Financial Planning - Empowering Decisions

1997: A Life Less Ordinary - Boyle

Financial Planning when done properly can be incredibly powerful. A recent piece of work was for a couple who wanted to consider their options. They have always had fairly clear ideas about when they wanted to retire. They were not certain about whether they wanted to educate their children privately as the local schools are very good. However, this might change at secondary school level and they also wanted to provide for the higher costs of a Degree at University. They also expressed the view that they would like to move to a larger property, which would mean a considerable increase in their mortgage. They would like to know whether choosing one, meant not doing the other, they are also concerned about the level of pressure that larger commitments would bring and wanted to be as certain as possible that they would not get into the position of working all hours to fund a larger home, that they might not see in the daylight. In addition, they wanted to ensure that the burden of school fees was also deemed worthwhile for both the parents and the children. The crunch question being could they afford to both, one or neither? what income would they really need to be generating and would this be practical and fit their values as a family. My role is to help them prioritise which is more important (the why) and then do the financial planning to figure out the how and what need to be done.  The result is a compelling document which reveals what is possible and realistic, enabling them to move forward with clear evidence to support their decisions over the next 20 years. My report provides all the answers to their questions and more.

This is really what financial planning is about - providing information to make better decisions, based upon a well thought through plan. It is not about the value of your pension fund, ISA or which one to use. Frankly that stuff is very boring to most clients (and to me), what clients really want my help to figure out, is whether they are doing the right things to achieve the goals that they have set for themselves and their families. These may be big expensive goals or seemingly small goals that don't cost a lot - again that isn't really the point, the point is that you clarify and quantify what you want, what is more important and how much effort you really want to invest in achieving the life you want. It has very little to do with the stock market, though the way most financial advisers act, you would think that our lives are determined by the markets, but then that's the difference between ordinary advice and great financial planning.