MANAGEMENT

What really is lifestyle financial planning?

Lifestyle financial planning is the new buzz word in financial services but what is it, and more importantly will it benefit you?

I started in financial services in the late 1980's, coincidentally just about the same time as the 'fact find' was introduced into the financial advice process.  The purpose of the fact find was simple.  Get to know the client so you can establish what their needs were and then recommend the right product(s) to meet those needs.  In cold hearted sales terms some would call it 'find the gap, and fill it.'

Now don't misunderstand me.  I'm not knocking the fact find.  Apparently, compared to the sales processes that the old fashioned insurance salesmen were using prior to this, the fact find was a giant leap in 'customer focused' advice.

So, how come 20 years later the fact find is regarded as a neanderthal like method of financial planning to the new breed of lifestyle financial planners appearing on the block?  Well, the answer lies in the title itself.  The fact find was all about gathering facts.  How much this? how much is that? etc   Yet we all know that people make decisions on emotions first and then try and justify it with facts later, right?

Lifestyle financial planning, therefore, tries to dig deeper by asking the BIG questions. While it’s natural to think about wealth in mental accounting terms, in reality it’s far from a neat and logical process. Lifestyle financial planning is about helping you to move beyond the traditional notions of wealth— such as assets, net worth, and business valuation— toward genuine prosperity, which is defined as a state of well being when resources are aligned with a sense of self and life.  Some call it 'marrying your money to your meaning'.

The lifestyle financial planner therefore will ask more challenging questions.  Questions such as 'what's most important to you'? what are your value's?  what does money mean to you?   The idea being that the lifestyle financial planner is attempting to help YOU establish YOUR goals and needs, rather than find a gap and recommend a product to fill it.  Infact, lifestyle financial planning will normally go through 2 stages even before any financial advice is given.

The first stage - life planning - focuses on getting to know you, helping you to identify what's important, and understanding the things you want to achieve in your lifetime, particularly the sort of lifestyle you want to enjoy now and throughout life.  These are known as 'soft facts'.

Next comes financial planning where, similair to the old style fact finding process, all your 'hard facts' are now gathered.  However, another thing a lifestyle financial planner will do that a traditional financial adviser won't is create something called a lifetime cashflow forecast.  Usually this is done with the aid of sophisticated financial planning software.  The benefit being that it produces a dramatic picture of your financial future based on the way you are handling your finances today.  Our experience when working this way has been that clients, when shown their lifetime cash flow forecast, suddenly understand it and thus feel more empowered to make the right decisions about what to do with their finances to help them achieve their desired results.  For some, it may be that they can book 5 star holidays instead of 3, for others it may be that they seriously need to embark on a savings or wealth creation program to give them any chance of achieving what they want.

                     

Finally, the 3rd stage is financial advice.  This is where recommendations are made to allocate the right amounts of money to the right places to be available at the right time with, hopefully, the right results.  It's the 'under the bonnet' stuff where the engine is tinkered with to get more miles for your money!

Finally, and another key differentiator to the old fashioned insurance salesman, a lifestyle financial planner will incorporate a review strategy to monitor the progress of your lifestyle financial plan to it's goals.  One thing you can guarantee is that your life will change, as will your plans.  So a good plan should be able to adapt to these changes in the same way that a captain of a ship is constantly readjusting the wheel to stay on course whilst the wind, sea and currents of life are often working against him.   By having regular meetings at pre-agreed stages in your financial life plan both you and your adviser are able to assess what changes can be made to stay on course.

So will it beneift you?  Well if you want to see how the reality of your financial future lines up with the ideal image in your mind then yes.  Likewise, if you want to establish what really is important to you and then use your finances in a way that lines up with those vales then yes.  However, if you believe that financial advice has no long term value, should be free and/or purely based on the buying of financial products then probably no.  However, don't worry too much as there are still lots of insurance salesman out there willing to help!

Ideal FInancial Management Limited - it's not about your money;it's about your life.

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5 Tips for Time Management

This past month, I started tracking my time and money (two things that are pretty important in my life).  It didn’t take me long to notice how much of both of these things I wasted.  For example, just last week, I sat down to do some Fresh Betty marketing and opened my email and I noticed another practitioners newsletter, which I read and then clicked on the  link to another high profile coaches newsletter which was full of testimonials from people with links to THEIR websites, which of course, I was drawn to click on!  Guess how long I spent doing this?  TWO HOURS.  That is two hours on non-income generating activities!  When your an entrepreneur, spending time looking at other peoples websites or pictures of weddings and babies on Facebook doesn’t contribute to the growth of your business (and doesn’t pay the bills either)!  I was blown away.  That was 120 minutes that could have been spent developing a new program, researching information for clients to share with them at our next session, or creating new content for my website . . . all of which would contribute to my business and help me serve my clients!  I am not one to look back with regret, but to be honest, this has been a recurring theme in my life and I am very, very AWARE of it, which is the gift that I took from this experience.

                                                

Have you ever had the best intentions of being productive and then gotten distracted by an email headline, newsletter, Facebook post, or 1 day sale bulletin for your favorite store . . . and the next thing you know, two hours have passed?  Well, I obviously have and this past month, the experience has been eye-opening!  I am a firm believer in AWARENESS being the first step . . . so step one complete!  Check!  Thank you life, I am now aware.  TIME TO TAKE ACTION . . . so let’s get down to it:

                                   

Here are my TOP 5 TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE TIME MANAGEMENT

1.    Keep it SIMPLE:  This does NOT have to be hard.  Start with a list using paper and pen, especially if you are a visual person!

2.    Be PROACTIVE:  Action oriented, taking steps towards your goal, vs reactive,  letting outside forces drive your activity.

3.    Be ORGANIZED:  De-clutter your work space, stick to your to do list for the day.  Create a schedule or routine

4.    SCHEDULE in your self-care:  This is an area that is easy to make excuses of why you shouldn’t get that massage or take the time for exercise.  Nothing is further from the truth!  You’ll feel better, look better and ready to tackle whatever projects need attending to with a clear head.  Whether it’s a meditation, yoga class, run, or a cup of tea with yourself, schedule it in your calendar as if it is just as important as a doctor’s appointment.

5.    Be REALISTIC:  There are only 24 hours in a day and at least 8-9 of those are spent sleeping, preparing meals and getting ready for the day.  Don’t try to tackle 5 BIG things in a day.  overburdening yourself with tasks that you can’t possibly get done in one day will only leave you feeling like crap about yourself.

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