your what, how and why and then track those results regularly, the result is intentional wealth. 

 

As we find ourselves in a strong position to take control of our financial resources and our strategy this month, we also find ourselves in a volatile world and market. The Federal Reserve commented that “financial conditions need to tighten,” which typically has the effect of raising bond yields and lowering equity returns, worst case pushing the economy into a momentary recession. Not to mention inflation is the highest in many of our adult lives and the market remains unsteady due to the continued conflict between Russia and Ukraine.  

 

I do not know if we will have continued growth or an economic slowdown, no one does. But what I do know, and witness daily, is that if you are intentional about your wealth, you give every dollar a purpose, align your financial resources to your goals, the market noise is simply a time to reflect, perhaps adjust, but always to stay disciplined and committed to building the wealth needed to carry you through life’s many changes, opportunities and cycles.  

 

If you have already done the work to build yourself and your family a secure financial future, take the time this month to pass on your sound financial habits to your children or grandchildren. Now, more than ever, we need to focus on intentional wealth building to create financially literate children in order to have lasting generational wealth. 

 

Stephanie W. Mackara, JD, CDFA, is president and wealth advisor with Charleston Investment Advisors LLC and author of “Money Minded Families, How to Raise Financially Well Children,” available on Amazon. For more, go to charlestoninvestmentadvisors.com.