A good advisor will talk about the meaning of money in relation to your goals and dreams. You need to share such things before the talk turns to finances, or an advisor can’t truly know how to help. If the first thing an advisor does is ask to look at your statements, says Mitch Anthony, author of The New Retirementality, you should head for the door.

Everything that happens in people’s lives affects their finances. At Family Wealth Management, we use a program called Money Quotient that helps us get to people’s core values and beliefs and hopes for accomplishment. “Putting money in the context of life™” is Money Quotient’s motto.

The Money Quotient tolls can help with planning your immediate, short range, and long-term goals. We calculate how much those goals would cost, and we try to build an income plan that is designed to accommodate them. If you’re out to top the S&P 500, that’s not what a goal is.

As part of the process, we ask what you want in life. What’s important to you? If it’s a vacation each year with the kids and grandkids, we build that into your plan. If it’s an education scholarship to your alma mater, we set that aside. Whatever you wish to achieve, we calculate it into the target rate of return that would be needed to fulfill it. We won’t go after a 40 percent return just to beat some benchmark. Why would it matter?

When people don’t have a focus, they can wind up competing against financial benchmarks. But when they have a clear vision of their retirement goals, they can start planning to reach those goals instead. That’s why it’s important to start the planning at least five years before retirement, so you can lay the groundwork and begin building.