Financial Planning & Retirement
Financially speaking, we've got systems not convictions.
By Andrew Burmon
37.27% Work With a Financial Planner
31.37% Work With an Accountant
86.45% Frequently Check Credit Card Balance
87.25% Reporting Financial Planners Helping
Upper Middle ’s “Financial Planning” Survey examined how members of the financial semi-elite set financial goals and pursue them over time .
By decoupling goal setting from goal-pursuing behaviors, the survey sought to understand which behaviors are habitual or performative and which are associated with confidence in long-term results.
While the vast majority of survey respondents engaged in goal-setting behavior, significantly fewer demonstrated belief that their actions would leave to them achieving those goals.
This “conviction gap” is best explained as a lack of hope, which psychologist Martin Seligman defined as the ability to see problems as temporary and specific.
Organized planners – whether self-directed or assisted by certified financial planners – didn’t do more, but did act more hopeful.
Taken together, the survey data suggests a group that is hard-working, numerate, and goal-oriented, but facing in the wrong direction.
The highest ranked financial goal was “Making More” (composite score of 4.7 out of 5), followed by “Investing Smarter” (4.2), “Spending Less” (4.1), and “Retirement Planning” (3.9).
Those focused on “Making More” not only did not report higher incomes, they reported lower levels of financial diligence and were less likely to report both living below their means having organized their financial data.
Priorities did not affect tracking behavior and the findings don’t suggest that ambition is irrational.
Rather, they underscore the hazards of focussing on the least controllable financial input, an attitude particularly common among those in sales and business development roles.
This gap between goals and agency produces a familiar psychological disconnect between behavior and belief.
When the primary goal is the least controllable input, even responsible financial behavior starts to feel beside the point.
Roughly one half of survey respondents reported working with a financial professional: 37.27% reported working with a financial planner and 31.37% self-reported working with an accountant.
Planner usage was strongly correlated with net worth , not income; 43.6% of respondents with $1M-$2.5M in net worth and most (56.4%) of those with $2.5M+ reported planner use.
Accountant usage was more closely correlated with income.
Both planner (87.25%) and accountant (85.06%) relationships were widely characterized as “helpful.” Planning-frequency data helps clarify why.
Planner users self-reported engaging in planning less frequently than non-users 5 .
Nearly two-thirds of respondents planning annually (63.33%) worked with a planner, compared with half of those planning quarterly (50%) and a third of those planning monthly (34.40%).
This explains why planner use was correlated with self-reported discipline, but not necessarily confidence in a retirement timeline.
Planners and accountants don’t change the financial picture.
