WHAT’S YOUR FINANCIAL ‘PLAN B’?

B is for Backup.

What a beautiful Friday afternoon. I’m in my office trying to work but can’t. The reason isn’t the weather: our Rogers Ultimate Internet is down. I called and found out that 64 addresses are affected. Repairs could take 12+ hours.

Within the Rogers universe, 64 disconnected clients is minuscule. Their anthill. My mountain. The timing is unfortunate.

Plan B

A backup plan is worthwhile.

We have cable Internet from Rogers and mobile Internet from Bell. We lose out on bundling deals but are more likely to have Internet access unless a mega disaster like Superstorm Sandy strikes. There’s a cost but there’s also peace of mind.

Recently, I was running a workshop on building trust (next one on May 28th) and the Internet was out (Bell this time). I turned my smartphone into a mobile hotspot and carried on. That worked reasonably well (though I was mindful of data usage). As a Plan C, I modified the workshop to rely on a workbook. No Internet required.

Financial Plan B

A backup plan is worthwhile for all four steps in wealth management. As you proceed, you can protect your financial security by diversifying. It’s tempting to get multiple services from the same place (though perhaps different people in different departments):

• banking: savings account, chequing account, credit card, line of credit
• financial planning
• investments
• insurance

You get convenience but what about objectivity? The more dealings you have in one place, the tougher for you to leave. As Ellen Roseman notes in Fight Back (my post), what you see as loyalty they see as inertia. The rewards go to them (more money), not you (lower prices or upgraded services). You probably won’t pay much more — you might even pay less. However, you’ll get much more since you have a larger team working for you. Since there’s some overlap, you have opportunities to get different opinions.

If you run into problems, you can switch more easily. That gives you leverage, flexibility and a Plan B.

Links

• Fight Back against corporate trickery with Ellen Roseman’s insider tips
• Reminders from disasters like Superstorm Sandy
• The horror of Rogers ‘Ultimate’ Internet
• Losing ground: investing for retirement
• The unexpected costs of home ownership
• The four steps in wealth management
• Why is financial planning ignored?
• image courtesy of mconnors

Podcast 218

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PS Service was intermittent for about six hours, which felt like much longer