Ask most people what financial planning is for and you’ll hear some version of the same answer: hitting a number. Save enough, retire, and then start living.
Most people think financial planning is about hitting a number—some target for retirement. But numbers without meaning can still leave you feeling empty.
Trevor B. Hanson, UNSPLODE
WealthSpan is the idea I built my side of UNSPLODE around. It changes the question from “How much?” to “How long will my money fund a life I actually want, and when does that life start?”
WealthSpan, defined
WealthSpan is how long your wealth actually funds a life that feels good.
Trevor B. Hanson, UNSPLODE
You may come across the word WealthSpan elsewhere. In UNSPLODE, it means a specific kind of balance. Not the usual trade-off between risk and reward, but the balance “between a life deferred and a life experienced.” Your finances are a tool to support the people, moments, and memories that matter, while you still have the health and energy to enjoy them.
The problem with “someday”
The traditional model asks you to cut, delay, and save for a retirement that starts on a date. The trouble is that health doesn’t wait for that date. Plenty of people reach it with a healthy portfolio and a body that can’t keep up with the plans they made.
It’s a revelation that you might be asset rich but experience poor.
Trevor B. Hanson, UNSPLODE
None of this means spending recklessly. You don’t want to run out of money. But as I write in the book, you also don’t want to die in a “net-worth prison,” watching the world pass you by while a nest egg grows for a someday that may not look the way you pictured it.
The four steps of purposeful planning
The Purposeful Planning Process I describe in the book starts with your life, not your accounts:
- Define your why. What does a fulfilled life look like to you? What experiences do you want more of? What legacy do you want to leave? Your answers become the North Star for every financial decision.
- Take inventory. Get a full, honest picture of where you are today: net worth, taxes, estate planning, cash flow, and the gaps between them.
- Plan with purpose. Build a strategy that connects your why to your inventory, with room to change as life does.
- Adjust with intention. Revisit your purpose regularly and adapt the plan, so it keeps serving the life you want rather than the one you wanted ten years ago.
Where your health fits
You can’t separate WealthSpan from HealthSpan. My co-author, Dr. Caleb Pinegar, is an orthopedic surgeon, and his side of the book is about protecting the body that has to carry out your plans. That’s why the book has two sides that mirror each other chapter for chapter.
Your finances should support the people, moments, and memories that matter—before your knees go, your energy fades, or your window closes.
Trevor B. Hanson, UNSPLODE
If you want the bigger picture of how the two spans work together, start with HealthSpan and WealthSpan: why your money plan needs a health plan.
One small step
Before you look at a single account, answer one question in writing: What does a fulfilled life look like to you, right now and ten years from now? Most people have never written it down. It’s the starting point for everything else.
- Work through all twelve questions with the free Define Your Why worksheet.
- Check how your current plan measures up with the nine-question advisor check, also on the worksheets page.
- Take the WealthSpan version of the Unsplode Score.
For educational purposes only. Not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Talk with your own advisor about your situation.
About the author
Trevor B. Hanson is a wealth manager, the founder of ApexFlow Wealth Management, and co-author of UNSPLODE. He wrote the WealthSpan side of the book.
From the book UNSPLODE: The Bold New Approach to Reconstruct Your WealthSpan and HealthSpan. Read both introductions free.