Five Years, One Picture, and a Course to Chart
That picture was taken five years ago today—our wedding day. A lot has changed since then. So today, instead of our usual financial focus, I want to pause and reflect on something even broader: personal planning.
It’s easy to blend financial planning and personal planning together. They overlap, no doubt. But they’re not identical. And to prove it, I’ll use myself as the example.
Look again at that photo and you’ll see two newlyweds, full of joy. What you don’t see is that our financial house was a bit of a mess. I was 23, Susanna was 22—we give ourselves some grace for that. But what I hope you do see, and what I wish for you, is a couple with aspirations, dreams, and a future to shape.
At the end of every newsletter, I sign off with “stay the course.” Sometimes that can sound a little cliché. But it isn’t a call to keep drifting aimlessly. It’s a reminder that before you can stay the course, you first have to chart one.
Charting the Course
Here’s what our course looked like back then:
- Start a family—two or three kids—and be positioned for Susanna to stay home.
- Own a home with land for a garden, chickens, and space to gather.
- Earn the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation—budget for the costs, create a study plan, and follow through.
- Pay off debt aggressively, starting with the highest interest first, adding $100/month principal-only payments on top of the schedule.
Those became our pillars for the next three to five years. Only one was strictly financial. The others were lifestyle and professional—because that’s what mattered most at the time.
Making Goals S.M.A.R.T.
- Specific – Define what you want to accomplish.
- Measurable – Know when it’s been achieved.
- Aspirational – Let it stretch you toward a higher purpose.
- Realistic – Align it with your resources, knowledge, and time.
- Time-constrained – Commit to a deadline.
“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Tony Robbins
But before we even wrote goals, we asked ourselves the S.T.E.P.S.:
- Spiritual – What’s our center? For us: God, Family, Work—in that order.
- Things – What possessions matter, and which ones weigh us down? For us: a home of our own.
- Experiences – What memories do we want to build? For us: family moments, with a little travel mixed in.
- People – Who do we want to shape life alongside? For us: starting a family was the driver.
I’d encourage you to go through this yourself. If your stage of life looks like ours did, use it as a template. If you’re preparing to sell a business or step into retirement, you’ll need a different roadmap—but you still need one. Choose no more than five “big rocks,” make them S.M.A.R.T., and pursue them with focus.
Five Years Later
Five years in, I can say this: we’ve accomplished each goal we set. We have three beautiful children—one in heaven and two here with us. We bought our first home this spring, complete with space for chickens and a garden. I became a CFP® this May. And we’ve paid off the debt.
When I look back at that picture, I see more than where we were. I see the moment we decided where we wanted to go. And through all the ups and downs, having a course made the difference.
So as always, but maybe more meaningfully now:
Stay the course.