Has this ever happened to you? You have brought a contractor into your house to fix something. They do a good job, then you think, “While you’re at it, can you (fill in the blank!).”

If you have mixed feelings about what happens next, so do I. The good part of this is the wonderful opportunity to get multiple things done at the same time. We lead lives that are so busy that it may be difficult to schedule multiple meetings with the same contractor.

The bad part of this is that sometimes things get out of control – the time or money or both expand beyond our capabilities to deal with it all at once. The scope may also become too large for the contractor to deal with because (s)he may already have made promises to other people. Way too much juggling may result.

The “while you’re at it” approach may also contain the danger that the decisions you make are impulsive and not well thought out. It’s also possible to be charged more for the additional tasks because of the scheduling challenges to the contractor.

So, here are a few ideas to make the most of situations described here:

Keep a list of projects worth doing, their priorities, and their estimated costs. Perhaps some of the projects are nice-to’s and others are essentials. When the time comes to have the work done, you will then have a menu to choose from. You will be less likely to forget important tasks and be able to choose those projects which will be essential while still fitting your budget.

Schedule someone to come in on a regular basis, perhaps for limited times. This is a proactive approach to keep on top of your responsibilities, make progress in important areas and remove stress from dealing with problems on an emergency-only basis.

You can use these ideas in your financial affairs as well. Keep a list of questions and unresolved financial issues for discussion with your financial planner. It will then be easier to address those issues when you have your regular meetings with your planner. This will help you make systematic progress towards your financial and lifestyle goals.

Upcoming Email Newsletters and Blogs

The theme for our semi-monthly articles for the rest of this year will be Wealth Management: The Art and Science of Keeping Your Money. Here are the specific upcoming topics:

• Preserving wealth through investment planning and management.
• Mitigating taxes of all kinds: income taxes, capital gains taxes and estate taxes.
• Taking care of the kids via college funding, estate planning, and the legal and insurance tools to help you with these.
• Protecting wealth from lawsuits, creditors, personal security violations and high health-care costs.
• Charitable giving to share your money with your community for any number of reasons.

All of these topics will be covered in brief email newsletters. Some of the topics will be discussed in more depth in blogs hosted at http://blog.lib.umn.edu/learning/financialplanning at the University of Minnesota. After publication, we will post the newsletters on our website. You can access all our email newsletters for this series, as well as previous e-newsletters at www.fischeronfinance.com/resources.html.

Call us if you want more information on any of these topics.