September 9, 2024

Financial stress can take a huge toll on your emotional and physical health and your relationships and the overall quality of your life, leading to insomnia, weight gain and depression. It’s not worth it; there are more important things in life than money!

August 2, 2024

Nobody likes to think about catastrophe scenarios such as death, serious illness or even losing a job. But failure to plan can be planning to fail and will subconsciously create nagging worries.

June 19, 2024

Many people do not make wills. The most common reasons for this are procrastination, fear of tempting the ‘Grim Reaper’, not being able to decide who should inherit, not wanting to pay the fees or thinking that assets will pass automatically to the family.

Then there are the people who are just selfish and don’t care what happens after they have gone.

July 5, 2024

Do you know how much you want, need and will leave after your death, and how you are going to achieve this?

June 14, 2024

Nobody likes to pay unnecessary tax but are you taking advantage of all available methods to reduce your tax bill legally?

With careful planning, you can:

June 4, 2024

I have seen many investors with a portfolio that has no real relevance to their lifestyle and ambitions.

Often they have some lower risk investments in deposit accounts and then longer-term investments to provide the best returns they can get, or an income to supplement their pension.

But far more can be done to make your money support your lifestyle, such as having an emergency fund and then investing money in lower risk deposit accounts to fund expenditure more than income within the short to medium term (up to five years).

May 10, 2024

During my career in financial planning, I have found many investors take far more risk with their money than they need to. This often leads to tears because they have invested in poor performing or risky investments.

Financial advisers need to complete an investment risk analysis before that client invests their money, as part of the regulatory process.

April 26, 2024

As I mentioned in my first blog in this series, financial planning is about ensuring when you have one foot in the grave and look back over your life you have no regrets.

Because by then it will be too late to do anything about it and you will be mourning lost opportunities.

A bucket list is an essential - and hopefully fun - way of making the most of your life.

April 22, 2024

Many people invest their money to get the best returns possible and the financial services industry encourages this (it helps them sell more products). But within a financial plan it is essential that your investments are designed to support your lifestyle.

April 4, 2024

Once you have identified your desired lifestyle, the next step is to establish how you will fund it, which brings us to financial planning.

Many people think that financial planning is all about pensions, investment funds and life insurance. That is probably because that is what the financial services industry has led them to believe, so they can sell them more products.

April 3, 2024

Retirement is a significant milestone that prompts introspection about life’s priorities. Shaquille O’Neal, the NBA legend, recently shared some profound retirement advice with Jason Kelce, center for the Philadelphia Eagles, on his podcast, 'The Big Podcast with Shaq.'1 His candid reflections offer valuable insights for anyone approaching this life transition.

March 7, 2024

Do you know how much is enough to support your lifestyle, without the fear of running out of money?

This is one of the most important questions financial planning will help answer.

 We see many people working longer than they need to because they do not know how much is enough.