Why Am I Me?: Good Bones!
During holiday weekends many of us decide to get a household or home improvement project completed with those three-day weekends. It’s 
part of being a proud homeowner. Sometimes the project is out of necessity, and other times it’s just a nice small upgrade you decide to do yourself. As with anything, there is a certain amount of planning and/or budgeting for the project of time, labor, and materials. Before starting a task we all think, “Can I get this done by myself?” There are several home improvement shows on TV and they all make it look so easy! But as with anything, it’s your frame of mind, willpower, and expertise that makes the difference in tackling a task. Over the years we’ve all performed these improvement projects and, I’ll bet with mixed results, but the successes and the failures that we learned from, makes you…..you! My wife always pokes a bit of fun at me and calls me “Three Trips”. What she is jokingly referring to, is that it usually takes me three trips to the hardware store to complete any project around the house. If she isn’t calling me three trips, it’s the other name “Tim”. Remember the show “Home Improvement”? Well this past holiday weekend I decided to repair my metal and wood gates to my yard. The wood boards were rotten and pretty sad looking. I figured it would take me just one good day to get the project done. So, early in the morning I started. Removing the old boards from the metal gate frame was easy as they were almost ready to fall off anyway. Thirty minutes flat, step one was complete. Next was to inspect the metal gate to ensure they didn’t need replaced or weren’t rusted out. Upon inspection, the frame was in great shape. Terrific! All I needed now was to sand down the metal (three hours), prime the metal (one hour), paint the gates (one hour), and let them dry. Yeah, I took that time to eat lunch and refurbish my electrolytes as it was nearing 110 degrees by early afternoon (got to stay hydrated!). Last step was installing the new planks (two hours). Ta-Da! Project completed! And best yet, only one trip to the hardware store! Good planning helped! In reviewing the project, I realized that one thing I had in my favor was “good bones”. If the metal was rusted out I would have had to purchase brand new metal gates and then I would have needed to call in a professional for the entire project. But by painting the frame every few years I had protected the metal from rust. Where’s this all going? Well just like my gates, you have to decide to have a self-improvement project on your retirement. Some of this you can do on your own, but you need “Good Bones”. Many times when we are assisting folks with their retirement plan we look at all aspects of retirement so you only have to take on the project one time to have a complete retirement package. During this process we discover that a client has some things they didn’t know they had or features in some investment they weren’t aware of, that are often in their favor. Do you have hidden value in your pile of stuff somewhere you don’t know about? Maybe there’s just a little rust on top and it just needs some prep and new coat paint? One last thing is that regular maintenance with your retirement plan can keep it from rusting out! So whether you just need some help reviewing, or a complete planning project, give us a call, we’re here to help!