Your New Year Goal: Make a Financial Plan

Many of us like to make New Year’s resolutions and lists of things we want to do. As it’s now mid—December, we’re challenging you to think about 2023 and make a commitment to get your finances in good shape for next year.

No matter how wealthy you are, good financial management can make a huge difference to what you feel you can afford to do or have in your life, so is an enabler to other plans and goals. It can be difficult to make good spending decisions if you don’t have a clear picture of how much you’ve got and how much you’ll need in future.

Whatever your level of wealth, a financial plan means you know what you can spend and what you need to save and/or invest.

With a good financial planner as your guide, it’s easier to stick to your plan and make your lifestyle goals come to life. Very often, you can afford to do more than you think, simply because your plan has properly accounted for spending and saving for the short and long-term. The value of this plan cannot be under-estimated, it enables you to live with less worry and a greater sense of financial freedom.

How can we help you achieve your financial goals?

The first point to stress is that our unusual approach to financial planning means that financial goals are always superseded by lifestyle goals.

When we have a clear picture of how you wish to live, we can help you align your financial plan.

All too often, financial advisory firms start and end their work with the perseveration and growth of your wealth. Whilst this is important, we tend to work with families who want to use wealth to ‘grab life’.

So the first step is to help you build a picture of what your ideal lifestyle looks like – we call it the ‘inspired vision’.

It’s not always easy to build this inspired vision, but our financial planners are used to helping clients get clear on their priorities through our unique financial planning process, WealthPlan™.

Benefits of WealthPlan™

• Know how much money you need to support your current and future lifestyle
  Understand how much you should spend, invest and save to create financial security for you and your family
• Enjoy your wealth now and live with greater freedom
  Stop forfeiting what is important to you because you fear running out of money

There are four pillars to WealthPlan™, each is designed to assess each area of your fiannces to ensure they’re aligned and supportive of your goals.

Pillar 1 – financial planning
Ensure your finances are directed towards your goals and objectives. We’ll help you develop a clear understanding of your income and outgoings, so you can spend and save more strategically.

Pillar 2 – life planning
Evaluate what is important to you and your family so your fiannces can be arrange dto facilitate your future, planning for life-changing events like weddings, travel, private education and moving house as well as your everyday lifestyle.

Pillar 3 – business/career planning
Align your business/career plan with your personal financial plan so you can see where and how your company/work is contributing to your wealth and the things you want to do in life.

Pillar 4 – risk planning
Assess your income, insurance and financial security so you can remove worry and stress, conquer risks and build solid foundations for you and your family.

The process

To begin the WealthPlan™ process, we usually host an initial meeting (free of charge) where we’ll start to explore your financial circumstances and what you would like to achieve from a personal financial plan.

At the next stage, Discovery, we gain a deep understanding of your vision, values and beliefs and start to explore short, medium and long-term financial goals, building a clearer picture of your existing financial arrangements.

The next stage is for us to develop your financial plan, underpinned by a detailed and accurate model of your financial circumstances now and into the future. For this, we use financial modelling software to provide an accurate picture of your long-term financial future.

This software helps you to see major foreseeable financial events, either income or expenditure, so you can see the impact on your long-term financial wellbeing. It means you can experiment with different scenarios and see the impact which takes all the guesswork out of major financial and lifestyle decisions.

One your strategy is agreed we will implement your financial plan and provide ongoing support, if needed. The value of ongoing support is that you get the help you need to keep your actions in line with your plan. So, whenever a major financial decision has to be made, we can test it against your lifestyle goals, helping you to make good decisions with confidence.

What to do next?

If you’d like to get a financial plan in place for 2023, speak to us today and book an appointment with one of our experienced financial planners. They will be able to explain our process in more detail and help you begin to think more clearly about your money.