Financial planning has very little to do with financial products. I have said it before and I will say it again. Financial planning is about figuring out what you want from life - what you truly want, not what you think you should have, do or be, but in-line with who you believe you are. This is deeply connected to your passions and if you will forgive something that sounds rather twee, but I have not yet found another way of putting it - the reason you are here. Whether that's to be the best Anaesthestist, Widget maker, Designer, Business Manager, Florist or Actor - the important thing is to be consistent to your values and who you think you are.
So when inevitably I discuss "retirement" I do so with a degree of apprehension, because most people have the idea that at 65, they can finally stop working and collect a monthly income from a pension plan of some form. Good financial planning will achieve this for you, but great financial planning will take a different approach.
Great financial planning will ask what do you really want to do? if you love it so much why would you stop? what would make you stop? how about thinking in terms of a financial freedom day rather than a retirement day - financial freedom being the point at which you can choose if you want to "work" or not, and if you want to - do so on your terms. It is with this in mind that I came across a new little film "I'm Fine Thanks" being promoted in the US. Have a look at the short trailer below. It plays into what I'm talking about. I don't know quite what the film will suggest or any of the conclusions drawn, but at least some better questions are being asked, which is what I like about it. Remember, that great financial planning is about YOU not your adviser. I'm not in the business of judging people's lifestyle or motivations, I am in the business of helping them focus and get there.
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