Ready or not, the New Year is here, so let’s make 2016 the best year yet! We wish you a very happy New Year and hope you enjoyed the many local festivities this past Holiday season. We look forward to continuing our meaningful – and “real” – conversations about money throughout 2016.
During the holiday season our families enjoyed the Roswell Christmas Tree Lighting, volunteering our time for NFCC’s “Santa Shop”, ice skating at Avalon, and performing in the Nutcracker at the Roswell Cultural Arts Center. As a firm we are also pleased to be sponsoring the 4-concert series of Joe Gransden and his 16-Piece Big Band at the same venue. Their “This Christmas” show was spectacular. The spirit of the Holidays truly shines here in North Fulton.
Speaking of our local communities, it’s hard to ignore that we live within a “bubble” here in North Fulton. By that we mean the appearance of significant wealth we all see around us. We’ve had conversations with many that ask - are all our neighbors really that well off? On the surface, it may seem as though all is well, and it is true for some, but not all. If we look “under the hood”, there are many of our neighbors who are dealing with real financial concerns as a result of uninformed decisions, illnesses, college expenses, struggling marriages, bad spending or debt choices and others. These are all real issues that can affect anyone and serve as our purpose for these columns.
Our goal for this column, in the coming year, is to deliver practical real-life examples to help you navigate your financial journey wisely. Our own personal journeys in 2015 included financial decisions regarding car purchases, buying versus remodeling a home, selling versus renting an existing home, and discussions about public versus private school. And guess what, we helped each other think through these big money decisions that involve hundreds of thousands of dollars, along with questions about debt, interest rates, down payment amounts, investing, buying versus leasing, etc.
Are you comfortable going it alone to make the best decisions for your situation? If not, consider the power of having a real person, a financial partner, to walk alongside you on your journey. To us, solid financial advice starts with a handshake not a website login.
Happy New Year!