Like a Well-Tended Garden

by David Jeter, CFP(r), Senior Vice President
February 2011

As we move through the coldest days of winter and I shovel snow for the umpteenth day in a row, my thoughts turn to spring and that it can’t get here soon enough. This got me thinking about long-time friends with a garden I describe as “planned wildness.” Along a charming wrought-iron gate and bordering their turn-of-the-century home are various flowers and plants of different heights, shapes, and colors, blooming at various times during the year. It’s beautiful and interesting. But amidst its wildness is a sense of order. However, with all that is going on in there, something seems missing that I struggle to put my finger on. I know in my gut there is either something there I don’t quite see, or something is not there; but what is it?

One day I asked. Though I knew Nancy was in charge of the garden, I complimented Stewart and wondered aloud how it all occurs. He walked me to the kitchen and pulled out a file. In the file was a pad of paper, brimming with several pages of drawings, charts, dates, and measurements. After a short study, I realized this was a history of the yard. It carried over from years past through to the current year. It was a very elaborate file that graphed out the yard to scale, laid out to-dos, noted expectations of the different plant life, and put jobs to a monthly calendar. Of course! How else could such a remarkable amount of progress occur without a plan of action? The way Nancy and Stewart (OK, Nancy) achieved such productivity was through preparation and tending.

How does one balance flowers that bloom in early spring with those that do so in mid-summer? How does one tend to plants needing plenty of sun in comparison to those that thrive in the shade? How do you manage your time and resources between annuals, perennials, and biennials?

For those who simply border the yard with mulch, plant perennials, hire a landscaping company to weed, and trim twice a year, expectations shouldn’t be as high. Minimal and manageable results can be achieved. But that type of yard management won’t produce the same results that bring Nancy and Stewart joy and contentment.

This is my message to the gardeners in the reading audience and to those just thinking spring. Your financial planning is no different than tending the garden. Time up front determining what you want to accomplish is critical. Knowing that you have some annual and perennial objectives and that you need to balance your resources accordingly is important. Knowing that you can’t treat all of your flowers the same is key. Some will do well in sun (rising markets?), while some will do well in rain (down markets?), but together, with a plan and time well-spent, they will thrive. If you put minimal time into planning for those things you are trying to do in your “financial garden,” you will meet minimal results. If you jump right into working the financial garden without any plan, you may end up with a lot of wasted resources (assets) for only a few good plants and flowers. And as that garden grows, one needs to trim back the overgrowth to let sun shine on the other life (rebalancing and updating priorities).

Financial success, like tending a well-maintained garden, takes upfront planning, well-managed resources, attention over time, and review of your progress because Mother Nature (life’s issues out of your control) sometimes has a say. Without this, you may describe your financial situation as a different couple did, “It’s like my perennial garden – it takes a lot of time, but I never seem to finish.”

Finally, what wasn’t I seeing in the garden? What did my gut tell me was different, but I couldn’t place it? Dead leaves or weeds of any kind. This takes attention to detail. A good financial advisor helps develop the plan and provides attention to detail to create both order, and more importantly, enjoyment from your financial garden.

David Jeter, Senior Vice President, Allegheny Financial Group, can be reached at djeter@alleghenyfinancial.com or 412 536 8012.

Securities and investment advisory services offered through Allegheny Investments, Ltd., member FINRA/SIPC. The above comments are provided for discussion purposes only and are not meant to be an offer of any specific investment. Past performance does not guarantee future results.