There are many similarities between the game of golf and your financial future. As difficult as it is to shoot par, maintaining the same standard of living during your retirement that you enjoyed while working can be even harder. This video highlights some of the lessons learned in the game of golf that can be applied to your finances. Discover how making even small changes in your finances can improve your financial future.

Transcript:

Do You Want The Club or The Swing For Your Financial Future?

For those of us who play. There’s nothing greater than the game of golf. We watch it on TV, read about it in books and magazines, and hope to learn that new tip that can take our game to the next level. Statistics show that there are over 60 million golfers in the world today.

Of those less than half ever break 100 only 33% break, 90 and less than 5% will ever break 80 unfortunately, the percent of people who are financially secure is somewhere in that same 5% range as well. It’s amazing how many similarities there are between the game of golf and our money. Let’s take a look at a few

Whether you’ve been playing for a short time or all your life, you understand the frustration of the fact that just when you get one part of your game working, something else falls apart. You finally start hitting the driver and you can’t hit an iron in the ocean from the pier.

It never fails. You start draining every day and now you can’t get off the tee financially speaking. Just when you get a little money put away, something comes along that eats it up. You finally start investing for your future and the market drops. Does 30% sound familiar? 

if you’re like most golfers, you can’t wait to play. The anticipation of the next round dominates our thinking. We live such busy lives with work, kids chores, and trying to keep up that when we have any time we want to play, not practice, we may hit a few balls on the range before starting our round, but seldom take the time for serious practice.

We hurry to the first tee and our offer yet another mediocre round with the same bad habits we had the week before the month before that and the year before that. Reports on Tiger’s practice schedule say he hits a thousand practice balls a day.

There must be something to practice financially. We spend most of our time making money but little to no time learning how to master the use of it. Most golfers spend more time planning their next three-day golf weekend than they do planning their financial future.

Sad but true. We know our game would improve if we spent some time at the sand trap practice facility, but we want to play when we hit in a sand trap on the course and we will. We struggle sometimes taking several shots to get out when a few hours on the practice range would have made a huge difference.

It’s easy to find ourselves doing the same thing with our money because we have not done our homework. We find ourselves making poor financial decisions like bad shots, hoping our next shot will make up for our previous mistake. If your financial future depends on your next decision being a career shot, you’d better rethink your position.

There is no doubt that hitting your driver on the screws 300 yards down the middle of the fairway is exhilarating. We love the feel of the clubhead speed and the sound the driver makes is it makes contact with the ball. How much time do you spend working on your putting versus hitting your driver on the tour? The slogan is putt for dough.

Ask any professional and they’ll quickly tell you that the most valuable club in their bag is their putter. A six-foot putt counts just as much as your longest drive.

Liken golf. When we think about our money, the financial products that captivate our attention are usually the drivers, the products that promise to pay the highest rates of return. But what about the putter products that offer liquidity, use, and control, not return. The putter would never come up in a conversation about distance.

However, it may turn out to have more influence on the outcome of your game than your driver. We’ve all lost balls using our driver. That’s why golf balls come in a pack of 12 but never with a putter. A lost ball on the course means a penalty.

A lost ball financially can spell disaster and golf of hot counts just as much as the drive. Financially. Avoiding losses can make all the difference in your final score.

Remember that a great putt can help you recover from a bad drive. Don’t ignore the value of having a solid financial putter in addition to a good driver because the products that paid the highest returns may not always be the best club in your bag.

Golf course design is a thing of beauty and the variety of holes is what keeps us wanting to play every course on the planet.

There are some par fives that are long with little trouble and are often birdie, while others are almost impossible to reach in three there are short par fours that are reachable with a great drive but offered no consolation or a ball miss-hit like a downhill dogleg left 279-yard par four with a steep dropoff left of the narrow fairway and nothing but bunkers. On the right.

You can play a five-iron off the tee to the middle of the fairway and a wedge to the green and par it almost every time. Or you can try to drive the green and risk going out of bounds and getting the dreaded double par eight on a par four hole, not fun.

