Life used to be fairly simple for us. Herman worked for the school district, brought home the same amount every month, and the district was kind enough to take out money for taxes, retirement, and health insurance. No big deal. It wasn't the highest paying job in the world, but it was steady and predictable. We knew how much money to expect each year, and we knew that our healthcare and retirement would be taken care of along with our taxes.
Then we got crazy and decided to leave all that security and head into the world of entrepreneurs. Suddenly life got a whole lot more complicated. We never knew how much money to expect each month or even whether we could expect anything. Life was a roller coaster for a lot of the first six years of this existence. There were times when we felt comfortable and took the time to pay down much of our debt. Then there were other times when we would look back over the year and wonder how in the world we were able to survive on so little income. Was it worth it? Oh yeah. We have been so richly blessed in non-financial ways during these past years. I wouldn't trade them for anything.
Well, lately things have been going wonderfully for our little start-up company. It has been such a blessing for us since we have so much debt to pay down. We had ourselves on a ten year plan to get that accomplished, but it looks like we will have that done a lot sooner. Hallelujah! Unfortunately, with success comes a great deal of complication in business. Things are no longer simple to understand, especially when dealing with taxes and retirement and healthcare. Things had gotten so terribly difficult that even our accountants were somewhat flabbergasted as to what we needed to do.
This year we finally found an accountant who could understand our complicated financial situation. I have never felt so much love for a financial person before, but when he finished our taxes this year Herman and I both wanted to take a special trip to Osage Beach just so that we could see him in person and give him a giant Blau hug. He has been such a blessing for us this year.
Once our taxes were completed it was time to start doing some serious planning for our future. Here is where things get incredibly difficult to understand. Our accountant set up a meeting for us a few weeks ago to get some ideas of directions we could take. We met two different financial advisers with two very different styles. The first guy seemed a lot more normal to me. I felt like I could relate to him a lot better and I understood almost everything he told us. The second guy came in and just looked the way I would picture a financial planner guy. He looked like he dabbled in financial planning in between his vacations to Cabo. He definitely gave off a jet setting vibe. And then he began to talk. Holy Cow! I was totally lost. I had never even heard of half of the financial planning ideas he was introducing to us. No wonder people hire others to plan this stuff. I feel like I have a fairly decent intelligence, but these words sounded like a foreign language to me. I couldn't begin to wrap my head around how they would be part of a financial plan for our little company.
And here is the reason that I wanted to add this post. During these meetings Herman and I sat together and took notes. Our job was to listen to the ideas these men presented and then decide if we were interested in setting up any of these plans. At one point in the meeting I looked over to see what notes Herman had taken, and I had to laugh.
One page of my notes:
And here are Herman's notes:
He's more of a visual guy. These lovely circles represent Herman's plans for our companies in the future. Totally clear, right?
I think that these pictures perfectly illustrate the differences in the ways that Herman and I approach business and finances and life. So different. But you know what? It works. Somehow it works.
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