Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/233760
insight on PERSONAL By Tom Groe nfeldt FINANCIAL PLANNING Rest assured When it comes to personal finance: 'Master what you can control' F inancial planners are not miracle workers. For a 62-yearold client who wants to retire for health reasons but has only $10,000 in savings, they can't do a lot. Nor can they predict whether this bull market in U.S. stocks will continue to run for another six months, for a year or turn out to be a bubble. What most can offer is better sleep. With the turmoil in the market, people want to know if they are on track and if they can retire when they want to, says Andrew Hermsen at Navigator Planning Group in Green Bay. Not much is changing in taxation for 2014, except for a medical surtax 30 | Insight • J a n u a r y 2 014 on higher incomes, he says. Is the market in a bubble? "We don't have a crystal ball here. I tell people we don't make predictions. What people should do is master the things they can control – have the best asset allocation, the best diversification, and pay the lowest costs in fees on their investments," Hermsen says. Grace Rossman, a financial associate at Thrivent Financial for Lutherans based in Sturgeon Bay, is accustomed to counseling couples facing retirement issues. They'd like to retire, but can they afford to? "By the time some people come to my office with those questions they have spent sleepless nights." Rossman says. "You can use a planner to cut through the rubble and the weeds, give you an objective look at the numbers and talk about the situation impartially. Financial planning is about finance, but it also is a lot about emotion. A good planner understands the family well enough that they can have that conversation, including big, gnarly issues." Hermsen asks clients to rate their "We don't have a crystal ball here. I tell people we don't make predictions. What people should do is master the things they can control – have the best asset allocation, the best diversification, and pay the lowest costs in fees on their investments." –Andrew Hermsen, Navigator Planning Group w w w. i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m