 So it's wise to assume that you're going to encounter some financial surprises that you need to be prepared for, whether it's a market crash that you didn't expect, a significant expense for a home repair, a tax bill that you didn't see coming. You know, what about today's inflation rate that maybe you didn't see coming? Good financial planning will help reduce the number of surprises you face by alerting you to issues that actually could have been foreseen.