In an unpredictable world, a sound financial plan can help you take control and work towards building wealth regardless of your financial status today.
It’s not just about managing money; a financial plan helps you define clear goals and make a strategy to get there. Having a plan helps you make more informed financial decisions, understand where each dollar is going and gain confidence that what you do with your money today also supports your needs in the future.
The sooner you start planning, the more pathways open—giving you greater flexibility on your financial journey. If you’re not sure how to begin, know that you’re not alone: Pew Research found that just 27% of Americans express confidence in their ability to create an investment plan to build wealth.
Here’s how you can start:
- Understand the Benefits of Financial Planning
Financial Planning goes beyond budgeting and saving. It is about making sure your money supports the life you want across different phases. By identifying goals and understanding how different financial decisions fit together, planning helps you make smarter decisions, avoid common mistakes (like panic selling when markets are volatile), and significantly reduce financial-related stress and anxiety.
Good financial planning helps you determine an ideal portfolio for your needs, manage risks in alignment with those needs, and adjust to navigate market fluctuations and inevitable changes in your life—such career moves, supporting family members or milestones like retirement.
And the benefits do not stop with you. By protecting your financial future, a financial plan allows you to work towards securing a foundation for your loved ones. Through the planning process you not only have the chance to pass on assets, but also critical financial knowledge and best practices to empower future generations.
- Invest in yourself—and your family
Building intergenerational wealth requires a disciplined approach to investing in line with your risk tolerance. While all investments carry risks (including potential losses), there is a wide breadth of choices to explore as you build an investment portfolio.
A good financial plan defines the optimal asset allocation for your situation, which is so important because data shows allocation drives 90% of a portfolio’s return variability (meaning performance). There are many investment options beyond stocks and bonds, such as real estate and alternative investments like hedge funds and private credit—which can all provide potential opportunities for wealth creation.
In fact, our Global Investment Committee suggests that, when appropriate, alternative investments should make up to 25% of efficient client portfolios. However, alternatives require significant knowledge and expertise to manage effectively.
However you choose to invest, start as early as you can and keep adjusting your strategies to make the most of time and compound growth. Continue to educate yourself and consider making financial planning a family affair to help build long-term independence.
- Prepare for Market Volatility
Market fluctuations and downturns are inevitable. A financial plan helps you stay focused on the bigger picture, better navigate emotional reactions and avoid common mistakes like panic-selling so you can protect what you’ve earned and continue to make progress.
For example, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management reviewed over 120,000 of our client plans and found that over 75% stayed on track even at the market’s lowest point during the 2020 market downturn. And for the plans that went off track, the vast majority only needed minor adjustments such as modest increases in savings, cuts in spending or a small extension of investment time horizons.
Investing is a long-term endeavor. No matter how the economy ebbs and flows, a financial plan can help you maintain your confidence as you move forward.
- Seek Out Human Guidance Powered By Technology
Truly effective financial planning requires both advanced tools that can integrate your personal financial information and human insight to map that data to your individual goals. Financial advisors offer critical thinking and emotional intelligence to help you navigate the complexities of financial decision-making, and they also have access to advanced technology that allows for modeling different scenarios, pressure testing your plan against market performance patterns and working to adjust your strategy as your life inevitably evolves.
If it feels overwhelming, if you are not sure how to get started, or if you just don’t have the time, don’t worry. This is not a journey you have to take alone: There are professionals who are excited to help. Advisors can do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to financial planning and can identify what rate of return—and strategic asset allocation—is needed to help keep you on track. Remember, if your goal is to create intergenerational upward mobility, a little bit of planning can go a long way—especially when you get started early.
This material has been prepared for informational purposes only. It does not provide individually tailored investment advice. It has been prepared without regard to the individual financial circumstances and objectives of persons who receive it. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”) recommends that investors independently evaluate particular investments and strategies, and encourages investors to seek the advice of a Morgan Stanley Financial Advisor. The appropriateness of a particular investment or strategy will depend on an investor’s individual circumstances and objectives.
Morgan Stanley offers a wide array of brokerage and advisory services to its clients, each of which may create a different type of relationship with different obligations to you. Please consult with your Financial Advisor to understand these differences, or review our “Understanding Your Brokerage and Investment Advisory Relationships” brochure available at https://www.morganstanley.com/wealth-relationshipwithms/pdfs/understandingyourrelationship.pdf
Alternative investments often are speculative and include a high degree of risk. Investors could lose all or a substantial amount of their investment. Alternative investments are appropriate only for eligible, long-term investors who are willing to forgo liquidity and put capital at risk for an indefinite period of time. They may be highly illiquid and can engage in leverage and other speculative practices that may increase the volatility and risk of loss. Alternative Investments typically have higher fees than traditional investments. Investors should carefully review and consider potential risks before investing.
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