Post Updated on July 15, 2026 by Taylor.

Ah, the plight of the Millennial: After growing up in an economic boom with the promise of an abundant future, many graduated college to greet a financial crisis that led to fewer employment opportunities, lower starting salaries, and slower year-over-year raises. 

Though the U.S. eventually recovered from the 2008 recession, many Millennials were confronted with a fear that they were too far behind to catch up with the rapidly increasing cost-of-living, from skyrocketing housing costs to pandemic-incited inflation.

It’s really no surprise, then, that the phrase, “Millennial Financial Planning” feels a bit like an oxymoron. Many high-earning Millennials struggle to identify as financially wealthy. 

In fact, there’s an actual term for this now: “HENRY,” which stands for “High Earners, Not Rich Yet” and applies to individuals who make between $250-$500k per year, but who have very little to claim by way of savings.

Don’t be a HENRY.

I understand the impulse not to spend time planning your financial goals. With so much in your sights, it can seem like a throw-away concept. You want to create more wealth, you want to buy a house, you want to retire early. Who has the time or bandwidth to focus on anything other than your immediate desires? 

The irony is that putting more concrete numbers to what you want—ie. financial goal setting—is exactly what you need to drive results quicker. Not to mention, it makes the wealth management process way more fun.

Nobody wants to be a HENRY. And if you’re making upwards of $250k per year, there’s no reason you can’t come up with a customizable financial plan to ensure you’re taken care of through old age. 

Even if you’re not playing within that income bracket, a sound financial plan can ensure you get the most out of the money you’re making now so that you have a better quality of life in the long-term.

The trick is to understand what the numbers mean and whether you’re in the ballpark to reach your financial vision or if you need to make some adjustments. 

That’s where financial planning comes in. 

Financial planning is inherently goals based. It’s the core element to how you build your wealth. It determines what direction you’re going. With the right insight, you can build wealth and sustain it for generations to come. 

The investment management piece is more about the tools you’ll need to help you build toward your goals. It’s vitally important, but hard to measure its true value when your goals, themselves, aren’t defined.

Financial Goal Setting Protects You from Life’s Inevitable Downturns

Nobody wants to believe they’ll get in a car accident, but most of us get car insurance anyway. Why? Because it’s a protection plan. One small mistake in the left-turn lane can flatline your finances. This is a concept most people understand. 

Financial planning offers similar protection for life’s unforeseen events that are less commonly talked about, but no less common. Think: losing a job because your company gets bought by a competitor, a divorce, or a sickness in the family that has a crippling economic impact. Even, perhaps, a mid-life crisis-fueled decision you can’t take back.

Nobody wants to believe these events could happen to them, but if you plan for the unplannable, it will create financial resilience you’ll thank yourself for later.

Real Life Happens to High Earners and Low Earners Alike

I’ve worked with a myriad of different types of clients, and the one part of my career I find myself reflecting on often is the time I spent helping folks in their early-to-mid 60s plan and save for retirement. My job was to help them with Social Security planning.

What shocked me most were the high earners, in particular, who didn’t have enough savings to rely on for retirement. This meant Social Security was their only means of income once they left their jobs for good. They had less in their retirement savings than you probably have in your checking account.

Every time I came across an individual in this position, I’d ask them to tell me a little about their financial journey. Invariably, they’d tell me a story about building a business and losing it, having a deal go wrong, losing money in the stock market, getting divorced, somebody getting sick, or having to leave a job to help an elderly parent. 

These are all legitimate unforeseen events, but every single person I asked would acknowledge that there could have been a way to protect themselves from that fate. 

They would all say the same thing; “I wish I’d met you sooner.”

Your “sooner” starts now.

It’s easy to think you can do it yourself, but having a wealth advisor on your team is one of the crucial elements of building wealth. Almost every single wealthy individual I’ve come across has a financial advisor of some kind. More often, they have multiple people in their corner. A team, if you will.

As you consider building your own team, here are some goal-planning fundamentals.

The foundational steps in financial planning: timing out your financial goals.

One key way to avoid planning fatigue is to break your wealth management goals into smaller brackets, or timelines. 

I like to think of this as the “do the next right thing” strategy. If you (or a littler person you know) are a fan of Frozen 2, you’ll recognize this phrase. But I love referencing that quote when discussing wealth management strategies because it keeps you from getting too overwhelmed by the “big thing.” 

Just do the next thing. Do it well—and do it correctly—and you’ll find building a comprehensive financial plan is that much easier.

Short-Term Financial Goals (1-3 years)

It’s as important to set short-term goals as it is long-term goals. Short term financial goals include examples like buying a house, getting a higher paying job or pay raise, investing in home renovations, saving for that wild excursion you’ve had on your bucket list, or paying off debt.

Intermediate Financial Goals (5-15 years)

You can think of your intermediate financial goals as a sort of 10-year plan. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? This might include starting a business, building a real estate portfolio, or entering into a new career.

Long-Term Financial Goals (Retirement and Beyond)

Long-term financial goals aren’t solely about solidifying your own nest egg, they might also include saving for your baby’s college education or starting a trust fund that can be passed to another generation. Generally speaking, these are the goals that ensure you’ll be living easy in your golden years with funds to spare (and share).

Each stage requires a financial objective (aka: concrete numbers).

I always recommend putting a hard dollar amount and timeline on each of your financial goals, whether they’re short or long term. 

Think of it like a math equation. You might want $1M in the bank by the time you’re 55 years old. Great. Now you can work backwards to figure out how to grow your wealth to reach that dollar amount within the time allotted. 

This is also where it’s helpful to have a financial advisor at your fingertips—they work with this math all day long. Let them confirm what’s realistic and offer additional suggestions.

The Unexpected Perk of Financial Planning

I often say that while the end goal—building wealth—is important, it’s actually less important than what you learn along the way. As you map out your goals, you’re going to make decisions around where you invest your money, how you do it, and what kind of returns actualize from your choices.

The gains here are broader than you can imagine because with every step you take, you’re going to acquire incredible knowledge and financial wisdom that will drive your future decisions. 

This is another reason why the “do the next right thing” strategy hits the mark so well. The concept of stacking good decisions on top of each other is a paramount part of building wealth: stack what you know. The insights you gain are reflected in the returns you see.

Millennials: You Still Have Time

Strange as it is to say, Millennials are rapidly approaching their ‘mid-life crisis’ phase—some are already there. If you fall into this camp, you don’t want the temptation to buy that flashy new Airstream trailer to thwart your long-term financial success. 

The great news is: it doesn’t have to. If you’re willing to embrace the phrase ‘Millennial Financial Planning’ as a hack to finally free yourself from HENRY status, it can set you up to ensure you retire rich and enjoy your mid-life crisis moment along the way.

If you’re in your mid-30s or 40s and you haven’t yet done a lot of financial planning or goal planning, it will play a huge part in your journey to creating greater wealth. This is a foundational element that Four Points Wealth Management can help you with—we can help guide you in making those decisions, set you up to “stack what you know,” and ultimately grow your wealth to new heights.