With the new year comes new beginnings and, of course, new resolutions. For the past several weeks my social media has been flooded with friends claiming 2022 as “their year.” This is the year the baby weight will be gone, they’ll pay off debt, put themselves first, take charge of their destiny. Most people I know have goals of some sort, announced over social media or not, and that’s generally a good thing – goals give us something to work towards in life.
But goal setting is only going to get you so far unless you have a plan behind it. How are you going to reach that goal? Is there a timeline to complete it or an incentive to get it accomplished? Is it measurable?
Maybe 2022 is the year you are going to update and maintain records in your operation and pay closer attention to a budget. If you’ve never done that before, it can be a bit overwhelming Few people enjoy doing financial statements like balance sheets and profit and loss statements when asked to update them by their financial advisor, let alone keep at it on a regular basis. Thankfully, we live in a day and age when all sorts of technology literally sits at our fingertips. The days of a notebook on the dash and receipts stuffed in the glove box are going by the wayside.
December was full of meetings with clients and customers in which most of the conversations were some version of discovering ways to better their financial position in the upcoming year. Some will have a better chance of success than others. Why? They have a plan to get there, and most of those plans involved incorporating some sort of new technology to support it.
For some, that technology was as simple as using a computer spreadsheet to track what expenses were going out and what revenue was coming in. Some had budgets written in-to those spreadsheets to monitor how closely they were staying on track. Others had the information flow over to a balance sheet to show changes to assets and liabilities on a regular basis. Some had purchased software or were utilizing CPA firms to do the tracking for them.
With the vast array of apps out there for financial monitoring, strategizing and projections, I was not surprised to see several customers include them in their 2022 plans. Several apps are very technical and can monitor any type of financial need you can think of, while others are simpler and require little input from the user but can certainly still help them keep an eye on their financial situation. Regardless of the user’s savviness with technology, there is an app out there that they can grow comfortable using.
From my standpoint as a financial advisor, the use of technology for a client’s financial records is a boon. As anyone involved in the lending process knows, updated financials are a consistent request of lenders any time a client presents them with a new request. Utilizing technology to keep those records current can make that part of the lending process much better for all involved.
Jessica Allan is an agricultural lender and commercial relationship manager at Guaranty Bank in Carthage and Neosho, Mo. A
resident of Jasper County, she is also involved in raising cattle on her family’s farm in Newton County and is an active alum of the Crowder College Aggie Club. She may be reached at [email protected].
