Your Destination Is On Your Right
Siri’s now familiar, though still unsettlingly distant voice announced our arrival home. As I pulled into the driveway, my son chimed in from the back seat, "Why do you use the navigation system when we’re just driving home from school?” His tone was heavy with judgment. It wasn’t so much a question as it was an accusation. And to further prove that point, he continued, “You do it every day!”
He wasn’t wrong. We had been driving the same series of roads for four years now. And the idea that I needed Siri to remind me to “turn left at the stop sign and then right onto Melrose Street” was unreasonable.
But I did. Every trip back from his school… or from the grocery store… I would slide into the car, fasten my seatbelt, and pronounce, “Hey, Siri! Give me directions home.”
As I brought the car to a stop and turned off the engine, I decided to answer his question with a question. Glazing toward the rearview mirror and making eye contact with my eight-year-old, who was already staring in my direction and waiting for a response, I asked, “And why do you always ask me, ‘Are we almost home?’, when you know the answer?”
Touché! Score one for dad!
Or maybe not…
“Because I just like to know where we are,” he volleyed back, not missing a beat. “And I want to know if anything changed.”
I couldn’t help but think of one afternoon last year when I had convinced him that we would be home in just a few minutes – no need to use the bathroom before leaving school – only to find ourselves encountering a street closures from a watermain break. The unexpected detour had tested the limits of his juice box overindulgence earlier that afternoon.
But I understood his response.
“You know what?” I asked, “Me too. I like having a plan. Even though it’s always the same, I like hearing the steps home. I like to know where I am. And I like to know if things have changed.”
Apparently satisfied enough by my response, he started collecting his backpack and his water bottle and replied, “Can I play Minecraft when we get inside?”, as if our brief conversation had never happened.
But for the rest of the evening, our exchange was stuck in my head.
As my husband and I were performing our nightly ritual of half-heartedly restoring the living room from a state of Hot Wheels-strewn chaos to something that resembled order, I asked him, “Do you use GPS when you’re driving around town?”
“What do you mean?”, he replied, as if my question where somehow a trick given its simplicity.
“Exactly that. When you go to ShopRite, do you enter the address?”
He paused and stared at me for a few second before answering, “I don’t think I… but wait, I mean… I didn’t when… but… well, I guess I do.”
A wave of relief swept over me as he fumbled through his response. I wasn’t alone.
So, we are a family that likes a plan! No real surprise there. Most people do, and not just to and from the grocery store.
It is very comforting to have a roadmap – a clearly defined set of steps, which you know you can follow to get from where you are to where you are going.
At Christopher Street Financial, we refer to this as “Our Proven Process”.
When a new client joins Christopher Street, the Proven Process explains the steps in our journey together. At first, these steps may sound completely foreign, like the unfamiliar streets of a new neighborhood. But that is exactly why we lay them out so clearly. We want you to know what to expect as we create your financial plan – your personalized roadmap for achieving your unique goals.
Once we’ve created that financial plan together, that is not the end. Implementing your plan is the rest of the journey.
We revisit your plan on a regular basis. Together, we determine whether you are still on the most efficient path towards your goals. As you travel forward, perhaps you’ll decide that you want to make a few more stops along the way. Or perhaps what you once thought was your final destination has changed. We are here to look at that roadmap together and to help make changes as we go.
And while a clear plan is reassuring, we also know that life is seldom without potholes and speedbumps. There may be unexpected detours. Or maybe better roads have been built since your plan was created. New jobs. Marriage. Children. Unexpected Moves. Life events, whenever they happen, are great opportunities to contact us about possible changes.
So, no matter how familiar that trip to and from school may be, I will always appreciate having a plan – my roadmap. I want to know I am on the right path. And I want to be alerted should anything change. But most of all, I enjoy the simple comfort in hearing those familiar steps as I travel towards home.
If you’ve been considering speaking with a financial advisor to create your roadmap, we would love to be the ones to assist! You can click here to schedule an introductory call. We will make sure that you understand all the steps along the way, and then we are here for the years that follow. It’s your journey to enjoy. And we love to help navigate.
