Building a team to support your great life

Sage advice used to be that you needed to find a mentor to help you through your career choices. In today’s reality of multiple jobs, the ease of changing a career path and the sheer number of choices each of us face every day, one mentor may not be enough. The new approach is to build a team that can help you create a more intentional life.

Your relationships, your community, your work, all your choices should help you build toward your great life—as you define it and want it to be – while ensuring you can stay true to yourself along the way.

There’s no blueprint or roadmap to help us know if we’re always making the right decisions. But there is one thing you can do to help make it easier and that’s building a “life team.”

What Is a “Life Team” and Why Would You Need One?

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A life team is a hand-selected group of people who you believe can bring value to your life. These are people with myriad skills, experiences and strengths who can provide valuable, timely advice and help you navigate through the challenges and complexities of life.

Being able to learn from others and bounce ideas off each other can be beneficial to all parties, and having trusted professional relationships can help in many aspects of life. They can act as a sounding board for tough decisions, be there to help with decision-making, and provide emotional support when the going gets tough.

We’ve broken down the big areas where you may want to find counsel and support in different disciplines – but of course, all of these can work in multiple situations.

Building Your Financial Foundation

One aspect of your life team that may already be established is your financial team. This consists of professionals that can help navigate the financial side of life and typically includes roles such as a financial advisor, a CPA, and an attorney.

Since everyone has to file taxes, a CPA is usually one of the first relationships that gets established. However, CPAs and accountants usually do more than just taxes and can play a critical role when it comes to helping build your wealth.

And just like an accountant does more than just taxes, financial advisors typically do more than just investments. Having a trusted financial advisor in your corner may turn out to be one of the best investments you make because they help steer the ship in your financial life. From helping uncover and clarify your goals to helping manage financial risk to navigating inevitable changes in your life, your trusted financial advisor can be there with you through it all.

And when it comes to the legal aspect of finances, a trusted attorney is another professional relationship that can add value. One of the biggest aspects of your financial life that an attorney can help with is estate planning. You’ll want to get this started early, and keep them updated about your situation over time, so they can work with you and your financial advisor to adjust your estate plan as your life circumstances change.

Ideally, these three professionals will work in tandem to provide you with confidence and clarity in both your professional and your financial life.

Boosting your Career Asset

Most of us spend most of our time on a few core things – our family, our hobbies and passions, and our career. When it comes to our careers, it’s easy to begin feeling stuck or complacent and that’s where career and life mentors can play a vital role.

The typical role that a life coach plays is helping individuals feel more fulfilled by clarifying their goals, identifying what’s holding them back, and then coming up with strategies to help them move forward. If you’ve felt stuck in life or in your career, a life coach may be the unlock to success and happiness.

Mentors are valuable and you could benefit from more than one. With a career mentor, it’s wise to seek out someone who’s a few years ahead of you as well as someone who’s a couple decades ahead of you. The reason is because these relationships can help build perspectives that you wouldn’t have and through these conversations, you can create a history that speeds up your own learning curve so you can effectively develop and enhance your career asset.

The Takeaway

Through intentional relationship building, you can begin to form a team of people around you that can provide valuable advice and necessary feedback. When seeking out a life team, it’s important that you first understand your own weaknesses so you can determine the most impactful relationships to build. To get the most out of your life team, make sure you stay in regular contact and share updates, accomplishments, and challenges because this will make them feel like they’re a part of your story and your mission which will only increase the value of the relationship for everyone.

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The information contained herein is intended to be used for educational purposes only and is not exhaustive.  Diversification and/or any strategy that may be discussed does not guarantee against investment losses but are intended to help manage risk and return.  If applicable, historical discussions and/or opinions are not predictive of future events.  The content is presented in good faith and has been drawn from sources believed to be reliable.  The content is not intended to be legal, tax or financial advice.  Please consult a legal, tax or financial professional for information specific to your individual situation. This content not reviewed by FINRA.

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