If you’re a high-income executive or business owner, chances are you’re juggling multiple financial decisions at once — taxes, equity compensation, retirement planning, your business cash flow, your estate… the list is endless.
If you’re a high-income executive or business owner, chances are you’re juggling multiple financial decisions at once — taxes, equity compensation, retirement planning, your business cash flow, your estate… the list is endless.
So how do you know what to tackle first?
Most people try to solve everything at once — which leads to decision fatigue, delays, and missed opportunities. But here’s the truth:
The key to smart financial planning isn’t doing more. It’s knowing what matters now.
As a Certified Financial Planner™ who specializes in helping executives and entrepreneurs, I use a phased process to help clients make progress — not get paralyzed.
Let me walk you through the framework.
🔍 Step 1: Urgent vs. Important — Use the Decision Matrix
The first thing I do with new clients is break their financial to-do list into 4 categories using a classic tool: the Urgent vs. Important Matrix.
| Urgent | Not Urgent | |
| Important | RSUs vesting soon Filing taxes Refinancing debt |
Estate planning Exit strategy Business succession |
| Not Important | Admin tasks Low ROI spending decisions |
Overanalyzing investment performance |
Most wealth-building happens in the “Important but Not Urgent” quadrant.
But many clients spend too much time putting out fires in the top left box — urgent and reactive tasks.
🛠️ Step 2: Chunk Planning into Phases
Trying to solve everything at once is a recipe for chaos. That’s why our planning process breaks the financial plan into manageable phases:
This way, we focus on the most pressing 1–2 issues first, like:
Then we move on to long-term planning like estate structures, business succession, or tax optimization.
📊 Step 3: Use a 90-Day Planning Horizon
I encourage every client to ask this one question every quarter:
“What are the top 2 financial decisions I need to make in the next 90 days?”
That might be:
Short-term clarity leads to long-term confidence.
🚀 Final Thought: Progress Over Perfection
Financial planning isn’t about perfection — it’s about momentum. You don’t have to know all the answers. You just need a clear process and a trusted partner to walk through it with you.
That’s exactly what we help our clients do.
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