Mel Abraham argues you need to define your ideal life first, then calculate what it costs, then build a financial plan around it. Most people skip the life part and jump straight to money goals, which leaves them building on nothing.
When it comes to your money, the first thing that you need to do is think about your life. The first part of my book is about life. It's about defining your life. What do you want your life to be? Not how much money you need. What are the relationships? What's your health like? What do you want the family to be like? What's your spirituality? You want to define it on all life domains and define it so vividly that you understand it, that you sit back and say, that's what I want for life. And then you come back and say, What's the price tag? I'm going to show you how to calculate that price tag today. And then from there, you now have a vision. And that vision allows you to make a plan. That plan will define the strategy. The strategy will define the tactics. And the tactics will tell us the actions. What to invest in is a tactic. It's the beautiful stuff you see on a house, the finish work that looks really nice, but if we don't have the framing and the foundation underneath, it's going to fall down.
