Three assets are the key to a successful retirement plan. If you plan for all three, the result is going to be a retirement with more confidence in your finances. And it’s also going to mean that you’re living a life full of purpose, joy, and peace of mind, instead of retiring rich but miserable. 

At Streamline Financial, we’ve helped a lot of people retire successfully, and we’ve also seen a lot of people who haven’t. In our experience, these three assets are an important factor to a successful retirement. 

If you want a free guide on living your purpose in retirement, or, if you just want to have a free planning session with me, click here to contact me. 

Before we jump into the three key assets, grab a pen and a piece of paper.

First, take a couple of seconds and write down a list of your assets. 

Maybe you’re listing 401k, IRAs, house stocks, bonds, mutual funds, things like that. 

Next, think about, and then write down the most important things in your life. 

Did you think of your spouse or your kids, maybe your faith, health, or creative mind? Was anything you thought of on the second list also included on the first list? 

Usually the answer is no. This is typical because we don’t think about things on that second list as assets, but they are. 

As wealth managers at Streamline, we not only engage with your financial assets; we know that you actually have three types of assets that you steward. Managing all three types is the key to a successful retirement, and those three types are:

  • Financial Assets 
    • House, 401k, IRAs, mutual funds
  • Intellectual Assets
    • Knowledge, skills and abilities, experience 
  • Human Assets
    • Family, values, faith, health

This is what makes up your family balance sheet. 

Now, pretend that you could only pass one two of these assets to the people that you care most about.

If you had to drop one, which two would you pass on? When we ask most people, they say they would drop the financial assets. Why? Because they can rebuild financial assets using the other two assets; if you pass on your human and intellectual assets, your family can rebuild your financial assets. This is why part of your perfect retirement plan focuses on what’s most important to you. If you’re able to begin a plan that’s based on your values and what’s most important to you, then all other financial decisions become easier. Your values are the foundation to that successful plan. They’re really your reason why. They’re your reason for planning in the first place, right? 

What do you think you could do to grow your human and intellectual assets? I’d love to hear from you in the comments if you’ve got any ideas. 

In our initial call with clients, we take them through a five-minute conversation that helps them uncover their most important values and shows them how these fit into their plan. If you’re interested in having that conversation, then click here to schedule a time to talk with me.

Thank you to Ron Bolis and Doug Andrew whose ideas inspired this post.