I was recently introduced to the word coddiwomple by a friend of mine, August Higgins. August is a great drummer who also happens to be pursuing his PhD. He has been leading a book discussion at church on long-term planning and used a word that is as unique as his name. The word coddiwomple is English slang, defined as “to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination”. If you are anything like me you may be coddiwompling your way through life, which is not necessarily a bad thing. As long as you don’t get catawampus in your coddiwomple, you’re probably on the right track.
There is a quote by Laurence J. Peter, “If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” It’s often used in the financial planning industry to get people to think very specifically about their long-term financial goals and can be helpful in the planning process. That same phrase, however, may cause people to hesitate in making important decisions until they have defined exactly where they want to be in the future. It’s been my experience in 27 years of advising clients that people struggle with trying to define exactly what their retirement will look like, where they will live, what they will do and how much income they will need. Unfortunately, trying to visualize the future has resulted in some never getting started, or putting off saving and investing. It doesn’t have to be that way. Just because we may not know exactly what the future holds for us doesn’t mean that we can’t establish important plans and begin to act today.
What do we know about our future?
We know that when we retire, the company we work for will stop depositing paychecks into our bank account.
We know that we will need to replace that income to take care of our basic needs and to pay for wants - whatever those may be.
A sound plan starts with some initial targets such as potential retirement dates and a range of desired income. With a preliminary date and income goal in mind, projections can be made to set an initial course toward your goals. Sometimes, of course, the unexpected happens. We may head in a different direction or our goals may change. At Pharos Wealth Strategies we want to not only help our clients to set an initial course on their journey, but we want to be with you as you go in that direction. We want to assist you in making important course corrections along the way.
A famous high school kid named Ferris Bueller (not quite as famous as Laurence J. Peter, of course), once said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Sometimes the most important thing we can do is take a look around and see where we are today. We can try our best to visualize where we are going, and we can “proceed forward in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination.”
Happy Coddiwompling!