Alice and the Cheshire Cat

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As children, we all heard the story written by Lewis Carroll or watched the Disney movie Alice in Wonderland.

 

Alice was walking down this path and reached a fork in the road at the edge of the forest where there was a big tree covered in signs pointing to different paths and she stopped in her tracks, faced with a big decision.

 

“Which way should I go?" she wondered.
 

The Cheshire Cat immediately appeared in the tree and replied:

“Where are you headed, my Dear?”
Alice answered “I really don’t know”

At this the Cat provided some rather profound advice for a children’s story:

 “Then it really doesn’t matter which path you take!”

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I frequently start my financial planning roadmap session with this story and proceed to ask my clients; how does this story relate to how you make financial decisions? In other words; do you make decisions in life like Alice in Wonderland? Do you just flip a coin or pick a path and move on?

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The majority of my clients will eventually admit that that is pretty much it.

They just follow their gut or flip a coin and choose a path to follow. Now imagine that a friend offers to fly Alice overhead in a hot air balloon, showing her where each path leads. With someone anticipating all possible outcomes, uncertainty and fear are replaced with confidence and assurance.

 

Financial planning is that bird’s eye view of the paths before you, from beginning to end.