When Creedence Clearwater Revival sang “Someday Never Comes,” the band was implying while we can understand much in time, for others, that someday never comes. With financial planning, the question is, “What is holding you back from doing the things that matter most to you, because someday might never come?”

I will never forget my parents fixing up our dark, dreary basement laundry room to ready their house for sale. My mother spent years down there taking care of our family’s laundry. Why did they put off doing something that could make her life better, but for potential financial benefit, they took care of it for the next owners? What is an investment in yourself you can make today in case someday never comes?

Robert Earl Keen revealed in “I’m Comin’ Home” the lyrics, “Ain’t nothin’ better than your own backyard. I’m coming home to you.” It isn’t inconsistent to invest in what is most important to you while also wanting what you have. An insatiable need for what’s next leaves us unsettled with what’s now. If what’s now is enough, you might never need to fill the hole of what’s next.

Bryan Adams suggested in “Summer of ’69″: “Ain’t no use in complainin’ when you got a job to do. Spent my evenings down at the drive-in. And that’s when I met you.” Bad things happen all the time in financial planning. We lose jobs, spouses, money. But we never know how it will eventually settle. One of our clients begrudgingly sold a Florida home to move back to Minnesota. The client’s daughter later learned of her breast cancer diagnosis here, and she had the support and care of her parents because of that sale.

This is not to diminish the bad things that happen to us or the pain they cause. It is only to point out impermanence is the one aspect we can count on in an ever-evolving life. Hardships today don’t mean hardships forever.

When Bruce Springsteen in “Backstreets” sang how we were “trying to learn to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be,” he reminds us many of our money choices are satisfying expectations we believe others have for us. We have created financial standards through imitation of what success looks like rather than what success is. To copy is to find acceptance. We are compelled to mimic what those around us are showing. Make your financial choices for yourself rather than for how others will interpret them.

Dan Fogelberg in “Leader of the Band” sang, “My life has been a poor attempt to imitate the man. I’m just a living legacy to the leader of the band.” One of the most significant things you can do for your family is to write a legacy letter, outlining what has been important to you in your life, why you made certain choices, and how you appreciate what your family has given you. These letters are not to be lectures or prescriptive but rather a reflection of your personal values. It is something your children might have suspected about you, but leaving them something that reflects your voice is an invaluable inheritance.

And my favorite musical poet, Leonard Cohen, sang in his song “Anthem”: “Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” We are going to make good financial decisions and bad ones. We are going to have financial regrets. We are going to mess up with our money. But we are not aiming for perfection. If you are assessing your choices and recalibrating those inconsistent with your values, you will shine a light on a better financial future.

Financial podcasts are great, but so is learning from rock ‘n’ roll.

Ross Levin is the founder of Accredited Investors Wealth Management in Edina. He can be reached at ross@accredited.com.