Financial planning is frequently associated with crunching numbers, investment strategies, and asset building and transfer techniques. But financial planning is really the process of identifying and prioritizing your quality of life -- for the rest of your life -- then designing the timetable and strategies to pay for your dreams... a bucket plan to go along with your bucket list.
 

Now is the perfect time to reflect on your life and provide some thoughtful answers about your future and the dreams you want to fulfill. I challenge you to address the following questions:
 

1. Assume that you have all the money you need -- for the rest of your life. What would you do with it? How would you live?
2. Your doctor delivers the news that you have a rare illness. You will feel normal for the rest of your life, but you will die suddenly within five to ten years. Now that you know you only have five to ten years of life on this earth, how will you live it? What will you do?
3. Imagine you are on your death bed, terminally ill, and have only 24 hours to live. What will you miss? What would you have done differently? What are your regrets?

Life happens in a flash. You can stay so busy in the day-to-day activities of working and accumulating that you bypass addressing the meaningful questions about the life you really want. What if the life you want requires less, not more money? Are you willing to do things differently?
 

The essence of financial planning isn't really about what you own, what you spend, or where you invest, but rather who you want to be.
 

New Year's resolutions are easy to make. And just as easy to break. A revolution, on the other hand, can be a lifetime. Are you ready to start yours?