Most of us think that building a strong financial team is about finding a good financial planner, advisor, or accountant who can help us plan and manage our financial affairs.
This is true.
Professionals with expertise in managing money can be a critical part of building a strong money team even if we have a modest portfolio of assets. They can guide us through the ever more complex world of insurance, investments, and taxes that can have an impact on both our short and long-term financial health.
With that said, many of us underutilize these professionals or fail to build the foundation for a strong money team at home or work before we engage outside help. The following are three ways to do this.
How to Build a Strong Money Team
Understand what you bring to the table.
Create conditions that build trust.
Connect to your deeper purpose and values.
1. Understand What You Bring to the Table
The first step to building a strong financial team is to understand what you bring to the table in terms of strengths and weaknesses without judgment. For example, I am a visual learner and a planner, and I like guidelines. I like to see specifics and have a picture of how everything fits together. For a long time, these needs and wants conflicted with my partner who tends to think in general terms and is more comfortable with risk and change. When we finally realized that our differences were more a positive than a negative, we became a better team.
If feelings of dread, fear, worry, shame, or anger are present before or during a financial conversation, chances are your needs are not getting met or your beliefs or behaviors around money are not in sync with those of others.
2. Create Conditions That Build Trust
Trust is fundamental to building a strong team. One way to build trust is to have conversations where all involved feel seen and heard. This is not as easy as it sounds, especially when money is involved. We can easily feel judged or judge others, and talking about money can trigger difficult emotions or feelings.
To create conditions that build trust, start with a commitment to choose Positive Money which is to come from a place of love rather than fear. Once you make that commitment, set up a consistent practice of Money Dates where your goal is to learn how to work best as a team. This will require more listening, validating what others say, and asking questions like, "How might we achieve...."
3. Connect to Your Deeper Purpose and Values
One of the first questions a financial planner or advisor will ask is. "What are your financial goals?" This can feel overwhelming or even impossible to answer without some grounding in what matters most. With the work I've done with clients around legacy, we've found that revisiting our deeper purpose and values provides a framework for making decisions. For example, if my deeper purpose is to help others succeed, and I value the environment, then I can ask myself what that looks like and the financial resources I might need to do that.
To connect to your deeper purpose, reflect on individuals or circumstances that had had an impact on you in your early life. Reflect on how that purpose and the values you learned have guided your life until now, and how they will play a role moving forward.
If you're interested in creating your framework for setting financial goals moving forward, schedule a free call to discuss simple strategies for doing that.