I've already broken my new year's resolution...

I am one of those people who likes New Year’s resolutions. I know the New Year, New You is so cliche, but there is something exciting about getting the chance to start over.

This year the only new year’s resolution I made was to record my visual podcast Peace of Mind Planning at 12:30 CST on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month. Well low and behold, along comes the first Wednesday of 2022, and I missed it.

I feel like I had a good reason. We had a potential Covid exposure and I was on the hunt for a rapid test with me and my boys, but still, that is not how I wanted to start 2022.

It reminded me that January 1st really is a date on the calendar. The things that will improve your life or the actions you take every day. I heard this on a podcast from the founder of Getting Things Done, he said the whole system is really just answering and keeping track of 1 question: What’s the next step? Ask yourself what is the next step, and do it or write it down somewhere you will be able to find later. It is deceptively simple. But maybe it is something we can all do in 2022.

So if we apply that to estate planning, what is the next step? Maybe it is educating yourself about who needs to do estate planning. Maybe it is scheduling a consultation with a lawyer. But what if you don’t have any of that time. How about just gathering all your important account and property information in one place and telling your loved ones where to find it. Deceptively simple in theory, but have you done that?