San Diego, CA. The growth in the financial
planning industry has been explosive over the past ten
years. The number of courses leading to a degree in
Financial Services or "Chartered Financial Consultant" (ChFC),
"Certified Financial Planner" (CFP), or a Registered
Financial Consultant (RFC) designations, offered by
colleges and universities nationwide has tripled. Still,
relatively few Americans are utilizing the services of a
financial planner and only a handful who do are fully
implementing a financial plan specifically prepared for
them.
"New investors must be created out of former spenders and
overspenders," insists Paul Richard, a registered
financial consultant (RFC) and Executive Director of the
nonprofit Institute of Consumer Financial Education (ICFE)
based in San Diego, CA. "This is a real challenge for
consumers because, it is their everyday spending
decisions, and especially their credit based spending
decisions, that will cause severe erosion of their
financial future, more so than any investment decision
they will likely ever make," he said, adding; "People who
pay too much for things are also overspending."
More consumers are becoming aware of the importance of
doing some financial planning, however they are not
necessarily prepared to work with a financial/insurance
planning professional because they think should or they
may be making over $40,000 per year. There are five basic
steps the ICFE suggests for consumers to complete before
their first appointment with a financial and/or insurance
planning professional.
1) Know your starting point by calculating your net worth
and cash flow.
2) If spending more than your income, either increase
income or mend your spending.
3) Establish a written spending-plan for your income and
outgo, based on income frequency.
4) Predetermine how much you will set aside every pay
period for saving and investing.
5) Know the reasons why you want to begin financial
planning: retirement, college, etc.
For information about mending spending, increasing
spending value, increasing savings, the wise use of credit
and how to set up and implement a spending-plan for your
personal and/or family finances, visit the ICFE's Web page
at: http://www.icfe.info.
To receive the same information by mail, please send $1
and a self-addressed, 60 cent stamped envelope to:
ICFE Money Helps
PO Box 34070
San Diego, CA 92163-4070.
Financial Planning Organizations Contacts:
http://www.iarfc.org
http://www.financialpro.org
http://www.fpanet.org
http://www.napfa.org