People do not have time to educate themselves on basic personal financial principles and the importance of prudent financial planning – for the short and long term.
To take it a step further you can seek the counsel of an independent Certified and Chartered Financial Planner who has the education, experience, knowledge and character to guide you on your personal and business financial needs.
What does the Financial Planning Process Entail?
- Sharing your life goals, values and philosophies about money and finances with your planner
- Cultivating a relationship with your planner based upon mutual trust and respect
- Determining your net worth by identifying all of your assets and liabilities
- Gathering detailed information about your expenditure
- Constructing a cash flow statement based on your income and expences
- Analysing your income and expenditure and developing a workable budget that you can stick to
- Gathering and analysing financial statements from banks and investment houses, estate documents, insurance policies and employee benefit plans
- Discussing various life planning assumptions (rate of return, inflation rate, earnings growth etc), identifying long and short term goals, then mapping out various paths to take to realise those goals based upon those assumptions
- At all times during this process your planner will be acting as a fiduciary agent for you – your best interests will always be the paramount.
What questions can a Financial Planner Answer?
- At what age can I afford to retire?
- How much can I contribute towards my children’s education and still stay on track to achieve my other life goals?
- What is my net worth?
- Am I drawing my earnings out of my business in a tax efficient manner?
- How will having another child impact on our family’s financial goals?
- How much can I afford to pay for a house?
- What types of insurance do I need to safeguard my family?
- How much do I spend and what on?
- Is my portfolio diversified and re-balanced regularly? What exactly does this mean?
- What level of risk do I need to take to achieve my goals?
- Are my investments allocated appropriately for my age and risk tolerance?
- How will inflation impact on my goals?
- Am I taking advantage of all the benefit plans my employer offers?
