Nugent & Associates is a comprehensive financial services firm committed to helping you improve your long-term financial success. Our customized programs are designed to manage your wealth by delivering an unprecedented level of personalized service.

Imagine yourself trapped in a maze filled with twists and turns, blind alleys, and dead ends. Wouldn’t exiting it be simpler if you had a map and compass to guide you? Your financial life can be a maze, and a personal financial plan is the map and compass that can help guide you through that maze.

Individuals use a variety of investment, risk management, and tax planning strategies to meet their financial goals. Those goals change over a person’s lifetime, and a flexible financial plan can be modified as circumstances change.

The Nature of Personal Financial Planning

Personal financial planning helps individuals and families reach goals that require money to achieve, such as having adequate retirement income or resources to cover college expenses. With good planning, most people find they can achieve their desired standard of living and meet their financial goals in a timely and orderly fashion.

Many people conduct financial planning on an ad hoc basis. For example, parents may fail to put aside money for a child’s college education until the child’s final year in high school. A family may begin saving for the purchase of a home but then have to divert the savings to the expenses of daily living following a job loss. A father with young children could fail to plan adequately for the death of his spouse and have to suddenly adjust to unforeseen child care expenses. A sound financial plan can reduce or eliminate the financial stress of these situations. Comprehensive personal financial planning focuses on allocating resources toward the achievement of financial goals in a systematic manner. Goals are first established and then prioritized. Once the set of priorities is determined, individuals can develop plans to meet those financial goals in the desired order.

Financial goals often create conflicts because individuals have limited resources to achieve their goals. Resources devoted to current consumption are resources that will not be available to fund future consumption. This year’s dream vacation takes away funds that could be used to provide for retirement. However, some financial goals can be complementary to one another. Under current tax laws, certain forms of retirement savings can also be used for the purchase of a first home or for college expenses. That means that savings put aside in a retirement savings account may be available to meet other goals.

Financial planning is a continuous process, because goals and priorities change over time. An individual or family may meet one financial goal sooner than expected and then be able to divert resources toward other goals, or an individual or family may be unable to meet a goal and have to adjust priorities. For example, a family setting aside 20 percent of every paycheck in a retirement account may suddenly need to provide in-home care for elderly parents. That change in priorities would require diverting funds from future consumption to current consumption.

Throughout the financial planning process, individuals and families must remain aware of the effect of current tax policies on the financial plan. Changes in tax policies may require that priorities be rearranged or that financial plans be altered. Risk management planning is also an important element of financial planning, and risk management planning and tax planning affect investment strategies.

Successful financial planning is a process that integrates all of these diverse elements into a coherent and dynamic road map for achieving financial goals over an entire lifetime.

Personal Financial Planning Goals

Before developing financial action plans, an individual or a family should establish personal financial goals. After establishing these goals, priorities for the goals are determined to guide decisions regarding the timing for achieving those goals as part of the overall comprehensive financial plan.

For example, suppose a family has two goals. First, it wants to fund the college education of two children. Second, it wants to save money to purchase a retirement home after the children complete college. The family will not purchase the retirement home before the children graduate from college. Therefore, establishing and building the college fund takes priority over establishing and building the fund for a retirement home. If the family cannot begin to fund both concurrently because of budget constraints, the comprehensive financial plan will first focus on the college fund and, once that goal is achieved, will shift focus to the retirement-home fund.

Financial goals and the priorities attached to those goals differ by person and by family and also change over time. For some people, improving their current standard of living is the most important financial goal. For others, saving for retirement is the primary financial goal. Improving their current standard of living might be an additional, but secondary, financial goal. However, most people have these basic financial goals throughout their lives:

  • Provide for the basic essentials of living (food, clothing, and shelter). Basic living expenses must be met before other non-essential goals are addressed.
  • Protect against loss of income or wealth caused by injury, illness, or death. Risk management techniques are essential to protect the individual or family from losing the gains they have already achieved.

After providing for these basic financial goals, other financial goals may include these:

  • Paying off student loans or credit card debt
  • Purchasing a home or making other major asset purchases
  • Funding college expenses
  • Building wealth
  • Saving for retirement

Finally, individuals may establish goals related to the distribution of their assets after death. Estate planning goals may include providing for the future care of disabled dependents, passing wealth on to future generations, or providing funds to favored charities.

Feel free to review the topics below to better understand how Nugent & Associates can help you.

Financial Planning


At Nugent & Associates, we're not just number crunchers. We bring over 3 decades of invaluable certified public accounting and tax expertise to your company – serving as business and financial strategists who can offer such services as tax and financial planning, investment advice, diligent financial records, and help with estate planning.

Even better, we will give you time to focus on what you do best: running the day-to-day operations that drive your business toward success.

Take advantage of our FREE and no obligation business checkup.

We will visit you at your business at a time and day convenient for you, analyze your numbers, discuss your goals and concerns and report back with a complimentary detailed written analysis to help your business succeed!

At Nugent & Associates, we're not just number crunchers. Our people bring decades of invaluable certified public accounting and financial and tax expertise to you – offering tax and financial strategies to individuals such as yourself. If you have any questions or concerns about your own tax, financial or investment matters, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Experienced tax and financial experts are not just for the super rich. At a reasonable fee you too can maximize your wealth and receive professional guidance for retirement, and/or any tax issues you may be facing, no matter your situation, with a tax and financial expert as your consultant.

Contact Nugent & Associates today. We don't charge for phone calls. You may just find you found an ally in your quest to have a great financial future.

After all, at Nugent & Associates, we succeed when you succeed!


Disclaimer:

PLEASE READ THE FULL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS WEBSITE BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE.

This page is intended to be informational. This website, nor any of the information contained on this site constitutes professional, business, tax or legal advice and is not a substitute for such advice nor does it create a professional-client relationship between you and Nugent & Associates.

State and federal laws change frequently, and the information in this page may not reflect your own state’s laws or the most recent changes to the law.

The information contained within this website should not be considered as a solicitation or an offer for a professional-client relationship. Materials contained in this website are of a general nature and should not be substituted for professional advice. Nugent & Associates is providing this website and the information contained herein only as a convenience to you. Nugent & Associates assumes no liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions contained within this website. There is no guarantee that the information included on this site is current, accurate, complete, useful, or reliable.

Tax Planning & Preparation

We assist our clients in individual and business tax planning throughout the year.

Nugent & Associates provides:
  • Year-Round analysis to ensure a smooth and predictable year-end close.
  • Assist in establishing retirement planning.
  • Performs in-depth review of all deductions available.

Monthly/Quarterly
Financial Statements


Nugent & Associates offers outstanding accounting services and acts as a quasi-controller for companies who do not employ their own full-time accountants.

This allows our clients with more time to focus on new services, new customers and other core business issues.

Business Planning, Budgeting
& Growth Strategies


Nugent & Associates assists it clients with:
  • Starting a new venture, product or service
  • Expanding a current organization, product or service
  • Buying a new business, product or service
  • Turning around a declining business

QuickBooks Training
& Support Services


As Certified QuickBooks Professional Advisors, we can be of assistance with QuickBooks accounting or payroll and help increase your productivity and efficiency.