Your Money or Your Life...
Could This Be You?
Tell me if you think the following might apply to you. It could be that the numbers are different but that doesn’t really matter.
You have a reasonable amount of money which you’ve accumulated over your life. Some of it might be from pensions, maybe you inherited money and, quite probably, you saved pretty healthily during your working life. Good for you!
Now then, by ‘reasonable’, what do I mean? Well, that’s a good question. It could be £100,000 or it could be £10,000,000. Different people will have a different notion of what ‘reasonable’ is. It’s not necessary to get bogged down in this so let’s just say it’s £300,000.
This money is spread across a few things. The bank, ISAs, investments and pensions. You might also have some final salary pension income (if you do, that’s great!) and, of course, you probably also have your State pension income. You might not be getting it now or, perhaps, you’ve been getting it for quite a while.
Your Concerns
So what might be bothering you then? They might not be keeping you up at night but you might feel things aren’t quite as in order as you’d like. For example:
How do you know you’re getting the most out of your money?
Is there anything more ‘sensible’ you could be doing?
Are you going to have enough? Is there enough money in the pot to see you out?
If you have too much, how do you know and might there be inheritance tax to think about?
Later on in life, are you worried about how you’d pay for care?
The list goes on but these are certainly some of the main ones. As I said, everyone’s unique but a lot of the issues us humans face aren’t hugely dissimilar to the issues other people have.
So, what are your concerns then? Are they any of the above or might there be others? I’ve heard all sorts in the past, ranging from ‘I want to beat the FTSE 100’ (for no particular reason!) to ‘I want to keep my money under the bed’.
Where Do I Come In?
Well, I’m very glad you asked that! Let me explain.
I don’t care about your money. I mean that. I’m far more interested in the person than I am about their money. I’m interested in what makes you tick. What your goals and dreams are? What worries do you have? What’s your relationship with money like?
To me, it’s REALLY important to get to know the person I’m dealing with and what’s important to them. Only then can I start making sense of their money. The money takes a back seat until I really understand what the money has to do. I hope that makes sense?
Money is a means to an end. It gives you choices and can help to make things happen. Absolutely, it’s important because of the flexibility and options it gives you but it’s not normally a person’s major driver in life. If it is, then we’re probably not the right firm for you!
Practical Help
So, how do I put this deep and meaningful stuff in to practice? How can it help to resolve your concerns? Another very good question!
If we’ve established what sort of a person you are and what’s important to you, we’ve already made a lot of progress. It’s about you talking and me listening. A lot of people find the process of articulating what’s important to them helpful in itself. Life seems to offer us such little opportunity to do this.
When we’ve got a good handle on this important stuff, we can then look at your money and answer some important questions:
Have you got enough? If not, what can you do about it?
Is it set up in the right way? Could you be doing something ‘better’ with it?
How much can you afford to give away?
The great thing is that if we start with what’s important to you first, any decisions you make with your money will make a lot more sense. There’s a context. You know why you’re doing it. People find that so useful and reassuring. Answering the ‘money’ questions isn’t usually that tricky when we know what the goal is!
But don’t all financial advisers do it that way? You’d be surprised. Gone are the days of the sleazy commission hungry sales reps but I’m still surprised by how many advisers are fixed only on the money.
They’re often highly competent but they feel more comfortable talking about the money and will often try to impress with complicated language and jargon (something I hate!). Ask yourself, are they interested in YOU or your MONEY?
As far as I’m concerned, without knowing why they’re doing it (i.e. working toward your bigger picture stuff), it’s like doing the job blindfolded.
Summary
I hope this has been useful for you? I hope it’s given you a little insight as to how I approach things and how, if done properly, that approach can be useful to people who might have a wide range of concerns about their money.
The money stuff isn’t usually the complicated part. It’s the thinking and emotions that tend to be the problem and that’s where a good financial adviser (or financial planner as I like to call it) can be so valuable.
Thanks very much for reading this and I’ll catch up with you soon.
Best wishes
Marco