Setting Sail...My New Career is Launched!!!

A ship in harbor is safe -- but that is not what ships are built for.

John A. Shedd, Salt from My Attic, 1928

I recently heard a metaphor that compared a ship in a harbor to our financial lives. So often we choose to sail in the safety of the harbor, rather than venture out to experience the possibilities beyond, because we are scared of the unknown, potential buffetings of the great blue ocean. As we view the ship as our financial lives, I would like to add the idea that all too often we never leave the dock. Preferring the safety and solidity of land during the storms of life that inevitably come. Then we wonder why our financial ship is sinking, having been thrashed against the dock and rocks on the shoreline in our neglect. 

Today, I set sail. I enrolled my first client in my new career of Personal Financial Coach. So far I am still in the harbor since my first client is a dear relative of mine, but my course is set and I am headed straight for the strait that lies between me and the sea of humanity beyond. I can hardly wait to see how my vessel handles! She is completely mine. Designed from the ground up upon what I consider to be true and eternal principles such as love, stewardship, accountability, spirituality, service... The world so often seems to miss the boat regarding these fundamental principles preferring to make decisions based upon profits and increasing shareholder value (as measured in dollars). They fail to factor in less measurable but truer, deeper, thicker value such as the joy that comes from deep, loving relationships, the joy that comes from service to those we love, the peace that comes when we know we are doing what is right in the sight of God. No amount of money can ever replace the value of these. 

Ben