There's almost a dark valley that we travel through as adults from the day we

graduate high school and don't realize that we're the CEO of our

financial lives forever more all the way through to when we have children and

start to realize wow it's not just me I've got responsibilities and I need to

have a plan.

I'm Chris Hill and that was Motley Fool's CEO Tom Gardner. Think about how much

time you spent planning your last vacation. Now ask yourself how much time

have you spent planning your financial future. On this episode of Motley Fool

Money, Amanda Kish, a financial planning specialist, joins Tom Gardner to

discuss one of the most important and underappreciated parts of our

investing journeys building a financial plan. They talk about the key steps you

can take and how to get started.

Imagine that you've decided to go camping with your family or a couple

friends. Let's suppose you've chosen Grand Teton National Park in Jackson, Wyoming.

It's a sunny day in April and you park your car and you meet up together at the

Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center. You've got the entire week ahead and

you make your way up Taggart Lake Trail with the dream of seeing the world from a

top-grand Teton at more than 13,000 feet in the air. There's one problem. You

don't have a plan. No maps, no tents, no bear spray. You've got a couple of

water bottles. You're in flip flops. You have a frisbee, but there's no

reliable cell service. Oh, and in April in Grand Teton National Park in the

evening, the temperature falls below freezing. So you probably wouldn't want to

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