Are you living an intentional life? I remember back in 1995, I had been working with a National Company in the financial services field. It was a job. I was seeing clients on a regular basis, but I didn’t feel like I was making the overall impact that I should have been making. I hadn’t yet chosen an intentional life.
The reason I am bringing up the idea of an intentional life today is the importance that it takes in determining what direction you should take in your life regarding your overall planning with the life insurance asset.
I can talk about the flexibility of having money available in the event of an opportunity arising. I can also talk about having money available in the event that I have an emergency thrusted upon me, and have the comfort of having ready money that is safe, sound, secure, and is not at risk. But the question that I would have to ask first is, what is your intentional planning? What is your intentional life directing you to do?
If you’re just going with the flow, as it has been said many times, maybe there is no intentionality. But if you have an intentional life, you’re willing to do what is required to do above and beyond just showing up for work. In 1995, I had to make a decision. I walked away from a job, from a future pension, from a 401(k) match, and I started at ground zero with no clients and one big goose egg. If fact, it was worse than a goose egg. What I actually had was an $8,000 business loan that I had just qualified for at an interest rate of 10.5%, the going rate for a business loan for an unknown entity at that time. I was worried every single month when I needed to pay $170 rent for a one-room office located in the basement of a dental office, which is where I began my private practice, but I was focused on intentionality. I was focused on having an intentional life.
Today, I can look at a commercial building that we own. I can look at our staff. I can look at the impact that we have made with so many different lives, but it was because of an intentional life. An intentional life that focused on helping others and making sure that they would be secure, as I had found security as well.
Inside the life insurance policy is the security that I had built over time, making sure that money would be set aside in a safe, liquid location, that in the event of emergencies, like the great recession of 2008-2009, the pandemic of 2020; that in the event that I needed cash, it would be readily available and not held for ransom in a long term retirement program that I had little or no access to.
The secure money within the life insurance asset has also provided me opportunity. When an opportunity would arise, I would be able to act upon it without having to jump the hurdles required by a bank through applying and trying to get a business loan. Instead of having to go to my banker, I just needed to go to myself because I had an intentional plan.
How have you created intentionality in your life? Have you created an intentional life? Do you have a plan of action that provides you liquidity, safety, security for both you and your family? If not, today is the day to become intentional.
