In the article entitled Touchy-Feely Finances: How to Find Out What You Really Want From Your MoneyPreview the document you learned about an idea that originates with Bill Bachrach in “Values-Based Financial Planning”. He talks about using a series of questions to delve progressively deeper into the psychology of a retirement saver. If you become a financial professional, it is imperative for your professional success that you form relationships with your clients. They are people and not just someone needing a billable service.

You need two “clients” for this project. Identify them as “Client 1” and “Client 2” in your paper… no real names, please.

CLIENT 1: someone who is young and has likely not yet begun planning for retirement. This person will preferably be either a peer of yours or roughly college-aged. They cannot be a student who has taken financial planning classes as you are.

CLIENT 2: someone in your life who is approximately 5 to 15 years away from retirement. 
Once you have identified your two target clients, you need to ask them a series of progressively deeper questions. The intention is for you to get to know your “clients” in a more intimate way. Focus on finding out what their retirement goals are, how have they begun to prepare, how adequate is their preparation, and what emotions do they exhibit surrounding the concept of retirement.

Bill Bachrach begins with the question, What is important about money to you? I would like you to begin with, What are your top two retirement goals? If someone were to answer with, My top two goals are to have a comfortable retirement and to travel extensively. Then your follow up question should be, How would you feel if you achieved these goals? Then when they respond, ask why that feeling is important. Try alternating between why something is important and how it would make them feel. Go through 3 or 4 levels if your subject is willing. After you dig down to a core emotion linked to the desired retirement outcome, ask your subject if there is a certain financial dollar amount that would correspond with the stated emotion. If the subjects base emotion is fear, then ask what minimum dollar amount in retirement would make them feel fear-free. This exercise will help you to become better acquainted with your subject, and it will benefit both the professional and the client.

What do you need to include in your paper?

1.The first labeled section of your paper should be for Client 1. Discuss what you learned from them.

2.The second labeled section of your paper should be for Client 2. Discuss what you learned from them. You can also contrast the differences between the two in this second section.

3.The last section of your paper should detail what you learned from this process overall.