You can have the perfect financial plan . . . and still end up in the wrong place

From The Ovation Team

We had a guest on The Financial Wellbeing Podcast recently who has changed the way many Financial Planners think about money.

Not through spreadsheets. Through questions.

George Kinder is one of the pioneers of financial life planning. And if you strip everything back, he said, it comes down to something quite simple.

Most people don’t have a money problem – they might be doing fine on paper.

They have a “what is this for?” problem.

Properly Listening

In the episode, George talks about the importance of listening. Not just hearing answers. Properly listening.

Listening well is hard. It’s easy to hear something and immediately start thinking about the next question, the next solution, the next recommendation.

What struck us is that the quality of the advice is only as good as the quality of the listening that comes before it.

Because if we don’t understand what really matters, the plan we build might be technically correct… but completely wrong for your life.

This is why our Financial Planners at Ovation are trained in coaching skills. Not to add another layer to the process, but to help us ask better questions and listen more carefully to the answers.

The more we stay with what’s being said, the more likely we are to understand what actually matters.

Shifting Focus

George is best known for three questions he asks clients. We won’t go into them in full here, (you can hear them on The Financial Wellbeing Podcast episode here) but the direction they take you is what matters.

They move you away from numbers and towards meaning. They help you think about:

• What you would do if money wasn’t a constraint?
• What would change if time became limited?
• What might you regret not doing?

And when people answer those properly, something interesting happens. The focus shifts away from “how much do I need?” and towards “what kind of life do I actually want to live?”

Client Conversations

There was one story in the conversation that stuck with us.

A client working long hours, doing well financially, but feeling stretched and disconnected at home.

Through conversation, it became clear what really mattered wasn’t more income, it was time with his children.

Once that was clear, the financial plan changed. Not because the numbers changed dramatically, but because the priority did. That is a very different starting point.

We see this come up in conversations with clients in different ways. Sometimes it’s someone approaching retirement who has done everything “right” financially, but hasn’t had the time or space to think about what comes next.

They know they can afford to stop. They’re just not sure what they’re stopping for, or what will give them a sense of purpose when they do.

That can make a big life transition feel uncertain, even when the numbers are strong.

Starting Point

At Ovation, this is something we think about a lot. Financial planning is not just about building a plan that works on paper.

It’s about building a plan that fits your life. And that only works if we start in the right place. Not with the numbers – with you.

This is why we like to “talk life first” in our meetings and the finances come second.

If you know someone who might be starting to think about what their money is for, feel free to pass this on. Sometimes a good conversation starts with something as simple as an email.