Posted: 11th May 2015
Next to health, looking after your money will have more impact on your quality of life than any other life skill.
Yet money itself isn’t that important. All right, it is important but only to the extent that it allows you to enjoy what actually is important to you. And not worrying about your finances is central to having a life that excites you, nurtures those you love and fulfils your aspirations.
The financial planning profession has moved on a long way since the early days of sharp-suited salesmen (and they were usually men) selling dodgy life policies and dubious investment plans. The modern planner is qualified, experienced and trained to help clients create a workable plan and then see it through to a conclusion.
Whilst understanding investment, tax and pensions is essential, today’s planners are also trained in other skills. A plan is defined as ‘a series of actions designed to achieve a given result.’ So discovering what’s most important to you and identifying your future goals and aspirations comes first in the financial planning process.
It’s great to see more women taking control and running their own businesses but they, too, can fall into the old trap of letting their business start to run them instead of the other way around. Doing your own thing is great but it’s easy to get your work/life balance too heavily weighted towards work – with damaging results for your health, motivation, management of money and ultimately the quality of your life.
Your financial planner is uniquely placed to help you re-examine what’s important to you – and then create a plan to achieve it. Make sure you choose a planner with a clearly defined process to help understand your goals.
If you are in business a financial planner can inspire you with your own vision of where you want to be and work alongside you to get there.
Sue Richardson
