Following on from part one of my blog post last week, I’m continuing our look at life’s transition points.
These are times and events where having a Financial plan can add real value to your life;
6 – You have received a financial statement
The envelope lands on the doormat. You open and read it and it is the latest statement from your pension provider.
Do you put the statement back in the envelope and place it on the coffee table (to be covered up by magazines and newspapers) or think it really is time I got a handle on what this all means?
Perhaps you have a maturing investment or savings account and want to know what to do next.
Or you have just received a statement from an ex-employers pension scheme and had a “wow” moment when you have seen the size of the transfer value.
Making any decision about what to do next is so much easier when you have a Financial Plan for the simple reason that the plan will give you the answer.
7 – Your children have asked for help onto the property ladder
You look at your cash position and realise that you might well be able to help them.
But do you gift them the money or lend it to them?
Lending can be mutually beneficial. You could do a deal with the children where they pay you more interest than you currently receive from your cash deposits but they pay less than they would on a conventional mortgage, a win-win situation.
Or you might gift the money to them and save a future inheritance tax bill.
But can you do that confident that you won’t ever need it back? (Which negates the inheritance tax benefit)
Maybe you need a Financial Plan to help you decide.
8 – You want to buy a holiday home (or travel the continent in an RV)
It’s on the Cornish coast or in rural France. Many people have a dream of that hide-away that they can retreat to with or without the family.
Some may turn that dream into reality.
Some of our clients have decided that post-retirement they want to travel the continent in a luxurious Recreational Vehicle visiting countries and cities they didn’t have the time to visit when fully employed.
A Financial Plan can help you make these life changing decisions with confidence.
9 – You need to decide how to invest some money
You have received an inheritance and want to make it work for you.
You are thinking about investing in an ISA or investment portfolio but don’t know how much risk you are prepared to take.
In fact that very word, risk, is putting you off making a decision about what to do!
What if you didn’t need to take any risk at all? What if the answer was not to invest it but to spend it, or give it away to the grandchildren or simply keep it in a cash deposit account earning interest?
A Financial Plan helps you to make this decision and very often, we find, the answer is not to invest at all, how good does that sound?
10 – You want to sell your business
You have had it valued and your Chartered Accountant has confirmed what it is worth.
The market though is a bit “tricky”, what with all that Brexit nonsense, and you have had an offer well below the valuation point.
Do you sell or do you hold out until the right buyer, at the right price, comes along?
What if the price that you have been offered though enables you to do all that you want with your life without having to continue to work?
Unsurprisingly a financial plan is going to help you make the decision. Perhaps the real question is how much do I need, rather than how much do I want?
Transition points events that happen in our lives where we have to make important decisions about money and what we do with it to have a life that we want.
Financial Planning is the process that helps you to make good choices and good decisions.
