Emergencies in personal financial planning | Most investors know that the financial planning process is a way to reach their financial goals if they follow it carefully. That is what this process is all about. Most of the time, we hear about people planning for retirement, their children’s college education, their marriage, buying a house, etc. as their financial goals. But some financial situations that have never happened before catching us by surprise and often shake up our finances. These are what you might call “unusual” money goals. Here are a few situations like this that I’ve seen in my job as an investment adviser.