Financially we must weigh risk and reward as well. Taking an unnecessary risk can lead to disappointment, which can affect future shots. Many investors would tell you that looking back, they would have more money today if they could get back. J

ust their principle. The return of your money is often more valuable than the return on your money. Taking an unnecessary risk can lead to disappointment, which can affect future decisions. No one knows this better than John van de Velde. When at the 1999 British open, he blew a three-shot lead hitting an Aaron drive, and then played a risky shot rather than the sure thing and lost in a playoff.

How many holes have you played thinking to yourself, I could have done better using a pitching wedge on every shot.

In 2005 Tiger Woods won his 11th major. The British Open and only used his driver once in the entire four rounds. While others were trying to capitalize on the role they would get bombing it off the tee.

Tiger was orchestrating a controlled trip around the course purposed on missing the bunkers. He knew that avoiding the hazards offered the best chance to win our financial courses covered with hazards.

Some you can’t even see our financial future from the tee box, increasing taxes, interest on debt, credit cards, car payments, mortgage decisions, retirement plans, stock market corrections, and more.

It’s tempting to take an unnecessary risk hoping to clear the hazard only to find ourselves in the middle of a bunker, out of bounds, or in the water with no chance to advance the ball. Pay attention to the financial bunkers in your path and avoid them in golf. Risk-takers do when on occasion, but those who win consistently have learned to avoid trouble.

There’s a very unique relationship between a player and their caddie. Unfortunately, the caddy for most of us non-tour playing fanatics has been replaced with GPS systems that can only tell you how far you are from the pen. It can’t tell you which club would be best to hit given the elevation of the green and the direction of the wind.

Have you ever noticed that not one professional on the tour carries their own bag while the player must still hit the shot? The caddy provides a great sounding board for the decision ahead and is often the voice of reason. Intense situations financially.

Trying to carry your own bag by making your own investments may not be the best of ideas either. The financial caddy brings with them a special knowledge of the course, the dangers, the layup spots, and the sucker pin placements.

They can help you to know when to go for it and when to lay back. They’re also there to help you with the rules to avoid unnecessary penalties or disqualification in your financial future. Having a financial caddy to help you with the rules and encourage you along the way brings great value. You have to play the shot, but the caddy is always there for verification and support.

Having someone standing beside you that understands your game and knows how to help you get around the course by maximizing your strengths when you’re playing. The most important round of your life can be just what you to finish on top.

Every golfer has their favorite club. That one club you hit better than any other. From time to time. We hit every ball well, but there’s that one club we hit well consistently.

When a golfer learns which club they hit best, it makes sense that they try to leave themselves in a position to use it whenever possible. It’s much the same way with financial products as well. Some people like real estate, others mutual funds, others, stocks, and bonds. Regardless of which club is your favorite.

The important thing to remember is that you need to go with the one that you feel most comfortable. Don’t let someone talk you into something that may be working for them but makes you feel uncomfortable. Find what works best for you.

We’ve all played around with a player who used a three-wood on a par three when everyone else was using five irons we missed and they’re putting for birdie. Makes no difference how you get there. There is no place on the scorecard for which club you used.

Let’s assume that we’re going to send you to play in the masters. Every golfer’s ultimate fantasy. There are two things you can choose from. You can pick only one. You can have the clubs of any player who has ever played the game of golf or you can have their ability, which would you choose?

Certainly, you would choose their ability. The swing is more valuable than the clubs financially. What did the financial institutions deliver? They have products that we’re going to call the clubs. You have to have clubs to play the game and you want the best clubs available, custom fit and designed specifically for you. Yet most golfers buy their clubs off the discount rack.

How many times have we purchased a new club thinking it will improve our game? Certainly better technology can’t hurt, but the fundamental issue is with our swing when it comes to our money. The right swing means that we have learned to avoid the potential for loss, minimized our risk, and maximize our earning potential.

The best clubs and a poor swing will keep you in amateur status, bidded clubs, and a great swing. We’ll fill a trophy case. You need both. I would love to get together with you and share some ideas that could possibly improve your financial swing and who knows?

It may give you more time to perfect your golf swing and financial future. Give me a call and let’s schedule a tee time soon.