While you may need to quickly adjust your financial “sails” occasionally to respond to unexpected life changes, there are many other events that you can prepare for in advance to make future course corrections much easier. Here’s a review of six major life events that can alter your financial plans – plus some actions you can take now to make sure you’re prepared for the future.

In our daily lives we are accustomed to a certain sequence of events; we expect everything to have a beginning, followed by the middle, and concluding with an end. Between the ending of the old and the beginning of the new, there is an unknown area...