It’s easy to think about a financial plan and consider the elements that typically go into it. For instance, we could picture a plan that consists of a retirement savings product, life and health insurance, investment portfolios, and maybe a few things like trusts, wills and estate plans. Or, we could think about what a financial plan can help us avoid, and help us achieve. When we think of our financial plan in terms of the […]
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What’s changed in your life?
WHERE TRUE FINANCIAL PLANNING STARTS One of the best ways to make any constructive change or difference in the direction of our lives is to take a moment to observe what’s currently going on. Life whizzes by so quickly that if we don’t check in with ourselves, we will find it hard to observe and articulate what has changed. Financial planning, if done right, should start in the same place. Rather than beginning a financial planning […]
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Don’t let tax get you down
We all know that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes. Even after we’ve gone, taxes are still levied against our estate. The more money we make, the more money the taxman looks to take. Tax can be a serious stumbling block in our financial mindset, especially when we think about all the ways in which we are taxed, where that money goes and how it is ultimately invested into our community, whether […]
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The importance of being intentional
If we don’t stand for something, we will fall for anything. Essentially, our actions will either result from what we choose, or what is chosen for us. Our days are packed full of communication and actions. From the moment we engage with our mobile device or open our emails, messages begin to stream in and affect us. We will either be triggered into action by what we engage with or choose to follow our own intended […]
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Four ways to measure your fortune
We often don’t worry about something until we realise that it’s limited. If we have lots of something, it’s a fortune. If we don’t, it can become a focus of concern and anxiety. Young children generally don’t worry about much if their needs are met. With access to their parents’ love, attention and confidence, children have much of the social affirmation they need. When school starts and they are placed in a room with lots of […]
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The best time to live
“Remember the past, plan for the future, but live for today, because yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.” The best time to live is in the present. It’s easy to get lost in a daydream of how life could have been different or how good life used to be. It’s equally easy to succumb to the speculative dreaming of what might happen in the future. Believing in a better future is hope, and being […]
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Catastrophising and how to manage it
Have you ever gone down a rabbit hole on social media? You know, that moment when you see something triggering and you click on it, and then scroll down through the comments, becoming wholly engrossed in a conversation that turns out to be a waste of time and emotional energy. While we’re in that moment, we’re often completely unaware of how it’s affecting us. Catastrophising is a little like that. We can all be affected by […]
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Ask yourself these questions BEFORE switching funds
As financial planning conversations deepen and explore more value, we find ourselves moving from the empirical to the emotional, from processes to perceptions and from products to people. It’s an enlightening journey that takes us away from numbers and allows us to reflect and reconstruct our future planning approach. But, it’s also extremely challenging as we find questions we can’t easily answer; but, that’s still healthier than having answers we can’t question! This point of reflection […]
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How much do you need?
One of the hardest questions to answer when it comes to financial planning is: How much do I need? There are two ways we can look at this. Either, I believe that my external circumstances will eventually reach a point where I have earned enough, and I’ll finally feel that I have enough. Or, I will come to the realisation that my wants and needs are based on my own personal perceptions. It’s also difficult because […]
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Making goals easier to achieve
“If I had a penny for every time I put something off until tomorrow, and never got to it… I’d put them all in a sock and hit myself with it.” Unknown In our digital age, it has become increasingly easy to create lists of things to do and remember. We can just call out “Alexa!” or “Hey Siri!” and add to a virtual reminder list that, for the most part, just adds more stress and […]
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