Sweating Over Financial Planning

Let's face it. Financial planning scares or intimidates everyone of us. Although I am trained as an accountant, I am abashed to say the thought of financial management overwhelmes me. Risk vs return? Long-term investment vs short-term speculation? Equities vs fixed income? If the mere terminologies already put you off, wait till you need to drill further into their relationship.

Is it a female thing? Somehow, when I was sitting through my financial management tutorials, I had to struggle with the computation of IRR (internal rate of return), NPV (net present value), Black Scholes' model. On the other hand, my male course mates were simply thrilled with the financial concepts. Many of them literally breezed through the course. Needless to say, financial management earned me my only C for my whole undergraduate study.

Now, I have to deal with IRR, NPV and ROIC (return on invested capital) computation on a day-to-day basis as part of my work. Financial management terms are no longer black holes to me. However, translating financial management to my own assets management (though I often retort to those who advises on asset management that I hardly have any assets), the phobia continues. Hence, everytime I have to talk to my financial consultant, a.k.a insurance agent, I have to brave myself for full concentration or I will start losing the content of our conversation. Even with superficial finance knowledge, it still takes alot of brain cells to process what he is conveying, I cannot imagine those who are new to financial fundamentals.

Kudos to the finance professionals who make things more laymen and less complex for financial idiots like me. Given that financial management is an important part of everyone's life, it is essential for us to have adequate understanding to plan for our retirement, our health and our dependents. Every cent counts towards the building of our nests. Hence, we cannot afford to take too many chances with our investments and risk management. With a knowledgeable and sincere financial planner, it can definitely help financial idiots, like me, to overcome our phobia and sweat less over the complicated issues.