The beginning of the year is an exciting time for making fresh resolutions and conquering financial goals, including growing your brokerage business. Are you also considering how you’ll tackle your personal financial goals?
Everyone needs to plan for their long-term financial security. Among real estate professionals, however, that can be tricky. This industry may offer exceptional opportunities to build wealth, but you also face extraordinary personal responsibility to manage and plan for your financial future. Did you know that NAR recently unveiled a new member benefit, an online resource that helps REALTORS® maximize their wealth and achieve their retirement goals?
The Center for REALTOR® Financial Wellness is not a substitute for professional financial consulting services, but it does provide powerful tools and convenient access to financial planning resources tailored to real estate professionals. The Center for REALTOR® Financial Wellness helps you establish highly personalized goals and navigate an individualized path toward financial security.
For example, are you considering one or more of these goals in 2021?
- Retirement Planning
Planning for retirement is a complicated endeavor that involves researching and selecting the best account options, determining how to fund your account, diversifying your assets, maximizing contributions, and more.
In the Center for REALTOR® Financial Wellness, you can tackle each component of retirement planning, selecting among specific goals, then utilizing powerful tools for completing each step and scratching them off your list.
- Real Estate Investing
The Center for REALTOR® Financial Wellness also includes goal-setting resources to learn about real estate investing, such as exploring REITs as an investment, understanding 1031 exchanges, down payment options and acquiring an investment property.
Before proceeding with a real estate investment, however, you may want to take REBAC’s one-day course called Real Estate Investing: Build Wealth Representing Investors and Becoming One Yourself. For current dates and locations, visit training4re.com.
- Succession Planning
When mapping out an exit strategy, your goals may include finding a successor, completing a business valuation, preparing your book of business for sale, or putting a business exit plan in place—topics you’ll find in the Center for REALTOR® Financial Wellness.
Coaching Your Agents
As a broker, your financial success is integrally linked with your agents’ financial success. Encourage them to visit the Center for REALTOR® Financial Wellness, since it includes many tools that can help agents navigate their financial freedom.
For example, new agents may want to explore questions like:
- How much money can I expect to make as a real estate agent?
- What tax deductions should a real estate agent know about?
- How much of my commissions should I set aside?
The Center for REALTOR® Financial Wellness also includes a “Wellness Checkup” for a quick, initial snapshot of your current situation. The “Financial Journey” provides an engaging and risk-free way to explore the consequences of various decisions.
It’s important to note that while the site provides many helpful resources, it isn’t an investment site. You’ll want to consult with financial planning experts for additional insights and to execute your plan.
Financial wellness doesn’t need to be complicated and overwhelming. Turn to the Center for REALTOR® Financial Wellness to inform and empower your financial goals in 2019 and beyond. Visit www.FinancialWellness.realtor.
Marc D. Gould is senior vice president of Member Development for NAR, overseeing a wide range of professional development programs for REALTORS®, including the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (REBAC). REBAC is the world’s largest association of real estate professionals focusing specifically on representing the real estate buyer. With more than 30,000 active members, REBAC awards the Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR®) designation to REALTORS® who have completed the specialized education and documented experience in working with consumers purchasing a home. To learn more, visit REBAC.net.
