I met with my business coach, Jason McChesney, last week and we were talking about how the world changes personally as well as the world as a whole. This got me thinking to how my world changed in the last few years. Although working in financial services for 13 years, I have been financial planning since May 2010, so I thought of what has changed for me since then.
1. My wife gave birth to our second child. A lovely, bubbly girl who now loves dumping the cushions off the sofa onto the floor and jumping on them.
2. I got a mortgage.
3. I was made redundant.
4. I set up my own business.
5. I went to college and got a 1st class honours Graduate Diploma in Financial Planning.
6. I have applied to become a Certified Financial Planning™ and am waiting my application to be ratified next month.
As these changes happened in my life, I have had to adapt my financial plan accordingly to suit the changes in my situation.
1. Increase the level of life cover that my wife & I have to ensure our family are protected financially if one of us dies prematurely.
2. Take out mortgage protection so the mortgage is paid off if one of us dies prematurely.
3. Use our emergency fund to replace the lost income due to redundancy.
4. Use our emergency fund to pay for college so I am better qualified for my job.
5. Stop pension contributions until I am back working and can afford to contribute again.
All of these changes have an effect on our future, changing what we need to save and spend so we can achieve our future goals. But I know what needs to be done to get our financial future back on track.
So, how has your world changed in the last few years? What have you done to adapt to it and do you know what effect those changes have on the future?