We have now completed your first financial plan. Having looked at all the areas that need to be worked on, we prioritise them in order of importance. After your first financial planning meeting, there may be a lot of areas that need to be addressed. This can be a bit overwhelming for some who think, ‘I can’t afford to do all of that, so I’ll do nothing instead.’ There is no need to panic, most of us can’t afford to have everything perfect in one go, we need to work at it.
You need to pick the 3 or 4 most important areas to address this year. This may be putting structure to your finances so you are building assets for the short, medium and long term.
It may not even cost you any money, just a little time in putting a family budget in place.
We will look at each of these items that you want to achieve this year and we will set a deadline to achieve them. They won’t happen by themselves, otherwise you would have already done them!
I don’t like clients setting too many goals for themselves but a lot of the time in year one, there are lots of areas that are easy enough to achieve such as keeping track of finances or putting a will in place. They may not be of high priority to you but there is no point in putting them off until year 2 or 3, so we may agree to achieve a few more goals in year one than we will in subsequent years.
A lot of people I work with have built up a lifestyle that they enjoy. But they have big plans or expenses in the near future. To be able to pay for these, they have to make changes to the way that they live today. This can be difficult for some as it means going without now so you can enjoy more in the future. It really comes down to how much you want the change? Are you willing to put a plan in place where you spend a little less today so you can make meaningful changes to your life in the future?
Or for many, it is putting off retirement planning for another year so they can continue to live their lifestyle now and worry about not having any money in retirement when they are in their 50’s.
If you pick 3 or 4 important goals each year, changing them as your priorities change, you will have the structures and assets to enjoy the lifestyle that you and your family want.
If you have any questions, you can email me directly at steven@bluewaterfp.ie