What is Quality of Life Planning®?
Quality of Life Planning® is helping others align their financial resources as efficiently and effectively as we can to help improve their personal well-being. It is not primarily focused on dollars, percentages, and complicated calculations that often lead to feelings of anxiety, guilt, and even fear when faced with financial decisions. Our experience has shown Quality of Life Planning® helps create actionable steps that enhance your sense of security, happiness, and health.
At Dorval & Chorne, we believe that a financial advisor should help you find peace of mind.
That is why we try our best to change the conversation. Rather than focus on complex topics and confusing jargon, our goal is to help all of our clients make decisions that align with their personal values and goals.
Our clients often describe “peace of mind” as an outcome produced by our planning and advice. Peace of mind is often difficult to define, but we know it when we experience it!
Examples of Quality of Life Planning®
Using Investments to Pay Off Your Mortgage
Clients often come to us with a mortgage heading into retirement. Assuming you plan to stay in your current house long term, what if we told you to scale down your 401k contributions to focus cash flow on paying off your mortgage ahead of retirement? Or what if you had the opportunity to use investments to pay off the balance? We often hear push back based on potential returns or mortgage interest tax deductions, but we have yet to have a client come back and tell us paying off the mortgage was a bad idea. Why? They immediately feel more secure in their retirement, and they often can realign the cash flow that was used for their mortgage towards things that enhance their Quality of Life early in retirement (vacations, house updates, etc.).
Using Investments to Delay Social Security Benefits
All clients are faced with the decision of when to collect Social Security. Every person seems to have been influenced by the “noise” around them offering advice on what is “best” yet those influencers usually are not focused on each unique individual. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to when to claim Social Security and we will tell you to take it when you need to in order to maintain Quality of Life. However, in an ideal world, we would love for clients to delay Social Security even if it means they have to use investments first…we call this process “bridging.” Why? Having a larger guaranteed income source often reduces fear and anxiety when it comes to thinking about their retirement future. Delaying Social Security is one of the best actions someone can take to ensure improved Quality of Life over a potentially long retirement!
Using Investments to Purchase a Home
We view buying a house as the ultimate Quality of Life goal. Your home is where you spend a good portion of your life. It’s where you connect with friends and family. It’s the vessel of countless memories and experiences yet to come. We support you buying a home. With that being said, your home purchase may require you to re-prioritize how you are allocating funds.
We can help you with a strategy tailored to your specific needs. For some it may look like establishing a slush fund with an allocation based on the timeline of your purchase. For others the strategy may be to temporarily redirect retirement plan contributions towards saving for the down payment on your home. We don’t offer a blanket approach to your finances. We will sit down with you and evaluate the cost of the home you wish to purchase. We will provide strategies on how to avoid PMI. We will provide you with an investment strategy to save for your down payment. Purchasing a home comes along with a variety of stressors. We will do our best to alleviate the financial stress by looking at your entire financial picture and creating a strategy to get you into the home that will bring you the quality of life you desire.