Five Star award winner Dustin S. Ma

How Is Your Financial Health?

At LampPost Planning, by profession, we are financial advisors. However, we consider ourselves “financial physicians”.

Imagine you are going to run a marathon in one year. You have a bum knee, high cholesterol, and you don’t eat very well. You ask, “Doc, what do I need to do in order to make sure I can run all 26.2 miles?” Your doctor will examine you and say, “let’s get you on a better diet, let’s prescribe you some medicine for your cholesterol, and let’s put together a treatment plan for your knee. If necessary, we may need to look at surgery. But if we do all these steps, there’s no reason why you can’t run your marathon.”

We follow the same process and recommendations, but as it relates to your “financial health”. We will examine your budget, debt, assets, insurance, business, and most importantly, we will look at your life vision and financial goals. We will examine every aspect of your financial health, and make sure each area is effective and efficient. Just like your body, an ailment in one part of your body can negatively affect another. Same goes for finances; all the pieces work together, so it is imperative you are in sound financial health in all areas.

In many cases, the daily actions people take with their finances don’t line up to their goals. This is where concerns come up, and where LampPost Planning can provide strategies and solutions and optimize your financial plan.

So how is your financial health? Not sure? Ask yourself these questions:

Today’s Plans

What are your fixed vs. discretionary expenses?
How do you create room in your budget to increase monthly savings?
What is your debt reduction strategy?
How does your plan prepare you for upcoming annual expenditures?

Tomorrow’s Plans

In which ways does your plan address your short-term, medium-term, and long-term goals?
What is your accumulation and distribution plan for retirement?
When is your planned retirement date? Is everything being done to be on track?
How are you maximizing your tax-efficient investments?
In which ways does your investment strategy take advantage of different markets and opportunities?
What knowledge and skills are you passing along to your children so they can grow up with sound financial habits?
How do you know your parents are financially secure and can manage their retirement, no matter what life throws at them?

Contingency Plans

What would happen to your monthly budget and lifestyle if you had a sudden emergency expense?
How would you be affected if your car was totaled and you were at fault?
How are you able to preserve your quality of life if you lost your home and all of your belongings?
What could you afford to pay in settlement costs if you were sued for your entire net worth?
If you had a medical issue, how would your out-of-pocket expenses can you afford to pay?
How would you cover daily expenses if you became disabled and couldn’t earn income?
If you spend $70,000/yr on a nursing home when you are older, how would this affect your retirement?
How much money is needed to maintain your family’s quality of life, if you passed away pre-maturely?
In which ways does your will/trust/estate plan address beneficiaries, guardianship, gifting, health decisions, powers of attorney, taxes, estate preservation, and your legacy?

If your plan doesn’t address all of these questions, then you will want to spend some time with your advisor to discuss these issues. At some point in your life, each one of these concerns will be relevant.

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This award was issued on 10/1/24 by Five Star Professional (FSP) for the time period 1/9/24 through 8/9/24. Fee paid for use of marketing materials. Self-completed questionnaire was used for rating. This rating is not related to the quality of the investment advice and based solely on the disclosed criteria. 1567 San Francisco East Bay-area wealth managers were considered for the award; 85 (5 % of candidates) were named 2024 Five Star Wealth Managers. The following prior year statistics use this format: YEAR: # Considered, # Winners, % of candidates, Issued Date, Research Period. 2023: 1,291, 87, 7%, 10/1/23, 1/9/23 - 7/31/23; 2022: 1155, 90, 8%, 10/1/22, 1/17/22 - 7/15/22; 2021: 1413, 89, 6%, 10/1/21, 12/28/20 - 7/30/21; 2020: 1260, 88, 7%, 10/1/20, 1/13/20 - 8/7/20; 2019: 1340, 104, 8%, 10/1/19, 12/31/18 - 8/9/19; 2018: 1397, 113, 8%, 10/1/18, 1/16/18 - 8/10/18; 2017: 1049, 95, 9%, 10/1/17, 1/13/17 - 7/28/17; 2016: 948, 182, 19%, 9/1/16, 2/24/16 - 8/22/16; 2015: 2261, 183, 8%, 10/1/15, 3/5/15 - 7/31/15; 2014: 4527, 204, 5%, 10/1/14, 3/5/13 - 7/31/13; 2013: 858, 195, 23%, 10/1/13, 3/5/12 - 7/31/12; 2012: 1145, 233, 20%, 10/1/12, 3/5/11 - 7/31/11.

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DBA Quality Life Insurance Agency. Registered Representative, Securities offered through Cambridge Investment Research, Inc., a Broker/Dealer, Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment Advisor Representative, Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. Cambridge Investment Research, Inc. is not affiliated with LampPost Planning or Gateway Financial Advisers, Inc.

Wealth managers do not pay a fee to be considered or placed on the final list of Five Star Wealth Managers. The award is based on 10 objective criteria. Eligibility criteria - required: 1. Credentialed as a registered investment adviser (RIA) or a registered investment adviser representative; 2. Actively licensed as a RIA or as a principal of a registered investment adviser firm for a minimum of 5 years; 3. Favorable regulatory and complaint history review (As defined by FSP, the wealth manager has not; A. Been subject to a regulatory action that resulted in a license being suspended or revoked, or payment of a fine; B. Had more than a total of three settled or pending complaints filed against them and/or a total of five settled, pending, dismissed or denied complaints with any regulatory authority or FSP's consumer complaint process. Unfavorable feedback may have been discovered through a check of complaints registered with a regulatory authority or complaints registered through FSP's consumer complaint process; feedback may not be representative of any one client's experience; C. Individually contributed to a financial settlement of a customer complaint; D. Filed for personal bankruptcy within the past 11 years; E. Been terminated from a financial services firm within the past 11 years; F. Been convicted of a felony); 4. Fulfilled their firm review based on internal standards; 5. Accepting new clients. Evaluation criteria - considered: 6. One-year client retention rate; 7. Five-year client retention rate; 8. Non-institutional discretionary and/or non-discretionary client assets administered; 9. Number of client households served; 10. Education and professional designations. FSP does not evaluate quality of services provided to clients. The award is not indicative of the wealth manager's future performance. Wealth managers may or may not use discretion in their practice and therefore may not manage their clients' assets. The inclusion of a wealth manager on the Five Star Wealth Manager list should not be construed as an endorsement of the wealth manager by FSP or this publication. Working with a Five Star Wealth Manager or any wealth manager is no guarantee as to future investment success, nor is there any guarantee that the selected wealth managers will be awarded this accomplishment by FSP in the future. Visit www.fivestarprofessional.com.